Homesteader trapped in a Cubical

[Argus]

Hello, I found this site by accident and find it choke full of useful information. I’ve trolled for a bit and figured it’s time to post an introduction.

So here it goes.

I’m a 52yo staff manager at a medium size private firm for the last 22 years. Previous professional jobs were similar in character, just lower on the food chain. I hit the glass ceiling some eight or nine years ago and have become disillusioned with my track in life. Looking back at my childhood and the lifestyle I grew up around, I’ve come to realize how much of the agrarian community I am missing by living and working in the densely urban north east. I began working at the age of 13 (farm work) and have worked every year’s since. Basically, I’m ready to step off the tread mill and re-establish my connection with life via homesteading.

Homesteading, in a nutshell, is living a lifestyle with limited external input, hyper-managing living expenses to live comfortably, and land stewardship. All well within, or below the financial means. My SO is seven years younger and we plan to have her take on the medical insurance until she retires. Her salary goes to her 401k, Roth IRA and paying off student loans, so we live on only my salary. Her loans will be paid in full in three year’s.

With this in mind here are my details:
I presently make $101k and defer 15% to the 401k and my company matches 25% to a max of 6% of gross salary.

I plan to retire at 62 and take SS at 65. BUT, I would like to retire at 58.

I have $275k in a 401k (all mutual funds): 16% Health Sciences, 16% Utilities, 30% domestic large cap & dividend appreciation, 25% small cap growth, 13% bond and 10% foreign stocks.

$36k in a Roth IRA all in Fidelity “Lifestyle” fund.

$36k in three DRIPs.

$10k in one individual dividend paying stock (2.5% yield).

$7k in laddered 10yr TIPS with the first maturity in 2017, last in 2024.

$1300 I Bonds.

$20k cash savings.

One, not in college, 20yo self-sufficient son.

My only debt is the mortgage which will be paid in full by 12/2031 (ugh). But we plan to have sold and moved to a rural area where we “should” be able to pay cash for our house and land.

My yearly total outlay is $47k for all expenses.

FIRECalc gave me a 99% success rate of retiring at 62 and a 65% success rate at 58. But I believe the calculations have not considered the reduction in expenses once the mortgage is paid off. I really, really want out at 58…

Any thoughts, suggestions, considerations I’m missing, recommendations, advice, encouragement, depressing statistics, enticing statistics that can be offered would be appreciated. A simple “save more” will not be helpful. We don’t even use dryer sheets so we can generate static electricity for evening entertainment.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I got interested in ER after I flipped through a homesteading magazine at a relative's house. I realized then the people featured in the magazine seemed happy, were living on very little money and getting more exercise and fresh air than we were.

We decided we were more in the condo category, but the idea of simple living and more free time still stuck with us.

On the financial front, many people think of work as kind of all or nothing approach, like a cubicle job and then retire from work completely. If you can lower your expenses and work part time at something you enjoy, you could run the numbers and see if you could retire earlier if you were prepared to work part time longer.

As for resources, here is one of my favorites on a radical simple living idea:

Shotgun shack redux: mortgage-free in 320 square feet - videos - *faircompanies

 

[robnplunder]

FIRECalc gave me a 99% success rate of retiring at 62 and a 65% success rate at 58. But I believe the calculations have not considered the reduction in expenses once the mortgage is paid off. I really, really want out at 58…

You need to plug in (your) realistic data for the spending model tab. The tool's default setting assumes your starting spending increases per inflation (has 3 settings - PPI, CPI, inflation) every year. That may be true in your case - I don't know. In my case, my spending goes down at several stages in RE and I get 100% success rate by inputting those variances.

 

[imoldernu]

You might be interested in Mother Earth News... I downloaded all of the back issues (since 1970) for free a few years ago, but now see that they're available for $49.95.
Mother Earth News Back Issues May still be available out there somewhere for free.
At age 49 I grew very interested in doing exactly what you're looking to do, including but not limited to building my own log cabin (Adirondaks).... I was on special assignment for 3 years to close down a 2400 unit field operation, and tired of the travel and being available 24/7. DW not quite as enthused, so we ended up on a different path, but on a limited budget. Maybe some help here, though not about living off the land.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/sharing-23-years-of-frugal-retirement-62251.html
We did it at age 53 and while we always considered the possibility of re-employment, just got lucky and have now survived 25 years without resorting to that.
One of the later posts in the above thread covered what I called Phase II.... a rethinking of the later years age 75 to 90+, where there is a natural slowdown of both activity and expense... and which includes utilising the home assets as part of the selldown... (assuming that our planning is not based on maintaining our net worth to provide an inheritance.)
I have tried to rework my finances using the plan a financial advisor made for us at the time of our retirement... to see what it might have taken to keep our capital assets intact. It looks as if it might have taken five or six more years of employment to make it work in a finacial planning worksheet, and using those assumptions.
Times were different, passive interest income was greater, and inflation in the recent past has not been volatile, so it might have been easier all around, still I'm convinced that careful stewardship can result in a happy and early(er) retirement.

I still wonder how we might have made out with that cabin in the woods, and canoe rental/ whitewater rafting business on the upper reaches of the Hudson... (sigh)

 

[daylatedollarshort]

You might be interested in Mother Earth News... I downloaded all of the back issues for free a few years ago, but now see that they're available for $49.95.
Mother Earth News Back Issues May still be available out there somewhere for free.

if your public library has Zinio, you might be able to get all the back issues for Mother Earth News and many other magazines for free.

 

[Argus]

thank you for the responses. I think I need to expand my data input as RobnPlunder suggests. I'll give it a shot.

Maybe I can work the numbers for ER at 56...

 

[seraphim]

So you might start drawing about $12k a year (pretax?) from investments and hope they last 25 years. Is there a penalty for withdrawing prior to 59 1/2? At 62 you can add in your SS. ( what's your estimate?) Sounds like you would have a difficult time supporting yourself and SO on just your income. Withdraw more than $12k a year and you're going to outlive your money. Of course, you can start drawing on her investment money, generally when she's 59 1/2 in - what - 11 1/2 years? You'd have to start partially using her income to live on, especially with expenses in the mid- $40k and a mortgaged home. Sounds like you can't sell the house and move until after she retires, so you can't reduce your expenses...

Just my thoughts.

 

[growing_older]

I wonder if this is a dream that many people share. I was never rural enough to think I could actually do it, but certainly enjoyed many hours looking at places I might buy or considering how life might be different. Congratulations on having a dream that you seem like you can actually make happen.

Also, wanted to mention that this is my favorite typo in a long long time.

choke full of useful information

It's a compelling image of someone actually choking on too much information.