Class of 2021

I did a search and couldn't find so I figured I would start. There must be others out there, it will be a great year for many. I can't wait there is a small chance I might get out in 2020 but more likely will be October of 21 at the ripe old age of 56. Not young by this forum standards but it will sure beat most of my peers by a decade.

I am born in 65, too.

I am looking at summer of 2023, but it might be earlier if I lose my job.

Based on firecalc, I'm trending towards 2021, but it might be more like 2023 for some extra padding. We'll see how it goes.

In hindsight, you might say 2020.

Thanks highlow65 for starting this thread! You get the honor of my first ever post on this board -- been lurking for a few months.

I will join the class of 2021 -- actually my goal is anywhere from December 2020 to December 2022, so 2021 is a good compromise. What year I retire depends on my portfolio RoR, but I'll be 51-53 by then. For the record, married with no kids of our own, but DW has a son from a relationship long before we met, when she was young and foolish. She is far from foolish now, but incredibly the kid is still around. Amazing how that works.

Anyway, I started obsessing with retirement since our NW, including our expensive but older fixer upper house, rose above 2.6m. I could retire now, I know, but a few things are pushing our number to closer to 4m (predicted by 2022 or earlier). First, we live in a high cost area (DC metro) and DW wants to stay here for a good while -- perhaps another 20 years unless I talk her out of it. Second, kid is nearby, and kid needs our financial support, and kid is having his own kid with his fiance (he's in his mid-20s), and so we will be grandparents in our mid-40s. We'll want to give the granddaughter every chance to launch in the real world as a real person, unlike kid. That means education, of course. Third, we are young and health insurance is a big issue and funding 20 years before medicare kicks in could be challenging. Fourth, while we're making good money now, I'm currently looking for a lower paying but more relaxing job, and it will still pay six figures but will be a pay cut. Fifth, I like working so long as I don't have to keep at my current pace -- desperately need a break.

I have many things to keep me busy, and will probably manage our rentals during retirement, so maybe I'll never truly retire. Looking forward to camping out west for as long as DW can take it!

Good luck to the class of 2021.

I'll join the class of 2021 too. I'll become fully vested in a deferred comp plan when I turn 58 in January of that year plus our youngest child will have just turned 21.

In the meantime, I plan to work but still take the opportunity to do a lot of traveling. I could probably retire right now from a financial perspective but we still have two kids in high school and none of our closer friends are anywhere close to retiring.

However, I just received another reminder that life is precious. A 38 partner in our firm just died totally unexpectedly from a sudden medical condition. It makes you do some thinking. This is the second young person I helped mentor to become a partner who met an untimely death. So sad....


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HillCountry said:

I am born in 65, too.

I am looking at summer of 2023, but it might be earlier if I lose my job.

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I'm born in 61... end of February sounds like a good time to be non-employed to me

"55 and 10"

I've been lurking for years, too, but decided to jump in today with the Class of 2021. DH and I are shooting for 2022 when I hit Megacorp's threshold. Started there in 2012, so I'll be 56 with 10. We're >1.5m now, but my deferred comp has advantages if I wait. We sailed across the Atlantic in 2009, but that didn't make a dent in the bucket list. We want to relocate somewhere between the tropics and the Pacific NW, as long as there's water. I was told last night that 2022 was NOT negotiable, which suits me fine.

Our class has been super quiet in 2015. Have any of you thought about changing classes in light of the market treading water this year? I'm still happily in this class despite the investment returns this year?

2021 is my plan at this point. Will be 62.

Born in late '65 and saying Hi All. I'm envisioning more of a process over a range of years from work, to semi-retirement, to some hobby business, consulting a little, or working part time at the Ace Hardware down the street just to stay in circulation. NW is $1.2 now and we're on track to save $70K+ this year. In five years, hopefully, we'll have $2+ and I can go part time while DW likely works FT because she is just that way. Hence, I'll adopt us as Class of 2021 because it's a lot more exciting-sounding to me than Class of 2025 when the need to do commercial work should actually be fully behind us!

Hi all! I hope to be FI in 2019 and FIRE by 2021. My last kid should have finnished his Masters by then so that is my target year. I will be 53.

2020-2021 is likely year for me too. I was born in '64. I have sufficient assets to retire now, but: (1) I am risk averse so need a higher level of confidence than most people do, (2) I am thinking in terms of around $250k a year spending in retirement, and (3) I still have a kid in high school, and I don't think I want to retire while he is still in school. He will go to college in 2019. So, probably 2020 or 2021 retirement. But if I get too fed up, I am gone sooner!

December 2021 for me. I enjoy my job but I want to get away from the 40 hours in the office or on the road. I will fire with two pensions (67K a year) and hopefully IRA/401K around 600K. We have a rental property also that brings in income. Plenty of health insurance at low cost (retired military).
Even though I will be 60 I will have 3 children under 16 at home so plenty to do in retirement. 2 children have free college education since we adopted them from foster system. Saving for the other child's college. I may work PT if I find something I enjoy, not for the income but more for the passion. We plan on traveling to Europe for about 3-5 months in 2022 or 2023 to educated our children about the world for 1 semester.

31 December, 2021. Will have 10 years and one year past minimum retirement age (Fed job). Leave pay will fall under 2022 income.

No love for 2021?

Hit a great milestone, sold our rental property and paid off our primary house with the profit. So, we are now debt free. 4 years until Oct 2021 Retirement.

Congrats! We may have to inspire each other to last till then. I know it will go by fast but w*rk looks less appealing every day.

Still hopeful for mid year 2021.

According to Firecalc/my personal spreadsheet calculator, I will have just enough to have a 30% buffer on top of my normal annual expenses by June 2021 to support 60+ years of spending. However, I think we may be at the peak of a long bull run at that point, which will skew my results by about 1/2 a year worth of earnings, so I will likely work until the end of 2021, or even aim for June 2022 just to get another year added to my pension (each year added to it is like earning a bonus $25k mostly untaxed). I'm not factoring in SS, the pension, or a likely inheritance (not that I want it, but it would likely be an additional 50% to what I've saved), because I am retiring pretty early, but adding the SS/pension into Firecalc, I would likely be safe June 2021 regardless of what part of the cycle the market is in.

Yodajazz said:

Still hopeful for mid year 2021.

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Good luck!

Born '63, would love to be Class of 2021 (if returns stay up). If returns flatten, with no massive reboot, will pull plug NLT 2023.

Lawrencewendall said:

Congrats! We may have to inspire each other to last till then. I know it will go by fast but w*rk looks less appealing every day.

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I'm in this camp as well. I could retire now if I wanted to, but I'd also like more buffer and to be able to live a little better than I could if I actually retired today. Still, 2021 seems like a long way off. The days tick off of the calendar at a snail's pace.

Lately, increasing my net worth and retiring early have become an obsession. I constantly run different what-if scenarios to see if I can shorten the time-line to reach my net worth goal. It's like waiting on Christmas when you're a kid. I don't hate my job as much as I'm just bored with it and want to do something else. So that's the plan - retire in 2021 when I no longer need the money and instead take a job that I enjoy, regardless of pay, if I feel like I need more cushion.

Fellow 2021'ers,
As 2017 comes to an end, 2018 means only 3 more calendar years to go! (don't start counting the days yet, it's depressing)

I too am planning for 2021. March 31, 2021 to be specific. Megacorp requires me to be on the payroll in Q1 2021 when 2020 Bonus & 2020 401K match is paid. DW will retire at same time probably. Plan to work remaining 3.25 years to top off financials, mainly for future medical needs. Between me, DW, and Megacorp matching, we will put away nearly $50k/year in 401k/IRAs.

We're doing great as far as retirement FI goes. Will be 62.5 when retiring. Not planning to take SS until 66, for full benefits. Will have to fund pre-SS retirement from cash bucket. May also find a part-time consulting gig doing remote web SW coding during then too. Just depends on how bored I get.