Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020

[kevdude]

Five years ago yesterday I left my job at 49 for a life of semi-retirement. We have a number of rental properties and I now just focus on those. Prior to my "retirement" DW pretty much managed them, so I basically fired her. When we don't have a vacancy to turn over, I put in about 10-15 hours/month. I just looked at our monthly P & L's and our rents are up $6800/month since I left work. Our net worth has also climbed from approximately $1.8 mil to just over $4mil. As most of our assets are in RE, this is due to a very generous rental market in the Seattle area.

We still have kids in school (soph in high school and 7th grader), so we are still tethered to home. When school is out, we do quite a bit of traveling with the kids. The plan at this time is to sell everything around the time I turn 60 and the kids are gone.

 

[Huston55]

Congrats! Sounds like landlording is working well for you.

 

[karen1972]

YEH, I lost my first $100K.. I think part of FIRE milestones is that you can lose what I would consider a significant amount and still be fine with it.

In January I touched the $1.3M mark and thought I'm finally edging towards an amount where even in a downturn it's likely I wouldn't go under a million, obviously time with tell but mentally it felt good. I had crossed the million mark a few times in both directions, so crossing the $1.25M mark in both directions I guess was just a right of passage, MILESTONE achieved

 

[mrfeh]

YEH, I lost my first $100K.. I think part of FIRE milestones is that you can lose what I would consider a significant amount and still be fine with it.

In January I touched the $1.3M mark and thought I'm finally edging towards an amount where even in a downturn it's likely I wouldn't go under a million, obviously time with tell but mentally it felt good. I had crossed the million mark a few times in both directions, so crossing the $1.25M mark in both directions I guess was just a right of passage, MILESTONE achieved

I imagine we had our 2 largest portfolio dollar declines this week - $50K on Monday and $40K yesterday.

I understand where you're coming from; the decrease in value really doesn't bother me. Over the last year, our portfolio blew through 4 $100K increments without retracing, which is very unusual. We've given back a couple over the last week, which is probably healthy for the market.

 

[scrabbler1]

YEH, I lost my first $100K.. I think part of FIRE milestones is that you can lose what I would consider a significant amount and still be fine with it.

In January I touched the $1.3M mark and thought I'm finally edging towards an amount where even in a downturn it's likely I wouldn't go under a million, obviously time with tell but mentally it felt good. I had crossed the million mark a few times in both directions, so crossing the $1.25M mark in both directions I guess was just a right of passage, MILESTONE achieved

I have had a few $100k increments I have crossed in both directions in the last 9 years since I ERed. The $1.3M mark has been my busiest, too. Just using monthly snapshots, I first crossed going up in May of 2014. I fell below it in September of 2015 before rising above it again a month later. In December of 2015, I fell below it again, dropping under $1.25M briefly in February of 2016 before quickly rebounding above $1.3M a month later. That's a lot of bouncing around before a steady rise in 2016 and 2017 got me over $1.5M. Now I am suddenly below $1.5M again, down about 3 Corollas as I described in another post.

 

[Carpediem]

There must be something about that $1.3M mark. It seemed like it took us forever to go over it and when we finally did, we zoomed up to the almost $1.4M mark. Then, the market laughed and said, "I giveth and I taketh away" and we fell below $1.3M. We're teetering on the edge of $1.3M now.

 

[Markola]

Share your FIRE Milestones

One breakthrough lately has been finding a retirement calculator/planner that I actually enjoy using, Personal Capital - Retirement Planner. It inputs all of my existing finances into a modern interface automatically, then it uses Monte Carlo simulations and lets me play endlessly with all kinds of what-ifs. The scenario I like best has DW and me FIREing in 2021

 

[ears20]

Today I have my last, final performance review. I hope it’s good only because my bonus depends on it, but in reality...I couldn’t care less. The discussion about goals for this next year will go in one ear and out the other. [emoji846]

 

[iloveyoga]

Today I have my last, final performance review. I hope it’s good only because my bonus depends on it, but in reality...I couldn’t care less. The discussion about goals for this next year will go in one ear and out the other. [emoji846]

This would have to be one of the biggest things I don't miss!! Receiving, writing, giving, all aspects of performance review. We always did a whole thing of goal setting, oh don't miss that either!!! Today's goal - go to yoga and lounge around!

 

[beeboy]

There must be something about that $1.3M mark. It seemed like it took us forever to go over it and when we finally did, we zoomed up to the almost $1.4M mark. Then, the market laughed and said, "I giveth and I taketh away" and we fell below $1.3M. We're teetering on the edge of $1.3M now.

I was in the same boat as you these past few days. But, I just checked today and I'm back over $1.4M as of this afternoon. I'm also 70% to my mid-level FIRE goal of $2M (1.75M on the lower side, 2.25/2.5 on the higher side).

 

[scrabbler1]

I'm back over $1.5M again. Carpediem, looks like the market giveth back again!

 

[Dtail]

I'm back over $1.5M again. Carpediem, looks like the market giveth back again!

Back over 1.7m today. Would like to get to 2m in the future.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Sharing a milestone today with all my fellow retirees and those wannabe's. 30 years ago today was my last day of work with mega corp. The official date of retirement was 5-1-88 but I got to add on my six weeks of vacation so I walked out 30 years ago today. Funny, but I haven't missed it one bit.

 

[Dtail]

Sharing a milestone today with all my fellow retirees and those wannabe's. 30 years ago today was my last day of work with mega corp. The official date of retirement was 5-1-88 but I got to add on my six weeks of vacation so I walked out 30 years ago today. Funny, but I haven't missed it one bit.

Nice to hear for us newbie retirees. Any financial words of wisdom from someone who has experienced retirement longer than most on this site?

 

[GravitySucks]

I turned 59 and a half.
Look out IRA funds!

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Thanks for the reply Dtail. No real words of wisdom from this lucky guy. That's what I was to be able to retire at 51 with a defined benefit pension and a buyout. The most luck of all was having good genes. Health is everything. Whatever is in second place is a long way behind. I never was an investor other than my 401K. Can't help you there. My only claim to early retirement was good luck and good genes.

 

[Dtail]

Thanks JOHNNIE66. Had a buyout myself, but just good for 1 year. lol
I agree with your health comment. No amount of money can make up for bad health.
Have good genes in my family. We shall see.

 

[Markola]

DW’s bucket overfloweth and her last day is Friday. She plans to take the spring and summer off before exploring her next move, if any, at age 55. It’s nice to have options, thanks to decades of savings.

 

[retired1]

DW’s bucket overfloweth and her last day is Friday. She plans to take the spring and summer off before exploring her next move, if any, at age 55. It’s nice to have options, thanks to decades of savings.

Congrats to both of you !! Decades of savings is the key.... Good Job !

 

[Markola]

Congrats to both of you !! Decades of savings is the key.... Good Job !

Thank you! We just returned from looking at our new plot at the community garden. I bet she spends a lot of time there this summer.

 

[HighOnLife]

My monthly expense varies depending on how I calculate it (do I include collecting firearms and travel, or just overhead?) but my basic cost of living is 1,000/month.

I'll be transferring about 330k from stocks and CDs into a single-state municipal bond fund that will pay a current tax-free dividend of just over $1k/month, and plan to never touch it. The money already exists elsewhere in my portfolio, and when not paying dividends, it's clocking in at around $1260 in monthly withdrawals at 100% success rate until I'm 80 on c fire sim.

Does this mean I am financially independent?

The next income milestone to reach will be 1600/mo, which includes business expenses that are incurred when my business income peaks, in effect taking care of itself. 2k/mo just translates into smart security, and at 3-5k/mo I might as well retire. But 1k is the critical number.

 

[rodi]

HighOnLife - congrats on reaching this milestone. As you pointed out you'll probably need more to account for inflation unless these bonds are TIPs. But it's a great thing to get income streams set up.

 

[DrRoy]

I passed 1 year RE on March 31. Lots of travel and photos. Ready to start year 2!
.

 

[Dtail]

I passed 1 year RE on March 31. Lots of travel and photos. Ready to start year 2!
.

I love looking at your pictures. Thanks for sharing and congrats. 8 months for me.

 

[Rowej]

NW just went over $2M last week. Then I realized that I had double counted one of DW's accounts so now back at $1.92. But for a few days in my mind we were multimillionaires!

More importantly, I have driven home from work in the dark for the last time! 160 days to go...

We just passed the $2mm net worth on Friday with the help of our Bonuses. Jumped straight to $2.1mm including our home equity and two rentals. We are 70% to goal before retiring. Continuing to pay down home at the rate of 60k per year and should have paid off in 7 years. Then can seriously think of retirement. Plan is to sell everything, buy a boat to live and travel on for a minimum of 2years. We can’t wait!