2021 update
64 dollar question up front - yes still working.
Assets are up to 3m. In general we benefited from the overall market performance.
Still an 80/20 mix with the 20 portion holding roughly 100k in cash/ibonds.
Wife is still planning on retiring once she hit 30 years, 2026, she'll be 55 then.
We are still expecting with a normal spend (110-120k /yr) to only draw 1-2.5% per year for the 1st 5-7 years given wife still working and then her pension.
2 out of 3 are now in college. A large portion of their college costs are being covered by grandparents, which is something that we were aware of but were not counting on in FIRE calculations. One nice surprise is our monthly food bill is down almost 40-50% with those two out of the house!
There were a number of off budget expenses - some for lifestyle and one for peace of mind when we do retire.
- paid off remaining mortgage (70k). not a pure number wise best decision given subsequent market returns but one that helps us feel more ready
- new patio & outdoor furniture (10k). decided that we are staying at least 10+ years here so decided to splurge a bit
- hot tub (12k). ditto
still working remote and appears that will be the case for the foreseeable future. it has pros and cons but one of the unexpected pros is that it dulls the office politics and crap that i was contending with earlier and has reduced the earlier desire to retire asap a little.
Ironically this year 2 friends and one extended family member (49,50 & 50) all decided to retire in 2021. Two of them were complete surprises and one was one that I was aware of somewhat but had no clue it was going to be this year! Sort of soft pressure to be "like the jones" now ;-)
My own planning today revolves around distribution plans and approaches. I was hot on the bucket approach until I started watching Rob Berger videos and now I am gravitating towards a guardrail approach.
Not ruling out the bucket approach but it is the 'math' he highlights and simply take from equities when high vs bonds and reverse given the market. Vanguard gave me the same guidance when they provided a free consultation a couple years ago. keep it simple they said. given my track record (paying off the mort. early) I will probably end up with a bucket type plan. ;-)
Linear Mode
