YEEEHAAA!!! We've reached FI

[Punxsyboy]

Greetings all;


Despite living in Vegas for the past 18 yrs. we are FI. Income from investments easily covers our expenses ( which includes 7k for travel annually) even with the market not doing so well over the past month.
Now, we just have to quit our jobs.....not as easy as I thought it would be....a little scary.

I've been doing alot of reading over the past couple of years in order to be FIRE....this site, among others have been a tremendous help and Thx to all of u who give great advice.

Achieved FI...now just RE.

Once we RE, I hope to be a little more active on this site.

Brian

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Well done!

 

[Car-Guy]

Congratulations. Personally, I think I could live in just about any city in US and stay FI, except Las Vegas. Just too many temptations in Vegas for me. A few visits a year to sin city are enough for me. Of course there are plenty of casinos nearby for day trips but nothing like Vegas.

 

[martyb]

Hey Car-Guy...feel free to drive over to where I live (Bossier City) & drop some cash at one of our casinos...lol! Our local economy appreciates your support!

 

[Punxsyboy]

Car-Guy....well u can still visit & keep MY taxes low, the casinos are much nicer in Vegas than Bossier City.

 

[Donzo]

Congrats on hitting your number! It's a great feeling, I remember it well. I agree this forum is a tremendous resource for those wanting to be FI. I was miserable in my career for the last few years, found this site along with Bogleheads, crunched #s, used Firecal and RE (at 49) all within 5 weeks! I had always thought 55yo was as young as you could jump.

Share some details if you are comfortable and savor what is to come - freedom!

 

[Car-Guy]

Hey Car-Guy...feel free to drive over to where I live (Bossier City) & drop some cash at one of our casinos...lol! Our local economy appreciates your support!

I was there last night. Fortunately, the tables were "very, very" good to me and I was able to make a nice withdrawal rather than a deposit.

 

[Car-Guy]

the casinos are much nicer in Vegas than Bossier City.

So very true!

 

[martyb]

I was there last night. Fortunately, the tables were "very, very" good to me and I was able to make a nice withdrawal rather than a deposit.

My son's a blackjack dealer at the El Dorado.....

 

[martyb]

So very true!

I would agree....

 

[Retch The Grate]

congrats Nothing wrong with being FI and not doing the RE part, I like making products and companies, I don't plan on stopping once I am FI, I just expect to be way pickier about projects that aren't my own.

 

[Punxsyboy]

Share some details if you are comfortable and savor what is to come - freedom![/QUOTE]


I am 53, wife 52, stache not huge but right at 1M , but enough to easily cover our 30k expenses & I'll collect (hopefully) $2200 at 70 with SS & wife will get a little over 1k/month pension at 60, no debt & house is paid off ....don't beat me up for this but 90% is still in stocks & the remainder in cash....going to transition about 20% over to a bond fund over the next year or so. I've had such good success with stocks over the past 13 years it's hard to give even 20% up to bonds. But I know that's what common knowledge dictates. Our cash reserve will cover expenses for about 3 years in the event of a severe market downturn.

I "plan " to continue to work PT after RE...which will probably occur within the next 6 months & wife is hoping to do the same as a PT position where she works (state job) is supposed to open up in Jan '15, if it does then we'll still have health ins. thru her job, otherwise it's Obama care that'll be between 5-7k/yr & is included in our budget of 30k. If she doesn't get the PT position then I will strongly encourage her to quit....which will probably result in me working less as well...

In addition to this site I also read a good bit on Mr. Money Mustache & for investing advise I rely alot on Motely Fool.

 

[heeyy_joe]

Will you still feel FI if the market dips 20% with that 90% stock allocation?

 

[Elbata]

RE in Vegas is like being a skinny chef. Extra kudos.

 

[Punxsyboy]

Will you still feel FI if the market dips 20% with that 90% stock allocation?

Yes, hence the 3 year padding of cash....if the market takes a crap, we can survive for 3 years w/o having to cash in stocks. I can always go back to work if needed.... I can easily find a job in my career field w/o any problem...
Thx for challenging my plan tho it makes me think.

 

[gauss]

I was there last night. Fortunately, the tables were "very, very" good to me and I was able to make a nice withdrawal rather than a deposit.

Are you sure that the "withdrawal" wasn't a loan? LOL

-gauss

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

I told my son a long time ago, it's not the act of retiring, it's the ability to retire that gives that first wave of massive stress relief. Agree with you that pulling the plug is difficult, even after you've run spreadsheet after spreadsheet, and allowed for multiple contingencies. Like most have said here, you won't regret it.

It's a wonderful feeling, and you should be proud of yourself for your accomplishments. Most people here are right with you, but compared to the rest of the world, you are in pretty thin air. Congratulations.

 

[ERD50]

Yes, hence the 3 year padding of cash....if the market takes a crap, we can survive for 3 years w/o having to cash in stocks. I can always go back to work if needed.... I can easily find a job in my career field w/o any problem...
Thx for challenging my plan tho it makes me think.

Also, those 90% stocks will be kicking off some dividends, probably ~ 2%? So ~2/3rds of your $30K spending would not involve selling anything at all. Your ~ $100K in cash (if I read that correctly), would last more like 10 years at that rate (ignoring inflation for simplicity).

If you do some runs in FIRECalc, you'll see that 90% eq is not an unreasonable AA for people who can remain calm through troubled times. But dropping that to something like 70/30 or 60/40 can smooth things and might be prudent for most people. FWIW, I plan to stay ~ 75/25, but higher eq do not 'scare' me.

-ERD50

 

[Options]

Congratulations on your milestone. Great job. However, that 90% AA scares the hell out of me. The 2008 meltdown left a lot of folks swimming naked and exposed. Bernstein, et al has much to say about this.

As to Firecalc (or FIDO or I-ORP or Financial Engines, or any others) success runs, have you factored in the possibility that future returns will be lower than in the past (see Wade Pfau, Michael Kitces, Dirk Cotten)?

Regarding Social Security and other benefits: until only the very last few years, Medicare premiums inflated at 8% annually since the early 00's. Have you factored in the possibility of inflated healthcare costs? Social Security? Political debates aside, have you factored in the possibility of cuts to social security in the future (see Scott Burns)?

This is why I am becoming more and more of a fan of ESPlanner. I've had it over 6 months, and as I continually model the above scenarios and more, the more robust is my planning.

Don't mean to rain on your Achievement Parade, because that's a great accomplishment. Just wanted to point out some reasons to watch for confirmation bias. We can tweak these calculators all we want to give us the answers we want, which is why it pays to be conservative.