10 Years ER'd today!

[audreyh1]

Today (8/9/09) is the 10 year anniversary of my last day at work. And I am still an early retiree!

Just had to share my little personal milestone with the ER and planning to ER community.

It's been a wild ride in the markets, but being retired has been absolutely awesome. We've done way more than I ever dreamed, and we are living a lifestyle now that I never even envisioned.

Any regrets? Are you kidding!?!?!?

Audrey

 

[walkinwood]

Congratulations!

 

[kumquat]

Keep it up!

 

[walkinwood]

Audrey,
Do you have a post that explains your withdrawal rate method, income streams and your asset allocation? If not, would you consider sharing a sanitized (maybe normalized) version?

Speaking for myself - I would learn a lot from it.

Regards,

 

[W2R]

Audrey, congratulations! You are an inspiration.

 

[Dawg52]

Living the dream!

 

[REWahoo]

There are always a few who are trailblazers and it is nice when they live to tell about it. Happy anniversary!

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Nice going Audrey. Give yourself a pat on the back for negotiating the last 10 years -- they have been quite the ride.

 

[Bikerdude]

Congratulations! I will hit that mark next year.

 

[Jake46]

Congratulations, Audrey. It's only two years for me but the best two years!

 

[Moemg]

Congratulations !

 

[CuppaJoe]

Happy anniversary! And many many more.

 

[Maurice]

Audrey - congratulations.

Would you care to tell (or rehash) your ER story? What kind of work were you doing? Did you leave on your own or were you 'nudged' into ER? Did you save a lot or hit the pension lottery? Or some of each?

 

[bbbamI]

Congratulations!

 

[simple girl]

Congratulations! I can only imagine the amount of enjoyment you've had in these past 10 years...hope to experience it myself someday!

 

[FIREd]

Congrats Audrey!

But how did you do it The past 10 years have been dismal for investors and even more so for retirees who, like you, pulled the plug at the turn of the millenium, so how did you manage to stay retired? Invesment genius? Lots of financial cushion? Drastic lifestyle cuts? Please share your "secrets" with us, would you mind?

 

[ziggy29]

Congrats Audrey!

But how did you do it The past 10 years have been dismal for investors and even more so for retirees who, like you, pulled the plug at the turn of the millenium, so how did you manage to stay retired? Invesment genius? Lots of financial cushion? Drastic lifestyle cuts? Please share your "secrets" with us, would you mind?

I was just going to post something to this effect. Seems to me there's almost "book potential" in this tale -- if someone could retire in 1999, one of the worst possible years to retire from a market standpoint -- a blueprint for succeeding in doing so should be of great interest...

 

[audreyh1]

Hah! Book potential! No way. I'm too private of a person.

I'm one of those (few?) hi-tech retirees who cashed in a lot of stock options during the late 90s, and yes I did retire with a pretty decent financial cushion. Nothing outrageous, but enough to fund a comfortable life with a <4% withdrawal rate. No pension, live off investments only.

We have actually spent more during retirement than we did while working - so no lifestyle cuts, although we never went hog wild with spending either. Even though in March of this year our retirement fund and net worth were down to where it was when I retired !?!?!?!? we had still had almost 10 years of enjoyable retirement living during that time, so breaking even didn't seem so awful. And at this time we have recovered over half of our loses from peak net worth in Oct 2007, and are well above where we started in 1999.

Here is my original post on the "Hi I Am" forum including the brand new motorhome.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/er-since-1999-a-19263.html

Audrey

P.S. Maybe I should have put this post on the "Life After FIRE" forum. I didn't think about that until later.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, I will post more about how I survived as an investor over the last 10 years. Just give me a bit to pull something together. It's pretty basic stuff - nothing fancy.

Audrey

 

[Alan]

Happy anniversary Audrey, and thanks for posting on this. Look forward to reading more about the last 10 years, particularly since you've done it on investments and no pensions.

 

[freebird5825]

Congrats on a decade of FIRE!

I'm just a few months over the 2 year mark <a real greenhorn>

I do read your posts very closely BTW. Your posts have often led me to go research things I never knew about.
TY

 

[Goonie]

Happy ER Anniversary!!! And may you have many, many more!!!

 

[Disappointed]

Congrats.

Looks like you have done well with your investments.

You also post on Morningstar.com?

mP

 

[audreyh1]

Yep - occasionally - on the Fidelity Forum - same handle.

 

[Purron]

Looking forward to my 10 year anniversary! You are an inspiration. Retirement was a little rough for me a first, but I'm gettin' the hang of it!