7 years FIRE'd

[Koolau]

How did you survive? Did you have a huge taxable account so you don't need to pull from your retirement portfolio?

That is a great story of history from some bad times. If I may ask, did you have to sell some of your investments or did you have enough cash to survive the storm?

One thing that helped was that we were still accustomed to living on the cheap since we had been committed to saving just a few years before.


In our case, we did have a decent back-stop of cash that we had other plans for but used to tide us over during the Great Recession. Additionally, we had a stash of precious metals that back-stopped us. Finally, we had a relatively low overall equities commitment in our AA so our paper losses seemed a bit more manageable. Hope we don't have to live through an '08 again! YMMV

 

[Koolau]

The title of the thread made me smile.

As of today I am "7 DAYS FIRE'd"

LOL.

Congrats on a great 7 years. I hope you have many more!

And congrats to you, Closet_Gamer. Trust me, 7 YEARS will go fast!

 

[marko]

I retired early in '08 just a few months before the big market crash. Now that was a pucker factor of an 11 out of 10.

I often mention here the story of my "smarter than you" neighbor who smugly and proudly announced that she "sold everything today!". That was the last Friday of February 2009. Nine days later, the market took off....

Having REd in 2005 we were a little nervous but held fast...with great results.

 

[rodi]

No, not a huge taxable account but I did have some and was able to avoid pulling from the retirement portfolio by starting SS at age 62 (Dec of '08). I'd planned to wait on SS but with the portfolio dropping every day I grabbed it at 62 like a drowning man clutching a life vest.

I remember reading of your thinking wrt taking SS early, and how it impacted your withdrawal rate. It is why I have internalized the motto of "be flexible" when it comes to things like when to take SS.

Plan is to take it when I'm 70. But my motto will apply if we have a big and extended downturn. Don't care how much the optimizing calculators and algorithms say there is a 'best time' to take SS... I'll be flexible and take it earlier if need be to ease the cash flow.

I'm also comfortable knowing we can pull in the purse strings if necessary. Did that in summer of 2015, and again in 2022... Didn't feel like blowing the dough when the portfolio was shrinking. 2015, only a year after I'd ER'd was especially nervewracking... We had a semi-skinny retirement and this mama got real tight on the budget. 2022, I was a little more relaxed, but still held back on some BTD type stuff.

 

[CardsFan]

We retired about a year before OP. Looking back, it might have been one of the all time best times to retire when considering SOR risk. After 8 years the pot is almost 50% more than retirement date

Wish I could take credit for being so "smart". Sometimes dumb luck works in your favor.

 

[Koolau]

We retired about a year before OP. Looking back, it might have been one of the all time best times to retire when considering SOR risk. After 8 years the pot is almost 50% more than retirement date

Wish I could take credit for being so "smart". Sometimes dumb luck works in your favor.

Not smart and not lucky, just staying invested. Perhaps disciplined would be a good word.

 

[camfused]

Congrats OP. I'll be 5 years FIREd next week. Other than marrying my DW, the best thing I ever did. My assets are up 25%, despite us spending all I wanted to.

 

[Al18]

Congrats on being retired 7 years. I just passed 5 years retired, and our Networth is also up 25%.

 

[Rustic23]

17 years in and doing well.

 

[Chillpingu]

Great to hear these experiences. I am 52 and hoping to retire at the end of the year but have been worried about the sequential risk especially given the historic stock market run over the last decade. Calming to hear how some of you managed thru the great recession.

 

[CardsFan]

Not smart and not lucky, just staying invested. Perhaps disciplined would be a good word.

Good point. Slow and steady wins the race? Well at least it does alright.

 

[swabby01]

Pulled the plug 5 years ago. Didn’t take SS until FRA+2. Have touched 401s or IRAs of for that matter investments. Wife worked until last year and that plus my pension covered all expenses plus some. Wife retired last June at 63 and she and I both took SS. The two SS together was more than her income so we are still great. Lucky to have a great pension which included Medicare supplement Part D. only hiccups the damn IRMAA which wasn’t in my plan. 5 more years and MD hits. What i could was mover to Roth but still going to have too much taxable

 

[ARW44]

Out since "02 !!!

Out since April Fool's Day, 2002 . ;-).


the joke is that they will pay me for the rest of my life! If I go to the plant area, I get lost! Too many new buildings where the parking lots were in the past. But they built a fence, so I can't even go in any more. What a shame!!!

 

[orbops]

Can you please share some the mistakes. I think it would helpful for me and others that is planning to retire very soon. Thanks

I will hit 7 years retired in Apr 2024. My portfolio is up 89% since I retired. I had 20% of the portfolio in non-retirement accounts, and the portfolio was 85/15 stocks to bonds.

Here are some of my mistakes:
* Using the IRA 60 day transfer rule to fund buying a new home and using the gain from the existing home sale. I panicked around day 50 since our home hadn't sold yet, so I ended up selling stocks to make sure I could cover the IRA transfer timeline - and took a huge capital gain that year. It turns out that the home sold just under 60 days, and would have returned the money by day 60.

* Going to a financial advisor with my wife a year ago. The advisor played off my wife's fears and tried to talk us into shifting our retirement funds into an annuity. We had a few arguments, and finally compromised that our 85/15 portfolio should drop to 70/30. No annuity, and no financial advisor!

* Trying to time the market downturn in 2022. I moved about 30% of retirement funds into cash sweep account, and waited a little long before reentering the market. I probably would be about 10% higher if I had done nothing.

* Holding onto some stocks way too long when they were tanking. I should have stuck to a stop loss order at 10-15% down. Stocks like TGT, TSLA, MRNA, ETSY were all down 40-80%. I still have them, and unfortunately I keep telling myself to hold them until they come back to break even.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

Does it feel like you turned back the clock like when you were in high school and middle school with no work?

 

[Andre1969]

"portfolio value increased after retiring". The last 15 years have been a great run in the stock market - I'm recently retired and concerned about what the next 15 will look like. Sequence of return risk is a big issue.

The next 15 years, specifically, will be hard to duplicate. We were in the throes of the Great Recession back in January 2009. And now, for the time being at least, the stock market is on top of the world. Or, close to it.

 

[bonvoyage]

It's exactly three years since I retired - Its been great for me too. My wife is still working so we haven't had to dip into retirement funds at all, in fact we are still accumulating. I thoroughly enjoy being retired while my wife enjoys her work - and all is well

 

[FedRetired50]

Ditto on that euphoric feeling as I walked out the door (the first time), but I knew I'd be back for a while. After OM(half)Y the second time I walked out the door was a bit more subdued since I knew it was for keeps. But no regrets!

 

[Happy30]

Congrats! I freed myself of the Golden Cuffs in early 2023 and could not be happier!

 

[cyber888]

Congrats ! I FIRed 6.5 months ago, and Net worth is up a little over 5%.
Feels great.