How far over your 'number' did you go?

[sparky08]

Based upon a conservative estimate, I am almost to my 'number' that would allow me to retire (I'm in my late 50's). I will be there by late summer.

BTW, I'm using FireCalc with a 95+ success rate.

I don't enjoy my job anymore, but I do have a financial incentive to stay. In a recent company sale, I was granted a sizeable set of options that vest at 25% per year. For each extra year, I could really pad the number.

My question is: How much longer did you remain at an unpleasant job once you hit your retirement number?

 

[Midpack]

With no secure income aside from SS, 2X the standard SWR or a "200% success rate," no regrets. But you have to decide what YOUR enough is, and what YOUR safety factor is - what level of risk will allow you to sleep at night when the gains are interrupted by the inevitable downturns.

 

[rodi]

My question is: How much longer did you remain at an unpleasant job once you hit your retirement number?

For me I didn't have a fixed number... But if firecalc and other calcs said I was good - I was good. It was a combination of things needed - enough money, some income streams (we have a rental), and a small enough budget... I'd been working on all of those things trying to get comfortable with success. But hadn't quit yet because:

* if I stayed I might get a severance package since we'd gone through several corporate reshuffling, splitting, selling off, purchasing... I let one of the supervisors I was friendly with know that I wouldn't mind being on a lay off list. Didn't let my immediate supervisor know since he would have been a jerk about it.

* Work was easy and mostly enjoyable - except when it wasn't. We'd been through about 8 years of 2 major layoffs per year (see purchase/selloff/corporate reshuffling above)- but 'unfortunately' I was considered a valuable worker on a productive team... so our group had mostly been spared and I was still getting good reviews and the layoff wasn't happening for me.

* I was running firecalc obsessively. Plus trimming my budget with all the easy trims (look for recurring expenses and target them first), divert more to savings (401k, 529, ESPP, extra mortgage payments). That showed me that my budget in retirement was probably a lot smaller than my income. With every trim of $2-3k/year my "number" to retire was smaller.

This went on for about 3 years. Like I said, running firecalc (and every other calculator I could get my hands on) obsessively. ACA had passed so health insurance was no longer the deal breaker. One day my manager informed 3 of us we'd be travelling for a full week, every third week. I had teens at home, one in a not so great headspace... This wasn't a one time request to travel for a week - this was going to go on for months. And to make it worse, it was for a stupid reason that didn't serve the project well. I went home, ran the calculators again - and realized that I could retire and we could continue our lifestyle. Talked it over with my husband, he agreed. I gave notice the following Monday.

Ironically, my entire group and most of our campus site was laid off about a year after I retired... given a full year's severance. Oh well. No regrets.

 

[Vincenzo Corleone]

My question is: How much longer did you remain at an unpleasant job once you hit your retirement number?

According to FireCalc using a a 95% success rate and assuming a 55-year retirement, three extra years, during which my net worth increased by 60%.

 

[Jerry1]

I didn’t have a number, but was working the retirement calculators. I used the Fidelity retirement planner mostly but I also used FireCalc. I was over 100% success and I used the most conservative assumption. I’m glad I did. Recent events have me worried that I wasn’t conservative enough. I’d be scared right now if I hadn’t been pretty conservative. As it is, I am still a bit nervous.

Spend a lot of time on figuring out and being very realistic on your expenses. Especially the lumpy ones (like a new roof or car that you’ll likely only buy once or twice in retirement). I don’t think I nailed that aspect of planning. Again, I’m okay and think I’ll be okay, but had I not bumped up my expense numbers and used average, instead of below average return, assumptions, I’d be a lot more nervous right now.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Based upon a conservative estimate, I am almost to my 'number' that would allow me to retire (I'm in my late 50's). I will be there by late summer.

BTW, I'm using FireCalc with a 95+ success rate.

I don't enjoy my job anymore, but I do have a financial incentive to stay. In a recent company sale, I was granted a sizeable set of options that vest at 25% per year. For each extra year, I could really pad the number.

My question is: How much longer did you remain at an unpleasant job once you hit your retirement number?

Classic golden handcuffs. At some point, enough is enough. What do you value more...time or money?

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

Recent events have me worried that I wasn’t conservative enough. I’d be scared right now if I hadn’t been pretty conservative. As it is, I am still a bit nervous.

I'm 49 and have a military retirement check coming in monthly. I could have quit on January 1st this year and the numbers at that time would have supported a WR of 3.16%. Since then, inflation is getting worse, and the market is down. I don't like my job, but don't hate it either. Time to re-run some numbers and see where things stand. I'd like to quit this job this year.

 

[G-Man]

I didn’t have a number, but was working the retirement calculators. I used the Fidelity retirement planner mostly but I also used FireCalc. I was over 100% success and I used the most conservative assumption. I’m glad I did. Recent events have me worried that I wasn’t conservative enough. I’d be scared right now if I hadn’t been pretty conservative. As it is, I am still a bit nervous.

Spend a lot of time on figuring out and being very realistic on your expenses. Especially the lumpy ones (like a new roof or car that you’ll likely only buy once or twice in retirement). I don’t think I nailed that aspect of planning. Again, I’m okay and think I’ll be okay, but had I not bumped up my expense numbers and used average, instead of below average return, assumptions, I’d be a lot more nervous right now.

With the Fidelity Retirement tool, how far over 100% did you go? In addition, does the tool show you that you have money left over at your end of life age (for me I'm using age 94)?

 

[aaronc879]

Based upon a conservative estimate, I am almost to my 'number' that would allow me to retire (I'm in my late 50's). I will be there by late summer.

Not sure how you can assume you will hit your number by Summer when there is potential for the stock market to be 10-20% lower by then or even worse. Depending on your situation you could need years to make that up.

That being said I would not work a day past hitting "my number".

 

[Exchme]

It's a personal decision, trading time today for less financial worry tomorrow, but you'll know when it's time. Some indications - when the money from staying another year doesn't interest you anymore, when the job goes south and the thought of working longer makes you cringe, when the desire to have every day be Saturday becomes overwhelming, etc.

 

[jebmke]

We never had "a number" - I guess maybe it is more of a generational thing. As a whole, my jobs were not unpleasant so I retired well past what the number would have been had there been one.

 

[statsman]

Not sure how you can assume you will hit your number by Summer when there is potential for the stock market to be 10-20% lower by then or even worse.

You could be heavily invested in bond funds, and I wouldn't make that bet now either. Sorry, just venting once again ...

We never had "a number" - I guess maybe it is more of a generational thing. As a whole, my jobs were not unpleasant so I retired well past what the number would have been had there been one.

Between being shown the door by my Megacorp after 30 years and DW deciding to retire and start SS at 64+, the decision to retire was pretty much out of my hands. The same goes from moving from California to Texas. Be grateful if you can do it at a time of your own choosing.

 

[Ronstar]

Didn’t have a $ number. Had an age number, but went over that by a few years of part time work. My thought was to work a lot and save a lot early in and pull the plug when the bs bucket filled up regardless of the amount of $ that I saved.

 

[sparky08]

Not sure how you can assume you will hit your number by Summer when there is potential for the stock market to be 10-20% lower by then or even worse. Depending on your situation you could need years to make that up.
.

A recent inheritance left me with enough cash for at least two years of expenses. Our company pays bonuses in the middle of the year, and that will be add'l cash.

I wouldn't need to touch equities for around three years. So, I used a long term outlook for them.

 

[braumeister]

I had already been retired nearly ten years before I ever heard of FIRECalc or any other calculator, or even the concept of a "number."

As long as you feel confident you can survive without a paycheck, just use your own best judgment about when you want to stop w*rking.

 

[NW-Bound]

I never had a number or a goal. When I felt like quitting work, I looked at what I had then, compared it to what I was spending and on track to spend, and asked myself if I could make it work.

The answer to myself was "Yes". I stopped work.

Actually, I did not just one day ask myself the above question. It took a while for me to convince myself of that, plus some other events in life that pushed me over the hurdle.

 

[Jerry1]

I didn’t have a number, but was working the retirement calculators. I used the Fidelity retirement planner mostly but I also used FireCalc. I was over 100% success and I used the most conservative assumption. I’m glad I did. Recent events have me worried that I wasn’t conservative enough. I’d be scared right now if I hadn’t been pretty conservative. As it is, I am still a bit nervous.

Spend a lot of time on figuring out and being very realistic on your expenses. Especially the lumpy ones (like a new roof or car that you’ll likely only buy once or twice in retirement). I don’t think I nailed that aspect of planning. Again, I’m okay and think I’ll be okay, but had I not bumped up my expense numbers and used average, instead of below average return, assumptions, I’d be a lot more nervous right now.

With the Fidelity Retirement tool, how far over 100% did you go? In addition, does the tool show you that you have money left over at your end of life age (for me I'm using age 94)?

I'm not sure what the percentages were. I went back in and the reports I had from the time are gone. I did a quick report and it looks like I'd have a couple hundred thousand at 100 years old. Also, my total spend is about 25% higher than my required expenses. I think I'll redo my work and see what I come up with now that I've been retired for 4 years. I haven't touched a retirement calculator since I retired - mainly because spending, up until now has been pretty much according to plan. The main issue I have is the expected return and future inflation numbers need to be revisited. It will be interesting to see how/if Fidelity has reacted to the current state yet.

 

[G-Man]

I'm not sure what the percentages were. I went back in and the reports I had from the time are gone. I did a quick report and it looks like I'd have a couple hundred thousand at 100 years old. Also, my total spend is about 25% higher than my required expenses. I think I'll redo my work and see what I come up with now that I've been retired for 4 years. I haven't touched a retirement calculator since I retired - mainly because spending, up until now has been pretty much according to plan. The main issue I have is the expected return and future inflation numbers need to be revisited. It will be interesting to see how/if Fidelity has reacted to the current state yet.

I have inflated my total expense spend to approximately 10% higher than my required expenses.

In addition, I read somewhere for the Fidelity Retirement tool, anything over 100, you can withstand additional expenses. For example, if your monthly estimated expenses are $5000 and your Fidelity score is 110, that means you can afford $5500 in expenses per month.

I hope I'm explaining this correctly. Folks can charm in.

 

[skyking1]

right now I am rethinking things and looking to go before my 'number'. No one I know has made it out of their 80s. Most did not make it out of their 70s.
I'm going to put things into firecalc with a 20 year timeline and see.

 

[N02L84ER]

I had 2 numbers. I hit the first (Firecalc 95%) in Jan 2012. I hit the second (total earnings) in March 2012. I retired in April 2012, but I had only been working part time for the previous 6 years.

 

[Mark1]

I never really had a number nor ran any software package, as I had to stay until 54.5 of age to get ~$300,000 more pension money and company retirement medical so the decision was kind of made for me. I probably could have managed leaving in late 40"s and just adjusted my life style a lot, but I didn't really hate the job until I was about 50 years old anyway and medical was pretty important to me.

 

[nobody]

I stuck around another 1.5 years to pad it and because of other circumstances.

 

[Badger]

I didn't have a number. I liked my career path even though it was for short pay. Our combined income never even came close to hitting 6 figures but we still paid off our modest home, maxed out both of our 403b plans, maxed out both of our Roth IRAs, and then invested in a few stocks with any additional money we could scrape together. Pretty much lived on one paycheck. But we enjoyed our lifestyle even though the cars were old but functional, only ate out on special occasions, weren't concerned with buying lots of clothes, and enjoyed our vacations of tent camping and backpacking the National Parks.

I started counting down 5 years when I was 60. Then one day a few years later my wife came home and announced she had enough with working and gave notice. I knew by then we were prepared and a year later I also gave notice.
Although I didn't have a detailed grasp of our savings I knew there would be enough. Turns out we should have enough to see us through the next 80 years or more with our present spending but I don't think I will see more than 20 years at the most.


Cheers!

 

[athena53]

I was also in the "no number" club. I kept a spreadsheet tracking my projected balance at age 65 with reasonable assumptions of future contributions and rate of return and updated it with actual numbers every year, using that as the new base. I then brought it back to present value and took 4% as an approximation of what we had to live on in Year 1. I didn't factor in my anticipated SS. (DH was retired and already collecting it.) The numbers looked feasible, especially since we were saving so much of our income so we needed a lower % of my pre-retirement income than many people.

When my BS bucket was full at age 61, I decided it was safe to throw in some SS starting at FRA and the anticipated draw was big enough that I knew we could live on it. My WD rate is averaging a hair under 3.5% annually since I retired 8 years ago. In retrospect I over-saved but given what's happened in the market this year, that's OK.

 

[2017ish]

We were very close to a "number" when we gave our notice. Two years later, when we retired, we were well over that number.

We've managed to spend up to that greater number though, so all is good. (Our spending will likely go down this year, if things continue, but that's still fine. The bigger base to start gives us more wiggle room to cut discretionary spending in down periods.)