Will be Retiring at end of 2021!

[flash9]

I will be tending my resignation on 8/10/2021.
I have been with my current employer since 2012, and I am the only person in the company handling their accounts/customers.
In my resignation letter, I plan on letting them know that it is my desire to work until 12/31/2021, and for them to use this time for them to find my replacement, and to allow me to train the new person in my role.
I know this is way longer than I need to provide, but if they choose to let me go before 12/31/2021, I can collect unemployment, and take advantage of COBRA for Health Insurance.
The reason I want to stop working before the end of the year is to reduce our income such that we can take advantage of ACA subsidies for 2022.

I have used both FIRECalc and Personal Capital to determine I can indeed retire at 57.

[pb4uski]

Congratulations! Sounds like you have done your homework.

[Aerides]

is this the actual Flash using his superpowers to turn back time and post from the past?

[SheitlQueen]

You might want to double check your dates

[flash9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SheitlQueen You might want to double check your dates

Thank you - I was able to change 2020 to 2021.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by flash9 Thank you - I was able to change 2020 to 2021.

You're excited we get it

[pacergal]

Congratulations and welcome to the Forum!
Hope to hear more from you about your retirement plans, hopes, dreams.

[Dtail]

Congrats and welcome to our wonderful forum.
Hope to hear some more posts from you along your way in ER.
Same age as when I retired.

[flash9]

Thank you for the welcome.

We have always lived well below our means, and saved between 20% to 40% of my income annually. Most years it was closer to 40%.

Most of our savings are in an Individual IRA (former 401K's), but we also have about 20% of our investments in two Individual ROTH IRA's as we have maxed those out for the past 20 years. All of the deposits (and once we turn 59.5 the Income) we can pull out Tax Free when needed.

Below is our FIRECalc Results, as well as our Personal Capital Results.
Both of these internet tools have been invaluable as they allow me to run a sanity checks that my ability to retire is currently attainable.

It is not a requirement of making the retirement successful, but we started a Home Based Tennis Racquet Stringing business a few years ago.
This will help supplement our income, but this income will be well below the cutoff for taking advantage of the ACA subsidies.

We are looking forward to doing some reasonably priced international travel and vacations starting in 2022. Most likely going some place every two to three years. We had already visited the Southern Coast of Spain in 2016, and most of Croatia in 2019.

[38Chevy454]

Welcome to the forum. Seems your plan will work just fine. Your only small risk is bridging from retirement until 59.5 age. From what you've said, that is no problem.

[ThunderFIRE]

One quick question. You say that if you give your notice and they don't let you stay until December 31 then you can collect unemployment.

Maybe the rules vary by state, but I was under the impression that if you give notice then it is a voluntary separation no matter when you leave after that point. Are you sure you'd be able to collect unemployment if in October they said "thanks for the transition time, but we don't need you any longer".? In my state, I don't believe this event would qualify for unemployment benefits.

[ut2sua]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThunderFIRE One quick question. You say that if you give your notice and they don't let you stay until December 31 then you can collect unemployment. Maybe the rules vary by state, but I was under the impression that if you give notice then it is a voluntary separation no matter when you leave after that point. Are you sure you'd be able to collect unemployment if in October they said "thanks for the transition time, but we don't need you any longer".? In my state, I don't believe this event would qualify for unemployment benefits.

This is a good question. I was thinking that if MC chooses to let you go not at the time specified by you, then it should be considered a lay-off. DW and her friends disagreed with me (and I suspect they are correct unfortunately). So after you have given a termination notice, things could be in a gray area ()
OP, congrats on your FIRE and welcome. I may join you to FIRE this year myself.

[citrine]

Woohoo! Congratulations! Invest in a huge coffee mug and some comfy pj's and house slippers They will come in handy every Monday when you don't have to work!

[cooch96]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThunderFIRE One quick question. You say that if you give your notice and they don't let you stay until December 31 then you can collect unemployment. Maybe the rules vary by state, but I was under the impression that if you give notice then it is a voluntary separation no matter when you leave after that point. Are you sure you'd be able to collect unemployment if in October they said "thanks for the transition time, but we don't need you any longer".? In my state, I don't believe this event would qualify for unemployment benefits.

DW went through a similar event in WA about 12 years ago. Her claim was disputed by her former employer and it took months for the Unemployment Office to investigate (i.e. read the signed statements from DW and her previous employer). The U. Office eventually came down on DW's side and awarded her 2 months of benefits.

[cooch96]

Congrats, OP!

[street]

Welcome! Congratulations also.

[flash9]

I have worked remotely for over 9 years for this company. It is a small (15 employees) engineering software company but thanks to me we have customers in Asia and Europe that we did not have 9 years ago. They are located in MO, but I live in NC. I would think it is NC Unemployment that would be paying if they would let me go before 12/31/2021. I have spoken with quite a few HR Director friends and they all say I should be OK, but I guess I can try to look into this. But, I do know that NC Unemployment Agency is really backed up at this time.

[Bee4]

Congrats. That is very generous of you to support their needs to find a replacement.

[PointBreeze]

Good luck, flash9! Do you have hobbies and interests to keep you occupied?


I wish you a wonderful retirement!

[flash9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PointBreeze Good luck, flash9! Do you have hobbies and interests to keep you occupied? I wish you a wonderful retirement!

I have a couple early Mazda Miata's and two other car's, that I do all of the service on. I like to brew my own Beer and Apfelwein. I play tennis three times a week, and my wife and I have a side business servicing tennis and racquetball racquets out of the house. The month of July we strung 220 racquets, that works out to about 7 racquets a day, as well as re-gripping 32 handles.


I sent my retirement letter about an hour ago, and I am waiting for the phone call that will be coming do discuss this.