Calling it quits when you're a little bit short

[ChocoKitty]

Doing nothing all day would drive me batty. I'm one of those people who can't sit still and has to be constantly doing something productive (just wired that way, I guess). I guess that personality quirk will end up being a positive thing when I quit the day job.

This information is excellent, everyone. Thank you again!

 

[Grigori]

Your savings do give you some options. :

1. Having enough savings that you're $500 short, and having marketable skills, gives you the option to take some time off from work, and look for a better situation, a trial retirement, or a sabbatical. I can hear that you're past burn out in your note. You won't be living under a bridge in the short run. I've had a sabbatical before in my past, and came back more refreshed, and more urgently directed toward ER.

2. Maybe a $500 dollar gap wouldn't take very long to close. Have you figured out how much more time at w*rk that means? I've wanted to quit a number of times, and have found watching the gap close has been very comforting, and encouraging. The closer you get, the more pumped up you feel.

 

[Moemg]

I retired in 2008 with a lot of padding in my budget & we all know how that went . You may retire into a bull market and be fine or retire into a market melt down . I would suggest padding the budget a little longer . Once you decide you will only work a few more years some of the stress may melt away .

 

[Live And Learn]

I retired in 2008 with a lot of padding in my budget & we all know how that went . You may retire into a bull market and be fine or retire into a market melt down . I would suggest padding the budget a little longer . Once you decide you will only work a few more years some of the stress may melt away .

+1. Especially since the $500 shortfall isn't all in discretionary expense. I'd be very uncomforable ERing into that situation. It also sounds to me that OP's ER budget is lower than current spending levels, which is yet another adjustment that needs to be made. If I were the OP and had lived a year or two of living with the ER budget then I'd feel more confident.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I empathize with you and everyone who is trapped in a job they hate. I have been there, but it has been a while.

At the moment, I enjoy my work and can work all I want and I get more valuable every year. (My apologies. ) I am also far beyond early retirement.

Having said that, I cannot by a country mile replace my current income in retirement. I will have only so much and we will have to make do with that. If we are looking at replacing my income, I can afford to retire two years after I am dead.

Going 'round the barn, it means that we will have to make significant lifestyle changes when I work no more. DW doesn't realize yet what might be entailed. She won't be thrilled, but she is resilient and practical and will manage. We were poor in the beginning, after all.

 

[gerrym51]

Hey all, I feel like I've been crunching numbers every weekend because I'm so ready to go. Has anyone cut the cord when they were a bit short according to FIRECalc? I would say I'm about $500/month short, maybe even less, but I honestly can't stand working in my field anymore. 24 years is a long time doing something you hate, and it's taken its emotional toll. I've tried working in different companies, different environments, different capacities, full-time, and part-time, but when the subject matter is the problem, job changes can only help so much. I'm tired of stuffing my brain learning stuff I have no desire to learn (like Excel VBA programming) when there's so much other stuff I DO want to learn.

I don't plan on doing nothing in retirement because I do like to keep busy and tackling challenges. For example, I'd like to focus on my writing and see where that gets me (I've made some money, but not much because I'm so sporadic about it). I'm also researching health insurance options right now because that's my biggest concern.

Your thoughts? Thank you so much for being such a great resource.

try this calculator instead

Retirement calculator: How much should I save for retirement? - MSN Money

 

[haha]

She won't be thrilled, but she is resilient and practical and will manage. We were poor in the beginning, after all.

Remember how the only thing you both wanted then was some cheddar and jug wine, maybe a joint, and about 5 hours of making love?

That was part of my original retirement plan, but it didn't take long before the star of that little play was gone. Not nearly as attractive when flying solo.

None of this applies to you, I am sure you are a lot more realistic than I was.

Anyhow, I can't imagine that you will be money constrained.

Ha

 

[brett]

I would defer your retirement plans. A better goal might be firecalc plus 5 percent. It is not enough to retire, you want to make the most of your retirement. Rerun the numbers can come up with a plan B that gives you some cushion.

 

[Katsmeow]

+1. Especially since the $500 shortfall isn't all in discretionary expense. I'd be very uncomforable ERing into that situation.

I'm not sure the OP has a shortfall at all. She says:

FIRECalc is giving me anywhere from 93% to 98% success depending on various spending scenarios. I'm excluding my tiny pension (about $270/month) and my one year cash cushion, and I'm assuming that I'll make no money from writing.

To me it all depends on what the spending scenarios are to get 93% or 98% and how realistic they are as well as what kind of certainty wanted. If she is getting 93% with a $500 a month shortfall and then getting 98% with a less shortfall then all may be fine. In fact, many people wouldn't consider that a shortfall at all.

I do scenarios in FireCalc all the time to see where it "breaks" with different scenarios. Personally, I shoot for 95% success rate and the main scenarios I do meet or exceed that. But I did one the other day that came up at about 85%. If that was the only scenario I ran I would not be comfortable with that, but my DH would be. The point is that I vary scenarios all the time. I do them with me taking SS at 62 and then me taking it at 66. I consider different possibilities of spending and try those. I change length of plan and rate of inflation. So just the fact someone runs a scenario that has 93% chance of success doesn't mean the person can't retire when the person also ran a scenario with 98% chance of success (based upon historical information, of course). The real issue is whether the person is happy with the success rate that is given for a level of spending and other inputs that person is willing to accept.

I am less concerned about the OP having a shortfall in FireCalc than I am about the OP not being sure about certain expenses. Of course, it is hard to have complete certainty (one reason I run a lot of different scenarios). But the better the information you use in running FireCalc the more likely it is that the result will be valuable to you.

 

[ChocoKitty]

I reviewed my spending the past few months and saw I managed to stay within my budget despite a plane ticket, large car repair bill, and large vet bill. For planning purposes, I think I should assume these types of unexpected expenses will crop up each month, just in different ways.

I agree with the folks who said I should continue tracking my spending closely to have better data to work with. An option I'm kicking around is working two days a week at my employer (they use a lot of contractors and have a system in place already). Although I'll lose my benefits, it will allow me to keep my hands off my nest egg.

This is a little nerve-wracking, but it's good to have information and options.

 

[Katsmeow]

An option I'm kicking around is working two days a week at my employer (they use a lot of contractors and have a system in place already). Although I'll lose my benefits, it will allow me to keep my hands off my nest egg.

This is basically what I ended up doing. DH retired fully but I semi-retired and kept working at the same place working 1 or 2 days a week. I've done that for 3 years and it has been great (although I think I am getting close to calling it quits).

 

[daylatedollarshort]

When my husband wanted to semi-retire, we just cut the budget enough to make it work.

Have you looked at trimming your expenses as much as possible? Perhaps downsizing and/ or lower cost of living area?

If you are interested in a sustainable living lifestyle and do not live that way now, you might be amazed at how much you can lower your expenses. Air drying clothes, LED light bulbs, cooking from scratch, cloth napkins instead of paper towels, dropping cable or at least lowering the options, switching to a prepaid cell phone plan, dropping the landline, - maybe you could cut $500 from expenses categories like that. We cut our energy bill by more than half just by getting a Kill A Watt and reading some books on energy savings.

Then there are lots of little money making ideas on the fatwallet and flytertalk forums with credit card and checking account sign up bonuses and air miles that if you studied enough could possibly make $500 or more a month.

 

[lhamo]

What percentage of the overall projected budget is the $500? I think that is a significant question. If your projected budget is $5000/month and you are $500 short that is a relatively small amount of the big picture and it might be easier to find places to cut back to make up the difference. But if your projected budget is only $2000/month and you are $500 short, that is a pretty big percentage and I personally would not be comfortable with making the leap in that context.

 

[brewer12345]

Is OP single? I think that makes a big difference. If it were me, myself and I, I would have retired or ESRd years ago. To get my life/time back, I would live a greatly reduced lifestyle. But it ain't just me.

 

[ChocoKitty]

Yes, I'm single.

lhamo asks a good question. The $500 short is less than 15% of the monthly budget I'm working with now. I was able to cut another $120/month from the budget by getting rid of some non-essential luxuries without too much pain, so the gap is closing. However, I do like a few luxuries and a comfortable lifestyle, so I guess I'd probably prefer to do some paid work to keep them. This exercise is definitely good for zeroing in on the work vs. wants vs. free time trade-offs.

 

[Live And Learn]

Yes, I'm single.

lhamo asks a good question. The $500 short is less than 15% of the monthly budget I'm working with now. I was able to cut another $120/month from the budget by getting rid of some non-essential luxuries without too much pain, so the gap is closing. However, I do like a few luxuries and a comfortable lifestyle, so I guess I'd probably prefer to do some paid work to keep them. This exercise is definitely good for zeroing in on the work vs. wants vs. free time trade-offs.

I too will be trying to find part time work to earn approx $500 per month for those 'want' vs need items. For both our sakes I hope it works !

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Remember how the only thing you both wanted then was some cheddar and jug wine, maybe a joint, and about 5 hours of making love?

And it was in Seattle, too.

That was part of my original retirement plan, but it didn't take long before the star of that little play was gone. Not nearly as attractive when flying solo.

I understand.

None of this applies to you, I am sure you are a lot more realistic than I was.

Anyhow, I can't imagine that you will be money constrained.

Ha

Time will tell, but today I am feeling a lot more confident that we will survive. There was a time when I thought we were really going to be 'hooped' (as the Canadians say).

 

[Walt34]

Doing nothing all day would drive me batty. I'm one of those people who can't sit still and has to be constantly doing something productive (just wired that way, I guess).

I have that problem too, it's part of the reason I got a job after retiring from a career. But I didn't know that then, and nearly "went batty" with no specific goals in mind.

But I learned, and when I quit my job this July I already have plans to go to a nearby college for photography classes.

A bit of trivia: On the website for the school they suggest trying to find a Cannon AE-1 film camera to shoot B&W film with. They were made in the late '70's - early '80's. I still have mine that I bought new in 1979! So I'll have to send that out for a checkup soon.

 

[edsahara]

Since no one, regardless of our current health or genes, knows how many healthy years we have left, it made sense to me to retire early and make my numbers work by cutting expenses. I look at my first years in retirement as being like a sure bet. I can count on being able to do the things I want to do because I'm still healthy. If I wait, can I count on my health being good - no. There are a lot of things I can do down the road to further cut expenses, but when my health is gone, there's no amount of money that can buy it back.

 

[ChocoKitty]

The other issue is time. You can never get time back. I have few regrets, but one of them was not pursuing my writing dreams more aggressively in my 20s and 30s.

 

[ChocoKitty]

Welp, I chatted with HR about some proposals for part-time work and none of them worked for them. She did tell me that if I wanted to focus on the next world (my writing) the way I want to, I may have to exit this one (the day job).

I've debated whether I should sell some of my taxable holdings to pay off the mortgage so my monthly expenses will be really low. I know that long-term, it's not a good financial move, especially with a 4% mortgage, so I haven't done it. But I'm not willing to put my life on hold any longer -- it's not all about the numbers anymore for me. I know some people are advising stick it out a bit longer, but I think 24 years doing work I hate is plenty long enough. Some of my job switches were specifically to keep me hanging on by my fingernails so I wouldn't rashly quit outright while I was still accumulating money.

I wish I wasn't so squeamish about posting my actual numbers here because I know I could get better advice if I did, but yeah, I'm squeamish.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Welp, I chatted with HR about some proposals for part-time work and none of them worked for them. She did tell me that if I wanted to focus on the next world (my writing) the way I want to, I may have to exit this one (the day job).

I've debated whether I should sell some of my taxable holdings to pay off the mortgage so my monthly expenses will be really low. I know that long-term, it's not a good financial move, especially with a 4% mortgage, so I haven't done it. But I'm not willing to put my life on hold any longer -- it's not all about the numbers anymore for me. I know some people are advising stick it out a bit longer, but I think 24 years doing work I hate is plenty long enough. Some of my job switches were specifically to keep me hanging on by my fingernails so I wouldn't rashly quit outright while I was still accumulating money.

I wish I wasn't so squeamish about posting my actual numbers here because I know I could get better advice if I did, but yeah, I'm squeamish.

Maybe you just need a career change instead of retirement if you still have money concerns. Have you read The Millionaire Next Door? In that book many of the millionaires are successful because they love what they do and their jobs don't seem like work.

 

[ChocoKitty]

The writing is the career change, albeit a risky one. I know the odds. I've made enough the past few years to cover three mortgage payments even though I was essentially dabbling, so at least I know I'm not being completely unrealistic. Only sort of unrealistic.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

The advice from Thomas Stanley on writing is to look for a low competition field. He said in one of his books his first love was history, but he avoided writing a history book because it was a field already crowded with good authors. So he picked a topic he knew people would be interested in, how to become a millionaire, because at that time no one else has really researched the topic yet it was something he knew a lot of people would be interested in.

 

[Katsmeow]

I think if I was interested in writing I would start writing ebooks and selling them on Amazon. I have found that more and more I find myself on Amazon ending up buying books where the author has directly published them on Amazon. I know that plenty of people do this unsuccessfully but some are very successful and others do get some real income from it.

I found an author a couple of months ago (basically through the customers who bought this book also bought X thing). I really liked her books and quickly all the approximately 19 books that she had written. It wasn't until I was almost finished reading them that I read her blog and found out that she is publishing directly on Amazon and basically started from nowhere but is now cranking out a book every month to 6 weeks or so.