Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020

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Markola, I am sorry to hear of your health surprises. I know that my cancer scare two years ago was a big motivator to hang things up. My thoughts are with you and your wife hoping you successfully get through this patch.


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markola, so very sorry to hear of the health issues you and your DW are having. It does indeed add a sense of urgency to retiring early. My cancer diagnosis 4.5 years ago was quite a life changer. So I really do hear ya on how it makes you look differently at what you really "need" in order to retire, and also what kind of financial risks you are willing to take in order to have more TIME, the most precious thing of all!

The "one more year" syndrome takes on a whole new meaning when you wonder...will I have one more year? :confused:

Our plan is hopefully to retire 2 years from now...assuming the ACA is still in place! My best to you and your wife. :flowers:
 
Markola - best wishes for improved health for you and your wife.

I had the "aha" moment when my dad died at age 77 and my brother died 2 months later at age 48. I worked almost 5 years past that because I didn't have enough saved - but it definitely changed my focus. My mom had also died youngish (67) and only had 5 years in retirement. I think things like this are non uncommon in triggering the desire to be free from work encumbrances and enjoy life while we have it.
 
Thanks for sharing this and best wishes that everything works out. It's a stark reminder that this board probably is not a true representative sample of those bent on FIRE. If you had had a debilitating stroke instead of minor ones, you wouldn't have posted. There are doubtless others who were serious about FIRE and also ran into a major unplanned event and as a result aren't posting here.

A couple others have mentioned this in terms of OMY syndrome. I think it's useful before reaching FI -- a reminder that it may be worth it to move a little slower getting to FI if that also means a higher quality in the meantime. It seems like the law of diminishing returns applies here. That extra 10-20% income often "costs" a lot more than 10-20% in terms of balance and happiness. Giving up that up seems like a fair hedge against an earlier-than-average demise.


Markola said:
DW and I are both suddenly experiencing FIRE milestones, and not the way we intended. She's battling the Big C at age 52 and I had an MRI last week as "just a precaution" related to some headaches I've been having. Well, holy buckets, at age 50 for me they found two small "signs of stroke". Both of us are otherwise in great health with long-lived families and I've never had any stroke symptoms, except headaches. Her treatments are apparently going 100% well, as far as anyone knows. Why am I telling strangers on the internet our health problems? Because this kind of news rattles you and makes you think about FIRE. It forces you to think about life and what you want out of it. We've been assuming I'd work until 59.5, at which time we could retire smoothly at current lifestyle levels with $3M, if projections work out, though it's never been clear that DW has any vision of ever stopping.
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Markola, sorry to hear of this happening to you and wishing all the best for your outcomes.
 
David1961 said:
Not sure if this is exactly a milestone, but I ERd about 6 months ago and my portfolio has appreciated more than what my salary would have been for those 6 months. With all the talk about how devastating it is if your portfolio loses value in the first few years of ER, it makes me feel a lot better. But I also know not to expect this growth forever. Still, it is nice to start ER with a cushion.
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May i ask HOW you made any money in the last 6m:confused:?
 
Markola said:
DW and I are both suddenly experiencing FIRE milestones, and not the way we intended.
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Sorry to hear about the health problems. I hope you are both back to health soon and are able to step up your ER date.
 
Thanks for all of the kind comments above. There is a lot of expert food for thought from the unique perspective of this forum about the interplay of health/work/OMY. I suspect and hope we are the types who will pull the plug on w*%k as soon as viable rather than get lost in OMY Land, and that we'll use these episodes as motivation to FIRE. We've often used the wry and macabre motto for life's inevitable challenges, "What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger". Well, now that sh*t seems to be actually TRYING to kill us, we'll show it - initially by going on vacation for R&R somewhere fun just as soon as possible! Thanks.
 
Not a big milestone, but...

Just finished a great dinner my wife cooked, along with a nice bottle of wine.
We went out on our porch, looked at the 2000 foot mountain a mile away and just sat there and enjoyed the sunset,together. Life does not get better.
 
Very recently I have hit 25x current spending in investments. This isn't 25x one of my proposed retirement budgets, but 25x my current spending including mortgage payments, extra payments to principle on mortgage, eating out, traveling, etc. Basically what I spend without thinking about it. If I limit to my retirement budget, I'm at better than 33x, and if I pay off my house, I am at 40x expenses. I feel I am definitely FI, and now have started the OMY dance.
 
Downsizing: The Closing Chapter Is Almost Here!

Our family "dream home" is now under contract, I have received estimates from two moving companies, and am now looking for a company to stage my smallish tag sale. It looks like I'll be moving into my condo by the end of April. (Bought condo last fall, got it all spruced up with new paint and flooring, and have been moving stuff over there throughout the winter.)

So, it looks like my 14-month downsizing project (after DH passed away in Jan., '15) is reaching fruition.

I can almost taste the freedom of condo living...........

(And am thrilled that the young family buying my house loves it for same reasons DH, DS, and I did: 400 acres of parkland in the backyard for their 3 young children to play in, a large flat front yard, a safe neighborhood filled with kids, and a great town where they will only walk 1/2 mile to school, K-12.) DH would be so happy.

And I've thoroughly enjoyed writing those modest monthly checks for the HOA fees. "Life of Travel" here I come!!

:D:greetings10::D:greetings10:
 
LitGal said:
Our family "dream home" is now under contract, I have received estimates from two moving companies, and am now looking for a company to stage my smallish tag sale. It looks like I'll be moving into my condo by the end of April. (Bought condo last fall, got it all spruced up with new paint and flooring, and have been moving stuff over there throughout the winter.)



So, it looks like my 14-month downsizing project (after DH passed away in Jan., '15) is reaching fruition.



I can almost taste the freedom of condo living...........



(And am thrilled that the young family buying my house loves it for same reasons DH, DS, and I did: 400 acres of parkland in the backyard for their 3 young children to play in, a large flat front yard, a safe neighborhood filled with kids, and a great town where they will only walk 1/2 mile to school, K-12.) DH would be so happy.



And I've thoroughly enjoyed writing those modest monthly checks for the HOA fees. "Life of Travel" here I come!!



:D:greetings10::D:greetings10:
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That is very exciting news. Congrats!



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Got all the info loaded into Turbo Tax from last year (my first full year of retirement) and found that all is well. I won't need to worry about my income for the rest of my life. I learned the beauty of "qualified dividends" too, I vastly over estimated my federal liability which resulted in not having to make any estimated payments next year as well as getting a nice refund.

Yeah I know "thanks for the free dough", but hey I never did this before - :)
 
I am 42 and just retired. I beat my old friend who is 45. I pretty much don't feel like I am in retirement because I also just had a son who is taking all my time. We can't travel, can't enjoy dining, and can't enjoy a night out.

I was able to retired because my colleagues and I co-invented a prostate cancer drug and I still can't believe it's helping patients. That's an achievement that I never thought I would even be able to fathom it. My wife at 33 is also retired so we are both are home taking care of our infant.

Once he's a little older, we may begin to enjoy our retirement.

Best wishes to all the retirees out there!
 
Update

31 and recently hit 300k in NW. Mostly in equities and a bit of real estate equity. Not really close to FI, but happy with the accomplishment so far. Hoping it will start to accelerate a bit from here although I feel 500k is where it will really start to take off. Target is still 45 years old but I suppose if I can ramp up my income 40 might be possible in some capacity but I am not getting my hopes up at this point.
 
Trueace said:
31 and recently hit 300k in NW. Mostly in equities and a bit of real estate equity. Not really close to FI, but happy with the accomplishment so far. Hoping it will start to accelerate a bit from here although I feel 500k is where it will really start to take off. Target is still 45 years old but I suppose if I can ramp up my income 40 might be possible in some capacity but I am not getting my hopes up at this point.
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Keep at it, you are doing great.:dance:
 
LitGal said:
Our family "dream home" is now under contract, I have received estimates from two moving companies, and am now looking for a company to stage my smallish tag sale. It looks like I'll be moving into my condo by the end of April. (Bought condo last fall, got it all spruced up with new paint and flooring, and have been moving stuff over there throughout the winter.)

So, it looks like my 14-month downsizing project (after DH passed away in Jan., '15) is reaching fruition.

I can almost taste the freedom of condo living...........

(And am thrilled that the young family buying my house loves it for same reasons DH, DS, and I did: 400 acres of parkland in the backyard for their 3 young children to play in, a large flat front yard, a safe neighborhood filled with kids, and a great town where they will only walk 1/2 mile to school, K-12.) DH would be so happy.

And I've thoroughly enjoyed writing those modest monthly checks for the HOA fees. "Life of Travel" here I come!!

:D:greetings10::D:greetings10:
Click to expand...

Congrats LitGal! We love condo living and the "lock and leave" simplicity for travel. I'm happy for you!

SIS
 
ubringliten said:
I am 42 and just retired. I beat my old friend who is 45. I pretty much don't feel like I am in retirement because I also just had a son who is taking all my time. We can't travel, can't enjoy dining, and can't enjoy a night out.

I was able to retired because my colleagues and I co-invented a prostate cancer drug and I still can't believe it's helping patients. That's an achievement that I never thought I would even be able to fathom it. My wife at 33 is also retired so we are both are home taking care of our infant.

Once he's a little older, we may begin to enjoy our retirement.

Best wishes to all the retirees out there!
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Wow! Congratulations on your freedom to enjoy your family full-time, at such a young age! And thank you for inventing that drug. (Maybe we should regret that you retired..............if you had continued, maybe there were three or four other drugs you could have invented?)

But, yes, life is short. (And because my DH worked in the pharmaceutical industry, I know how long it can take to get a drug to market. So you are probably much happier not dealing with the FDA and the many steps in the process.)

Thanks for everything you did to fight prostate cancer.

Now, at least, you can stay home in the AM and enjoy your coffee (if you were up during the night with your son).

Enjoy!:flowers:
 
Coming up on 2 years of retirement and everything looks peachy. Got the taxes done and I have a good handle on my cash flow and know what that's all about.

The first year was all about consolidating investments and looking for my next wife. First wife died 5 years ago and about 4 years after that I thought I was ready for "dating"

So after consolidating 401K's and IRA's and diversifying equities and investing in municipal bonds for even more stability I calculated my net worth. that was about 20 months ago. Today a real estate agent stopped by to invite me to his "open house" just down the street. It's the same model house I own so I looked up the price and drug out the binder and did the net worth calculation and found that it was the same as the first time I did it. Cool.

I claimed on my deceased wife's social security account at 60 and it is just a small amount as she did not make as much dough as I. But it was more dough than I thought it was. It covers my health insurance, all the utilities, garbage & sewer, my premium TV, internet and home phone, my cell service and even the property taxes. More coolness.

After 2 "internet dating girlfriends" didn't work out so well I cancelled the subscriptions and just thought I'd cool it for a while. And then met this nice woman at the dog park. You know the old tale, you meet the best people when you're not looking for them. We will have been going for a year end of this month and are planning marriage in another year.

Life is good. Cash flow is good, net worth is good and it looks like I won't be living alone for the rest of my life either. Sweet - :)
 
RobbieB said:
Coming up on 2 years of retirement and everything looks peachy. Got the taxes done and I have a good handle on my cash flow and know what that's all about.

The first year was all about consolidating investments and looking for my next wife. First wife died 5 years ago and about 4 years after that I thought I was ready for "dating"

So after consolidating 401K's and IRA's and diversifying equities and investing in municipal bonds for even more stability I calculated my net worth. that was about 20 months ago. Today a real estate agent stopped by to invite me to his "open house" just down the street. It's the same model house I own so I looked up the price and drug out the binder and did the net worth calculation and found that it was the same as the first time I did it. Cool.

I claimed on my deceased wife's social security account at 60 and it is just a small amount as she did not make as much dough as I. But it was more dough than I thought it was. It covers my health insurance, all the utilities, garbage & sewer, my premium TV, internet and home phone, my cell service and even the property taxes. More coolness.

After 2 "internet dating girlfriends" didn't work out so well I cancelled the subscriptions and just thought I'd cool it for a while. And then met this nice woman at the dog park. You know the old tale, you meet the best people when you're not looking for them. We will have been going for a year end of this month and are planning marriage in another year.

Life is good. Cash flow is good, net worth is good and it looks like I won't be living alone for the rest of my life either. Sweet - :)
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Your story sounds close to mine. DW died well over 6 years ago. I'm coming up on 3 years of retirement. I don't have as good a handle on the cash flow though. Building a house and a son that stayed in college way too long has kept that area somewhat unknown. Finances are doing fine, though.

Congrats on your new relationship. I've been too busy building my home to try the dating thing. Who knows? Maybe there's hope for me in that department yet! :LOL:
 
Same here

So many similar stories. My wife died 10 years ago, and I continued working for something to do. I was active in a grief recovery chat room, and one of the widows there asked me where I lived.
It turned out we lived 40 miles apart, and agreed to meet to put a face with the name. Well, a year and a half later we were married on the Island of Santorini. I retired shortly thereafter.
To paraphrase Hermit:Life is good. Cash flow is good, net worth is good and I won't be living alone for the rest of my life either. Sweet
 
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