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Old 03-25-2016, 03:34 PM   #41
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Jmp470, thanks for posting, I appreciate the perspective. We don't have any expensive hobbies, never really had time to develop them . We do love to travel so I'm planning on that expense category increasing after I stop working.

I can relate to what you said about work life balance. I've often said that if I could work half the time for half the pay, I'd gladly do it. I'm definitely not opposed to doing some type of work after FIRE, but I haven't quite figured out what I can do on my own terms that pays enough to make it worthwhile.

Thanks again and all the best on your early retirement plans.


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Old 02-03-2018, 12:51 AM   #42
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Hi Everyone, I skipped the 2017 update because I was embarrassed that I succumbed to OMY syndrome. BUT 2018 is going to be the year, I just need to wait for a key date or two to pass!

I feel really ready both financially and personally to take the plunge. I don’t regret the OMY as we accomplished a lot both in terms of net worth addition as well as resolving some important issues regarding our post-work life.

I’m so excited and feel like time is moving so slowly right now, but I know it will all be over soon.

It was really interesting looking back at my 2014, 2015 and 2016 posts. Things have fallen into place more or less as planned which I’m happy and grateful about. The bull market in all risk assets and the extra year have increased my net worth and passive income to above what I had originally planned for so that is a welcome development.

I’ll post a more detailed update on the financials if anyone cares when the dust has settled in a couple of months. Sorry this isn’t much of an update, but I just needed to share my excitement with someone and this community has always been a great source of support!

I hope everyone else is making great strides toward achieving their FI goals (or enjoying retirement)!
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Old 02-03-2018, 06:50 AM   #43
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Hi Everyone, I skipped the 2017 update because I was embarrassed that I succumbed to OMY syndrome. BUT 2018 is going to be the year, I just need to wait for a key date or two to pass!

I feel really ready both financially and personally to take the plunge. I don’t regret the OMY as we accomplished a lot both in terms of net worth addition as well as resolving some important issues regarding our post-work life.

I’m so excited and feel like time is moving so slowly right now, but I know it will all be over soon.

It was really interesting looking back at my 2014, 2015 and 2016 posts. Things have fallen into place more or less as planned which I’m happy and grateful about. The bull market in all risk assets and the extra year have increased my net worth and passive income to above what I had originally planned for so that is a welcome development.

I’ll post a more detailed update on the financials if anyone cares when the dust has settled in a couple of months. Sorry this isn’t much of an update, but I just needed to share my excitement with someone and this community has always been a great source of support!

I hope everyone else is making great strides toward achieving their FI goals (or enjoying retirement)!


Good luck! I enjoy reading your story and will be interested in what you move on to after work.
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Old 02-08-2018, 10:43 PM   #44
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Great news, glad to hear you're on target as planned
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Old 04-20-2018, 06:48 AM   #45
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Ok, guys. I’m ready for a final update.

I’m walking away from my corporate job with around $10 million net worth. The breakdown is $6 million in taxable and $4 million in tax advantaged. Off the taxable money, I generate over $300,000 of passive income from rents, dividends and interest.

Spending has averaged 90k for the past few years, but I’m projecting that to increase to $150k (+10k for health insurance, +25k for moving into larger house, +25k for more travel).

We have extensive travel planned for this year already, as well as goals for eating better and working out more.

A few plot twists (all positive) since my last update:

1. I knew we wanted to buy our dream home and it would cost between 600k and 1mm. Initially, I was concerned about the additional expense that would add to our annual budget. After some research, we discovered short-term rentals which not only allowed us to buy a dream home that more than pays for itself if we want it to, but allowed us to expand our real estate investments into this strategy which has added to our passive income. So amazingly, the one thing I was worried about hurting our budget has helped our income!

2. The new tax law has been an unexpected gift, netting us 20+k more than previously projected.

3. I had assumed that once I walked away from my job, it’d be close to impossible to make anything close to that income again, especially in our new location. In a complete stroke of luck, an opportunity has come up where I could get back in the game if I wanted to. I highly doubt I will, but it’s nice to know the option exists.

One thing I am trying to figure out is how aggressively to manage our assets. I could hit singles the rest of our lives and know we’d be fine. But it’s in my nature to always optimize and look for the best risk/return trades. We have a large enough capital base where I think I could really grow it at above market returns, but I need to balance that versus the additional risk that would introduce.

That’s about it, thanks for listening! Can’t wait to get our FIRE life started!
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Old 04-20-2018, 07:05 AM   #46
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Congrats on your success. I would seriously think about taking a long break rather than retiring. Take a year or two and see the world. You apparently have the ability to make a great income so you could come back for 5-10 years of work and then retire well before 50 with more money than you could ever spend. You are young my friend. Good luck to you.
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The plan was September 1, 2022 and I am 95% there. Still working a few hours a week at the real job.
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Old 04-20-2018, 07:44 AM   #47
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Thanks, that’s great advice that I intend to take. The window of opportunity to get back in the game at a 7-figure income probably does close in 1-2 years so that’ll be a good time to reassess anyway. As it stands, I can’t see myself going back to a corporate job. After deferred compensation and taxes, I’d only net about 1/3 of my stated gross income. Maybe my tune will change in 1-2 years, but for now, travel the world it is!
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Old 04-20-2018, 08:25 AM   #48
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Congrats on things working out for you! I retired at 34 (31 years ago) with less than half of your net worth, got a divorce,moved overseas,remarried and at 65 have two young children. Other than the divorce, nothing else was in my retirement plan. I too own property but prefer to rent for the reasons you stated.

I was not planning on responding to your thread until I saw you mention ed high end ST rentals.

15 years ago, I bought our "Dream Penthouse overlooking the Pacific Ocean" as a wedding gift for my new bride. We lived in it for a few months until I realized my young bride was afraid of heights and earthquakes. We moved out and started renting our Penthouse ST. I would have sold it years ago as it has tripled in value, but since AirBnB arrived on the scene, it throws off such income and everything can be handled with a smartphone.

I hope everything works out for you as it did for me!
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Old 04-20-2018, 09:11 AM   #49
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Nyexpat - thank you for replying! Great to hear your experience with your ST rental. I’m so excited by the returns we’ve been getting I’m considering throwing my energy into doing more of them.
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Old 04-20-2018, 01:34 PM   #50
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Congrats and enjoy. I hope you still post from time to time so we can hear how the next stage of your life is going!
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Old 04-20-2018, 01:37 PM   #51
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No.
I have several friends who moved to Maui to retire at around age 50. The realtor went back to work selling homes after building his dream home. The software engineer proceeded to buy and manage more rental properties on Maui. The medical devices person went back to the company after the key person died, and they offered her twice her former salary. The policeman did IT consulting part time; his wife did massages part time. They were all scuba divers, but that wasn't enough for them, apparently.
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Old 04-20-2018, 03:34 PM   #52
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Congrats and enjoy. I hope you still post from time to time so we can hear how the next stage of your life is going!


Thank you! I’ll try to update this thread at least annually. Future posts should be more interesting and not just about boring numbers [emoji51].
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Old 04-22-2018, 09:48 AM   #53
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Great thread! I love these "years long" updates. Thanks so much for starting it rb35, and for coming back to it for the annual updates. If you don't mind me asking, where do you want to travel to first when you call it quits? Travel is, and will be, a big part of our lives. There is so much to see in this big beautiful world.
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Old 04-22-2018, 10:37 AM   #54
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Great thread! I love these "years long" updates. Thanks so much for starting it rb35, and for coming back to it for the annual updates. If you don't mind me asking, where do you want to travel to first when you call it quits? Travel is, and will be, a big part of our lives. There is so much to see in this big beautiful world.

Thanks, Thumbs! Our first major trip will be a 2-3 month trip through Europe (6-7 countries) later this year. Given intra-Europe trips are so cheap and there are so many different countries/cultures in a relatively small geographic location, we wanted to do that first. We have some smaller domestic trips planned too before we do that.

Where are some of your favorite places that you’ve been or some bucket list places you’ve yet to visit?
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Old 04-28-2018, 07:36 AM   #55
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Thanks, Thumbs! Our first major trip will be a 2-3 month trip through Europe (6-7 countries) later this year. Given intra-Europe trips are so cheap and there are so many different countries/cultures in a relatively small geographic location, we wanted to do that first. We have some smaller domestic trips planned too before we do that.

Where are some of your favorite places that you’ve been or some bucket list places you’ve yet to visit?
Great idea! My wife and I will likely take a trip to Italy next year (1 week). Japan is a couple years out, as we would really like to go for 3 weeks or so, and getting that time off work right now would be tough. I hope you have an awesome time! Enjoy yourselves...you've earned it!
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Old 04-24-2019, 06:13 PM   #56
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Time for my annual update. I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I pulled the plug. Simply put, life is amazing and I have zero regrets.

Financially, all is going as planned. Our passive income supports our spending by a healthy margin. We budgeted 150k of spending per year and we were right there last year. That included 3 months of international travel, a cross country relocation and some home improvement projects. Going forward, I think we’ll easily be well below 150k/year.

One surprise is that I had expected we would travel multiple months every year. While we loved our travel last year, now that I no longer have a job I’m eager to escape from and we love where we live, I feel very little desire to travel. In fact, a multi-month trip seems exhausting. So I think we’ll spend well less than the 25k/year we had budgeted for travel.

I thought it might’ve been difficult to adjust from going 100mph to 0mph, but it really hasn’t. All my life, I felt like I was deferring happiness because there was always another goal that had to be achieved. Now, I’m just enjoying life in the present and it feels great. Some of the best moments are just doing something fun with friends on a weekday and thinking how lucky I am not to be in an office. Not having to answer to anyone else regarding my schedule is priceless.

Thanks for reading. Not sure I’ll have much to update going forward as I expect things to be status quo from here on out.

Good luck to everyone in their own FI journeys!
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Old 04-28-2019, 03:28 PM   #57
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No.
nope, the freedom to do whatever you'd like with your day is amazing. Also, turning a hobby into an income stream is fun.
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Old 04-29-2019, 04:56 PM   #58
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One surprise is that I had expected we would travel multiple months every year. While we loved our travel last year, now that I no longer have a job I’m eager to escape from and we love where we live, I feel very little desire to travel. In fact, a multi-month trip seems exhausting. So I think we’ll spend well less than the 25k/year we had budgeted for travel.
I hear ya!

I like the idea of travel, but the actual mechanics are (sometimes) sufficiently unpleasant that lounging on my porch instead (admiring the view, watching the birds, letting the world just pass me by) often has greater appeal. I'm lucky to be able to live as I do; why rock the boat?
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Old 05-24-2019, 07:56 PM   #59
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Very impressive story rb35!! I am currently 28 and hope to be FI in the next 5-10 years. I would love to hear more about your real estate investments as I have been perusing to find a rental property. I would love to hear if you think it is worth adding real estate to your portfolio. I recently listened to Set for life by Scott Trench and it advised that if you can get more than 10% return you would be better of in an index fund. I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject and what you would expect for a return.
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Old 05-25-2019, 12:42 AM   #60
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Real estate investing has been great for me, but I’m reluctant to recommend it to just anyone. If you’re organized, decent with numbers and don’t mind managing managers, it could work out well.

I’d also only recommend it if you’re in a position to scale. There’s a decent amount of education, time and effort required whether you have one rental property or many. If you’re going to put the effort in, then you should make it worthwhile by having multiple properties.

As far as Scott Trench’s book, I haven’t read it, but have heard good things about it and like BiggerPockets as a source of reliable RE info so I trust the advice in it is sound. I would tend to agree that if you’re not getting more than 10%, then you should stick to index investing. Getting those types of returns in RE is not easy nowadays, but I think there are pockets of opportunity like in short-term rentals where it is possible. If you’ve done your homework and think you can get >10% which is a phenomenal long-term return, then I’d say go for it.
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