Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020

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ER_Hopeful said:
did a tally today, $1.005 mil. I'm officially a millionaire :dance: Took 13 years, wished I'd been more aggressive early on and ditch the target funds, then I'd have made it sooner. Oh, well, hindsight is 20/20. Have a few more years to go so now I'm shooting for 1.5 mil.
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Yay, that is a great feeling. Congrats!
 
I have gotten back to the $1.6M level for the first time since February although I am not quite at my peak of $1.65M at the end of 2019.
 
Congratulations, Scrabbler! I just popped the $1.9M mark, myself, a few days ago. This is the 4th time I've done it though, so it does lose its charm after awhile :p

The other three times were:
1) July 2018 (but then I put a big down payment on a house, which knocked me down to $1.766M at the end of September)
2) November 2019 (stayed above it, peaked around $2.048M on 2/19/20, but then it fell)
3) 3/4/20: hit $1.902M in a brief fit of optimism, when it looked like COVID-19 might be a bit overblown. By 3/23/20 I was down about $540K.

So, hopefully, the 4th time will be a charm!
 
I think we're at an all-time high now; I believe that once before the pandemic dip that we had hit $2.7M(liquid)/$3.2M(NW), but we are solidly back past that minor milestone! :dance::dance::dance:
 
No More Mortgage

Last house payment went out today.


I could have paid it off many years ago, but it was "cheap money", so made the standard loan payments, no more.


It's the first time in 35 years that I haven't had a mortgage payment.
 
Retired 3 years now. Best decision we ever made. Only negative in the 3 years is the virus.
 
The Cosmic Avenger said:
Congratulations on giving yourself a raise! ;)
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Thanks. Yeah, the line on the long-term cash flow plan graph is angled down less now; I'll need to "go to the well" very infrequently, especially now, when I'm prevented from spending on travel.
 
sengsational said:
Last house payment went out today.


I could have paid it off many years ago, but it was "cheap money", so made the standard loan payments, no more.


It's the first time in 35 years that I haven't had a mortgage payment.
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That is awesome!

It must feel really good but like you said, you could of paid it off years ago. That is the big difference, and a lot of people don't have that option.

I haven't had a house payment in 35 years. I built it and paid it off a few years later.
 
sengsational said:
Last house payment went out today.


I could have paid it off many years ago, but it was "cheap money", so made the standard loan payments, no more.


It's the first time in 35 years that I haven't had a mortgage payment.
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Congrats! Since I posted our doing this just a couple of weeks ago, I know how you feel!
 
I think the market finally pushed my portfolio to reach the revised number that I have been targeting: a comfortable budget with 3% SWR, a $200K account payable to my younger son upon my death, and a $100K sinking fund ($40K for a new car, $20K for house renovation, and $40K for two son's weddings).

Since I am not working and not getting paid during the summer months, it feels like retirement. I will be planning my full retirement more seriously after the pandemic if I am still alive. A major activity in retirement that I cannot do with a teaching job is extensive overseas travel, which is impossible now. I also need to convince my wife to quit her job and leave her friends to travel with me.

I put a note here so that I can come back in the future to see if my situations change.
 
Almost hit $650k NW last week (age 33).

Assets
$160k cash
$340k investments
$255k townhouse
$50k cars

Liabilities
$164k mortgage

Still debating on the mortgage. Currently on a 15-year @ 3.25% and am torn between trying to pay off ASAP vs refinancing to a 30-year (at lower than 3.25%) and plowing every dollar into our taxable account.
 
Great job sergio! I think the mortgage question becomes more of a personal preference rather than a financial decision. I can say paying off the mortgage and having zero debt was a great feeling. But at 3.25% that is cheap money and building up cash/investments will give you financial flexibility in the future.

Also, keep in mind that many people who consider early retirement want to build taxable accounts so they have a financial bridge between their age of retirement until they can access tax advantaged retirement accounts penalty free. Whatever you decide I’m sure you’ll be successful financially with the great start you’ve already accomplished. Good luck!
 
The recent market melt up has pushed my retirement accounts north of $2.5M for the first time. Using my planned 3% SWR, I feel FI although Mr. Market feels frothy.

In 11 months at age 55, I’ll qualify for heavily subsidized employer sponsored health insurance-my only form of golden handcuffs. At that point, I suspect I’ll develop a case of OMY syndrome and seek therapy unless there is a vaccine.
 
At some point around the beginning of this year, I passed the $1M mark, which was a big milestone for me. I went a little over that point, before the market took a dive. I generally don't check my account balances when the market is going down so, as a result, have not logged into my brokerage account since February 20th. Now that the indices are close to even, I'm thinking I should log in again. 6 months is rather a long time to go without logging in at least briefly. I've been playing a game of "one more day" with myself when trying to decide at what point I should check account balances once more. I'm not really that bothered but, on the other hand, it's probably a good idea to log in at least a few times a year.

I may do it tomorrow. I've got this little game going on in my head so that if, when I log in again, my account balance is <$1M, I have lost. OTOH, if it is >$1M the next time I check in, I have won. It's a bit silly really :LOL:

EDIT - I just realized that the jobs report is coming out on Friday, so decided to check my balances before the market drops then, which I assume it will - at least temporarily. Luckily, I'm at $1.018M, so I win my personal head game. w00t! If the market embarks on a protracted downturn in the near future, I can at least bask in the knowledge that I was a millionaire on at least 2 occasions :D
 
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I passed one of the self-identified round numbers this week that co-workers sometimes call their "bug out" number. I had been using Firecalc, and a target WD rate of 3.5% and could see that I am in shape to pay myself at a rate somewhat higher than my current salary on a 35 year term (to age 90, DW age 92). All things looking good.

Then I read FVFIRE's note above and thought 3%? That puts me at slightly BELOW my current salary... should I be thinking about a different round number? I am still targeting FIRE by October, but you guys make a guy rethink his plans just about once a week...
 
KarlH said:
I passed one of the self-identified round numbers this week that co-workers sometimes call their "bug out" number. I had been using Firecalc, and a target WD rate of 3.5% and could see that I am in shape to pay myself at a rate somewhat higher than my current salary on a 35 year term (to age 90, DW age 92). All things looking good.

Then I read FVFIRE's note above and thought 3%? That puts me at slightly BELOW my current salary... should I be thinking about a different round number? I am still targeting FIRE by October, but you guys make a guy rethink his plans just about once a week...
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3.5% WR historically speaking has never failed for a 30 year retirement with a 50/50 or 60/40 AA as an example.
Yes, you are looking at 35 years and perhaps could be longer.
I personally would not work X number of more years just to get it down from 3.5 to 3.0.
If you have a great handle on your expenses and includes a decent amount of discretionary expenses, you should be fine.
 
Dtail said:
3.5% WR historically speaking has never failed for a 30 year retirement with a 50/50 or 60/40 AA as an example.
Yes, you are looking at 35 years and perhaps could be longer.
I personally would not work X number of more years just to get it down from 3.5 to 3.0.
If you have a great handle on your expenses and includes a decent amount of discretionary expenses, you should be fine.
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Fair enough, but another angle worth considering is that at the higher WR's, there are some historical scenarios in which, although the portfolio survived, the value may have dipped to levels lower than some folk can stomach.

It's worth taking your own personal tolerance for volatility into account when attempting to plan a withdrawal strategy, IMO. We do all need to sleep well at night.
 
Major Tom said:
Fair enough, but another angle worth considering is that at the higher WR's, there are some historical scenarios in which, although the portfolio survived, the value may have dipped to levels lower than some folk can stomach.

It's worth taking your own personal tolerance for volatility into account when attempting to plan a withdrawal strategy, IMO. We do all need to sleep well at night.
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No disagreement there.
 
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