Getting closer to FIRE, freaking out

[corn18]

Hoping to retire Mar 2021. And I'm freaking out. Our current budget is our retirement budget. We seem to be doing ok at sticking to it, but then I want to get ebikes. And a garden tractor. And a travel trailer. While I am working, that can all be done because I make a lot of money and if we want a $50k travel trailer, I just work a little longer. But in retirement, I don't make any money. I have to stick to the budget. ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! . But then I look at our planned budget and think "How the heck could any normal person not live within this budget?" Then I freak out. Maybe we aren't ready to retire.

 

[Toocold]

Do you have a flex portion of your budget? We have a core budget that pays for normal expenses, and then we have another $25k for travel budget. Beyond this, we also have more cushion so if we wanted a trailer or tractor, we could afford it.

 

[corn18]

Do you have a flex portion of your budget? We have a core budget that pays for normal expenses, and then we have another $25k for travel budget. Beyond this, we also have more cushion so if we wanted a trailer or tractor, we could afford it.

Our base budget is $116k. We also have $25k a year built in for travel/blow that dough budget.

 

[njhowie]

Well if you are unable to control needs vs. wants, then you are correct, maybe you aren't ready to retire.

 

[COcheesehead]

Needs, wants, wishes. Budget for all of them. If you have to steal from another category, you may not have enough.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Well if you are unable to control needs vs. wants, then you are correct, maybe you aren't ready to retire.

+1. There's an infinite amount of stuff to spend money on, but our time on this earth is limited. DH gets a newsletter from his former company and so many employees listed in there either died while still working or shortly after retiring it makes us glad we retired when we did.

 

[pb4uski]

So if you had $75-100k less than what you have today would you not retire?

 

[mystang52]

I've been a religious budgeter since forever. Before I retired, my budget factored in known big ticket items such as car replacement, vacations,and home repairs. But for isolated large budget items.....well, that's what savings are for. You can't take it with you.

 

[corn18]

Well if you are unable to control needs vs. wants, then you are correct, maybe you aren't ready to retire.

That is why I'm freaking out. People in good health dying while working OMY. How could we not be happy retiring on $141k a year?

So if you had $75-100k less than what you have today would you not retire?

Nope.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

That is why I'm freaking out. People in good health dying while working OMY. How could we not be happy retiring on $141k a year?

We spent more than that when we were working and spend less than that now in retirement. You have to decide what works for you, but knowing what I know now, if I had to do it over I would have saved even more and retired another decade sooner.

We live in a vacation area so there's always a ton for free or cheap things to do that are all better than working was for us. A couple of days ago we went to a garden in the Berkeley hills with Redwoods, streams and views of San Francisco Bay. Costs was $3 for parking, plus a modest annual membership fee.

 

[foxfirev5]

Prior to retirement I had the same concerns and worked another 5 years for no real good reason.

We have kept a separate capital expense fund for any emergencies as well as any splurges. In 4 years about the only expense has been a new 3000 sq ft roof. Meanwhile we keep slowly adding to the fund. On top of that our 20k travel budget is going untouched. We find it harder to spend much under current conditions.

 

[jollystomper]

Hoping to retire Mar 2021. And I'm freaking out. Our current budget is our retirement budget. We seem to be doing ok at sticking to it, but then I want to get ebikes. And a garden tractor. And a travel trailer. While I am working, that can all be done because I make a lot of money and if we want a $50k travel trailer, I just work a little longer. But in retirement, I don't make any money. I have to stick to the budget. ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! . But then I look at our planned budget and think "How the heck could any normal person not live within this budget?" Then I freak out. Maybe we aren't ready to retire.

You need to build your "wants" into your retirement budget, if you do not want to keep working and pay for them that way.We did a little of both for my retirement.


There were some relatively large, one time items that I decided I would rather pay for out of my working salary. This was a factor in my OMY decisions for several years. You have to assess your own risk for surviving OMY, based on your health and activities. Odds are that you will survive.


Or, you could redo your retirement budget and include those amounts, and see what it will take to provide for that level of retirement spending. You might have to work longer, but perhaps not as long as working to purchase them before you retire.


Our retirement budget started in the $125-$130K range (including taxes). But some spending we overestimated, some we got lucky, some passive income was greater than expected, and two years later we have only spent just over a third of the cash we thought we would spend. That includes the "want of an additional car", and the "wants" of comfortable airline travel and hotel accommodations (at least before COVID-19 ).


My advice, in sum: do not panic - just plan.