FIRE in your 40s how has it been?

[DINKFIRE]

Thank you all

Thank you for all the insights provided, they gives up some additional comfort for pulling the plug next year. We are at about 50 times of our annual expenses without counting our primary residence today. Our allocation is 40%stock, 6% bond, 34% real estate (direct and REIT) and 20% cash, zero debt. We expect the healthcare cost will increase due to current employer plan to be really generous. We don't plan to travel more than we currently do, and we have hobbies we will maintain to keep us active year-round. I've taken the advice and estimated about 1% home value for maintenance in our budget.

We are looking forward to join the ER community soon!

Thank you all!

 

[LuckyRugger]

We are DINK in our early 40s and have been planning to retire in the next 6-7 months. Facing a long retirement, it is hard to determine if we are well prepared financially, even with all the calculations suggest we are beyond ready. So I'd like to get some prospective from those who had retired in their 40s. The criteria is that you retired in your 40s with no kids, without a defined-benefit pension or trust fund (or wealthy family money), and has been retired for at least 15 years without relying on any active work (W-2 and/or 1099s) to provide for more than 20% of your retirement expenses. For those of you fit the descriptions above, my questions are:

1. How many times of your pre-retirement annual expenses you'd saved upon your retirement (excluding your primary home)? What tax rate you used to calculate the gross-up amount?

2. Did your post-retirement expenses increase/decrease from your pre-retirement expenses? if so, by what percentage?

3. How much increase did you experience with your health care cost annually (on average)?

4. What is your asset allocation in cash/bond/stock/real estates/other excluding your primary home?

Thank you all in advance for your input!

About 50X Pre-tax/pre-retirement expenses, but 30-35X post retirement/Pre-tax income.

Post retirement increased by about 20%, all planned due to seasonal relocation and healthcare cost.

5X higher healthcare, probably should have gone as cheap as possible because we are healthy and active, shoulda, coulda, woulda...

70/25/5 (equities/bonds/“cash”)

 

[cyber888]

Depends on how much you have and your spending budget until you claim social security

 

[rpguy4]

I don't meet your criteria, but one of the things we did before retiring, was to take a out HELOC on our home. Never intend on using the HELOC, but it's there just in case of some sort of catastrophic emergency. Our HELOC is available for 10 years, after which it gets closed if it's not used.

 

[FIREarly]

Out at 49, but have a DB pension which hasn't started yet.
Tax rate has been 0% due to qualified dividends.
Post retirement expenses are way lower than pre-retirement expenses. No commuting, clothes, gas, lunches, FICA taxes, etc.
Keep low income so health coverage hasn't cost me anything, thanks ACA.

That sounds amazing! Congratulations!
{note to self: save and invest more $$}

--
For original poster, in regards to healthcare, a great step to try is regular gym workouts (aerobic and anaerobic) and healthy nutrition plan. This does not negate getting a health plan but look at some cultures with some of the longest lives. You can see many of the people near 100 years old out and working/farming/hiking in nature (keeping in shape).

 

[DINKFIRE]

I don't meet your criteria, but one of the things we did before retiring, was to take a out HELOC on our home. Never intend on using the HELOC, but it's there just in case of some sort of catastrophic emergency. Our HELOC is available for 10 years, after which it gets closed if it's not used.

I've considered this but haven't found any HELOC that doesn't have a few thousands upfront costs. Since we have 4 properties and had plan to downsize through them over our retirement, the cash value will be taken out of each when we sell.