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Old 06-09-2020, 03:24 PM   #21
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I was pension eligible at 50 but took a promotion to increase my pension. In the meantime we adjusted our budget to our post-retirement income just to see how things went. We had a buyout offer 3 years later and it worked out perfectly. 17+ years later very thankful for my good luck.
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Old 06-09-2020, 03:30 PM   #22
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My target was to have enough dividend income to replace my salary, adjusted for taxes, paying off mortgage, health insurance, saving, etc. I had planned to stop at 50, but was able to leave at 48.
Also decided to retire when interest/dividends hit more than enough to cover expenses (about 30% more), with additional longer term private equity investments in place. Retired at 54, was able to sooner. Might take a short contract once in a while but no desire for now.
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Old 06-09-2020, 04:06 PM   #23
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When I hit my magic number, I put in my notice 3 months later. That was when I knew I could finish a big project I was working on. In those 3 months, the rest of the pieces of my ER plan had fallen into place, too. I thought I would not be able to ER until I was much close to 50, but everything fell into place much more quickly, so I got out at 45. That was in 2008, 12 years ago.
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Old 06-09-2020, 06:20 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by 4nursebee View Post
If you FIREd, how did you time quitting work with your desired asset level? Right away?
Wait a year for security?
Worked a few more years for some economic benefit such as a pension?

All options are on the table for me, not sure how to handle it.
THanks
My trigger was the first day I was eligible for a pension milestone at work. In the military you need to have min of 36 months after your last promotion to retire at that rank. One of my goals was to retire from the service at a certain rank, so I wanted to wait the full 3 years.

Financially, I was fine sometime prior, but the xtra pension for staying longer was well worth it. I was 48 and my DW had retired a couple years prior when she was 48, so it was nice for both of us to RE at the same age. That was 3 years ago. In hind sight, the timing couldnt have been any better.
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Old 06-09-2020, 06:54 PM   #25
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How did you decide to FIRE?
Our rental real estate was filled with tenants and showing a profit, when the US Navy forced me onto pension.

It seemed pretty obvious that we could return stateside to live in one of our rental units and support ourselves from my pension.
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Old 06-09-2020, 07:18 PM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 4nursebee View Post
If you FIREd, how did you time quitting work with your desired asset level? Right away?
Wait a year for security?
Worked a few more years for some economic benefit such as a pension?

All options are on the table for me, not sure how to handle it.
THanks
we decided to RE...actually retire as soon as possible...many, many years before we did. being young and naieve we did not set specific goals just a desire to be FI asap. we didn't know how or when but we were confident we'd get it done in our 50's. at that point in life...early 30's...we were somewhat debt free. still had a mortgage and a car loan but no CC debt. started paying cash for cars in '95 and paid off the house in '03. we had been investing since '82 but we kicked that into high gear in '84 or '85 thru 2010.

starting in '00 i wrote a spread sheet that tracked our expenses over a rolling 3-yr period as well as projected revenue from our retirement plans. i assumed an annual 3% rate of inflation and a 0% annual increase in revenue...IMO worst case scenarios. and our revenue streamorojevtions did not include any withdrawls from investment accounts. i was seeing positive cash flows and it was looking more and more like this FIRE thing could actually happen.

but what really sealed the deal in terms of when was our retirement systems. we were both working for govt and the earliest we could pull a monthly benefit was age 55 so that was the when. we both walked into the sunshine one day after our 55th birthdays in 2005 and 2006. we are still living a LBYM lifestyle with zero debt and living day-day on pension and SS. the nestegg is still growing and is back above where it was when the decline started.

my only regrets...we didn't start investing a lot sooner than we did, we should've been paying cash for cars a lot sooner and not paying off the mortgage a lot sooner. had we done those things the nestegg would most likely be a lot larger but since it's fir a rainy day and not a part of our monthly revenue stream those are not big regrets.
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Old 06-09-2020, 07:21 PM   #27
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Sadly, I did not find this site until after I retired or i probably would have done it sooner.
My wife passed away in 2005, and i worked until that time to help with her medical expenses. After she passed away, I continued working because I had nothing better to do. Shortly after a year passed, I met a lady who was also widowed that I had met on line at a grief recovery site.

I had some traveling planned that I was sure she was not interested in; China, Trans Siberian Railroad, Scotland and Wales. I used up a lot of vacation time that way.
We started traveling together shortly after I got back from my last trip. and working helped pay for it.
I retired a year later, working just long enough to get my profit sharing.
Life is good.
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Old 06-09-2020, 07:46 PM   #28
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TL: DR - my bs bucket had one too many turds dumped in it.

Longer version -
I'd hit my number and knew we had enough. Hubby had retired (he's older). At a staff meeting was told that I would be spending a full week away from home every third week. The reasons for this were more marketing/political than technical (Wanted to *look* like we were super involved in getting a project out by having a rotating crew of engineers at the customer's site... but the tools to be productive were at OUR site.) As the mom of middle schoolers at the time - this was a LOT of time away from the kiddos.
Talked it over with hubby that night, thought about it over the weekend, gave notice on Monday. Never looked back.
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Old 06-09-2020, 08:24 PM   #29
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We hit our conservatively revised "enough" number and were saving a lot. DW then gave two years notice so that her small group would be able to replace her with an OBG coming out of residency.... (I gave about 12 months notice to my partners for same reason.)

The delay caused us to end up with a healthier portfolio than we believed necessary, but DW is working at making it "just right."
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Old 06-09-2020, 09:04 PM   #30
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TL: DR - my bs bucket had one too many turds dumped in it.........
Yes, best explanation I've seen is that when you are working, you have a bucket in each hand, a money bucket and a BS bucket. When both are full, time to go.
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Old 06-09-2020, 09:26 PM   #31
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If you FIREd, how did you time quitting work with your desired asset level? Right away?
Wait a year for security?
My quitting was unplanned.

We had reached our FIRE number in Nov. 2017 and the DW and I were going to sit down, map out of plans for the year (2018), and figure out a retirement date, probably at the end of June.

At the time I was working as a consultant and had a "challenging" client; working with this firm was often difficult and always frustrating. A couple of weeks after we'd reached our FIRE number, the principal client asked me for a meeting and started telling me about the latest mess they'd gotten themselves into that they wanted me to clean up. It was going to be a major effort, taking several months, with lots of long hours and the usual lack of client cooperation, but plenty of second guessing.

Suddenly, as if someone else were speaking, I heard the words "Sorry. You'll have to find someone else for this. I'm retiring in one month."

The client was surprised - but, not as surprised as I was! The first thing I did was get to my office to call the DW and break the news. She was surprised too, but what a tremendous feeling of relief!
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Old 06-09-2020, 09:43 PM   #32
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My work situation had taken a turn for the worse and I was miserable. I checked my pension benefit and it seemed like a enough. I created a financial spreadsheet to examine my expenses and needs. After 30 days of working on the spreadsheet I decided to FIRE. I continued to work for a couple of months to let the decision to sink in. Four months later I left work forever on my 55th birthday (more or less). 10 years later I have no regrets
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Old 06-09-2020, 09:45 PM   #33
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When I was 50, and newly divorced, I took a job working for the federal government. I did this for job security and benefits (pension and retiree health insurance).

I worked until the first day when I qualified for retiree health insurance. This was back in 2009, before ACA insurance was available.

If I had had good, affordable, reliable health insurance lined up by 2007, I probably would have retired a couple of years earlier. But, having to work those last couple of years was not so bad after all, since it gave me extra money to spend on "fun stuff" after retirement.
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Old 06-09-2020, 09:59 PM   #34
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I retired the first day I could begin collecting a CSRS pension, as I had been planning for more than 25 years.
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Old 06-10-2020, 04:05 AM   #35
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I was subject to a particular pension calculation that had a sliding penalty until I was 58, when it hit a permanent max. I had enough NW to retire a year or so before, but did not like leaving $ on the table, plus DW was antsy about loosing the paycheck. I went at 57 3/4 in March the next year. That was close enough, and we had some outdoor projects to do that I did not want to let wait for the hot summer.
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Old 06-10-2020, 05:30 AM   #36
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I was 5 years into FI. I stayed because I got along with the CEO and I strongly believed that I could play a role in growing the business and have a positive impact on society. He eventually left and another person who I got along with became CEO. During this time, I seriously started thinking about RE and built up our portfolio to pull the trigger if I wanted. I put a tentative target date of 3/2020.

Last year, we merged with another company and a new CEO was hired. We agreed that I should leave the organization with a healthy severance package.

I am not technically RE because I would still consider positions that fit a very high bar, but I doubt it exists and I'm not actively pursuing and have turned down dozens of inquiries.
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Old 06-10-2020, 05:33 AM   #37
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I decided to FIRE when I started working for the Federal government. I liked my work but aspired to pull the cord when eligible for a pension (age 56, assuming I stayed with the government) unless I was thrilled with work at that time. In the event, I was still with the government and OK with the work but not thrilled so I left. I gave about 4 months notice.
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Old 06-10-2020, 05:59 AM   #38
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My employer outsourced my department.

After really looking at my finances, I decided to call it FIRE, rather than looking for a new j*b.
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Old 06-10-2020, 06:20 AM   #39
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Yes, best explanation I've seen is that when you are working, you have a bucket in each hand, a money bucket and a BS bucket. When both are full, time to go.


I like this. I’m in this situation right now where both are full enough and had a comical conversation with my boss yesterday. The organization is looking for cuts to revenue and administrators, so a couple weeks ago I said, meh, take me. She said, “Ok, and I will eliminate your position.” Fine.

Now, however, she wants me to resign, I think because she can’t stomach laying me off. I said, “But you’re cutting expenses and administrators and eliminating my position. If you lay me off, I can qualify for severance and unemployment I’ve been paying into my whole career.” She dug in her heels and said, “There’s no way I’m laying you off!” I said, “Fine, then I’m not resigning until I know in writing what my severance is.”

The comical part is, it doesn’t matter to me if they lay me off or I resign and I can just wait them out. It’s satisfying to have a little bit of leverage over a bumbling organization that seems to go out of its way to top off employees’ BS buckets.
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Old 06-10-2020, 06:30 AM   #40
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I still have a spread sheet I created when I was 27 calculating how much I would need to save to retire some day as I knew SSI wouldn’t be enough. 30 years later to much BS at work. Retired at 57. Planning worked out and I have showed that spread sheet to my children to get them thinking the same way. Starting early is the key.
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