Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020
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Speaking of $1M, interesting article on CNBC yesterday. Apologies if this is repost.
Million-dollar question: How much do you need to retire?
Million-dollar question: How much do you need to retire?
W2R
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Congratulations! And while you may not be able to live a life of utter luxury and opulence, you certainly have a comfortable retirement ahead (especially if you choose to live in one of the lower COL areas). A million dollar portfolio goes a long way in New Orleans, anyway, and even farther in some other parts of "flyover country".
Portfolio value reached 1.5m today!
Woo-hoo!!! What a great milestone!
Wow, amazing at such a young age! You are well on your way. I think at age 31 I had about two cents, if that.
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Andre1969
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FireCalc actually gives me a $100% chance of success of retiring right now, at the age of 44, with my $980K portfolio, and a $40K per year SWD. This assumes ~$12400 per year in SS starting at age 62, and a $349/mo non-COLA'ed pension at 65, and living to 100.
$40K per year was always the goal I had set, but then I made a spreadsheet mapping out various scenarios, and One More Year syndrome started to kick in. If I push it out to age 47, I can do $45K per year. At 49, I can do $50K per year, and if I wait til 50 it's $55K.
$40K per year was always the goal I had set, but then I made a spreadsheet mapping out various scenarios, and One More Year syndrome started to kick in. If I push it out to age 47, I can do $45K per year. At 49, I can do $50K per year, and if I wait til 50 it's $55K.
WannabeRetired
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Andre, are you doing the one more year thing because you like the appeal of spending a bit more in retirement? Or are you just nervous about hanging it up at such a comparatively young age? I'm curious.
Andre1969
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It's a combination of both, but I think moreso because I like the idea of being able to spend more in retirement. I'm starting to second-guess whether $40K per year, adjusted for inflation, would be enough to keep me happy. Health insurance is also a big unknown for me, as I haven't researched getting an individual policy yet.
Also, within the next, maybe 5 or 6 years, I want to move, but I'll probably be trading up. I figure I'm either going to still need the employment to qualify for a mortgage, or have a really big down payment saved up!
robnplunder
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Recently, I crossed 2M NW threshold. My next milestone will be having $2M investment portfolio. It could take 1.5 more years if I continue to work.
WannabeRetired
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Yeah, that health insurance still seems to be a big unknown right now. It would be my luck to retire early next year and then watch the ACA get repealed in 2017. Maybe that shouldn't be such a big concern. I don't know.
WannabeRetired
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robnplunder, I think if I had a $2 million investment portfolio right now I'd be really tempted to hang it up, but my area costs me a lot less to live in than the bay area I'm sure. What would you need to have to walk out the door right now? $4 million?
robnplunder
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I am tempted all right. I am doing OMY thingy which can give me some needed padding, and more traveling to my RE.
(PS - $2.2M will be enough for me to RE)
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Andre1969
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I think at the $2M level, I'd be comfortable pulling the plug. I'd probably go find the house I wanted first though, and get all that set up, because I'd imagine I'll get a bigger mortgage at a better rate while still w*rking.
longranger
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Even with a few years of accurate budget data and all the available financial projection tools it is hard for me to feel secure about future finances without a very padded budget. One positive is that as I grow my portfolio and grow older the parameters are getting easier to trust. Also have more padding.
The biggest issue for me is that after a couple of years of inactivity opportunities to return to my job(MD) will be very limited. Current NW, exclusive of real estate is 2.4M(personal best). Been the sole breadwinner for the family for my entire adult life. Fear is my biggest impediment to FIRE this year or next. Targeting 2016. Hope to be near to or at 3M if this market does not pull a 2008.
The biggest issue for me is that after a couple of years of inactivity opportunities to return to my job(MD) will be very limited. Current NW, exclusive of real estate is 2.4M(personal best). Been the sole breadwinner for the family for my entire adult life. Fear is my biggest impediment to FIRE this year or next. Targeting 2016. Hope to be near to or at 3M if this market does not pull a 2008.
WannabeRetired
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That's also how I feel. I'm conservative, cautious, paranoid, pessimistic, etc. I really don't want to run out of money and have to go back to work. I'm definitely not an MD, but replacing my income in 10-years if I had to return for whatever reason would be pretty much impossible. At that point working 40-hours a week for 25% of the previous income would be pretty demoralizing. My wife would have an easier time finding something if needed later in life; however, I would feel awful having her do that. I guess that's why it's better for us to just do the one more year thing for a bit longer.
Definitely first world problems we have here.
Definitely first world problems we have here.
dand76
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Investments made it past the $600k mark this week. Grow, baby, grow!
I'm of the view that if annual expenses are less than 3% of portfolio value, you should be safe. That's the mark we're currently at, and I plan on retiring in 2 years.
The big unknown is health care costs, but I'm not going to put ER on hold because of that. If you look hard enough, there will always be a reason to not pull the plug.
longranger
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True about excuses and OMY justifications mrfeh. Did not start thinking ER till a couple of years ago. My psyche is conservative and a bit paranoid. Logically I can see my path of retire. Feeling at ease with using WR, ratios, estimated future expenses etc.. is taking me a while.
Sea Kayaker
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A minor, yet crucial ER related milestone reached lately. DW and I have agreed that after a nice little Vancouver Island holiday celebrating our anniversary I will be giving notice of resignation to my employer upon my return to the city - this will happen around mid-July. It looks like October 1st will be my last day of work. A completely new chapter in my life starts in my 42nd year. I expect the next several months to CRAWL by.
The next major milestone will be deciding when my wife joins me in ER... she seems intent on working until 50. Hope to convince her otherwise.
The next major milestone will be deciding when my wife joins me in ER... she seems intent on working until 50. Hope to convince her otherwise.
WannabeRetired
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Wow! Congrats! I bet that decision took some guts. It sounds like your job is really bringing you down right now. I feel your pain.
Sea Kayaker
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Wannabe, my life is pretty amazing in every aspect EXCEPT my job - once that is dealt with, I can only imagine how great things will be. Still have months to go, and still have to submit my resignation (this will be hard for me) but I already feel like a massive weight has been removed from my shoulders.
What time frame did you use in FireCalc? If you use 40+ years, you might be excluding some interesting time frames in the '80s that could have made things not as rosy.
Andre1969
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Just to be safe, I ran some shorter timeframes to see what would happen, and here are the results...
30 years (2044): 97.4% chance of success
35 years (2049): 95.4%
40 years (2054): 95.2%
45 years (2059): 93.9%
50 years (2064): 96.8%
55 years (2069): 97.4%
56 years (2070): 97.7%
So it looks like in rerunning the numbers, I was off a bit. Must have input something wrong the first time around, to manage to get that 100%.
The potential for little boo-boos like that are another reason I want to build up a bit more padding. I'm shooting for a success rate of at least 95%...but I think I could handle 93.9%. Close enuff for government work!
Also, my success rate jumped up seriously, just in the past year and a half because of the market. When I ran some numbers back in early 2013, I only got a 78.6% chance of success in retiring at 44. I ran them again at the beginning of this year, and got 87.4%. So seeing 100%, or even 97.7% now, just 5 months later, does seem too good to be true. I'll keep re-running the numbers as I get closer to actually pulling the plug. And, just to be safe, I'll run a shorter scenario here and there as well, such as 35, 40, 45 years, to make sure there are no steep drop offs.
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A Bird In Hand
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We (barely!) crossed $900k in investments and savings yesterday for the first time. Some looming expenses this summer mean we're all but guaranteed to go below that threshold soon, but hopefully that will be the last time we cross it going the wrong direction!
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