The Class of 2014

[Grainiac]

After months of calculating and speculating DW and I have concluded that I can target 2014. I will be turning 50 that summer, and I am planning on quitting my j*b as a birthday present to myself. However, depending on how the year is going for the mecacorp I may delay until the December bonus day before quitting. FIRECalc is telling us that at our predicted RE spending level also DW could retire at 50 (one year after me), but at the moment she has no such plans and may well w*rk another 5 years after I quit. She is 100% fine with me quitting earlier, but I feel it will be necessary for us to be FI so that she can RE anytime if her mind changes.

I am not using the term retire for myself yet, because my post-megacorp plans will probably evolve a lot over the next 3 years. The core of the plan is obviously to get out of the megacorp, but I am researching various options to still w*rk in some capacity but in different environment. My technical expertise and global experience should give me a good edge to gain some kind of role with certain global non-profits doing something that would be very meaningful to me, but moving from my current overpaid exec position to something like that would mean 75 - 95% reduction in pay, which is why we need to be FI before I make the move. Or, if the world changes so much over the next 3 years that those opportunities are not there any more, I will have a full freedom to get into entirely unpaid charity work or just plain REtire.

Now, having this kind of vision about my future has already made a difference in my daily life. With a dream that is both practical and affordable it is simply easier to ignore [-]the atrocities of megacorp meat grinder[/-] our challenging corporate culture. I used to think almost every day that "I just can't wait to get out of this", but now it has changed to "Hey, actually this is not all that bad since it will be all behind me in just three short years".

 

[Retire2013]

What is everyone planning to do about health insurance when ER or ESR in 2014?

 

[FreeAtLast]

It is quite possible that 2014 will be my year to retire as I will turn 62 and my son will be 1/2 way through college. I have been semi-retired for the past 5 years so I don't have a concrete date.

 

[scrinch]

Sign me up for 2014 as well! I just took my old job back, moved overseas, and signed a 3-year lease on a house. In 2014 the lease will be up, I'll be 55, my youngest will be through one year of college (and the other two finished), and I'm sure that I will be sick-up-to-here of Megacorp again. I believe I just heard Carnac the Magnificent give the answer "The year 2014." Let's hope the question was, "When will scrinch retire for good this time?"

 

[casky]

The year was 2008. I had decided then I would retire sometime in 2011. So I was then where you all are today, planiing my retirement for 3 years down the road.

Now I have just 2 days to work and the magic day will be here June 29, 2011 my first day of retirement.

My point is the time goes by so fast. I thought 3 years was a long way off but wow, here it is already.

So good luck to the class of 2014. Have fun planning and discussing with your spouse.

 

[Lagniappe]

The year was 2008. I had decided then I would retire sometime in 2011. So I was then where you all are today, planiing my retirement for 3 years down the road.

Now I have just 2 days to work and the magic day will be here June 29, 2011 my first day of retirement.

My point is the time goes by so fast. I thought 3 years was a long way off but wow, here it is already.

So good luck to the class of 2014. Have fun planning and discussing with your spouse.

Casky,

I really want to thank you for this message. I have been feeling that 2014 is so far away, and wondering if I can make it. The closer I get, the lower my BS tolerance, which means I am daily playing with my spreadsheet to see when I can reasonably stop. Your perspective, especially right now, is really helpful.

Lagniappe

 

[debster747]

Hi -- I'm a long time lurker and love this board! I plan to be in the class of 2014, hopefully in January. For me, this depends on the health care exchanges being in place!

 

[OrcasIslandBound]

ditto to debster747. We're aiming for Jan 2014 and it all depends on what happens to health care. We also had a big break last week regarding our plans to FIRE. We needed to sell a piece of raw land that was an extremely difficult parcel to deal with because of our lovely So. Cal government adding restrictions one after another, nearly making this lot unbuildable. We had it in escrow for $300K in 2007, but found "Nitrates" in the well at 10% over the EPA limit. The polluted well water would have been filterable for $3K whole house filter, but our lovely health department said absolutely no filtering allowed. We checked, no where else in the country was there such a stupid health department. We had to threaten to sue the dairy that was creating the pollution, ($15K legal bill) bought an easement from them, $8K, then we bought a water meter $24K! Total of $45K and then just finally sold the parcel for $150K. As bad as this deal was, it was enough to pay off our house mortgage completely which we did on Wednesday! DEBT FREE!

 

[Amethyst]

Congratulations!! I always feel as if dealing with real estate is a bit like dealing with a nest of poisonous snakes, but you came out alive after the battle, and are free now!

Amethyst

dAs bad as this deal was, it was enough to pay off our house mortgage completely which we did on Wednesday! DEBT FREE!

 

[OrcasIslandBound]

Thanks Amethyst! Your are right, the real estate snakes are poisonous. We've decided that we won't attempt to build a house again until we have at least $10,000,000 saved up!

 

[Coaster]

Class of 2014

Hi all, looking at retiring 4 Jan 2014 at age 53. DW will continue to work part time (Nurse) as she is not to sure about this whole early retirement thing. I will have a COLA pension of around $60K. House is all paid off and we will have no debts entering retirement, DW also has a $300K Retirement taxi savings account 80%stocks 20%bonds. Live in Canada so healthcare not an issue.
Kids will be finished university/college and hopefully on their way.

 

[02camp]

We hope to be a part of 2014 as well. A few things will have to happen first though. Number 1 is we need to sell our house and downsize or pay the mortgage off. The second part is we will need to purchase 2 years of the DW's state pension. Third, our son will be starting graduate school in the fall of 2014. We have helped him in his undergraduate endevours, however as harsh as this may sound, we have told him he will be on his own for his graduate work. Finally, the market needs to cooperate with our plan. This may prove to be the hard part of the whole deal.

 

[BizzyC]

I may be in the 2014 class as well. I've kind of arbitrarily set Feb 2014 as the date, based on when a set of stock options vests. It's a little bit silly, the value of the options really isn't that great, but it is kind of a mental stake in the ground for me of "this far, and absolutely no farther".

It may be earlier than that, but under no circumstances is it going to be later!

 

[foxfirev5]

Looks like February 18, 2014 for me. DW Er'd last month and I moved from the class of '13 to '14. Health Insurance is the biggest reason. While I qualify for retiree insurance at Mega corp I have doubts about its continuation. Like many on this forum I am curious to see how the 2014 health insurance system looks.

 

[Huston55]

Matriculating

My retirement deadline is 2016, which is what my profile says. But, I'd retire (or semi-retire) earlier if possible. Fidelity Retirement Income Planner says I can retire in 2014 so, I suppose I'm a member of The ER Class of 2014.

Nice to meet you all - Classmates!

 

[akck]

I can retire at the end of 2013, which means my first day of retirement can be 01/01/2014. I'll probably stay an additional 2-4 months as I won't be able to do much over winter (wife will still be working). It becomes a trade-off as to whether the little addition to my pension is worth the time.

On further planning, I was figuring 3/31/14 would be the official retirement date because of WEP and I wanted one more year to count in the calculation. Then I had a "Duh!!!" moment. I'll be getting paid for my personal leave, which should put me over the minimum earned income needed for the year. New retirement date is 01/31/2014.

 

[HeatherB]

New here, and a member of the class of 2014! 452 days to work, which is easy to calculate as the number of days in our school year is fixed. . So the end of the school year 2014, probably around June first.

We are relocating to Cozumel, Mexico, and have already purchased a condo there. We will sell this behemoth and most of what we own. DH, who is BTravlin on this forum, will stick around one more year while his child finishes school (my kids are older), and will sell this house while I supervise some renovations in Mexico. And enjoy not getting up at 6am and dealing with 180 teenagers every day! Come on 2014!

 

[Redbugdave]

Just thought I would stir this ole thread up and bring it to the top again. I have 1 year 6 months and some odd days today! 1/1/2014 is when I retire. I will be one one the first retirement babies reborn in 2014.

Where the Hell is Matt? - YouTube

 

[Amethyst]

Congratulations! It's always seemed to me that the 18-month mark is a kind of milestone: close enough to taste freedom and start letting the small stuff slide; but, still time left to adjust one's financial plans, should that be needed.

May the time fly by for you!

Amethyst

Just thought I would stir this ole thread up and bring it to the top again. I have 1 year 6 months and some odd days today! 1/1/2014 is when I retire. I will be one one the first retirement babies reborn in 2014.

Where the Hell is Matt? - YouTube

 

[Meadbh]

I've crunched the numbers a gazillion times and if the markets do not tank in the next two years I think I will be good to go on March 31, 2014. That's only 659 days away!



Now let's hope I don't catch "one more year" syndrome!

 

[Redbugdave]

That's not very long Mead. I'm ready to go, and get excited just thinking about all the things I want to do!

Here's a good countdown timer to keep you on track...
TimeLeft - Free clock, reminder, countdown, stopwatch, timer, sticker, auction watch and time synchronization utility using Winamp skins to show digits and text.

 

[rodi]

I'm hoping to be part of the class of 2014... depends on the market not tanking and not having a RIF cause it to be sooner.

Tentative plans for 2/1/2014. DH turns 62 in jan 2014 and is strongly considering retiring then... if he does, so do I.

But if megacorp lays me off prior - I'm not looking for a new j*b.

 

[rodi]

I'm hoping to be part of the class of 2014... depends on the market not tanking and not having a RIF cause it to be sooner.

Tentative plans for 2/1/2014. DH turns 62 in jan 2014 and is strongly considering retiring then... if he does, so do I.

But if megacorp lays me off prior - I'm not looking for a new j*b.

Taking my name off the list for 2014. Make it 2016.
Yeah... I know... the just one more year (or 4) syndrome.
But after tracking our spending closer, and putting in more safety factor it just seems safer for me to work to age 55. Still early - just not as early.

The hubby will still retire at age 62 in Jan 2014. That makes total financial sense.

I will still meet my goal of being 100% available to observe, meddle, and annoy my children in their teen years -when they want me to ignore them so they can cause mischief and make bad life choices. Oldest will be 16, and younger will be 14.

 

[hakuna matata]

467 work days to go Oct 1, 2015 is my date and looking at my app on my iphone it looks like 467 work days left. I prefer to look at work days rather than days. Actually if I look at weeks it is less than 100 weeks if I take vacation out. I 'like' the concept of two digit numbers! Checked with my financial person today and her numbers match my numbers so I am feeling good that the date is still a go. My wife will retire 3 months later.

Consulting instead of working for the man has actually been much more profitable than I anticipated AND I control my own schedule. So far things seem to be falling into place...thank god!

 

[foxfirev5]

Still hanging with the class of '14 however I may waffle a bit. We'll see how I feel when the time comes. My job pays well and is not too stressful so I'm occassionally having second thoughts. I don't want that to happen after I retire.