So I’d like to prepare for Financial Independence. Here’s my broad plan, please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions for me.
Age: midlife
Timeframe: In five or six years, I’d like to be FI/REd. Ideally I’ll get there earlier. My goal is to take a year or two off and do some low budget traveling. After that I’d like to take on some sort of limited work, but only in areas that I enjoy.
Job: I currently work at a megacorp, in a job that isn’t that bad, but can be very stressful.
Health: pretty good, considering my age.
Housing: I own a too-large house which I share with my ex-spouse. But we’re both ready to move on in our personal lives, and the house will need to be sold. My plan is to rent a small apartment close to work when it’s sold.
Sadly it will probably cost more to rent the small place than to own the house. The house is about $15,000/yr (including taxes, utilities, and upkeep), with me doing the lion’s share of the grunt work. Meanwhile apartments at about half square footage are renting at $17,000/year, albeit leaving me more time to do things other than care for the lawn. Since I’ll have a kid almost half time, I can’t skimp on the apartment too much. I could cut costs by going with a one bedroom place instead of two bedroom, and outfitting the rest of the place like a studio, but that’s subject to my ex’s veto.
Dependents: I have a child who should be going off to college by the time I hope to be done.
Expenses: Still figuring these out, since they’ll change when we sell the house. I’m not Jacob, but I’m reasonably frugal.
Investments: I fully fund my traditional 401k and Roth IRA and rebalance into 20% bonds and 80% stocks yearly. Everything else goes into a 50/50 CDs/stocks in index funds. The stocks and bonds are in index funds. The stocks are split 75/25 domestic/foreign. Alas, right now the SWR for the amount I have would only just barely pay the child support.
I read _The Four Pillars of Investing_, _Common Sense on Mutual Funds_, _A Random Walk Down Wall Street_, and _Early Retirement Extreme_ a few years ago. This time I’m serious.
[not sure if this belongs in Young Dreamers; admins, please move if needed]
Age: midlife
Timeframe: In five or six years, I’d like to be FI/REd. Ideally I’ll get there earlier. My goal is to take a year or two off and do some low budget traveling. After that I’d like to take on some sort of limited work, but only in areas that I enjoy.
Job: I currently work at a megacorp, in a job that isn’t that bad, but can be very stressful.
Health: pretty good, considering my age.
Housing: I own a too-large house which I share with my ex-spouse. But we’re both ready to move on in our personal lives, and the house will need to be sold. My plan is to rent a small apartment close to work when it’s sold.
Sadly it will probably cost more to rent the small place than to own the house. The house is about $15,000/yr (including taxes, utilities, and upkeep), with me doing the lion’s share of the grunt work. Meanwhile apartments at about half square footage are renting at $17,000/year, albeit leaving me more time to do things other than care for the lawn. Since I’ll have a kid almost half time, I can’t skimp on the apartment too much. I could cut costs by going with a one bedroom place instead of two bedroom, and outfitting the rest of the place like a studio, but that’s subject to my ex’s veto.
Dependents: I have a child who should be going off to college by the time I hope to be done.
Expenses: Still figuring these out, since they’ll change when we sell the house. I’m not Jacob, but I’m reasonably frugal.
Investments: I fully fund my traditional 401k and Roth IRA and rebalance into 20% bonds and 80% stocks yearly. Everything else goes into a 50/50 CDs/stocks in index funds. The stocks and bonds are in index funds. The stocks are split 75/25 domestic/foreign. Alas, right now the SWR for the amount I have would only just barely pay the child support.
I read _The Four Pillars of Investing_, _Common Sense on Mutual Funds_, _A Random Walk Down Wall Street_, and _Early Retirement Extreme_ a few years ago. This time I’m serious.
[not sure if this belongs in Young Dreamers; admins, please move if needed]
