Route246
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2023
- Messages
- 678
I plan to retire at the end of Sept 2025, leaving behind a career in engineering that has been fulfilling, prosperous and productive. That said, being on this long glide path (I have told nobody at work about my plan) is causing me to cherish all of positives and negatives of corporate life and I feel I'm working harder than ever before on a few projects that are going to have significant impacts long after I retire.
I am actively planning for next October, shopping for a home, researching amateur radio antennas and towers, pondering a new project car, lining up architects and remodeling contractors for the next home and mostly trying to assure that I will be busy and occupied with fun projects and challenges and only answering to the wife instead of a corporate hierarchy. The home purchase is an asset allocation play, the amateur radio antenna and tower is something I've wanted to do since I was licensed but never had the funds or space to do it right. Amateur radio can be much like photography where your glass (lenses) means far more than the camera body with your antenna farm being the most important part and the radios as just along for the ride. My current shack setup is compromised in so many ways and the next shack will have no compromises, operating off-grid and able to work all corners of the earth.
We always lived far below our means and I continue to live that way with a few exceptions like splurging on accommodations when appropriate and class of service when appropriate.
Regarding finances and our family trust, I have the CPA and trust attorney working hard on our tax planning and trust updates as things have changed since we setup the original trust. I think we have the Medicare plans dialed in, the number of assets in our brokerage accounts is down in low single digits in terms of line items on our statements. I pulled out some statements from the dot-com era and it is crazy how many stocks and funds I was holding in those days. By this time next year, Vanguard will be down to two stocks and one fund, Schwab will be down to one stock and Fidelity will be down to one fund. I have a love-hate relationship with taxes but simplifying the brokerate accounts did come at a high price tax-wise it sure looks pretty when I look at the statements and they are so simple.
The only thing we need to spend more time on is our death book. It is getting there but still is missing many contingencies to make it easier for our trustee and heirs to figure out stuff out. Our wishes are coming around (which charities get how much, etc.) and how assets will be distributed.
Being an adult orphan and I also lost my only sibling last year I feel at peace with planning contingencies for my own early demise if I happen to be so unfortunate. My wife knows where all the accounts are, knows which numbers to call and has all of the passwords to our accounts. I told her she will be a wealthy widow if I croak and ask her seriously to think about what her plans are if she is widowed and I told her I do the same thing. Our adult children are taken care of but they are not getting the bulk of our wealth as they know the score and not waiting for mom and dad to die the way some of their friends are. They are off to good starts in life and hopefully will be independent, prosperous and self-made the way mom and dad were. We started with very little and spent our entire marriage living like the millionaire next door. Hopefully, we have instilled some of that mindset in them but you never know.
Many thanks to this forum for all of the feedback, opinions, ideas and reassurance that FI is possible if you really want it and you get a little lucky along the way.
I am actively planning for next October, shopping for a home, researching amateur radio antennas and towers, pondering a new project car, lining up architects and remodeling contractors for the next home and mostly trying to assure that I will be busy and occupied with fun projects and challenges and only answering to the wife instead of a corporate hierarchy. The home purchase is an asset allocation play, the amateur radio antenna and tower is something I've wanted to do since I was licensed but never had the funds or space to do it right. Amateur radio can be much like photography where your glass (lenses) means far more than the camera body with your antenna farm being the most important part and the radios as just along for the ride. My current shack setup is compromised in so many ways and the next shack will have no compromises, operating off-grid and able to work all corners of the earth.
We always lived far below our means and I continue to live that way with a few exceptions like splurging on accommodations when appropriate and class of service when appropriate.
Regarding finances and our family trust, I have the CPA and trust attorney working hard on our tax planning and trust updates as things have changed since we setup the original trust. I think we have the Medicare plans dialed in, the number of assets in our brokerage accounts is down in low single digits in terms of line items on our statements. I pulled out some statements from the dot-com era and it is crazy how many stocks and funds I was holding in those days. By this time next year, Vanguard will be down to two stocks and one fund, Schwab will be down to one stock and Fidelity will be down to one fund. I have a love-hate relationship with taxes but simplifying the brokerate accounts did come at a high price tax-wise it sure looks pretty when I look at the statements and they are so simple.
The only thing we need to spend more time on is our death book. It is getting there but still is missing many contingencies to make it easier for our trustee and heirs to figure out stuff out. Our wishes are coming around (which charities get how much, etc.) and how assets will be distributed.
Being an adult orphan and I also lost my only sibling last year I feel at peace with planning contingencies for my own early demise if I happen to be so unfortunate. My wife knows where all the accounts are, knows which numbers to call and has all of the passwords to our accounts. I told her she will be a wealthy widow if I croak and ask her seriously to think about what her plans are if she is widowed and I told her I do the same thing. Our adult children are taken care of but they are not getting the bulk of our wealth as they know the score and not waiting for mom and dad to die the way some of their friends are. They are off to good starts in life and hopefully will be independent, prosperous and self-made the way mom and dad were. We started with very little and spent our entire marriage living like the millionaire next door. Hopefully, we have instilled some of that mindset in them but you never know.
Many thanks to this forum for all of the feedback, opinions, ideas and reassurance that FI is possible if you really want it and you get a little lucky along the way.
). Glad you found a satisfactory path! 
