When do you feel comfortable declaring you've hit your number?

[Out-to-Lunch]

If only the OP had any interest in this thread, I might be willing to share my metrics with him/her. But the OP has not been seen in some time...

 

[Koolau]

If you've never read Lee Eisenberg's (2006) book "The Number" I highly recommend it. Mr Eisnberg looks at many different aspects of thinking about your retirement nestegg. Mr Eisenberg was executive editor at Esquire magazine (among other things) so he knows how to write a relevant and entertaining dialog. Every year or three I dig it out of my stack and re-read it for the knowledge and entertainment value.

And I couldn't help notice that it's available for close to nothing (used) on Amazon (plus shipping)

https://www.amazon.com/Number-What-Need-Rest-Your/dp/0743270320

Yes, I too enjoyed that book immensely. He has a good writing style. Read it AFTER I FIRE'd so more of a confirmation to me. One of the chapters discussed the concept of levels of wealth - a subject that comes up here from time to time. Don't recall the details, but Eisenberg gave a back-of-the-envelope definition of middle class to rich (I recall he included at least 2 houses in different areas PLUS net-jets travel for "rich.") The details elude me so YMMV. Well worth a read though the actual numbers have likely changed due to inflation.

 

[jeroly]

If I had known what I know now back when I FIREd, I might still be working twenty years later. ;-)

I didn't consider sequence of returns risk. This was back before all the FIRE blogs and calculators were available (the retirement calculators mostly findable back then used simplistic assumptions).

I just figured that since the market retured 10% on average, 7% after inflation, I could be conservative and FIRE when I hit a NW that would sustain my desired spending at a 6% WR.

Well, if it wasn't for a variety of lucky financial events (e.g. forced to exercise my stock options on termination at their absolute peak price, getting super conservative for the first two years of my retirement hence selling high in 2000 and buying back in low in 2002, getting involved in projects that preoccupied me so I never touched my investments in 2008 and then riding the bull with 100% stocks until 2018) I would've been crushed by SORR.

If I were doing it over again I'd have wanted a WR of about 3.5% and maintained a 70/30 AA. I would factor in 75% of my estimated social security benefit assuming no future earnings. I'd calculate healthcare expenses based on ACA premiums without subsidies for retirement years before 65.

 

[Koolau]

If I had known what I know now back when I FIREd, I might still be working twenty years later. ;-)

I didn't consider sequence of returns risk. This was back before all the FIRE blogs and calculators were available (the retirement calculators mostly findable back then used simplistic assumptions).

I just figured that since the market retured 10% on average, 7% after inflation, I could be conservative and FIRE when I hit a NW that would sustain my desired spending at a 6% WR.

Well, if it wasn't for a variety of lucky financial events (e.g. forced to exercise my stock options on termination at their absolute peak price, getting super conservative for the first two years of my retirement hence selling high in 2000 and buying back in low in 2002, getting involved in projects that preoccupied me so I never touched my investments in 2008 and then riding the bull with 100% stocks until 2018) I would've been crushed by SORR.

If I were doing it over again I'd have wanted a WR of about 3.5% and maintained a 70/30 AA. I would factor in 75% of my estimated social security benefit assuming no future earnings. I'd calculate healthcare expenses based on ACA premiums without subsidies for retirement years before 65.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm old enough to remember the TV show "The Naked City." The last line each week was: "There are 8 millions stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." Not sure how many folks we have here on ER Community - not quite 8 million yet - but all the stories are unique - and interesting.