Share Your FIRE Milestones - 2021

[Lawrencewendall]

May not last long but investable assets hit 900k. Double comma is on the horizon!
Dividends are 22% higher than withdrawals so that is good.

[cyber888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrencewendall May not last long but investable assets hit 900k. Double comma is on the horizon! Dividends are 22% higher than withdrawals so that is good.

Congrats! Good achievement. It took a couple of months for my 900k to hit 1 mil investible assets. Last month, I hit the double-comma target, and now up another 30K+... So I hope it stays above double coma.

[Lawrencewendall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyber888 Congrats! Good achievement. It took a couple of months for my 900k to hit 1 mil investible assets. Last month, I hit the double-comma target, and now up another 30K+... So I hope it stays above double coma.

Not sure this bubble can hold up but I'll ride it for what's it worth. Congrats!!

[PageTwo]

Savings crossed the 2.9 M mark yesterday. Just 4 months ago when I wrote my intro post on this forum, I reported 2.6 M in savings This bubble is crazy for sure but it does provide incredible motivation and reassurance going into pulling the plug in a month! Those 300K are the equivalent of about 5 years of living expenses for me.

Can't wait for the 3M mark. *That* will be quite the psychological booster.

[cyber888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrencewendall Not sure this bubble can hold up but I'll ride it for what's it worth. Congrats!!

I'm going to ride it till next year before I rebalance a bit.

[rwdflynavy]

Crossed $900K in investments in August. Looking forward to the double comma club soon.

[tb001]

We crossed a zero last week. It feels very unreal. It gives us a lot more flexibility than we had when we initially made our decision to pull the plug—the extra breathing room is nice!

[FLSUnFIRE]

I just hit an 850 out of 850 credit score (probably could have done it a bit sooner but float on 0% CC so my utilization rate can get high on specific cards...right now the balance is low enough on my one 0% card that it didn't drag me down). Funny that my best score is a month after I FIREd!

[targatom2019]

Daughter just started Kaiser CRNA School(Nurse Anthesis) and investment portfolio is now little over 5M.

[1242Vintage]

For the last 1/2 dozen years of my career I was chasing one last promotion, to the highest technical level in my organization. Wanted to achieve that before retiring. I had been passed over a couple times, which hurt, but kept trying. Finally got it in 2019.

Unfortunately in my new position my days (and nights) were filled with project financial issues, low employee morale and employee lawsuits, cranky politicians and dealing with the extremely well-connected and entitled political elite. Worst position I ever had.

Retired May 1, 2020.

[Alectoris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by targatom2019 Daughter just started Kaiser CRNA School(Nurse Anthesis) and investment portfolio is now little over 5M.

I have a special place in my world for the CRNA people. Tell your daughter to go forth and be strong although I'm sure that she has seen her share of stuff given the requirements to get in to a CRNA program.

[thevagabond]

The most memorable one was getting the statements to my credit cards and my prior student loans and they were all at 0. It had been a struggle. I had no idea how people were seemingly passing me up, but in 7 years of work, I'd finally made it to the "starting line"



I put on the late great Tom Petty's then newest song, simply for the phrase:



I got someone who loves me tonight
I got over a thousand dollars in the bank
And I'm all right
Look deep in the eyes of love
Look deep in the eyes of love
And find out what you were looking for



I had a celebratory bit of wine out on the modest back deck of my rented space in Chicago and thought to myself....my check is mine now...and so is my future.



I then transferred out to California on what was to be a turnaround for two years. The Recession hit so I stayed and found my eventual wife. As housing kept dropping further and further and further, I began to figure out what it would take to buy one. I used those credit cards again, this time at 0%, to put money in the banks for the 6 months needed....it kept my spending in check as I reverted to my old ways. In March of 2009, I realized the stock market was too cheap....either the world was going to end or things would improve so I dumped the money into the markets.



Things were soon going well....Very well. I met some people and they talked about options...and more specifically options on triple witching days. My favorite stock to trade was CME. On that Friday I saw it trading high. I was already up a massive $1400 that day and thought....ok, I'm going to gamble $1000 on it. I bought 100 puts at .10 each. Within an hour, the stock price began to tank heavily. At the end of the day, each was $2 in the money. I learned a couple of things that day. 1 contract is = 100 shares, not a share. Also, you don't just get the difference at the end of Friday. Instead, on Saturday you sell your shares. So come Saturday, my account sold 10,000 shares of CME that I didn't own at $230 each. $2.3M, along with every trading violation known to man, came into my account that day. On Sunday, the government announced the bail-out of the financial sector. On Monday, I lost my entire account plus a massive debit to be repaid that far exceeded my student loans at their largest.



That was also a memorable, and tough day.



I began making payments, tiny ones, that may have just paid off my debit balance by the time I died. I learned the debit wasn't on my credit. My credit was still stellar. I spoke to an attorney, and yes, if I purchased a home and made payments on all for 2 years, I could potentially push myself into bankruptcy.



So I bought a modest condo, but I realized even at 15 years, it wasn't enough to bankrupt me. So I bought a home, and rented the condo out....but then I got a better job. So I bought another home once at the new job. I was putting every dollar to work, to try and get too much leverage. I figured out short sales and had initially bid with the selling agents for a bunch and the started to come through. I was distraught as I learned that it wasn't total real estate, it had to be in one, and prices were going up so that even with my shenanigans I didn't see any way of acquiring more. I managed to eventually settle the debt for less and was worried I was finished for life. Still, it seemed terrible. Now I had a ton of debt of my own doing and while the rents covered the payments, I had far more debt than I would have preferred. I finally took a ride down to Los Angeles to see an old friend. I'd gotten so tunnel visioned.


He introduced me to Zillow. He laughed and called me the dumbest smart guy he knew. We made a balance sheet, only we put the properties in at the FMV. They had appreciated tremendously. He said...you're not broke....you're a millionaire, you just don't have any cash.



Within a year I had all of the credit cards paid. Then the 401K borrowing. Then the mortgages started to go. 1 x 1. Rents were rising through the roof even though I was far behind the rates (as I didn't raise them). A real stock portfolio bloomed.



Current NW is at $3M made two weeks ago. Better lucky than smart.

[targatom2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alectoris I have a special place in my world for the CRNA people. Tell your daughter to go forth and be strong although I'm sure that she has seen her share of stuff given the requirements to get in to a CRNA program.

Thank you, the perquisite and preparation to get into CRNA school was extremely tough and very competitive in California specially the Kaiser program.

[Extra Medium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by targatom2019 Thank you, the perquisite and preparation to get into CRNA school was extremely tough and very competitive in California specially the Kaiser program.

I too have a soft spot in my heart for the CRNAs in my life. I'm an ortho physician assistant, and see them as my colleagues. I try to look out for my newbies just out of school and let them know about Mr. Money Mustache, Physician on Fire, Your Money or Your Life, and the JLCollins NH stock series, so they don't have to learn as many mistakes as I did myself. I realize that they may still need to learn from life, but want to make sure they have had at least one "old mentor" looking out for them, letting them know what's possible.

Good luck to your girl, and tell her to keep her head down and get through it. It's tough training, but they wouldn't have let her in if she didn't have what it takes to make it.

[skyking1]

We had an appointment with a BECU Investment Services advisor. First we were dealing with a mature MYGA.
Second and the milestone part:
DW has been listening to me wax poetic about our financial ability to retire, and wanted a second opinion
Our advisor ran the numbers through her tools, and came up with 990/1000 with the 5/2023 target date.
We chatted some more, talked about other scenarios.
She dialed back our risk to 20% from the reality of about 50%. Same results.
Then I suggested she run the numbers with 1/2022 as the target date. Same result, 990/1000
Finally she swatted it with an additional 25K/year spend at the front for 10 years, AND reduced the risk from 50% to 20%, and it dropped to a 67% confidence rate.
DW is beginning to believe!

[mebden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyking1 We had an appointment with a BECU Investment Services advisor. First we were dealing with a mature MYGA. Second and the milestone part: DW has been listening to me wax poetic about our financial ability to retire, and wanted a second opinion Our advisor ran the numbers through her tools, and came up with 990/1000 with the 5/2023 target date. We chatted some more, talked about other scenarios. She dialed back our risk to 20% from the reality of about 50%. Same results. Then I suggested she run the numbers with 1/2022 as the target date. Same result, 990/1000 Finally she swatted it with an additional 25K/year spend at the front for 10 years, AND reduced the risk from 50% to 20%, and it dropped to a 67% confidence rate. DW is beginning to believe!

Hey skyking we have no idea if you have enough to retire as you never gave any of your numbers here so you will have to go by what ever the financial guru says i guess

[skyking1]

I don't need to share that. The milestone was my wife is coming around to what I already know. I have ran it all through firecalc and several other cool calculators, many times over.

[Cassius King]

We made it financially to where my wife's salary covers all bills and expenses. We'll be able to invest/save my entire salary.
This also relieves some of the stress of my current toxic work environment. I can walk away at any time knowing everything is covered. I enjoy what I do, but the people are getting worse by the day.
Cheers!

[skyking1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassius King We made it financially to where my wife's salary covers all bills and expenses. We'll be able to invest/save my entire salary. This also relieves some of the stress of my current toxic work environment. I can walk away at any time knowing everything is covered. I enjoy what I do, but the people are getting worse by the day. Cheers!

Congrats! It is easier to take knowing you are set that way. We are in that same boat, maxing out her 403b contribution her remaining salary still covers the bills comfortably and my wages are all getting invested.

[nash031]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassius King We made it financially to where my wife's salary covers all bills and expenses. We'll be able to invest/save my entire salary.

This is a good one... Congratulations to you!

With the business my wife and I started (she works in it primarily while I do my contracting job) flourishing, we are at the point where I could walk away and we wouldn't have to touch our savings until she decides to shut the business down... and we could probably save money still.

At this point, I continue going to work because I can't stay home with the kids all day!