For my own benefit thought I'd update this 3 years into it.
Did pull the plug in Feb 2015, sold my home in Illinois (good bye astronomic taxes).. and ended up in North Carolina (well because Denver was booming and didn't like the housing prices or the snow it was having at that time).
Now: 45
Spousish: 46
No Kids
Annual Expenses: $52K which didn't change after all due to added health care costs.
Net Worth: $1.3M ($1.2M is invested assets)
- $80K ROTH IRA
- $600K Traditional IRA
- $520K Stock Investments
- Pension of $2,050/yr no inflation adjustment
- Spousish income currently at $12K at part-time gig which I consider a solid floor.
So $52K-12K-2K=$38K out of $1.2M or about 3.2% WR and still not accounting for SS.
I think I made the right decision, I wouldn't mind an extra $100k to be able to slightly upsize our home but not important enough to make me go back to work.
When the market tanked in 2015 and my honey lost his job right after moving here I was a little freaked out... I did something completely opposite to what I would normally do and we went on an extended trip to Europe. When we came back refreshed, we simply changed our plans and he went to work full-time for a year.. which allowed us to offset cost of a new car, trip to Europe, cost of two moves, closing costs on the home, and cost of 4 trips to the ER at $3500/trip and tons of physical therapy/chiropractor.
Now we are much closer to where we need to be and he is back to working part time. Just like in savings mode, I figure early retiring is about having a plan, sticking to the plan, adjusting to the bumps along the way to get you back on plan.