FIRE in 16 years

[jasg]

Never did say 'Hi' to everyone… rather than start out with where I am, I'll recount how I got here. Hopefully that will be of some use to those just starting out.

At age 45, I realized that like George Best, I had spent a lot of money on 'booze, birds and fast cars' and squandered the rest. Well, most of the rest anyway. I had a 130K mortgage, 58K in an IRA and a few thousand in savings - had blown most of the savings on a mid-life crisis car, a nice luxury coupe. (Can you tell I was a confirmed bachelor?)

I decided I wanted to retire early and went into mild panic mode. I started the following strategy (with hopes of retiring at 55):

1. Refinanced for 15 years and paid an extra bit each month - paid off the mortgage in about 8 years.
2. Realized that my generous and privately held MegaCorp was putting away 15% of my pay in a profit sharing program. That later changed to a 401K and I kept it at 15%. When I turned 50, I started the extra 'catch up' contributions.
3. Shifted the IRA from bank to a brokerage and made the maximum post-tax contribution to it.
4. All bonuses went into an investment account.
5. Each time I got a raise, I figured out the difference in take home pay and routed it to the savings account as a direct deposit. I figured out later if I needed to spend it on new bachelor toys. (hint - I still drive that mid-life crisis car after 18 years).

I invested with a brokerage account with a reasonable advisor helping me - I have ridden the market down twice now. It does come back, just takes years. Still down 20% from the 2007 peak but I have stayed fully invested through this recession and tracked the market back up.

I also started planning for a layoff - all too common in the high tech business. As a friend in the film business used to tell me, "Always have 'Go screw you money'." (A couple of years living expenses to be tapped if you have to leave a job.).

Did I retire at 55? No.

I finally got married at 54. We did a major remodel which depleted things a bit and I figured that I needed more to retire on since there were now two of us.

Did I go through a layoff? Yes, once - last year. Stayed with my MegaCorp for 15 years - and 4 more years in the fading remnant after it was bought out and highly leveraged by 'Equity' investors.

So, at this point I'm not sure I qualify as FI + RE - perhaps FI + UN - I am 61 and unemployed for a year, just not ready to admit retirement. A friend calls it "FUNemployed". However, FIRECalc gives us a 97% chance for 30 years at the same expenditure level as when I was employed, so I am not in panic mode for the job search.

Thanks for reading and the best to everyone here.

jasg

[jwkde]

Welcome -thanks for sharing

[Alan]

Welcome to the forum.

From your George Best comment I guess you are not originally from the USA

[jasg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan From your George Best comment I guess you are not originally from the USA

Sorry, born and raised in rural Pennsylvania.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasg Sorry, born and raised in rural Pennsylvania.

Oh well, just thought I'd found a fellow ex-pat. I absolutely loved George Best in his heyday and actually got to see him play.

[Onward]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasg I decided I wanted to retire early and went into mild panic mode.

Panic mode. I like that description. That's what happened to me eight years ago. Panic was the price of not starting sooner.

[Nords]

Welcome to the board, Jasg.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasg A friend calls it "FUNemployed".

Hey, I like that word!

[HsiaoChu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasg Sorry, born and raised in rural Pennsylvania.

Where? Since we are the same age, there is always the possiblity we know each other. After all there are only 14,000,000 + people in PA. Fat, slim, and none, but maybe we know the same places.