I suppose I am a bit late on giving an after FIRE status report since I stopped going to work in August 2016. I was logging on to post a question in another thread so, I thought I would file a quick report.
First, I am very grateful for all the help and inspiration that this forum provided during my pre-FIRE years. I owe a lot of my success to the information I learned here.
I am not as early-out as most here, but I did make it out before 60. I had originally hoped for 50, then revised to 55 and so on. Finally my boss was kind enough to make the decision for me.
I probably could have stopped working much sooner, but I am very cautious and was shooting for a 2% withdrawal rate. So I was probably FI long before I stopped working. This led to me having a very low BS threshold and a propensity to tell the truth to management. I guess I had a lot of very specific historical technical knowledge, so they put up with me.
Well, finally my boss began to make my life miserable and his picking on me reached a crescendo just before the Fourth of July holiday in 2106. I did not want to ruin the weekend for my co-workers, so I waited until Tuesday to come into the office and give my notice. I suspect he was trying to make me leave, but he may have just been desperate for results that were not happening. In any case, I was ready to go and he could have just asked me to leave and I would have been happy to.
Despite all of the retirement calculators and other mechanisms that I had been reading about here, I basically made a very crude spreadsheet with some really pessimistic assumptions: a 15% total portfolio drop in the first year; a 3% rate of return and a 5% rate of inflation. That got me to age 90 or so. I figured it was close enough for government work.
Although I did try to track and make a very detailed spreadsheet of my last year and projected expenses, I seem to have been low by about $20,000 a year for the first partial year and first full year. I think the second full year dropped back a bit closer to my original estimate. I just use a very crude measure, basically running all my spending through one checking account and taking the starting and ending balances and any transfers into the account to come up with my annual spending.
I know some of you will cringe at my lack of precision, but to be frank, once I pulled the rip cord I found that I was not that interested in micro-managing the financials. I have a very conservative "set it and forget it" asset allocation. I am probably leaving some money on the table, but I am more concerned with avoiding a sudden heavy loss than with building a huge nest egg.
I have hardly been on the forum, but I have been very busy with other things. I got involved with doing a lot of volunteer work at my church and have been doing some historical research by reading old Spanish newspaper articles that the National Library of Spain puts on their web site. No small feat given that I do not speak Spanish. Thank God for Google Translate.
I have been very happy to see my new-style tax returns. I did not have to pay any federal tax for the first full year and was able to book some capital gains at the 0% rate and to convert some of my IRA to ROTH. I did the same for the 2018 tax year, but having an ACA health insurance policy, my AGI had to be kept lower so I had less wiggle room to play with things.
So, in conclusion, thanks to all that have helped me directly and indirectly on this site. I hope many of the forum members still working have a quick and enjoyable FIRE.
Joe
First, I am very grateful for all the help and inspiration that this forum provided during my pre-FIRE years. I owe a lot of my success to the information I learned here.
I am not as early-out as most here, but I did make it out before 60. I had originally hoped for 50, then revised to 55 and so on. Finally my boss was kind enough to make the decision for me.
I probably could have stopped working much sooner, but I am very cautious and was shooting for a 2% withdrawal rate. So I was probably FI long before I stopped working. This led to me having a very low BS threshold and a propensity to tell the truth to management. I guess I had a lot of very specific historical technical knowledge, so they put up with me.
Well, finally my boss began to make my life miserable and his picking on me reached a crescendo just before the Fourth of July holiday in 2106. I did not want to ruin the weekend for my co-workers, so I waited until Tuesday to come into the office and give my notice. I suspect he was trying to make me leave, but he may have just been desperate for results that were not happening. In any case, I was ready to go and he could have just asked me to leave and I would have been happy to.
Despite all of the retirement calculators and other mechanisms that I had been reading about here, I basically made a very crude spreadsheet with some really pessimistic assumptions: a 15% total portfolio drop in the first year; a 3% rate of return and a 5% rate of inflation. That got me to age 90 or so. I figured it was close enough for government work.
Although I did try to track and make a very detailed spreadsheet of my last year and projected expenses, I seem to have been low by about $20,000 a year for the first partial year and first full year. I think the second full year dropped back a bit closer to my original estimate. I just use a very crude measure, basically running all my spending through one checking account and taking the starting and ending balances and any transfers into the account to come up with my annual spending.
I know some of you will cringe at my lack of precision, but to be frank, once I pulled the rip cord I found that I was not that interested in micro-managing the financials. I have a very conservative "set it and forget it" asset allocation. I am probably leaving some money on the table, but I am more concerned with avoiding a sudden heavy loss than with building a huge nest egg.
I have hardly been on the forum, but I have been very busy with other things. I got involved with doing a lot of volunteer work at my church and have been doing some historical research by reading old Spanish newspaper articles that the National Library of Spain puts on their web site. No small feat given that I do not speak Spanish. Thank God for Google Translate.
I have been very happy to see my new-style tax returns. I did not have to pay any federal tax for the first full year and was able to book some capital gains at the 0% rate and to convert some of my IRA to ROTH. I did the same for the 2018 tax year, but having an ACA health insurance policy, my AGI had to be kept lower so I had less wiggle room to play with things.
So, in conclusion, thanks to all that have helped me directly and indirectly on this site. I hope many of the forum members still working have a quick and enjoyable FIRE.
Joe
