Light at the end of the tunnel

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

Baby boomer with the last of kids about to enter college.

Wife working about 5 more years to increase the nest egg a little more and pay part of the college bills.

Am a buckets of money fan and have read in here a little.

Currently about 43% in stock/mutuals/etfs
about 28% in fixed income
about 28% in real estate (including REITs)

According to your firecalc we can take out more than I think we will need for 50 yrs for 100% survivability but some excess is ok too.

Am sure I will run across it somewhere, but perhaps someone can explain the 25% bond idea to me that firecalc uses. If my bond value drops below 25% due to stock appreciation or interest rates rising and bond valuations dropping, do I rebalance the bonds every year to no less than 25%?

Interesting site, glad I chanced upon it via a good search of key words early retirement.

 

[braumeister]

You can set FIRECalc to whatever asset mix you want.

And welcome!

 

[Nova]

Welcome to the board. Are you and DW still working or just her? Look forward to your posts.

 

[walkinwood]

Welcome!

 

[freebird5825]

Welcome aboard

 

[Amethyst]

Welcome! Were you really thinking about retiring back when you were 14? Or is that 2014? Either way, best of luck!

Amethyst

 

[Alan]

Welcome.

I once thought that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Turned out to be some wally with a flashlight bringing me some more work

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

Welcome to the board. Are you and DW still working or just her? Look forward to your posts.

She is about 5+ years younger and a corporate warrior. I actually quit working the year I made a 4x multiple of what I did at my vocation (medical provider) just investing and took care of investing, kids, and some real estate investments that did pretty well for us. She had to travel a bit with short notice so my flexibility with the kids was pretty important. We had been paying a hefty sum for two kids for day care. That was 10 yrs ago. Markets were never quite that generous since.. lol

We could have retired then to a cheaper community, but wife wanted the bells and whistles in retirement that could make it fun and not just existing. She also said she just was not ready to retire and she found her position kind of exciting and she was too energetic then not to be working. Insurance is always a concern with early retirement as well.

I have also done a lot around the home to cut out expenses we might have had to hire others for, or had the time to shop the bargains and find the repair parts to fix things myself. Indeed when we replaced the washing machine it was more that we wanted a new one rather than I could not have fixed it.

Kind of hard to admit that except for a few years around college I have never worked for anyone except self employment. Construction, education, and medicine background.. what a wierd mix.

I did a bit of work on the side with a local boys and girls club when our kids were there, coaching and volunteering for various projects.

We've flipped a couple RE things where I put in sweat equity, and expect to make a pretty nice profit in this home when we downsize despite the market drop. We have an additional RE property that will probably be sold for a loss but neither carry and debt. I'm kind of Dave Ramsey about debt, never saw one I liked.

Plans involve a warmer climate and a community with cheaper living expenses. I want to build a very energy efficient house or retrofit a ranch home to that level. Honestly I think we could live in other communities and make a house payment for just our property taxes alone here.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Off to see the play Les Miserables on our date night.

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

Yes really thought about retirement at 14. My self and buddy were going to go to Canada and build a cabin and shoot rabbits for survival. Drew up the cabin plans and everything. Ran away one weekend to go to an abandoned farm and shoot rabbits.. lol.. Some one moved in before I walked way out there!

 

[Bestwifeever]

Welcome--sounds like you're in great shape.

Many people rebalance periodically to keep their original allocations (e.g., 25% bonds), percentagewise (and then many people rethink their allocations periodically and rebalance to suit).

There's a recent discussion that discusses bond percentage (among other things): http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/a-different-spin-on-swr-question-54628.html. If you do a search for firecalc and rebalance here, you'll find more answers than you knew had questions .

 

[chinaco]

Welcome.

On the bond question. Do some reading on asset allocation and rebalancing.

 

[haha]

I actually quit working the year I made a 4x multiple of what I did at my vocation (medical provider)

Is medical provider newspeak for doctor?

Ha

 

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

Is medical provider newspeak for doctor?

Ha

Yeah, pretty much anyone with a state license to practice medicine independently is called a medical provider by the government. So a MD, DO, DDS, DPM, DC, Nurse Practitioner, are all medical providers for say medicare or medicaid purposes. (left some out but you get the idea)

I had a private practice for maybe 13 years before I merged offices and gradually turned my patients over to a class mate and former roomate in school. I was burned out. I felt I had lost control of the basics of my business due to government laws and rules. loss of control = hopelessness

I was losing patients to people billing the government inappropriately for things the people were really responsible for paying for themselves.

I decided to retire and let that insanity be another person's problem rather than falsify records. I let my license lapse intentionally because I wanted to burn that bridge completely. The government was equally eager to cheat the providers by denying payments. Of course you could always rebill them, but time is money.

Another consideration was after 40 your eyesight is not as good even with glasses. I felt my depth perception was slightly altered as I aged which is not good when you are holding a #10 or #15 blade much of the day.

So yes I walked or ran away from a professional degree. Some people say everyone needs at least 3 completely different careers in a life. : )

And no I was never sued, although I almost was when a person slipped and fell in the office. Sad thing was it was an old patient who stoped in for an emergency bath room break while out shopping. ; )

 

[obgyn65]

Hello. I would only add physician assistant (PA) to your list of medical providers. Sorry to read about story and being burned out. I feel the same sometimes. Welcome to this board.

Yeah, pretty much anyone with a state license to practice medicine independently is called a medical provider by the government.