hit FI then long RE?

[livingalmostlarge]

Did anyone hit FI like 10 years before RE? What made you do it? Why didn't you pull the trigger? What did you do with all the excess money? Did you work just because? How did you end up pulling trigger? Was it sooner than you expected or later?

I think that's where we are. I think we hit FI this weekend and we're done. Now DH isn't ready to RE and unwilling to really discuss it. In fact our conversation was like this

Mr LAL "what do we need to RE? "
LAL "$X minimum, $Y extra secure"
Mr LAL "okay we're done"
LAL "Well then what are you going to do?"
Mr LAL "nothing I'm working until I die."
LAL "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Mr LAL "i like what I do. I'm fine, just wanted to know we're solid. Let's talk after the kids finish school."
LAL "2034? That was the plan and now you're saying we're done. But you want to stick to 2034?"
Mr LAL "yes. What will do we do in RE?"
LAL "travel, whatever we want."
Mr LAL "sounds miserable. I'd rather work".

FI = enough to cover our living expenses at a 3% WR. for us that the $X, the $Y is more like 1% WR.

[Alex The Great]

How do you define FI? I believe it is a subjective number. Some people believe >4% WR would be fine, others are waiting for it to be 1%. RE is certain, but FI is not.

[pacergal]

If you are at your predetermined "$Y extra secure" figure, there is no reason why you couldn't retire and let DH continue to work if that is where he is comfortable.
A few years in, when he sees you having all the fun and no stress and finances are doing well, he may change his mind.

We retired at 60, not early in age, but about 5 years sooner than we thought we would.

[Car-Guy]

Depends on what your (my) definition of FI is...

If I wanted to just "get by" I probably could have retired at 45 to 48... Comfortable at 50 to 52, Fat Fire at 55 to57, greedy fire ~60.

I was just over 60

Why, greed!

[tb001]

DH and I were a bit like that. I very much wanted to minimize our lifestyle so we could hit our X earlier. DH did not. When we hit our x he decided he wanted more. So now I’m retired and he’s hobby working.

I’m sure part of him would prefer me working and contributing to ‘more’ but I’m so, so much happier now. And our lives are just so much easier having taken one high octane career off the table. I’ve had head hunters contact me for a couple of high profile positions. I’ve interviewed and while DH initially gets excited, each time, midway through the process he’s realized how much better off we are with me not working. It’s been an interesting evolution.

There’s no reason you have to retire at the same time. If you’ve hit your ‘X’ and it’s based on a solid assessment of spend, be done.

[harley]

DW and I were FI (hit our number) about 5 years before we RE'd. But back in those days, pre-ACA, I wanted to keep working until I qualified for retiree health benefits. Due to pre-existing conditions it would have been fairly prohibitively expensive to self insure. I was able to volunteer for a force reduction which allowed me to leave a couple of years before I ordinarily would have, and waiting until age 50 it wasn't to much of a sacrifice. The extra 5 years of being FI allowed me to blow off a lot of the political BS. Some might have said my attitude was bad, but I was doing good work, so who cared?

[Sunset]

OP - Do you have extra already saved for the kids education ?

If you are retiring before age 60, I'd want to be incredibly sure about the numbers, because I met a couple once that retired early, and after 10 yrs, were looking for work

[bada bing]

I dunno about younger retirees in their 40's. I do know that as you approach 60, there is a big acceleration in FI progress. This is due to the combination of additional savings, market returns, apporoaching safe harbor of SS and medicare and especially the diminishing years left to finance. I had "my number" at around 58 and 2.5X "my number" when I hung it up just before 62. It doesn't take long to really blow past minimum FI as you age. I would have had to really love my job to stay 10 years past minimum FI.

[DrRoy]

We were probably there about 4 years before RE. I had a plan to wait until my pension was maxed out (due to age @ 58), and DW definitely not ready to give up the paycheck. We gained another 60% in NW during that time, which then made it easy.

[WhenIsItTime]

Can’t imagine there are too many jobs better than freedom.

I get asked a lot “are you staying busy”. Live to work or work to live?

[RAE]

Would DH be okay with it if you retired and he kept working? Sounds to me like that is a reasonable solution here. I realize you won't be able to travel together and things like that, but it would free you up to pursue lots of other things (that may be of more interest to you than continuing at your job). DH, on the other hand, sounds like someone who is going to be content to stay at his job for a long time. If his job makes him happy, then he should probably keep working.........he'd just be bored and frustrated if he retired earlier than he was ready.

[Andre1969]

I think sometimes you don't realize you're FI, until a few years after the fact. The market goes up and down, and with it, your portfolio balance. But then, once you get past that uncertainty, it's easy to look back and play Monday Morning Quarterback.

For instance, I have a feeling that I'm going to look back, and realize that I could have retired in 2018. I had just paid off my mortgage, and was close to what I thought was my number. But, I wanted to move, to a nicer house. I figured if nothing else, I'd work until I at least got a new house, and the mortgage secured and such.

Well, the economy tanked in late 2018, although it bounced back pretty quickly in 2019. Then we had the COVID turmoil in 2020, although that was an admittedly quick recovery as well. Right now, my investible assets are about $550K higher than they were, right after I bought the house. By working, I've probably put an extra $60K into my 401k in that timeframe. So, back that out if I had retired back then, I'd still be up $490k.

I'm tend to use $80K per year as a rough estimate of what I think my withdrawal rate will be, although I'm sure it'll be nowhere near that high. But, I'm going to use $50K, as that's about what my take home pay would be, if you also added in what health insurance would be if I had to fund it all myself. So, say I've kept from withdrawing $150K, by continuing to work.

That would still put me up around $340K, above where I was in 2018. Of course, this is still a bit simplistic, as it doesn't take into account gains from that $60K that never got invested, and the $150K that got pulled out. But still, I have a feeling 2018 could have been my year.

Anyway, at this point I'm just sort of taking it week by week. I think I'm suffering a bit from inertia, analysis paralysis, fear of moving forward, whatever you want to call it. I've also been working from home now, since March of 2020, with no timeline for returning to the office. So, working from home definitely makes dealing with the job easier. Some days it feels like I'm stuck in limbo, between working and being retired, but it still beats the heck out of going to the office 5 days per week!

[Mook1e]

I didn't realize we were SI when I retired from the military, and we want(ed) to wait until our kids were out of High School before deciding when to RE. We're looking at 49 1/2 in Dec 2023. If I am working somewhere I love, we may wait even longer. It really depends on our view of how "free" we are when the time comes. It sounds like the same for your DH. If DH 'wants' to work, let him. RE is about doing what you 'want' to do and not what you 'have' to do to achieve and maintain FI.

[Markola]

+1, why not let each member of the couple do what makes them happiest? Also, things change. I’m in my mid 50s and notice that most all people my age at least mutter about desiring retirement, though DW and I are the only ones who have done it.

[scrabbler1]

I ERed a few years before I thought I'd be able to, mainly because the value of my company stock exploded beyond how I thought it could. Back in 2001 (when I turned 38), I thought I'd be able to ER around age 50. But the company stock exploded and hit my "number" by 2008, enabling me to ER at age 45. At the same time, in 2008, the price of the targeted bond fund I would use when I cashed out the stock began to drop, further accelerating my FIRE plan. This means I got out when I could best "sell high" and "buy low" at the same time.

[old medic]

I hit my 100% pension nearly 3 years ago, and could have made it work. I continued to work for the extra padding of 401,pension and paying stuff off. Will be retired at 58, and waiting on the DW to catch up in about 5 years... Or She may RE with reduced pension
New to the letting my money make me money game and trying to learn.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andre1969 I think sometimes you don't realize you're FI, until a few years after the fact. The market goes up and down, and with it, your portfolio balance. But then, once you get past that uncertainty, it's easy to look back and play Monday Morning Quarterback. ...

After we retired, we realized we could have retired 2 yrs earlier, we just didn't have a handle on expense knowledge.

[OldShooter]

This is not a financial question to be dealt with using data and logic. This is a relationship question where data and logic are nearly irrelevant.

[Whisper66]

Wife and I are single income family. We hit FI when I was 50 yrs old. I really enjoyed my work and the people I worked with so had no plans to retire. Wife wanted to set a retirement plan sooner rather than later. We compromised on a plan for me to retire at 58. When I was almost 55, wife had a serious medical issue that made me rethink my retirement plan. My job had recently changed and had become less fulfilling. I was pushing to make things better but knew it would take a couple years. So the decision was easy. Retired immediately at 55 and was glad I did. Yes, we have more money now than we really need but that's a "first world problem" as they say.
If your husband loves his work and doesn't see anything he wants to do in retirement, I suspect you will be much happier with him working. I loved my work and really didn't want the job to change. Would have loved working happily until 58 as we planned.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by livingalmostlarge Mr LAL "nothing I'm working until I die." LAL "What the hell is wrong with you?" Mr LAL "i like what I do. I'm fine, just wanted to know we're solid. Let's talk after the kids finish school." LAL "2034? That was the plan and now you're saying we're done. But you want to stick to 2034?" Mr LAL "yes. What will do we do in RE?" LAL "travel, whatever we want." Mr LAL "sounds miserable. I'd rather work".

Maybe you could make a tentative plan of what you could both do if you were retired, try it on vacation time and see what he thinks? When we were first off one day we went to the Asian Art Museum on a free library pass and another day we had a picnic lunch at Fisherman's Wharf watching the sea lions and had discount tickets for a rocket boat ride which was a blast. We decided then that, yeah, this being off during the week was really going to work out great and we didn't have to spend a fortune to have fun. DH especially got a kick out of going home on the train with all the commuters who had been at work that day. But then he worked for a pay check, not because he loved his job.