Hard to believe - 25 years retired today!

[jollystomper]

Congratulations! In the words of Earth, Wind and Fire, you are truly a "Shining Star" and a "Sun Goddess" of the FIRE realm!

 

[Ronstar]

Congrats!! Have an enjoyable next 25!

 

[MarieIG]

Congratulations Audrey! You've done a great "job" at retirement (poor pun intended) and we really appreciate your presence here on the forum. Best wishes that your next twenty-five are as wonderful as your last.

 

[Koolau]

That's an impressive figure. Heartiest congratulations. May you have many more.

 

[simple girl]

Congratulations! What an achievement!

Here's to many more years of wonderful retirement and health!

 

[Another Reader]

I retired a bit over 17 years ago. Zero regrets on the retirement. Four years with Long Covid makes me happy to have had the carefree years...

 

[tmm99]

Congratulations!!!

 

[Christine]

That surely is something to be both happy about and proud of!

 

[tutan]

Congratulations!
I liked how you used Shiller PE to set asset allocation. Great idea IMHO! Figured you must be doing something right having retired so early and so young. When I retired 4 years ago, I also decided 50/50 suited me. So it has been 50/50 even through those market ups and downs.

 

[audreyh1]

I retired a bit over 17 years ago. Zero regrets on the retirement. Four years with Long Covid makes me happy to have had the carefree years...

Yeah, what a tough break for you! Definitely something to consider if some is putting off what they most care about.

 

[AZsniper]

Can you tell me about the last 25 years? Highlights? What was expected and unexpected? What was your financial plan, did you stick with it or did change? thanks! and congrats!

 

[Golden sunsets]

Congrats Audrey. You are one of the Dean's of this forum!

 

[Mark1]

Congrats on the 25 year retirement anniversary, Audrey. IIRC, I stole a lot of ideas from you and Samclem many years ago when I was formulating my retirement strategy and building my portfolio withdraw plans prior to my retirement. Many thanks..

 

[FIYes]

Congratulations. That is a lot of retirement to enjoy.

 

[audreyh1]

Can you tell me about the last 25 years? Highlights? What was expected and unexpected? What was your financial plan, did you stick with it or did change? thanks! and congrats!

It was easiest to track down an old post from my 10 year retirement anniversary where I offered such analysis. Since that daunting late 2009 period the US enjoyed an extended bull market and very low inflation until 2020/pandemic. So obviously that provided a nice tailwind for retirement investments and we definitely benefited. Didn’t really change our financial plan - as the bull market got so extended we drifted a few % down to 50/50 AA and have stayed there for many years.

How I Stayed Retired for 10 Years after Retiring in 1999

(In case any one is wondering - this was assigned homework from my "10 year anniversary" thread) part I - Introduction Some folks have expressed amazement that we survived 10 years from 1999 without crushing losses to our investments or having to go back to work. We are not surprised, and I...

www.early-retirement.org

 

[joesxm3]

Thank you for the link. I had been wondering how you managed to retire so early but didn't want to be nosey.

Even with an IPO windfall, success is not guaranteed. Back in the dot com days my friend had $3.5MM of stock options which he bought and held every time they vested before the IPO. When the company went public the stock shot up to $65 (his cost $9.50). But there was some administrative "mixup" the prevented the employees from selling until the price was down to $30. He held on hoping for it to go back up -'- all the way to $0.50.

So instead of retiring in his 40s with $3.5MM he ended up paying $45K income tax on the strike value of his options.

So you deserve credit for not messing things up.

 

[audreyh1]

A lot of folks experienced the above. But my company, even though a tech company, never experienced the crazy huge dot com run ups that many did. Plus the company was never vaporware as many of the newest companies were. And the company had already been public for several years. The company didn’t experience the huge downdraft that many tech companies did.

Fortunately I had already divested 2/3 of my stake by the end of 1999 so I had my essentials. And I was able to continue divesting at reasonably good prices every few years over the next 15 years. I was overall lucky.

 

[Nomad4hire]

Congratulations, Audrey. I always pay attention to your posts - most informative. Maybe your book will reveal the top 5-take aways, lessons learned, and advise for people like me still on the fence suffering from OMY. Well done!!!

 

[GravitySucks]

Congrats!

 

[Eagle43]

Congratulations!

 

[dmpi]

Wow. I though I retired early at 55. You REALLY retired early!

 

[Koolau]

It was easiest to track down an old post from my 10 year retirement anniversary where I offered such analysis. Since that daunting late 2009 period the US enjoyed an extended bull market and very low inflation until 2020/pandemic. So obviously that provided a nice tailwind for retirement investments and we definitely benefited. Didn’t really change our financial plan - as the bull market got so extended we drifted a few % down to 50/50 AA and have stayed there for many years.

How I Stayed Retired for 10 Years after Retiring in 1999

(In case any one is wondering - this was assigned homework from my "10 year anniversary" thread) part I - Introduction Some folks have expressed amazement that we survived 10 years from 1999 without crushing losses to our investments or having to go back to work. We are not surprised, and I...

www.early-retirement.org

That is a truly impressive story, audreyh1! I'm glad it w*rked out for you the way it did. You went through some harrowing times (so did I but, of course, in the early 2000's I was still w*rking.) 2008 was REALLY scary since I retired in '05, but we all seemed to make it through.

It seems this FIRE thing really does w*rk for those who follow the rules (I like your rules in the 10-year treatise.) I'm only at (almost) 19 years in, but I've concluded I'm golden (barring black swans.)

Thanks for posting this great success story!

 

[UserNameCheckOut]

Figured my very first post should be to congratulate someone one my aspirational target. Well done Audrey.

 

[tmitchell]

Today is my 25 year retirement anniversary. And I just applied for Medicare!

That’s a long time. We’ve done a lot in those 25 years. Never regretted being retired for a minute. We had family obligations and illnesses occasionally keeping us from wandering as we wished, but overall can’t complain. Personally we’ve been very lucky as our health has been very good so far (knock on wood).

Still looking forward to doing many more things.

I was already over 6 years retired when I found this forum. I was glad to find it and sure have enjoyed it.

Wow!!!! Congrats and thanks for the inspiration!

 

[Koolau]

Figured my very first post should be to congratulate someone one my aspirational target. Well done Audrey.

Welcome to the FIRE Forums. Be sure to introduce yourself in the "Hi, I am..." Forum. We'd love to get to know you. As you can see, we're a diverse bunch and we have lots of success stories to share. audreyh1's is AMAZING!

Please share your story with us and post often.