Share your FIRE Milestones - 2013- 2020

[FIREd]

Celebrate a new milestone on your journey to FIRE with us! Did you just pay off your mortgage, reach financial independence, or pass a nice round number on your way to FI? Tell us of your accomplishments here!

 

[cons]

Due to the recent increase in the market (and our aggressive savings plan), we recently passed the 500k mark in retirement assets (401k, IRAs, taxable accounts). DCAing 100k this year into the accounts and for each of the remainder 15 years. January of 2028 is when we plan to be FIREd. I'm 32 and spouse is 28, three kids, and a mortgage. Plan to have mortgage and college paid for by the time we FIRE.

ed

 

[David1961]

Not sure if this is exactly a milestone, but I ERd about 6 months ago and my portfolio has appreciated more than what my salary would have been for those 6 months. With all the talk about how devastating it is if your portfolio loses value in the first few years of ER, it makes me feel a lot better. But I also know not to expect this growth forever. Still, it is nice to start ER with a cushion.

 

[floridanurse]

Funny this came up, last week we reached $100k.

I was just thinking of what my next milestone is. Maybe $250k.

What's funny is that as we accumulate, I keep thinking its just not that much. When I started saving I remember thinking, "man, if I had 100k. Wow... ". Back then it seemed like a lot.

I wonder if when we reach $1M... will it also be "not enough" in my mind. Anyway didn't mean to hijack the topic, so back to it...

$100k. Woohoo

 

[sengsational]

I was more of a regular here about a year ago, and only recently have come back. I'd run firecalc before and didn't really get the news I was looking for. But last time I ran it, none of the lines went below zero!

 

[psyprof]

Just hit $250k. I'm 46 and looking to save between $1M and $2M before I FIRE. Hope the market continues to cooperate.

 

[tinlizzy]

I ended last year hitting an ER milestone of 500K saved and here it is only March and the total has swelled to 560K. Amazing how big the numbers get! I'm 45 with a FIRE hope of 2020 - 7 years

AND I only have 2 months of college tuition payments left before my son graduates and he already has a job lined up!

Feels like smooth sailing for me and that all my hard work has paid off.

 

[Calico]

I have two countdown clocks on the bookcase next to me. One shows the number of days remaining until the mortgage is paid off, and the other shows the number of days remaining until my retirement date.

Tonight the mortgage countdown clock reads 1,200 days. A nice round number!

I guess my next milestone will be in 201 days, when it drops to triple digits.

 

[traineeinvestor]

Milestones:

1. net worth exceeding USD1 million - this one was so good I passed it a few times from both directions

2. making partner - the jump in income put me on track to retire in my early 40s

3. having children - the jump in expenses put me on track to retire in my fifties ... if I was lucky ...

4. watching the FIRECalc success rate marching upwards in sync with my own spreadsheet and telling us that we were good to go ... but then falling victim to one more year syndrome

5. telling my firm that I am leaving

194 days to go!

Hoping the stock market will have a major downward move between now and the end of September when I FIRE and get my capital back.

Eight years to go on the mortgage and no plans to pay it off early unless interest rates start rising.

 

[ejman]

Started collecting SS! (turned 62 a little while ago)

 

[RobLJ]

1.2k portfolio and 1.5 networth.
Getting close to FIRE.

 

[obgyn65]

I guess I have reached a few milestones. Getting my 40 quarters of SS contributions a few months ago was big from a financial security feeling standpoint (not sure why because my retirement income will come mostly from my savings). However, topping 3,000 patients in third world countries and 1,000+ undocumented / uninsured patients here has been very, very big in my heart. This is one of the reasons why I wish to FIRE.

Like many here, watching my NW grow is nice but secondary.

 

[racy]

We paid off the mortgage yesterday! We started making big extra payments January 2010 on our 5.25% loan to get rid of the mortgage at my retirement. We didn't reduce our monthly expenses however: we've lost the mortgage payment but replaced it with a health care premium that's the same amount of money....

 

[Grigori]

Obama was re-elected in November, 2012 so retirement may be possible with HI

Estimated post ER income from portfolio withdrawals exceeded average base expenses for the first time in August 2012 !

 

[Calico]

We paid off the mortgage yesterday! We started making big extra payments January 2010 on our 5.25% loan to get rid of the mortgage at my retirement. We didn't reduce our monthly expenses however: we've lost the mortgage payment but replaced it with a health care premium that's the same amount of money....

Congratulations!!

 

[Dawg52]

Due to the recent increase in the market (and our aggressive savings plan), we recently passed the 500k mark in retirement assets (401k, IRAs, taxable accounts). DCAing 100k this year into the accounts and for each of the remainder 15 years. January of 2028 is when we plan to be FIREd. I'm 32 and spouse is 28, three kids, and a mortgage. Plan to have mortgage and college paid for by the time we FIRE.

ed

That is outstanding for your age. You are well on your way to ER.

No major milestones as of late for me. My 6th year anniversary date is at the end of this month and I am still alive. So that's not all bad.

 

[truenorth418]

At age 36 set a goal to have $1M investable assets by 45. Achieved at 43.

Reached financial independence at age 47, same year I was laid off by megacorp. Decided to early retire at that point.

At the end of this month will have been retired for 18 months. Will turn 49 in April.

 

[David1961]

1. net worth exceeding USD1 million - this one was so good I passed it a few times from both directions

The exact same thing happened to me! Guess we had the pleasure of experiencing that milestone several times!!

 

[foxfirev5]

In the last few years DW and I hit most of our milestones. Last kid through college in '07, House paid off in '08, turned 55 in '11 -eligible for paltry pension & retiree health, hit our number in '13. Now I'm just waiting for an early out program or a rough patch at work to pull the plug.

 

[Andre1969]

One goal I had set for myself was that, once I broke the $800K barrier, I was going to start paying down the mortgage a bit more aggressively. Well, I broke it back in January.

Back in September, I had my mortgage paid down to about $143,700. But then, I bought a new truck, and used home equity for $18,000 of that. Mortgage peaked at around $161,500. However, I now have it down to around $132K.

And, my portfolio is still (barely) over $800K!

Another thing I'm doing this year is using money from my wages to fund my Roth IRA. Last year, I simply used money from an after-tax account to fund it, so that really didn't add to my overall portfolio, but simply shifted money.

And, with the 401k limit rising to $17,500 this year, I made sure to adjust things so I hit that max. This may be the last year I max out my 401k though. I'll still do at least enough to do the company match, but I think I'm getting to the point that I have too much in retirement accounts (401Ks, Rollover IRAs, Roth IRA) but not enough in after-tax accounts. And if I want to retire before I'm 50 (I'm about to turn 43, but and shooting for 46-47, depending on how the market does), I might want to boost after-tax a bit.

 

[knucklehead 61]

passed the 3m nw mark last year, hovering around 3.3m now.
bought 2 rental houses for cash that will net about 18k / yr when rented.
refi our home for 3.00% for 7 years fixed.
refi'ed a few rentals between 3.75-4.25% for better cashflow.
in contract to buy 2 more rentals that will net about 12k / yr when rented.
counting down the days till i pull the plug in 3.75 years.

 

[brett]

I have three. The first was reaching the age of 55 with my employer. It allowed me the option of receiving my DB pension at 62 instead of 65 with no penalty. The second was excercising my significant dollar value stock options near the top of the market....a year later they would have been worthless. The third was getting a buyout package from my employer at age 59.

These three allowed me become FIRE.

 

[HighRoller]

I wonder if when we reach $1M... will it also be "not enough" in my mind.

Probably, as they say, the first million is the hardest (it was for me anyway) but then I wanted more. (a lot more). When I finally reached my target number, I retired. As for milestones, I've been retired for one full year now.

 

[yakers]

Anti Milestone?

Maybe a sort of anti milestone, one night in the cardiac ward in Oct 07 led me to take a small buyout in 08. Figured whatever I had would have to be enough. Fortunately various calculations agreed that I had enough, solved the issues about wanting more and the 'one more year' syndrome.

 

[Calgary_Girl]

NW is at an all-time high of $1.76 million. Retirement and taxable accounts are also at an all-time high of $1.17 million. DH and I are 42 and 40, respectively.