Inverse SWR Poll

[Finance Dave]

I think there are kind of two approaches for the early retirees on this board.

1. Folks who have an early retirement goal/number, and work diligently to achieve that number and then when they do, retire!

2. Folks who weren't necessarily anticipating early retirement, but who realize at some point that they are/approaching financially independence (i.e. no longer "have" to earn a living). They take a look at the situation, figure out whether retiring (or changing careers, perhaps) is really an option. These folks might still work for a while, knowing that they can cease whenever they choose.

I was definitely in the latter camp.

Audrey

I'm in camp #1. Started saving for FIRE when I was 22. I'm now 48 and about 4-5 years from FIRE. I am actually planning to spend more in FIRE than I spend today, with lots of travel and hobbies.

I forego some luxuries today, but definitely no necessities. I have a car hobby (like fast cars), so I spent $50k on a 700 HP Mustang a couple years ago...but paid cash and am resisting the temptation to spend more on appearance modifications that many friends from my car club are doing. I still get the wonderful experience of being around like-minded people, but am not sacrificing my FIRE goal.

P.S. I told my wife recently that when I get to the time when I'm ready to FIRE....I may decide to work one more year and use the money from that final year to buy one more expensive car. It's nice to at least have the flexibility to do that.

 

[WB52]

Dave,
I like your plan to achieve your FIRE goal and then w*rking one year longer to buy "toys" for retirement. I have a similar plan and time horizon. However, I wonder if others here have actually done that, or if the $ ends up as additional cushion? Hmmm.

 

[Finance Dave]

Dave,
I like your plan to achieve your FIRE goal and then w*rking one year longer to buy "toys" for retirement. I have a similar plan and time horizon. However, I wonder if others here have actually done that, or if the $ ends up as additional cushion? Hmmm.

Dunno...but at some point you just have to FIRE....if you use my logic TOO FAR you end up never FIRE'ing, which would not be good.

 

[Rambler]

Targeting 40x, would be ecstatic if it turned out our expenses were lower than anticipated and had 50x, would still be happy at 35-37x, and will still pull the trigger when the time comes even if the assets set aside for retirement are only 33x. Less than that and it would require some serious soul searching. As of right now, we are at 33x if we did not buy our targeted toys, 31-32x if we do. We have 3 years to go, so I am pretty sure we'll get to at least the 35-37x level, if not 40x.

R

 

[Ronstar]

Dave,
I like your plan to achieve your FIRE goal and then w*rking one year longer to buy "toys" for retirement. I have a similar plan and time horizon. However, I wonder if others here have actually done that, or if the $ ends up as additional cushion? Hmmm.

We achieved our FIRE goal a few years ago- portfolio then dipped below the goal and now is closing in on the goal again.

I'm working on buying some big ticket items before fully retiring. I just bought a new F150 pickup. We'll buy DW a new car in 2011 before both of us retire.

 

[Dennis]

We were fortuante to be able to afford to "retire" early by using a 7% earnings basis, taking out 3% and leaving 4% for Inflation and some growth

Thus we went into 50% Bonds/Portfolio and 40% into using Conservative Balanced funds and bonds Port and kept the remaining 10% out to Gamble with into a Equity Port..Total of about a 25/75 portfolio

Been 10 yrs now and things are working out better than we thought..

We keep 2 yrs of COH to pay the bills and the 2nd yrs $ is Invested in ST Bond Funds..

Happy Camper

 

[Alan]

Having retiree health insurance would have made me comfortable with 25x, but I am not eligible to RE from Megacorp with health insurance before age 55 so I have held on for about 3 years longer. We will be about 33x planned expenses gap (also have a pension to fulfill about 60% of expenses).