So, perhaps I know some of the obvious answers before I ask the questions, but I will do it anyways in hopes to pick up some trade secrets from those of you who where in a similar situation, but made the "landing smoothly".
Here it goes... my target ER on paper is end of 2019. The math says I can do it IF my wife joins the TEAM! Quick back ground to my questions... Self employed, married 30 great years, 4 great kids (2 married, 1 recently graduate college, #4 about to be a senior in college)... oh, and I will be a grandpa in Sept! Since child #1 came along, wife has been a "domestic goddess". She has blindly trusted me to run the finances since day 1 (has had no interest). We have always LBOMs and still have a relatively fat lifestyle, especially the last 5 -8 yrs. We engage in budget discussions annually, but short of a "we need to cut back" conversation, that is the extent of her financial interest. Income over the last number of years has been excessive so she has become accustomed to what I would call many indulgences (i.e. shoes, clothes, fancy travel). I have not made any noise about this since I am still tracking on the big picture. So now, I am trying to use these next roughly 2 years to pull the rains back so we have a soft landing when we go to a "fixed income" retirement. I suppose I am partially responsible for "creating the monster", but I also wanted to let her enjoy some good stuff while the chips were coming in. I suppose I am looking for successful strategies to ween her off some "things" that don't necessarily move the "happiness needle" once I launch. In a way, she has been RE for 28 years so it will be new experience for her to adjust from my variable/lucrative on average income over the years to a somewhat fixed income lifestyle. BTW, I am still planning on a RE income that is very close to how we live today, its just that any excess margin will come from excessive returns vs income. Help me land the plane with minimal turbulence!
Here it goes... my target ER on paper is end of 2019. The math says I can do it IF my wife joins the TEAM! Quick back ground to my questions... Self employed, married 30 great years, 4 great kids (2 married, 1 recently graduate college, #4 about to be a senior in college)... oh, and I will be a grandpa in Sept! Since child #1 came along, wife has been a "domestic goddess". She has blindly trusted me to run the finances since day 1 (has had no interest). We have always LBOMs and still have a relatively fat lifestyle, especially the last 5 -8 yrs. We engage in budget discussions annually, but short of a "we need to cut back" conversation, that is the extent of her financial interest. Income over the last number of years has been excessive so she has become accustomed to what I would call many indulgences (i.e. shoes, clothes, fancy travel). I have not made any noise about this since I am still tracking on the big picture. So now, I am trying to use these next roughly 2 years to pull the rains back so we have a soft landing when we go to a "fixed income" retirement. I suppose I am partially responsible for "creating the monster", but I also wanted to let her enjoy some good stuff while the chips were coming in. I suppose I am looking for successful strategies to ween her off some "things" that don't necessarily move the "happiness needle" once I launch. In a way, she has been RE for 28 years so it will be new experience for her to adjust from my variable/lucrative on average income over the years to a somewhat fixed income lifestyle. BTW, I am still planning on a RE income that is very close to how we live today, its just that any excess margin will come from excessive returns vs income. Help me land the plane with minimal turbulence!