Hi, I'm new. I was at MMM and decided I'd try this out.
I am 51 as is my wife. 2 kids, ages 15 and 13. I used to teach at a top, Ivy League school (10 years teaching there, 10 years at other top graduate schools) although in a research/teaching capacity which meant I had a job which could be terminated at will instead of tenure-track. As I was told repeatedly, white males basically don't get tenure-track in my field anymore.
In 2015 I wound up losing my teaching job when the entire division of my university was eliminated. Being a late 40s white male, I knew the odds were stacked against me in the job market, notwithstanding a distinguished career; a job as a Dean or Department Chair, both of which would come with lots of stress, would be easy, but teaching and research, forget it. Still, I got severance pay and a radically reduced teaching load during my last year, so it was fair enough in my book.
A few months later, I got a call from an investment fund that wanted to buy a building that I had been managing for my family since 1998 (at that point my family was mother and myself, wife and two kids, although my mother died within a month of the building sale and had been ill for years...no way of knowing or we would have saved $600k in taxes) for double the price it had been appraised for in 2012.
I thought the appraised price was a little inflated, but only a little. Twice that? I wound up selling it to him and putting the money in the market. I've seen the rents in the building now and he is getting a pretty lousy rate of return given what he put into it. I think he's nuts, but maybe he's smart and his investors are nuts.
We have roughly $5 million in investments, some from the house sale, some in our retirement accounts and other funds and we have a paid for house worth another $1.2 million or so. Our income is fine now and, on the whole, we are building up our portfolio as the market continues to twitch back and forth on its way up. At roughly a 4% withdrawal rate (we've had to spend some on work on the house… last year about $75,000 went into the kitchen, but I'm a designer and I worked on it so it looks like a $150,000 kitchen which is par for the course in this neighborhood and will help when we want to sell…so it's really moving funds from one basket to another… and now I need to pay for a new driveway and retaining wall before the hill in front of the house collapses on us), we live on a bit less than we used to, but I also spend a lot less, so we live without any real wants. I'm not buying a new car (I did that once, in 2012, still own that midlife crisis car and our other car is from 2006), new suits all the time, and my book budget went from $5,000 to $500. There is a lot less stress in my life, although some is still there for sure (politics and its impact on our health insurance, ugh…).
My parents had a financial advisor since 1998, but I found them to be annoying to deal with and their questionable recommendations plus the 1% drag on their investments meant that they hadn't done nearly as well as they should have. We purchased our house out of the investments they had, but there wasn't much left over, which is a shame as they'd hardly spent any of it. We looked through the literature about investing, had four or five different firms pitch to us, and realized that this wasn't rocket science. We've made our investments and they have been good for us so far.
I suppose I’ll be nervous when the market collapses, but I’ve seen that before so I'll just have to deal with it. On the other hand, no worries about the school, no worries about my aging building manager having a heart attack, being sued by someone who falls down the stairs, or having the furnace break down in the middle of New Year’s in a freezing cold winter, all of which happened to myself or my family with that building. Life is better.
My intent in life is to build up an art practice (I'd been doing this for 10 years and have had work exhibited in top museums so this isn't a pipe dream) without becoming stressed about it, spend time with my kids and my wife, be in touch with the land we live upon, travel, and live a long healthy life. I don't expect to make money from my art, nor do I intend to return to teaching. It's not what it was, even 8 years ago. Students need trigger warnings, can't take criticism, and want praise for doing no work. And I'm not a cultural conservative so don't take that as a right-wing rant! It's what all my colleagues are saying.
I probably need to grow accustomed to the idea that museums are also not what they once were and I need to enjoy my art for myself. As a former historian, I'd like to make some kind of mark on history, but all that stuff degrades into the ground eventually (name three famous Greek or Roman artists), so well, whatever.
I'd like to generally share thoughts with the community, find out more about how people are transitioning to FIRE, and learn about investments (although I am a buy and hold type…).
I am 51 as is my wife. 2 kids, ages 15 and 13. I used to teach at a top, Ivy League school (10 years teaching there, 10 years at other top graduate schools) although in a research/teaching capacity which meant I had a job which could be terminated at will instead of tenure-track. As I was told repeatedly, white males basically don't get tenure-track in my field anymore.
In 2015 I wound up losing my teaching job when the entire division of my university was eliminated. Being a late 40s white male, I knew the odds were stacked against me in the job market, notwithstanding a distinguished career; a job as a Dean or Department Chair, both of which would come with lots of stress, would be easy, but teaching and research, forget it. Still, I got severance pay and a radically reduced teaching load during my last year, so it was fair enough in my book.
A few months later, I got a call from an investment fund that wanted to buy a building that I had been managing for my family since 1998 (at that point my family was mother and myself, wife and two kids, although my mother died within a month of the building sale and had been ill for years...no way of knowing or we would have saved $600k in taxes) for double the price it had been appraised for in 2012.
I thought the appraised price was a little inflated, but only a little. Twice that? I wound up selling it to him and putting the money in the market. I've seen the rents in the building now and he is getting a pretty lousy rate of return given what he put into it. I think he's nuts, but maybe he's smart and his investors are nuts.
We have roughly $5 million in investments, some from the house sale, some in our retirement accounts and other funds and we have a paid for house worth another $1.2 million or so. Our income is fine now and, on the whole, we are building up our portfolio as the market continues to twitch back and forth on its way up. At roughly a 4% withdrawal rate (we've had to spend some on work on the house… last year about $75,000 went into the kitchen, but I'm a designer and I worked on it so it looks like a $150,000 kitchen which is par for the course in this neighborhood and will help when we want to sell…so it's really moving funds from one basket to another… and now I need to pay for a new driveway and retaining wall before the hill in front of the house collapses on us), we live on a bit less than we used to, but I also spend a lot less, so we live without any real wants. I'm not buying a new car (I did that once, in 2012, still own that midlife crisis car and our other car is from 2006), new suits all the time, and my book budget went from $5,000 to $500. There is a lot less stress in my life, although some is still there for sure (politics and its impact on our health insurance, ugh…).
My parents had a financial advisor since 1998, but I found them to be annoying to deal with and their questionable recommendations plus the 1% drag on their investments meant that they hadn't done nearly as well as they should have. We purchased our house out of the investments they had, but there wasn't much left over, which is a shame as they'd hardly spent any of it. We looked through the literature about investing, had four or five different firms pitch to us, and realized that this wasn't rocket science. We've made our investments and they have been good for us so far.
I suppose I’ll be nervous when the market collapses, but I’ve seen that before so I'll just have to deal with it. On the other hand, no worries about the school, no worries about my aging building manager having a heart attack, being sued by someone who falls down the stairs, or having the furnace break down in the middle of New Year’s in a freezing cold winter, all of which happened to myself or my family with that building. Life is better.
My intent in life is to build up an art practice (I'd been doing this for 10 years and have had work exhibited in top museums so this isn't a pipe dream) without becoming stressed about it, spend time with my kids and my wife, be in touch with the land we live upon, travel, and live a long healthy life. I don't expect to make money from my art, nor do I intend to return to teaching. It's not what it was, even 8 years ago. Students need trigger warnings, can't take criticism, and want praise for doing no work. And I'm not a cultural conservative so don't take that as a right-wing rant! It's what all my colleagues are saying.
I probably need to grow accustomed to the idea that museums are also not what they once were and I need to enjoy my art for myself. As a former historian, I'd like to make some kind of mark on history, but all that stuff degrades into the ground eventually (name three famous Greek or Roman artists), so well, whatever.
I'd like to generally share thoughts with the community, find out more about how people are transitioning to FIRE, and learn about investments (although I am a buy and hold type…).
