Bryan Barnfellow
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Hello all. Bryan Barnfellow here. Uncloaking. I have followed the discussions avidly for some 4 years now and at times wanted to jump into a conversation; but, darn, I hadn’t formally introduced myself yet, so I resisted the urge. I had a great comment back in, what was it, October '05?, but nevermind...Today I did some calculations that gave me confidence to shave a full year off my FIRE plan and I’m so happy that I decided to become a card carrying member of this dryer sheets club and shout it out!
The short details. 53 and married, no kids. My wife is a just few years older, but that’s as specific as I’ll get in a public forum! I work for a nonprofit and my wife retired about 15 years ago – by simply deciding she couldn’t take it any more. And I knew she couldn’t. So, single earner family.
We are inveterate savers and have been budgeting for “the plan” for 15 years straight – we do six month budgets in January and July. My wife does the operational spending/tracking and I do the investment stuff, but we insist on keeping each other in our respective loops. She will now pick up my copy of the WSJ from time to time and read an article. Recently she asked me about Fed policy!! (This from a poet)
We save at least 60% of our take home and have maxed out the 403(b) and Roths for many years. No two people are more dedicated to the FIRE idea than we. We live way below our means…so much so that we worry that once we are retired we’ll still feel like we need to save half our income! But that’s another story. Our major goal is to spend our time together – we really like each other that much. Truly best friends.
Now, about that subject heading. We love Italy and hope to live there maybe six months out of the year in the future. We live (and plan to stay) in New England, so you might guess which six months. So, we were reading Waverly Root’s great, classic book on “The Food of Italy” and in one chapter he described something he planned to discuss (filled pasta) in more detail later in the chapter, “when we reach ravioli.” That is, when he got to that part of the chapter. So, we appropriated this phrase as a shortcut to mean when we are finally (early) retired, as in, “I plan to read so much more when we reach ravioli.” Or, “When we reach ravioli, we’ll have time to exercise properly, won’t we, sweetie?” (“Yes, dear….”)
Some details: Plan to reach (seize?) ravioli on Jan 1, 2010, when I’ll be 55. We’ll have a carefully assembled portfolio of about $750K in solid, blue chip dividend stocks that will/should provide most of our $45-50K in annual income until I’m 59, and then we’ll take some annual distributions from our 403(b) until I’m 62 – to allow the Italy travel to begin (say, 25K each year). Then, increase that over time. We’ll save the Roths until old age. We own our home outright (paid down the mortgage in December!). Our car used to know Jimmy Durante personally -- you get the idea. You younger readers can Google him.
Health care will be a major issue -- I can't get it from my employer so will have to use the private market on my own. I plan to use a high deductible and put aside some cash savings to cover the worst case scenario's of reaching the deductible. It's the catastrophic stuff I want to insure against.
It’s a private pleasure for me to check in (nearly every day) with all of you on this forum. Now that I’m uncloaked and have given you an intro of sorts, I hope to join in the fun – including piling on those financial advisors/brokers who clumsily try to hide their true intent. This community is truly amazing in terms of the helpfulness of its members and its fierce protection of its values. So, count me in, at last.
Now, any questions for me?
- BB
The short details. 53 and married, no kids. My wife is a just few years older, but that’s as specific as I’ll get in a public forum! I work for a nonprofit and my wife retired about 15 years ago – by simply deciding she couldn’t take it any more. And I knew she couldn’t. So, single earner family.
We are inveterate savers and have been budgeting for “the plan” for 15 years straight – we do six month budgets in January and July. My wife does the operational spending/tracking and I do the investment stuff, but we insist on keeping each other in our respective loops. She will now pick up my copy of the WSJ from time to time and read an article. Recently she asked me about Fed policy!! (This from a poet)
We save at least 60% of our take home and have maxed out the 403(b) and Roths for many years. No two people are more dedicated to the FIRE idea than we. We live way below our means…so much so that we worry that once we are retired we’ll still feel like we need to save half our income! But that’s another story. Our major goal is to spend our time together – we really like each other that much. Truly best friends.
Now, about that subject heading. We love Italy and hope to live there maybe six months out of the year in the future. We live (and plan to stay) in New England, so you might guess which six months. So, we were reading Waverly Root’s great, classic book on “The Food of Italy” and in one chapter he described something he planned to discuss (filled pasta) in more detail later in the chapter, “when we reach ravioli.” That is, when he got to that part of the chapter. So, we appropriated this phrase as a shortcut to mean when we are finally (early) retired, as in, “I plan to read so much more when we reach ravioli.” Or, “When we reach ravioli, we’ll have time to exercise properly, won’t we, sweetie?” (“Yes, dear….”)
Some details: Plan to reach (seize?) ravioli on Jan 1, 2010, when I’ll be 55. We’ll have a carefully assembled portfolio of about $750K in solid, blue chip dividend stocks that will/should provide most of our $45-50K in annual income until I’m 59, and then we’ll take some annual distributions from our 403(b) until I’m 62 – to allow the Italy travel to begin (say, 25K each year). Then, increase that over time. We’ll save the Roths until old age. We own our home outright (paid down the mortgage in December!). Our car used to know Jimmy Durante personally -- you get the idea. You younger readers can Google him.
Health care will be a major issue -- I can't get it from my employer so will have to use the private market on my own. I plan to use a high deductible and put aside some cash savings to cover the worst case scenario's of reaching the deductible. It's the catastrophic stuff I want to insure against.
It’s a private pleasure for me to check in (nearly every day) with all of you on this forum. Now that I’m uncloaked and have given you an intro of sorts, I hope to join in the fun – including piling on those financial advisors/brokers who clumsily try to hide their true intent. This community is truly amazing in terms of the helpfulness of its members and its fierce protection of its values. So, count me in, at last.
Now, any questions for me?
- BB
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