Hey, Dory, I wonder if you're going to see rising FIRECalc hits. A Smith-Barney office in the DC area might start using it to advise their clients.
Last week a friend's work contract ended a little sooner than he'd expected and he networked for a Hawaii job. I asked him if he was ready to retire yet (he just turned 60) and I pointed him to FIRECalc. Here's his response:
"Just after I read your note, I received an email for me to contact my financial planner in DC at Smith Barney. A few months ago I had a meeting with him and he told me that I was in a position to walk away from my job immediately and live very comfortably. After I got "dismissed" last week I sent an email back to him asking that he recheck his figures just to make sure that I could get through to SS eligibility without worry. I just called him and we had a great conversation about the above information. He had never seen the FIRECALC web page so we had a ball going through it while we were on the phone. I think my "percentage" was right up there around 93% after we plugged in all of the numbers. Maybe I won't have to go completely over to the "dark side" after all and will be able to come up with my own mental gymnastics and get myself on the path to true enlightenment!!! I asked my girlfriend what she thought I'd look like in a ponytail. Thanks shipmate!"
I'm not going to get into how much he paid his advisor to plug his numbers into a free website calculator. He's happy and he sleeps well at night so it's working for him.
But you might want to start charging these guys for back-office support...
Last week a friend's work contract ended a little sooner than he'd expected and he networked for a Hawaii job. I asked him if he was ready to retire yet (he just turned 60) and I pointed him to FIRECalc. Here's his response:
"Just after I read your note, I received an email for me to contact my financial planner in DC at Smith Barney. A few months ago I had a meeting with him and he told me that I was in a position to walk away from my job immediately and live very comfortably. After I got "dismissed" last week I sent an email back to him asking that he recheck his figures just to make sure that I could get through to SS eligibility without worry. I just called him and we had a great conversation about the above information. He had never seen the FIRECALC web page so we had a ball going through it while we were on the phone. I think my "percentage" was right up there around 93% after we plugged in all of the numbers. Maybe I won't have to go completely over to the "dark side" after all and will be able to come up with my own mental gymnastics and get myself on the path to true enlightenment!!! I asked my girlfriend what she thought I'd look like in a ponytail. Thanks shipmate!"
I'm not going to get into how much he paid his advisor to plug his numbers into a free website calculator. He's happy and he sleeps well at night so it's working for him.
But you might want to start charging these guys for back-office support...
