Great site! I am 44, married with 2 kids (5/7). My wife just gave notice and will be RE by the end of this month. I am an accountant, so I do a lot of planning, saving, modeling. I have always managed my own investments and enjoy doing so. I track all of our spending in Quicken and also maintain a spreadsheet with my goals in life (personal and financial), net worth trends, and a financial forecast until I am 100. Ok, maybe I am an accountant with FIRE OCD.
I came from big family (including foster kids) and my dad worked his butt off trying to make ends meet. Seeing my dad work real hard and then having a heart attack at an early age, did a number on me. I told myself that I would go to college and not get married until I was financially secure. I would work hard, save my money, take care of my health and make time for fun. I started working when I was 13, joined the military, finished college, worked for a big CPA firm and then joined a tech company, where I have been for the last 16 years. I workout nearly every morning, see my doctor every year, take a couple vacations each year with the fam and love being a dad.
I have used some of the tools and book recommendations from this site over the last year. I created a Get a life- retirement tree with over 50 items on my to do list. Some are in process and some need to wait for RE. I have run retirement calcs through: Financial Engines, FIRE Calc and Flexible Retirement Planner. I have also had professionals at Schwab, Wells and Vanguard run retirement analyses with consistent results. I am not afraid of getting bored, but I am concerned about: 1) not having enough time in retirement to do all the things on my list, and 2) outliving my assets.
The pendulum of life has been swinging harder towards ER. I have been working 50-60 hrs per week, which includes working every Sunday morning. With work taking so much time, I am missing out on some of the best years with my kids (they think I am king right now), wife, family, friends and hobbies. My parents are getting up there in age and I look forward to spending more time with them before it is too late. Several friends have passed in recent years, which has clarified for me, that I would much rather spend my limited time on this planet enjoying my family/friends and hobbies that make me smile. My plan at 30 was to retire by 55. I have been working hard to reduce that over time and 3 years ago, I made the plan to retire in 2015 at the age of 45. This past year, I have set my RE date for May 2015.
NW ~$7.5M
401ks/Roth IRAs- 10%
529s- 2%
Taxable accts- 64%
Real Estate- 20%
Other- 4%
Investments (mostly Vanguard): Cash 13%, Bonds 25%, Stocks 45%, Other 17%
The high cash position is due to rebalancing and is being put back to work. I look forward to learning more from this site and helping me maintain my focus on FIRE.
I came from big family (including foster kids) and my dad worked his butt off trying to make ends meet. Seeing my dad work real hard and then having a heart attack at an early age, did a number on me. I told myself that I would go to college and not get married until I was financially secure. I would work hard, save my money, take care of my health and make time for fun. I started working when I was 13, joined the military, finished college, worked for a big CPA firm and then joined a tech company, where I have been for the last 16 years. I workout nearly every morning, see my doctor every year, take a couple vacations each year with the fam and love being a dad.
I have used some of the tools and book recommendations from this site over the last year. I created a Get a life- retirement tree with over 50 items on my to do list. Some are in process and some need to wait for RE. I have run retirement calcs through: Financial Engines, FIRE Calc and Flexible Retirement Planner. I have also had professionals at Schwab, Wells and Vanguard run retirement analyses with consistent results. I am not afraid of getting bored, but I am concerned about: 1) not having enough time in retirement to do all the things on my list, and 2) outliving my assets.
The pendulum of life has been swinging harder towards ER. I have been working 50-60 hrs per week, which includes working every Sunday morning. With work taking so much time, I am missing out on some of the best years with my kids (they think I am king right now), wife, family, friends and hobbies. My parents are getting up there in age and I look forward to spending more time with them before it is too late. Several friends have passed in recent years, which has clarified for me, that I would much rather spend my limited time on this planet enjoying my family/friends and hobbies that make me smile. My plan at 30 was to retire by 55. I have been working hard to reduce that over time and 3 years ago, I made the plan to retire in 2015 at the age of 45. This past year, I have set my RE date for May 2015.
NW ~$7.5M
401ks/Roth IRAs- 10%
529s- 2%
Taxable accts- 64%
Real Estate- 20%
Other- 4%
Investments (mostly Vanguard): Cash 13%, Bonds 25%, Stocks 45%, Other 17%
The high cash position is due to rebalancing and is being put back to work. I look forward to learning more from this site and helping me maintain my focus on FIRE.