Share Your FIRE Milestones - 2021

[stlguy57]

I walked out the retirement door at 58 on 12/31/2015 with 2.43M in our portfolio. Husband retired at 56 in 12/31/2016. In Dec., the portfolio was at 5.2M. I never expected it.

Maybe could have gone sooner but no one can predict the future.

[NJSail]

I announced to my biz partners I will be retiring in summer of 2023. I'll be 59 1/2 at that time. We will be selling the primary house, and moving to our home on the coast. Sale will pay off the mortgage balance and hopefully let us buy a boat. None of my prior biz partners ever retired before 65 , so I think the group was shocked. Love it!
Good yr last year - market assets up 31%.

[Maidensong]

If you've got your plan mapped out, and you reach your $ goal, don't be afraid to pull the trigger.

My DH retired six years ago at 60 (tried to opt out at 59, but Google didn't want to let him go!) Amazingly enough, our net worth has increased every year since 2015, even though we have been living on our savings and rentals and investments. We haven't been scrimping either. We completely remodeled our home (new kitchen, baths, flooring and repainted) and added a third garage. We spent about 150 days cruising prior to Covid and have pre-paid for a 122 day World Cruise leaving LA on Jan 10, 2022. On Friday, we'll sign the closing documents to buy a home for one of our daughters (the other one will inherit the one we live in.)

This year we are both finally on FRA SS and Medicare, so we'll be pulling less from our savings, investments and rentals. Having multiple streams of income to draw from has made all the difference. We have been incredibly blessed and the best part is my DH and I get to spend our days together, which is why we got married in the first place. Our life is finally our own and that's worth everything.

[NJSail]

Maidensong - Wow very cool for you two!
I know and I've debated that as well.One issue is my buy out is tied to company EBITDA, which just dropped over 30% this year. So, logically the best move is to delay for a year...but trust me I am considering exactly what you mentioned.
We are heavily into boating and a bigger buy out covers a bigger boat, etc..
Everything else is covered right now at about 28x expenses. We could live with our present boat - but we both want to cruise New England in style when we retire. I'm going to hang tough for another 2 years....I think... Totally agree on multiple streams of income.

Love hearing about your success ...makes me smile. Thx.

[Lienlord]

Hasn't happened yet, but just signed contract to sell our primary home and a commercial office duplex that sits behind it. We built this house 26 years ago, and the office duplex 20 years ago. My wife used one office space for her children's music studio all that time, until COVID influenced her decision to retire last August. Selling both to the same buyer, who plans to live in the house and use one of the offices for their business and rent out the other.
Our plans are to rent something for about a year, then look for something that fits our new empty nest needs. I'm sure others have gone through this, but trying to wrap our minds around the emotional aspects of selling the home you raised your family in. It's tough!

[NJSail]

Congrats Lienlord - Ain't easy. We downsized a year ago- stayed in the area and will until I retire. It was hard but our kids were supportive and that helped.

[ArmchairMillionaire23]

Hit 1.25M net worth (not including home value) as of this morning!

[walk]

On paper I've been above my FI number for over a week now, after first hitting it in December.

I don't feel FI. I'm far too young to retire. Also, the golden handcuffs of stock appreciation at my current job make it hard to consider leaving even to another company.

Those golden handcuffs will disappear one way or another, probably in fewer than two years. My next goals are:
- Move assets out of company stock into something more diversified (the tax hit is going to hurt...)
- For my next job, the people and the work should be a much higher priority than salary or "career"
- Check in with myself in five and ten years to make sure that I'm enjoying my work and, if not, do something about it
- Post-pandemic, I owe myself a vacation

[Letj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stlguy57 I walked out the retirement door at 58 on 12/31/2015 with 2.43M in our portfolio. Husband retired at 56 in 12/31/2016. In Dec., the portfolio was at 5.2M. I never expected it. Maybe could have gone sooner but no one can predict the future.

Just curious. Is this all from market appreciation or was there a windfall/contribution?

[stlguy57]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letj Just curious. Is this all from market appreciation or was there a windfall/contribution?

This is all market appreciation with no new funds since I'm retired. I'm an aggressive investor, with no bond exposure. I have one index fund (S&P fund) and a significant share of AAPL. I own both of these for the long term and do not trade them. I was up 29% in 2020.

[Letj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stlguy57 This is all market appreciation with no new funds since I'm retired. I'm an aggressive investor, with no bond exposure. I have one index fund (S&P fund) and a significant share of AAPL. I own both of these for the long term and do not trade them. I was up 29% in 2020.

That’s amazing. Congratulations! Getting lucky in the right stock would do it.

[RxMan]

I just realized I hit an unexpected financial milestone in 2020. The gains in my 401k plan outpaced my total salary for the year 2020 for the first time ever. Granted I make a lot less money than I did at my previous job 4 years ago but I’m still impressed.

My mind can’t process the idea that my money could be working to make more money for me than I can earn at a job. I sure do like the idea though!

[Alvin Tostig]

Just hit $3 million and if counting my house $3.5 million. I "retired" in June 2019 at age 63 (I'm still working maybe 8 - 10 hours a month as a consultant to my previous company...so in my mind I'm 99 percent retired).

So, in June 2019, my net worth was approximately $2.5 million without the house and $3 with the house. Amazing how much my net worth increased and I've actually left $ on the table as I gradually revised my AA from 65/35 to 45/55.

Never would have projected this....

[stlguy57]

Congrats Alvin. I've noticed the more the money grows, the faster it grows as well. Enjoy your retirement.

[Exchme]

Will be retiring within a month. Have been FI for a while but had a hard time believing it and my wife had an even harder time as I would get all wrapped up in fancy analyses and her eyes would glaze over. The analysis that finally convinced us was the simplest. I assumed no growth above inflation and found that even if we both lived to 95 years old, we would spend far less than what we have. Now it seems silly to have waited so long!

[slowsaver]

My investments just crossed $3M this week.

Two and a half years ago, they crossed $2M. Four years before that, I crossed $1M.

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowsaver My investments just crossed $3M this week. Two and a half years ago, they crossed $2M. Four years before that, I crossed $1M.

Congrats.
Looks like Slowsaver is speeding things up.

[ArmchairMillionaire23]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowsaver My investments just crossed $3M this week. Two and a half years ago, they crossed $2M. Four years before that, I crossed $1M.

Awesome! Congrats!

I just noticed that my previous employer 401(k) account has quadrupled in value. It had a balance of ~150K in 2010 and it's up to 634K as of this morning. I haven't contributed a penny since 2010. I did rebalance twice a year if the levels got too far out of whack. It was 100% stock index funds until a few years ago. I have since diversified to a 60/40 allocation and continue to rebalance twice a year if necessary or if my bond allocation goes below 35% or above 45%.

Vanguard says my rates of returns for that account are as follows:
1 year: 24.5%
3 year: 13.2%
5 year: 15.1%
10 year: 12.0%

I've been very fortunate.

Just goes to reinforce the power of compounding.

[KevinZ]

I will retire on April 1st (not a fool) and DW will do in June. Both at 60 years old.

[chicamuxen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinZ I will retire on April 1st (not a fool) and DW will do in June. Both at 60 years old.

Awesome. Congrats!