What's holding you back?

[oldfordtrucks]

Nothing, we're there. I'm in my 40's with 3 kids. We have several rental houses, a military pension (with health-care, SBP, and COLA's), a flight school, and several $100k in taxable and non-taxable dividend producing stocks. Wasn't luck that got us here - it was damn stubborn attention to detail and relentless pursuit of goals--and plenty of obstacles along the way. No, it wasn't luck or smarts. Took 25 years. Done. Give me the next goal.

Passive Income > Expenses = Financial Freedom (no matter the age). Magic is, I get to control both sides of the equation. If we want bigger, better, nicer things, we increase the means side of the equation first before increasing the expense side. If an income side stumbles, we decrease the expense side, period.

[Donzo]

Been free for over 6 years now

Kids were in 6th and 9th grade. Having time for them was great! The work travel and corp. BS was really starting to sink its teeth into me - I am so glad I got out when I did. You may want to try and get out while your kids are young/at home also - I had not really considered that as much as how the job was killing me..

[citrine]

Me: semi-retired and love what I do so it is not work.
Hubby to be: Kids (one in college and one junior in hs), child support, and wants to buy the business he works at.

Hopefully by 2020 he can semi-retire and I can eat bon bons on the couch while watching afternoon tv!

[bo_knows]

I'm still well within my "saving" period, being only 31. However, the thing that will certainly hold us back the most is our kid(s). We have a 6mo old, and we're thinking of 1 more before I go for the 'ole snip-snip, and we want to provide at least a good chunk of their college education.

Part of me looks at Firecalc projections and says "In 2 years, you'll have enough money in your 401k to let it ride for 28 years before you can withdraw. It'll be huge by then!" The other part of me is thinking about college tuition in 18 years and cringing.

I think in a few years we'll have to seriously contemplate going part-time and spending a lot of time with the kiddos while they're growing up. I hope that I can keep my high paying job and ditch half of the hours lol They've been flexible on my schedule so far.

[obgyn65]

I need my 40 quarters for SS purposes. That has been holding me back until this month.

[melion]

I retired 2 years ago, 2 of my 3 children are of pre-school age!

Their young age was a concern but not enough to hold me back!

[militaryman]

Federal Retirement System "Minimum Retirement Age" holds me back --- According to the plan I am ineleigible to draw a pension and continue health insurance until I reach 56yrs 8mos. -- At that time I will have +38 years of federal service.

Next week I will start my "12 year countdown" to that age and unless I am offered an early out (which allows for an immediate pension and continuation of health benefits) then I am stuck.

However, I am VERY thankful for my lot. I am in a job I enjoy as much as I could imagine "enjoying" work and I earn a good wage, have a short commute and good benefits. Probably would not take an early out offer anyways because the pension would not be receive a cola until I reached 60 yrs old and also would be greatly reduced anyways since it is calculated at 1% of retired salary for each year of service -- So today that would mean 26% of salary vs 38% at 56yrs old.

[MikeWillRetire]

My early retirment plan is dependent on getting a modest pension, paying off my mortgage, and saving some money for my kids college. So it's between 3 and 6 years for me.

[plex]

Law school, especially since it was almost a 5 year commitment. In retrospect it wasn't going to further FIRE much at all, and then with the economy tanking it became a money pit. Basically could have retired in 2015 in my early 30's instead of 2020 in my mid 30's, and that was with me doing quite well at juggling law school/employment, like I did when I fully paid for engineering school.

I will easily be able to pay the mortgage off if I don't like interest rate. It cuts costs down to be a single guy who is handy, with a good income, a lot of benefits, and an extremely flexible work schedule/commute.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeWillRetire My early retirment plan is dependent on getting a modest pension, paying off my mortgage, and saving some money for my kids college. So it's between 3 and 6 years for me.

Hi MikeWillRetire, welcome aboard. Why not stop by here and tell us a little about yourself.

[explanade]

Ditto on uncertainty, health insurance.

I can't believe I joined ER 4 years ago.

Work gets crazy at times but for the most part, it's a good way to make living, get benefits. Get to take 4-5 weeks of vacation in addition to 10-12 days (sometimes more) of holidays.

Office politics isn't as bad as it used to be and one thing that makes the job more tolerable sometimes is the knowledge that I could walk away financially. Maybe in terms of mindset though, I haven't reached that point.

If I Fire'd now, I'd withdraw at a conservative rate, 3% or so, and would have to think twice about taking that trip or buying something, if I wanted to keep the spending within what that withdraw rate provides.

I don't think I've done the FireCalc in years.

[67walkon]

My wife should answer this-she's been retired!

There is also an element of responsibility. Or is it guilt? Other people at my office do better financially if I'm working and producing income. I'm about over that issue, but not completely. So mix in a little fear of the unknown, a little uncertainty and top it off with a dash of guilt/responsibility, and here I am.

But it's going to be April 1 of next year at the latest and maybe earlier. Or my wife will kill me.

As for insurance, I can keep the group policy from the office if I pay for it. From the little investigation I've done, it is entirely possible I can get cheaper health insurance elsewhere. That is one of the things I need to resolve prior to April 1, 2013, but my worst case scenario is to COBRA for a while.

[W2R]

First it was money that held me back, until I decided that I was (barely) FI.

Then it was health insurance. Being just borderline FI, and with insurance rates beginning their huge upwards spiral at the time, I decided that I had to wait until I could officially retire from my federal position in order to get access to lifetime group HI. During those years of waiting, I continued to save so that I was no longer barely FI, but instead thoroughly FI. I also came into some money at that time, and waiting seemed even harder to do.

I qualified to officially retire on Saturday, 11/07/2009. Just to make sure there was no question, I retired two whole days later, on Monday, 11/09/2009.

Since then? Haven't looked back, and have been having the time of my life.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 67walkon As for insurance, I can keep the group policy from the office if I pay for it. From the little investigation I've done, it is entirely possible I can get cheaper health insurance elsewhere. That is one of the things I need to resolve prior to April 1, 2013, but my worst case scenario is to COBRA for a while.

Sounds familiar. This is one area I'm learning a lot about here.

In my case I came up with a few plus/minuses on taking MegaCorp's plan at cost (no subsidy):

Plus
===

• I can have all pre-existing conditions in the world
• Portable among states
• MegaCorp is a decent company, if you push the right buttons, they will "make it right" with the insurance company and help with disputes. After all, the insurance co. is really just an account service for them since MegaCorp actually pay all costs.

Minus
====

• MegaCorp could drop the plan for retirees at any time
• More expensive by about $3k per year than if I qualified on open market

[quidjibo]

Trying to decide between:

A - more years with a modest lifestyle

B - fewer years with a grander lifestyle

[melion]

I was reminded of a huge benefit with retiring with young children.

I was on-line doing my usual internet surfing when my youngest came into the room. He asked me what I was doing plus many other questions. We ended up rolling on the floor with me tickling him. He was laughing very hard. He concluded that his feet and his arm-pits were the 2 most ticklicious part of his body. Priceless!

[explanade]

Money set aside for college?

[Ronnieboy]

Money. Either debt (mortgage) paid off or equivalent sum saved to live off.

[kumquat]

Holding me back?

1) DW vetoed my jump from 300 KM.
2) DW vetoed my entry into the F1 LeMans
3) Dw vetoed my trip to Tahiti with my former secretary
H3ll, nothing is holing me back

[MBAVisionary]

My biggest obstacle...Debt = 42,489.68, Income = 33,000. Still working on getting my income up.