Help! I have short-timers disease too soon!

[Shabber2]

I am approximately 2 years from ER and still working very hard to accumulate at a rapid pace. The woes of work are strong, but as always my determination keeps me trudging forward. Some time I lose site of the goal and get on Firecalc to see what I would jhave to live on if I walked in today and was done. Those are bad thoughts I need to keep going forward, working, accumulating.

Any tips or tricks to keep you on track when you can see the light?

I know what doesn't work: Imagining myself in ER!

 

[old woman]

Calculate how much more you will have for every day you work longer. This year I made about 60K on investments and 50K on wages so that is over 2K a week. If I live on 30K my net worth is growing about 80K a year. If I have enough now to retire and wait one or two more years any pain of poverty will be gone. My quality of live will go from enough to more than enough. I might be able to quit now but an extra 160K would be nice.

 

[emilylynn]

During a particularly rough stretch, a 3x2-foot posterboard graph of my monthly progress helped me immeasurably.

 

[LOL!]

This worked for me: I told my boss that I would not be working for him in a year. He has been very, very nice to me ever since, so work is even more fun than it used to be.

 

[Coach]

Some time I lose site of the goal and get on Firecalc to see what I would jhave to live on if I walked in today and was done. Those are bad thoughts I need to keep going forward, working, accumulating. ER!

You can do something similar with FIRECalc, but from the other point of view: how much more will I have to spend if I can hang for just one more year? I was very surprised with how much difference just a year can make. Tell yourself that two years in a row, and you're there!

Coach

 

[Achiever51]

Like OldWoman said, before I finally retired, when I was going through a similar rough patch I would figure out how much I was making by the year, the month, the week, the day, even the hour and used it as a reminder of how much I was adding to my future. Also, I picked out my retirement date (didn't announce it to anyone), and when times got rough, I would remind myself that I would be free in XX days. Once I had that date in mind, mentally I was able to start disassociating from all the office drama/stress.

 

[W2R]

Every morning with my first cup of coffee, I check my bank balance, my taxable and retirement account balances, and compare with my own prior estimates. That way I can see my progress in reaching goals that I know I set for myself. Then, I compute the number of days left until the day I retire (694 today). Finally, I go to some sheets of paper on which I wrote down every date until ER, and I cross off today's date.

Then I come to this message board and wail or rail about it, from time to time!

After work I busy myself with preparing for ER (doing things to get the house ready to sell, since I plan to move, and getting rid of unused stuff that has accumulated over the years). So, at least I feel like I am doing something to get from point A to point B.

 

[citrine]

Two years....wow.....that is great....I have about 13....that should make you feel a bit better!
I like your ideas Want2retire.....just do a little bit every day....

 

[joesxm3]

A while ago I came up with the idea of trying to exchange a few weeks of pay for a few more weeks of vacation time. However, when I divided my salary by 52 and saw what I would have to pay for the extra time I was too cheap to want to spend that much on extra vacation time.

I probably get paid more than I deserve, so I figure I might as well tough it out at the risk of falling into the one more year syndrome. I see the same effect of not draining for another year and adding the 60% of my take-home pay to the nest egg.

Plus the way things are done lately in the software industry, megacorp will probably be showing me the door before I decide to go through it on my own. Hopefully I will be ready to just smile and thank them for keeping me as long as they did since I know my next position will be sitting on a beach with a margarita like the guy at the end of the "Office Space" movie.

Much as it hurts at the moment, stick it out buddy.

 

[Shabber2]

Thanks everyone. I must say going on this board helps a lot. I also have the countdown # of days on my spreadsheet. I just need to "man" up and toughen through it. As my Dad said about work: "If it was fun, they wouldn't call it work!"

Sometimes, since I don't talk about retirement with anyone except the board, I do need to hear about people that have 10 years to go and realize I am doing fine. Thanks again all.

 

[old woman]

Today I found out my Christmas bonus will be 4,000 and I will get more than 7,500 in January paid to my 401K for profit sharing. I told someone I would be fully vested in April and my boss asked if that was the 6 or 7 year vesting schedule and I told him it was 6 year. He said you heard about the change then. He doesn't like people to know they are vested because then they can quit but we changed the vesting schedule in 2003 when we changed plans and I never forget to pay attention to those things. Nice to know my boss doesn't want me to quit.

 

[growing_older]

Yes, I also find it's hard to find sympathic folks outside of the board. So, I very much appreciate the support here. Hang in there, Shabber2. It has been very helpful to me to see that others have "short timer" itches and that there are different ways others have managed to keep w*rk demands in perspective.

 

[Meadbh]

You may not be the only person at work who is considering FIRE. Two people on my management team have recently been open with me about their FIRE thoughts.