Another Newbie

[kumquat]

Hi, I'm Al

Like the rest of people who introduce themselves, I've been lurking here for a while. My story:

age: 56, married, independent kids
I think I have reached FI (1MM in DC pension, 1MM in taxed and untouched savings) thinking of ER, but 'what to do all day'

Also used to spending a lot. Last year about 100K including 35K for a new car.

Is my nest egg big enough. Do I care, I kinda like working, but I've been to too many funerals of 60ish friends this year.

What next, wait until someone pisses me off? Go for it? Ideas?

Thanks

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Is  my nest egg big enough.

Not to keep spending $100k a year, but I'd expect that your normal expenses might be in the $60k-65k range (excluding your new car), but $2MM still won't be enough to maintain that sort of spending level. 

Do I care, I kinda like working, but I've been to too many funerals of 60ish friends this year.

Question for you. Do you like working, or do you simply like the paycheck that comes from working in order to support your $100k/yr lifestyle? Would you do your job for free, or at a substantially reduced salary level? If not, then you like the paycheck more than you like working. The fact that you mentioned you've attended funerals of some 60ish friends this year leads me to believe that you're "stuck" between earning money to support your lifestyle on the one hand, and wanting to truly enjoy life on the off-chance that you'll end up like your recently-deceased friends in the near future.

What next, wait until someone pisses me off?  Go for it? Ideas?

Take a vacation to somewhere you can seriously think about what you want out of the next 20-30 years on Earth. Determine (or rediscover) what's important to you. Forget about the money for the time being, and concentrate on your emotional "wants" rather than your material "wants". You may find that the former greatly outweigh the latter.

 

[HFWR]

Do a realistic assessment/budget of how much you'll need to spend to live the life you want, multiply by 25, and see if that matches your portfolio amount...

Plus, do you have access to health insurance? A mortgage? Can you go part-time? Does your wife work? Is she on the same page regarding retirement?

 

[Nords]

Is  my nest egg big enough.  Do I care, I kinda like working, but I've been to too many funerals of 60ish friends this year.

Welcome to the board, Al.

Maybe you could use a little ER practice. Grab as many weeks as you can get-- a six-month sabbatical would be ideal-- and figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life.

Don't try to remodel the house, fix the yard, take the family on the fantasy vacation, or write the Great American Novel. Just get some extra rest, take some more exercise, give yourself & spouse plenty of quiet thinking & discussion time, and see what develops.

In a couple weeks you'll be better rested and much less stressed. In a month you'll be thinking much more clearly and you'll have found some of the answers. By the end of the sabbatical you'll either have figured it all out or at least worked through the scary stuff and learned what else needs more time. Part of this experience will be researching your realistic ER expenses and realizing that you either have enough or that you would prefer to have x more dollars.

Be ready for the shock of returning to work. You'll have developed new habits that will be hard to trade in for a commute, a structured workplace environment, and a boss. You'll have many outside interests and work will be a much lower priority. You may even find that you have no patience for the workplace, no matter how many more dollars you want to have in your portfolio. But at a minimum you'll have a target figure, a personal ER date, and an enigmatic smile on your face...

 

[kumquat]

Thanks for your insight, too many questions I can't answer, I guess. Some that I can include:

Question for you. Do you like working, or do you simply like the paycheck that comes from working in order to support your $100k/yr lifestyle?

Good question. I like the having a place to go in the moring. I like some of what I do when I get there: keeping up with technology, finding stupid things people do (I'm in audit), social aspects of working, like beer with the guys at end of day. Do it for free? Not for my current employer who can afford to pay top $, maybe for an NP organization.

I also expect that lifestyle is more like $50 -65K when employment related spending in removed. How travel etc. would increase it, I don't know.

Plus, do you have access to health insurance? A mortgage? Can you go part-time? Does your wife work? Is she on the same page regarding retirement?

No mortgage but then I live in a low housing cost area (paid for house worth maybe $250 - 300K). Health insurance: I'm in Canada so gov't stuff is pretty good & would be beefed up by employer to pretty good standards for maybe $1K/year. Wife retired when first kid was born 25+ years ago. She thinks I should but I don't want to be underfoot all day.

Part-time? Not with current employer but I'd might like to consult or do project stuff. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of contacts, I'm in a very lightly populated area and not many companies the size of my employer around.


Decision, decisions, and dammit I have to make them.

Thanks all

Al

 

[Martha]

It seems like you have enough money to retire. What do you like to do in your free time? Any hobbies? Golf? Fishing? Home improvement? Cruising the Internet? Any volunteer stuff you like to do? Travel?

 

[kumquat]

Re: Another Newbie , NOW FIRE'D (or soon to be)

Well folks, here is what life and this board have done for me in the last year and a bit.

Life:
A good part of NW was in unexcised Mega-corp stock options. In the last year, stock more than doubled, therefore NW increased 50ish%. No financial worries with a <4% SwR.
BIL died recently. Perfect health for 61 years and blamo, one infection and gone. One too many 60ish friends checking out of life without checking out of work.

Board taught me:
At some point enjoy.
Do what you want, if that's work then OK, if not, work the munbers
It's probably cheaper than you think.

Result:
My last day is June 1, 2007. It will be my 58th birthday. Also the first day of my next life. If any of you are fans of LBC's then you may see a few pictures of my projects on various web sites.

Thanks everyone for the inspiration.

kumquat

I forgot to mention: if you're FI then it's a lot earier to get PO'd and say 'why am I putting up with this $h*t. Even though I'd had enought of the $h*t, I did agree to hang around long enough to help interview/select my successor. I pity the poor ba$tard.

 

[JohnDoe]

Sorry to hear about your BIL.

Thanks for the update! Enjoy your retirement!