I've been a long-time member here and have learned from, and taken action on, some of the advice I've gleaned from the many posts I've read here and other sites.
I'm working in corporate America in an industry that has become morally repugnant to me. IMO, much of our economy is based on morally questionable activities (extraction - oil, gas, mining - corporate farming, insurance, prison industrial complex, plastics, general consumer marketing, importing cheap products using cheap 3rd world labor . . . pick your poison).
I'm expecting to be laid off or moved to another division of the company I'm working for within 6 months. This company move towards lay off, or a different division, may be the push I need to finally quit the corporate world. I'm Posting here as I've been the 3rd party beneficiary of some great advice from this Early-Retirement.org crowd.
I'm 50 and my DW is 54. We have one kid starting college in 2023 and another in 2026. We live in Wisconsin.
I'd like to "retire" in 2023.
Assets:
Taxable stock market based - $1,450,000.00
Alternatives (private real estate lps, crowd funded real estate, debt funds) - $1,600,000.00
Crypto - $130,000.00
Cash - $175,000.00
Personal Investment Real Estate - $600,000.00
Personal Home - $650,000.00
Debts:
$80,000.00 mortgage for personal Investment Real Estate
$220,000.00 mortgage personal home
Net worth is roughly $4,300,000.00.
My wife and I are both driving old beater cars. I am expecting to have roughly $120,000.00 in cost to get new cars for us sometime in the next year. I've driven my current 2006 F150 truck for 260,000 miles, my wife's station wagon is a 2003 model with 300,000 miles on it. I expect the next vehicles we buy will last us another 20 years i.e. the way we treat our vehicles we may never need to buy another.
My other big known expense is college tuition. I expect to have expenses of around $400,000.00 over the next 8 years paying for their college/university degrees.
Total known big expenses of roughly $500,000.00 over the next few years.
Our budget for daily life (including health insurance) is roughly $90,000.00 per year.
So, my costs over the next decade are roughly $1,400,000.00 to live, buy vehicles and put two kids through college.
Current annual Revenue:
DW small parttime business - $25,000.00
Personal Investment Real Estate - $25,000.00
My corporate job - $100,000.00
FIRE calc says I've got enough to retire, but the big expenses (cars and college) have me spooked.
I've read the experiences from some similar profiles who seem to have successfully "retired". I don't think I'm going to completely quit earning money, but, I'd like to feel confident that I can quit if I want to.
What am I forgetting?
Thanks much!