Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020

[scrabbler1]

This week, we hit a bunch of milestones on the way to fire: (1) sold our house and closed escrow, (2) the house sale pushed our net investable assets over 2m, (3) I gave my notice and should be a full time slacker in 2 weeks.

That's a lot of biggies in a short time. I guess this makes you jobless and homeless but very rich at the same time?

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

This week, we hit a bunch of milestones on the way to fire: (1) sold our house and closed escrow, (2) the house sale pushed our net investable assets over 2m, (3) I gave my notice and should be a full time slacker in 2 weeks.

You beat your goal by well over a year! Nicely done.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/have-camera-will-travel-hello-from-ca-50671.html

 

[photoguy]

Thanks for the comments. Selling our house was such a big relief as we had some foundation issues and it worried me to no end that it would cause problems with the sale. We had a number of repairs done but still I never knew how buyers might view the issue.

We won't be homeless for another month as we've done a rent back. So this gives us time to pack up and move (we'll be visiting the mother-in-law for a bit).

 

[Sea Kayaker]

2M net worth acheived a few weeks ago. Still working though.

 

[Aspire]

I'm in the process of having some problems with the house fixed. I don't only need to reach a financial target - I need loose ends like that tied up as well, before I will be able to count it. We had serious problems with water ingress, and were worried about ever being able to sell the house in the future, but luckily it is proving easier to fix than we feared.

 

[Sesq]

Crossed the 1M net worth threshold when my company stock vested. It was a windfall amount, so once everything is converted to cash I plan to take out the mortgage, so that milestone is next.

 

[pjm-7]

Sold a stock mutual fund that I've had for about 20 years. Deposited the check and moved some cash. Next week I get the pay-off number for the mortgage. I will wire funds to be totally mortgage free by the end of the week. Yeah!! Getting close to my FIRE date. (really close).

 

[obgyn65]

Share your FIRE Milestones

Reaching a major financial milestone today. I realized last week that with this month salary, I could drop my theoretical SWR to 1% for the next 50 years and still live below my means. Not sure how to celebrate.

 

[Hermit]

Reaching a major financial milestone today. I realized last week that with this month salary, I could drop my theoretical SWR to 1% for the next 50 years and still live below my means. Not sure how to celebrate.

Gee, I don't know, maybe you could FIRE or something

 

[obgyn65]

Easier said than done. But asking myself the same question everyday.

Gee, I don't know, maybe you could FIRE or something

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Reaching a major financial milestone today. I realized last week that with this month salary, I could drop my theoretical SWR to 1% for the next 50 years and still live below my means. Not sure how to celebrate.

What about taking a little vacation? No work, no volunteering, just do something pleasant for yourself, even for a few days.

 

[mrfeh]

reached my number!

Three or four years ago, I made a retirement goal in mint. I no longer remember my methodology for determining that number!

As of yesterday we hit that number. I realize it's completely arbitrary, but it still feels good!

Planning on pulling the plug in 24 months...

 

[Andre1969]

Yesterday I finally popped the $950K barrier, in investable assets. So $1M is just a stone's throw away!

In my case though, it's really not a very important number. I probably would have crossed the $1M mark awhile ago, but last year I started cashing out some profits and paid down the mortgage. But, even though I *could* have crossed that threshold awhile ago, this was the first time my spreadsheet showed $950K+ on it, so I'm happy!

 

[photoguy]

Easier said than done. But asking myself the same question everyday.

Are you hanging on for logistical reasons or is it OMY syndrome?

 

[Tyrobi]

Our networth finally crosses the $400k mark this month.

After college graduation, it took us 5 long years just to reach $100k net worth. Then it took us another 2 full years to reach $200k. To get to $300k only took about a year and half. The last $100k jump only takes exactly 1 year to push us into $400k mark.

I can really see the power of saving and compounding, and I hope this trend continues until we FIRE.

 

[Andre1969]

I can really see the power of saving and compounding, and I hope this trend continues until we FIRE.

Congratulations on that milestone! I remember hitting $400K, and it definitely felt like a big deal to me! And, with saving and compounding, I think you'll find those $100K intervals will get shorter and shorter.

I've been keeping track of my progress, and the intervals went something like this:

0-100K: 71 months (recovered from a bad divorce, bought a brand-new car, phased out a second job, tech burst and 9/11 tragedy were all in this timeframe)
100K-200K: 16 months (sold a condo, so that helped a bit)
200K-300K: 16 months
300K-400K: 12 months
400K-500K: 28 months (the Great Recession caused some problems there)
500K-600K: 10 months
600K-700K: 14 months (2011 was a flat year for me)
700K-800K: 13 months
800K-900K: 8 months.

As I mentioned earlier, I started paying down my mortgage, so if I hadn't done that, I would have hit $900K sooner, and possibly even $1M by now. But, early in 2013, if my investable assets hit a new month-end high, then the beginning of the following month, I'd cash out $10K and use it to pay down the mortgage. I did this five times, total. I think I did it a couple times before I broke $800K, and a few times after. I'm sure that if I hadn't taken that $50K, plus potential gains off the table, I'd be over the $1M mark by now.

Keep up the good work, and let us know when $500K comes around!

 

[robnplunder]

0-100K: 71 months (recovered from a bad divorce, bought a brand-new car, phased out a second job, tech burst and 9/11 tragedy were all in this timeframe)
100K-200K: 16 months (sold a condo, so that helped a bit)
200K-300K: 16 months
300K-400K: 12 months
400K-500K: 28 months (the Great Recession caused some problems there)
500K-600K: 10 months
600K-700K: 14 months (2011 was a flat year for me)
700K-800K: 13 months
800K-900K: 8 months.

Interesting data, thanks for sharing. My number says I am on $120K increment per year pace based on 10 year performance chart of all my mutual funds. $2M is my next major milestone and hoping it happens this year.

 

[Sesq]

I'll play (my back records are a bit spotty), retirement accounts only, I have company stock in taxable but that has been dedicated to the mortgage (almost dead), cars, projects, life.

0-100K: roughly 80 months
100K-200K: 30 months
200K-300K: 46 month (2008 was a huge factor)
300K-400K: 21 months
400K-500K: 9 months
500K-600K: 7 months

I am feeling a bit bewildered by the last couple years, in a good way.

 

[FIREd]

That's what the trend looked like for me:

 

[scrabbler1]

Okay, I'll play.

0-100K: roughly 117 months
100K-200K: 30 months
200K-300K: 24 months
300K-400K: 21 months
400K-500K: 27 months (2001-2002 downturn)
500K-600K: 12 months
600K-700K: 9 months
700K-800K: 9 months
800K-900K: 9 months (company stock exploded from 500k to 900k)
900K-1M: 45 months (this included the 2008 crash and my ER)
1M-1.1M: 18 months (ER slows growth but still faster than first 500k!)
1.1M-1.2M: 18 months

 

[obgyn65]

Share your FIRE Milestones

What do you mean exactly by "logistical reasons" in my situation ? In any case, I think I suffer from a severe case of OMY syndrome. It's not easy to let go of the status, more money, and opportunities that come with it. Ant that is the honest truth.

Are you hanging on for logistical reasons or is it OMY syndrome?

 

[Hermit]

What do you mean exactly by "logistical reasons" in my situation ? In any case, I think I suffer from a severe case of OMY syndrome. It's not easy to let go of the status, more money, and opportunities that come with it. Ant that is the honest truth.

Sounds like there are some things about your j*b that you really enjoy. Why not scale back the hours to where you are totally comfortable and enjoy a bit of both worlds?

 

[Options]

Milestone: Bit the bullet, dropped $200 for ESplanner, glad I did. Confirmed what I've been suspecting: I've been overly conservative with my estimates. Good to know. ESP is my last of 5 (or 6?) calculators I've used. Wanted the confirmation I'm on track and now glad I have it!

 

[photoguy]

What do you mean exactly by "logistical reasons" in my situation ? In any case, I think I suffer from a severe case of OMY syndrome. It's not easy to let go of the status, more money, and opportunities that come with it. Ant that is the honest truth.

Sorry I wasn't more clear. Basically I just mean things like waiting for pensions/stocks/ss to vest, waiting to sell a home because the best time is in summer, or you have a big project you want to see to completion at work.

I usually suffer from double guessing myself which could have easily lead to OMY. So I find it really strange that I didn't really have many OMY thoughts. One trick I've found is to take small steps that would be uncomfortable for me to back out (e.g., letting family know that we're going to pull the plug and pay them an extended visit -- I don't want to let them down).

 

[Huston55]

Milestone: Bit the bullet, dropped $200 for ESplanner, glad I did. Confirmed what I've been suspecting: I've been overly conservative with my estimates. Good to know. ESP is my last of 5 (or 6?) calculators I've used. Wanted the confirmation I'm on track and now glad I have it!

Can you expand on the differences btwn ESPlanner and other calculators, and why they're more conservative? I use Fido's RIP and FIRECalc primarily, and am interested in the basis of the differences you describe.