Poll

[mickj]

How many years did it take you to get to FIRE, assuming you never made more than 100k a year in today's dollars. Or if you are projecting your FIRE date and you make less than 100k a year, put down your projection.

 

[hankster]

I'm not FIREd yet but will be eligible for DB pension and retiree medical benefits at age 55 (in 4 1/2 years.) This would be after a 35 year career in the electric utility industry with present salary about $75k/year. DW working part time for 15 years with present salary $15k/year. I will probably w*rk 3 to 5 years beyond that as the pension greatly increases over that time period and the 401k balance should be accelerating markedly at that stage (assuming good market conditions.) The extra few years will mean the difference between staying home most of the time vs. a fair amount of travel, which is important to us in the early years of retirement. We also want to make sure their is a good cushion to protect us in the event of an immediate bear market, unusually high inflation or other post retirement curve balls.

Hank

 

[unclemick]

1966 -1993, 27 yrs, age 49, 60k max salary in 1992. Space Program grunt en - ga - neer.

heh heh heh - also test INTJ, lefthanded, and was a really, really cheap bastard. .

 

[aworkingrachel]

Should I calculate from when I first started working or from when I first started aiming for FIRE?

 

[W2R]

Should I calculate from when I first started working or from when I first started aiming for FIRE?

I hope it's the latter, since that is what I used. Up until 2001 I didn't think I could possibly ever retire and was grimly envisioning myself as working into my 90's. Then my brother told me that was nonsense, so I started crunching numbers in Excel, and working on building up a nestegg, buying and paying off my house, and such.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

after inheritance & 32 years of working for much less than 100k, i quit my job. i'm still working on the fire part.

 

[mickj]

I assumed it would be from when you started working, a little late for me to clarify now :-(

 

[oma]

Pensioners like myself mess up your poll - many can FIRE only due to the pension. Same goes for those receiving large inheritances, right? The best poll is how many years for self made FIRE. I'd expect most would say over 30-40 yrs.

 

[trixs]

My goal is to Retire when I get out of the military in 14 years from now. That will make me 40 years old with lots of time to do anything

 

[Rambler]

That's a real hard question, because everyone has such different circumstances...kids, location, spouse or SO's spending habits, your own spending or LBYM habits. Also you could be making much less than 100k one minute, and then (FINALLY) someone recognizes the value of your contribution and you are making much more than that (but had saved like the dickens all the way there). In that case FIRE can get closer...or it can become further away, depending on how much you like the new job, or how much you like the new money.

Everything is relative.

R

 

[SecondCor521]

I'm sorry, I voted before I read the question.

So move one vote from 8-10 years (which is how much longer I have to go) to 23 years (which is how long I will have worked FT to achieve FIRE).

2Cor521

 

[mickj]

I'm sorry, I voted before I read the question.

So move one vote from 8-10 years (which is how much longer I have to go) to 23 years (which is how long I will have worked FT to achieve FIRE).

2Cor521

No Problem, that is what I assume a lot of the lower end numbers are.

 

[W2R]

No Problem, that is what I assume a lot of the lower end numbers are.

But not all. A good salary along with a lot of LBYM can do wonders in a pinch.

 

[bow-tie]

I'm sorry, I voted before I read the question.

So move one vote from 8-10 years (which is how much longer I have to go) to 23 years (which is how long I will have worked FT to achieve FIRE).

2Cor521

Ditto for me.