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Our three-week tour of Western USA starting next Tuesday!

Just a quick thank you to all who contributed to building our perfect trip. We're heading off in two weeks and I will come back and let everyone know how it went!

I think Austria has everything you need ;-) Mountains, lakes and the best skiing in the world. What's not to like?

I have a very simple approach. Base expenses are c. 40k Holiday and fun money is c. 30k My budget is based on 90k So, in theory, we have a 50% spending buffer. Oh, and I don't include c. 500k in our plan we should be ok

Why?

thanks - we have plenty of travel planned - including in the US this fall!

So lets be clear - with MSC you get what you pay for - it was cheap...but never again. Norway is fabulous but it feels a little environmentally insensitive to visit in an effing great cruise ship. Better to tread as lightly as possible.

...to early retirement and loving every minute. Loving the lack of pressure. So far very very busy! but of course early days. Have set up a website to track our journey with random posts about travel, early retirement and well....whatever pops into my head. The site is nowhere near perfect...

ok, if we're going to talk car history then mine is as follows (this is all Europe): - Renault 11 - Vauxhall Astra GTE 16V - Volkswagen Golf 16V - Vauxhall Astra GTE - Ford Mondeo 16v - Mazda 323 16v - BMW 520i - Ford Mondeo 16v - BMW 328i coupe - Audi RS4 - Porsche 911 S - Porsche 911 C4S -...

FWIW - I think the most important thing is whether a car delivers fun at whatever level that might be (read: does not need to have anything to do with a cars technical capabilities) Having lived in Germany for many years there is something quite intoxicating about having an autobahn blaster (my...

I don't think you can lump the Porsche's in with the Beemers and Benzes. The Porsche's are generally acknowledged as being some of the best handling cars out there. Whether they represent value for money is entirely another question and I would agree with you that there is some great...

I have no f**cking idea what any of those mean .....other than no rebalancing.

I love this. For me the final straw was "you're doing a fantastic job [but we're reducing your pay by 8% to bring you back in line with your peers]". "We're all having to pitch in here...hey, my pay didn't go up at all!"

Is that taking a gun to a knife fight? ;-)

Well....we bought it. Standard Boxster 718 (about 300 hp), one month old with under 500 miles on the clock. 14% discount on list. Pictures to follow.

Did you buy a fancy sports car when you retired? I have my eye on a nearly new Porsche Boxster but don't want to be a cliché :) ....or maybe you 'treated' yourself to something else as a retirement gift...from you...to you?

We have around 55x our base spending and closer to 30x our fully loaded figures (i.e. including all the travel etc.). But that excludes deferred income and pensions.

For some reason I cannot update my original post on this forum as it says the thread is too old to update!http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/time-to-take-control-back-83300.html. Anyway after what seems like months of negotiation I think we are finally there and I will head into early...

Many thanks for all the responses and I take the point about too much planning but honestly planning is one of the things I like to do. Particularly when it comes to a lenghthy holiday, I like to have most things mapped out. But I definitely take the point... Actually one of my first goals is...

I would respond - "why do you ask?"

We're getting close to the leap now. All of my exit contracts are in place and awaiting my signature which means that on 30th June this year I will leap into the unknow at age 52 for a (hopefully) long and fulfilling retirement. But is there really a plan? I have some sketches in my head but...

I admire the simplicity but that would make me nervous as hell. Is your $3,300 coming from your $1.73 of stocks (I assume so)? That would make a yield of 2.2%. Frankly you can do much better with a more diversified portfolio.

It is, thank you. Plus it has great skiing in the winter (€1,500 in my budget) Its based on a quoted figure - but I take your point, easier to use round sums and leave a smallish buffer. No need for A/C! Our house is reasonably new (2008) and therefore some of the big stuff should last a...

It would've been a lot higher but mainly one offs like we rented a second house for a year. We bought two new cars etc. Those things are now gone.

All contributions definitely welcome! For me there are no haircuts (I do it myself - buzz cut) and my BH has hair cut every couple of months (which goes out of cash). We don't buy any OTS medicines (my BH has medication for migraine on prescription). As for replacement electronics - that...