Plan for Exit 2024

[Exit 2024]

2017ish, appreciate info and the link, will be educating myself on safe harbor rules

 

[Exit 2024]

Finally Q1 is over- posting update on our progress

If not for March improvements in the market - we would be very red for that quarter. January NW was down by a lot, and February was flat
March came and our daughter's 16 y.o. car started to fall apart to the point where repairs did not make any sense and to drive it became unsafe
We were really hoping that it will survive through her college years, but it did not had to go and buy new used car that set us back $14k in cash - now that one should last till end of the college and then some - till she pays majority of her student loans back. Despite that expense we still did pretty good in March and our NW not only recovered from January-February lows but also got to the new high

33 Q to go...

 

[Exit 2024]

Q2 was a wild ride, I was 200% sure that it will be quarter with negative net worth growth for us. Not only investment was doing nothing for first 2 months but then Brexit vote happened
In addition management of the condo that we own sent a bill for almost $5k for emergency assessment, they have been doing repairs and found massive water damage in the external walls that needs to be corrected ASAP
On top of that we covered medical bills for my father's treatments - unfortunately all was ineffective and he passed away I am heartbroken and motivated as never to FIRE and enjoy my life while we still have our health.

After all of the above to my amusement we closed Q2 with positive NW growth and made it to the new high, thanks to market rebound in last couple days of the June.
2 comma club looks like in the reach unless we will have more Brexit like event shortly.

32Q' to go...

 

[kaudrey]

My condolences on the loss of your father, Exit.

 

[Katiek]

My condolences on the loss of your Dad, but glad you were able to help him financially. Sometimes FIRE isn't about retiring early, but about being able to make sure you've pursued all options to help the ones you love.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Sorry for your loss.

Some additional questions for you to help round out the picture.

Are you a DIYer with your investments?
Are you an indexer?
What is your asset allocation?
Do you have the lowest possible expense ratios in your holdings?

We have financial information going all the way back to 1991 and I've always noticed that the growth in NW goes in spurts. So keep up the good work and focus on the expense side as much as the asset side. Knowing where every penny goes is a good motivator to keep expenses as low as possible. Once your DD is launched you should be in great shape to supercharge your accumulation.

 

[Exit 2024]

Katiek, you can not be more right. I would gladly pay 10 times more to give my father couple more years of quality life, unfortunately money can buy a lot of things but still can not buy health. What bothers me the most that he retired just 2 years ago and was really looking forward to spend a lot of time at lake house with kids and grand kids, but instead spent those 2 years fighting for his life. That really moved FIRE to the top on my list - perspective, perspective ....

 

[Exit 2024]

Golden sunsets, thanks for the questions.

Short answer is yes, we are DIY investors and following Jack Bogle advise.
Have been targeting 70/30 stocks/bonds allocation but slowly moving into 60/40 right now - will look at that more closely in couple years again.
Most of our investments are in Vanguard funds, exceptions are 401ks, where no Vanguard funds offered although we still invested only in index funds there. We also have some dividend paying stocks in taxable from early years of investing but can not move those to indexes as we have large capital gains. That will be done as soon as we out of the work force.
I never calculated our overall expense ratio, will put it on my list to do. Thanks for the pointer.

 

[Exit 2024]

Quicken posted second comma on the bottom of the screen today for the first time ever, 4 days before my 47th birthday
hope it holds till Tuesday though

 

[gauss]

Congratulations -- I had my leading digit increment when I checked balances for the first time in a year.

It made me want to do a happy dance -- but then Brexit vote happened then next day or so.....

 

[Exit 2024]

gauss, I hear you, pretty sure that we will cross this level multiple times in both directions but today we will celebrate a little

 

[Exit 2024]

This year continue to be a very tough one for us, after loosing my father in July, my mother in law suddenly passed away at the end of September. Now we are praying to get to the end of year with no more losses.

On financial front Q3 was not that bad, we are still holding up in two comma club and even added about 1.3% of target to our net worth looking to pay off all RE in next 6 month and then question will become where to invest next.

Currently we are investigating 2 options: to get rental RE or start to invest heavily in taxable account. Both have it's pros and cons, so we are trying to figure out what best way to proceed.
I also have some questions to ask, but will post those in coming days.

Here is our Q3 numbers, I split out investable assets to track that subtotal also.
31Qs to go...

 

[Exit 2024]

Q4 and end of the year results:
--reached 2-comma club and still staying there
--almost done with paying off all RE, both mortgages are closed, have a little bit left on HELOC that we should be able to pay off in Q1
--ended 2016 with 35.6% of targeted FIRE net worth
--saved less this year than last one ($81k vs $108k) due to some big one time expenses

Plans for 2017:
-- due to timing of my RSU vesting I expect to have 401k HCE contribution limit to be removed for me for 2017, will be maxing out it this year
-- looking to buy rental RE if will find good deal
-- start active taxable investment
-- want to reach $1.25 mil by end of 2017

30Qs to go...

 

[Standard Staples]

Tremendous progress. With the mortgages paid off, your savings should grow at a faster clip in 2017. $1.25M is easily within reach! I'll keep an eye on your quarterly updates.

 

[Exit 2024]

Thanks, Staples same here- subscribed to your topic to follow your updates and progress

 

[calmloki]

Morbid personality - this thread title really didn't match what I expected it to be about.

 

[dvalley]

Great to see your progress, congrats on joining the 2 comma club!

Are you counting the RE equity based on what zillow shows minus the balance? Also are you planning to relocate to a cheaper COL area in retirement?

 

[Exit 2024]

dvalley, thanks for congrats and to answer your questions:
---RE assets accounted for at purchase price, looked up estimates on zillow and it shows $56k higher for 2 properties combined, but at this point will keep equity calculation as is, prefer to go conservative (do not agree on condo estimate, I think it is too high, and too lazy to keep up with updates on those)
--- we are in the "cheaper COL area", and our city almost every year on one or another list of "best places to retire", so no plans to relocate yet, although may consider part time living in winter somewhere more warm.

 

[Exit 2024]

Q1 is over, below is our progress notes

- Paid off all RE, zero debt
- Added $11K to our Roth IRAs through back door, it was late 2016 contribution, plan to do 2017 one around summer time if all is ok
- As expected, 401k HCE limit lifted for me for 2017, upped contribution to max it out
- Markets have been hot in Q1 and contributed nicely to our net worth

On not so good note:
We both work for the same company (I am directly and SO through third party contract), and it is going through some crazy times currently with a lot of restructuring under way, we got new CEO and new corporate team with very different objectives - now #1 task for them seems to be massive RIFs domestically and move more work to India I already opened taxable account at Fidelity with plans to push there all our free cash every month, but looks like we may need to beef up our saving accounts some more in case one of us or both will be loosing job we have $24k there currently but also need to replace one car this year, so looking to add may be $25-30k more before starting taxable investing.

Here are our Q1 results and we have 29Qs to go:

 

[Golden sunsets]

Good Progress. ******1 on beefing up the cash, seeing that you and DW are dependent on the same employer. I would also think again before buying investment real estate.

 

[Markola]

Am I reading correctly that you paid off a $100,000 mortgage in 1.5 years or so? Wow.

 

[Exit 2024]

Golden sunsets, agree and yes, buying rental property is on hold for now till we get more clarity with job situations.

 

[Exit 2024]

Markola, yes you are reading it correctly

It was our focus for last year and half and we put every single free dollar into it. I was actually transferring big chunks ($20-30k) from regular mortgage to HELOC that is at the same bank where our main checking account is, and allows to make unlimited number of payments any size above $1. We have been sweeping there all paycheck money during the month and at the end took back only enough to pay bills (strategically made all due dates on the last day of the month). It helped to reduce interest paid as it is calculated daily based on the balance and also artificially made it look like we are borrowing money to pay bills - mental trick that helped to curb expenses

But in reality what is mostly helping our case:
- live in low cost area,
- have reasonably high paying jobs for that area,
- live well below our means.
Last one is the hardest - can not tell you how many time we went to look for better and bigger house or for new flashy cars, and every time came home, calculated by how long it will delay FIRE - no, thank you, still in old house (may require some updates soon, still cheaper than to buy new) and still driving our old cars (1998- will need to replace this year, 2005 - hope to run it 7 more years if lucky enough)

 

[Markola]

I will add one to your list: - have spouse who is on board and will sacrifice as necessary with you to work the plan. That is huge. Give that spouse a hug, because you hit the jack pot!

 

[Exit 2024]

Markola, agree 100% that it is huge, we had our fair share of problems over the years but finance in general and FIRE specifically never resulted in much disagreement, can not complain here.