Hi there. My wife and I are in our mid-30s (36 and 35) with a 9 year old son. We've recently come to the realization that it's time to switch gears from a focus on seeking satisfaction through career challenges, etc to a focus on "where's the exit door to this rat race?"
It's been a long journey so far of getting the right education, getting good jobs, building career growth velocity, etc. We've worked hard, and we feel very fortunate to be where we are right now. The only problem is we're getting a little nauseous from the merry-go-around and I'm beginning to suspect that the brass ring we keep reaching for is just a cheap piece of plastic.
A few months ago, we sat down and tried to figure out the exit strategy. We decided to shoot for 10 years as a target goal. Working it out on a spreadsheet, it's plausible, although perhaps a bit optimistic, that we could have between 3 and 4 million in liquid assets in 10 years. From my current perspective, the biggest risk to the plan is that a non-trivial part of that calculation involves some hard-to-predict bonus and promotion compensation, but I'm allowing myself the luxury of thinking that things will continue to go well for us.
I also think there's quite a bit of wiggle-room in these estimates that we can adjust to accordingly. We don't live super-frugal lifestyles, so there's always room to improve there. Also, if we end up coming up short on our savings goal, we'd be willing to switch to some part time work and/or move to a less expensive location for a few years before full-on retirement.
I've always been a driven, goal-oriented person, and I find our new plan very invigorating. However, one downside to the plan that I've noticed is it's taken a lot of the steam out of the drive I've had in the past at w*rk. Having an exact end date in mind has a tendency to make the next 10 years seem like a jail sentence, as opposed to what it really is- an important chunk of my life that I don't want to miss out on, not to mention a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the most out of raising my son.
I'm looking forward to the challenge of both keeping my eye on the prize, as well as stopping to smell the roses.
It's been a long journey so far of getting the right education, getting good jobs, building career growth velocity, etc. We've worked hard, and we feel very fortunate to be where we are right now. The only problem is we're getting a little nauseous from the merry-go-around and I'm beginning to suspect that the brass ring we keep reaching for is just a cheap piece of plastic.
A few months ago, we sat down and tried to figure out the exit strategy. We decided to shoot for 10 years as a target goal. Working it out on a spreadsheet, it's plausible, although perhaps a bit optimistic, that we could have between 3 and 4 million in liquid assets in 10 years. From my current perspective, the biggest risk to the plan is that a non-trivial part of that calculation involves some hard-to-predict bonus and promotion compensation, but I'm allowing myself the luxury of thinking that things will continue to go well for us.
I also think there's quite a bit of wiggle-room in these estimates that we can adjust to accordingly. We don't live super-frugal lifestyles, so there's always room to improve there. Also, if we end up coming up short on our savings goal, we'd be willing to switch to some part time work and/or move to a less expensive location for a few years before full-on retirement.
I've always been a driven, goal-oriented person, and I find our new plan very invigorating. However, one downside to the plan that I've noticed is it's taken a lot of the steam out of the drive I've had in the past at w*rk. Having an exact end date in mind has a tendency to make the next 10 years seem like a jail sentence, as opposed to what it really is- an important chunk of my life that I don't want to miss out on, not to mention a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the most out of raising my son.
I'm looking forward to the challenge of both keeping my eye on the prize, as well as stopping to smell the roses.