Assistance with my (semi) FIRE plan

[iW4EV]

I'm not sure if I'll ever want to completely retire, but my wife and I would like complete flexibility in where we live/work and how much we work. My wife may like to completely FIRE and is interested in hitting an FI number. I could see myself working part-time, possibly making $20-50k for a while.

We're currently in our mid-30's, have one toddler and may have another child. Our portfolio is ~$900k, we spend about $75k a year (I could see spending increasing to $80k-$100k) and save about $100-$120k a year. My wife's income is about $150k and has climbed the corporate ladder but is getting a bit burned out. Her company is having layoffs and she may look to take a package in a year or two or even possibly call it quits a bit later. My income is $75k and I have good job stability and flexibility -- I bet I could cut my hours down to 30 a week or even 20 eventually.

We both didn't grow up with a lot of money so I think we get overly concerned about it. Yet, at the same time, we want to take advantage of enjoying life -- going on adventures, travelings, spending family time, not putting in the daily grind. I think we're both pretty employable and should be able to find jobs if need be or if we decide we want to work more after taking a hiatus.

We don't really have a set plan, but I wonder if having something more concrete with goals would be a good thing. It seems like an easy trap is "I need to save $1M", then it turns into $1.5M then $2M, etc. Anyway, I just wanted to give a bit of a background and am interested in any feedback/advice/direction anyone can provide.

Thanks

 

[travelover]

Welcome. I think your question is "how much money do I need to have to retire in my mid 30's with spending anticipated to be 80,000 to 100,000 a year".


-Edited to correct spending.-

 

[iW4EV]

Welcome. I think your question is "how much money do I need to have to retire in my mid 30's with spending anticipated to be 100,000 to 120,000 a year".

Thanks for the reply. I anticipate spending to be $80k-$100k during early retirement, but could drop down to about $50k or less if times get tough. Also, when I reach ~62, I anticipate spending to drop down to about $60k and anticipate my wife and I to get maybe $25k a year through social security combined.

Also, I’d like to keep working part time so that income will help.

I guess my question is less about the numbers (SWR, FireCalc) and more about the philosophy of doing something outside the box and when to consider making the transitions (my wife stopping work, myself switching to part time).

 

[travelover]

I'll let the very early retirees weigh in on their experiences and you can extrapolate from there. For me, the key is to have the money part covered, then you can work or not work as you like.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I'm not sure if I'll ever want to completely retire, but my wife and I would like complete flexibility in where we live/work and how much we work. My wife may like to completely FIRE and is interested in hitting an FI number. I could see myself working part-time, possibly making $20-50k for a while.

We're currently in our mid-30's, have one toddler and may have another child. Our portfolio is ~$900k, we spend about $75k a year (I could see spending increasing to $80k-$100k) and save about $100-$120k a year. My wife's income is about $150k and has climbed the corporate ladder but is getting a bit burned out. Her company is having layoffs and she may look to take a package in a year or two or even possibly call it quits a bit later. My income is $75k and I have good job stability and flexibility -- I bet I could cut my hours down to 30 a week or even 20 eventually.

We both didn't grow up with a lot of money so I think we get overly concerned about it. Yet, at the same time, we want to take advantage of enjoying life -- going on adventures, travelings, spending family time, not putting in the daily grind. I think we're both pretty employable and should be able to find jobs if need be or if we decide we want to work more after taking a hiatus.

We don't really have a set plan, but I wonder if having something more concrete with goals would be a good thing. It seems like an easy trap is "I need to save $1M", then it turns into $1.5M then $2M, etc. Anyway, I just wanted to give a bit of a background and am interested in any feedback/advice/direction anyone can provide.

Thanks

With high incomes and/or some offsetting investment income and low expenses it is possible to just work 25% of the time and still live quite well. ER doesn't have to be all or nothing, especially if you have a hobby job or business you enjoy that also makes money.

What we have focused on these last few years has been finding expenses to cut that increased, or at least did not decrease, our desired standard of living.

 

[pb4uski]

I suggest that you run your situation through Quicken Lifetime Planner, which is included in Quicken Deluxe and higher versions of Quicken. Provide information in a bunch of screens and it shows your nestegg growing and then declining and how long it would be expected to last. A good place to start.

 

[iW4EV]

I'll let the very early retirees weigh in on their experiences and you can extrapolate from there. For me, the key is to have the money part covered, then you can work or not work as you like.

I too would feel better if I had enough so I didn't have to worry about the money part and just call it quits completely and have work be optional. But it seems like I would need to have a ton -- like $3M which would push my retirement date back quite a bit. I think I'd rather work part time sooner and for a bit longer because there are certain things I won't be able to do when I'm older.

But what I may do is start figuring out my minimum expenses. I could wait until I reach 25X those expenses and then work part time to cover things like travel, hobbies, new car, going out to eat, etc.

With high incomes and/or some offsetting investment income and low expenses it is possible to just work 25% of the time and still live quite well. ER doesn't have to be all or nothing, especially if you have a hobby job or business you enjoy that also makes money.

What we have focused on these last few years has been finding expenses to cut that increased, or at least did not decrease, our desired standard of living.

I think I'll start tracking expenses closer. I'm pretty sure that when I have more free time, my expenses will go up -- mostly due to hobbies and more time to travel, but at least those will be things I can reduce if need be.

I suggest that you run your situation through Quicken Lifetime Planner, which is included in Quicken Deluxe and higher versions of Quicken. Provide information in a bunch of screens and it shows your nestegg growing and then declining and how long it would be expected to last. A good place to start.

I just have Macs and it looks like the Mac version doesn't come with it. I do have a spreadsheet that estimates my portfolio growth and have used FireCalc. Do you know if those tools are similar or I wonder if there's something else online?

 

[pb4uski]

......I just have Macs and it looks like the Mac version doesn't come with it. I do have a spreadsheet that estimates my portfolio growth and have used FireCalc. Do you know if those tools are similar or I wonder if there's something else online?

You can do the same thing with other tools it is just that IMO QLP is more intuitive and easier to use and the screens help make sure you have all bases covered.