wingfooted
Recycles dryer sheets
Filed 2013 taxes yesterday and took quite a hit due to ST capital gains and dividends.
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.
This month we cut our recurring business and personal expenses by $2.5K a year. Over a potential 50 year retirement that could mean ~$125K less in total retirement funding needed.
We ditched most of the cable TV bill and renegotiated the Internet rate, canceled monthly credit monitoring, started getting free music and videos from Freegal through the library, canceled the Netflix DVDs by mail no one was watching, bought our own Internet modem, found it cheaper to buy dog food online, bought a rice cooker that steams veggies and meat at the same time it cooks the rice, replaced the washer with a lower energy and water usage model and a bunch of other little changes that all added up.
I am early in the FIRE preparation cycle. DW and myself have done a bunch of things this month. Found this site, introduced ourselves a couple of days ago. Put together our first detailed look at our expenses and were pleasantly surprised how we have been able to LBYM and save. Used firecalc to see where we are at and again were pleasantly surprised by a 100% success rate with the data listed. That was without including SS or Liquidating some physical assets we really don't care about that will further pad our nest egg. Next steps will be reducing expenses using strategies similar to those listed by daylatedollarshort and RetiredAndFree. Realistically we might be able to FIRE now but are not quite ready yet. Guessing class of 2016 or 2017. Wow, just started seriously thinking about FIRE a couple of months ago. Knowing that we can do it soon is such a comfort.
A big plus with cutting expenses is it may mean less retirement account drawdowns needed or longer periods of being able to live on after tax money, which can mean a low taxable income resulting in very low or zero state and federal income taxes, and maybe even refundable tax credits. Even in California. We've cut tens of thousands off our annual expenses as well as our taxes, and still live in the same house, and actually have nicer cars (just more reliable and better MPG ones).
A lot of the cuts we made were not things that really impacted our lifestyle, like raising our insurance deductibles and ditching an old energy hog plasma TV for a newer, energy efficient model and finding out the library has free passes to plays, museums and many of the local tourist attractions. We weren't as frugal as we thought we were before we started seriously considering ER, so we had a lot of unnecessary expenses to cut. So far about 100+ different expense reductions from $10 a year to a few thousand each really added up.
+1
And the "found" savings continue even three years later, primarily because we have the time to notice rate increases and look for ways to lessen the impact. At this point, most of the savings are used to bump up other discretionary accounts within the budget, as we have no real need to spend less on an annual basis.
Portfolio finally hit above the 1,000,000 today. A milestone for the day!
Portfolio finally hit above the 1,000,000 today. A milestone for the day!
Portfolio finally hit above the 1,000,000 today. A milestone for the day!
Net worth finally crested $2M today. My wife and I are both age 49, so feel good about hitting a major milestone earlier rather than later. We'll keep working several more years then take advantage of semi-retirement by age 55. Definitely a sense of satisfaction getting to this point!
Net worth finally crested $2M today. My wife and I are both age 49, so feel good about hitting a major milestone earlier rather than later. We'll keep working several more years then take advantage of semi-retirement by age 55. Definitely a sense of satisfaction getting to this point!
700k liquid reached. For me a milestone as this is 1/2 way to FIRE as far as I can tell. Hope to get to $1.4Mil in approx 6 years!