I had several pieces of my ER plan falling together in 2007 and 2008 which enabled me to ER at the end of October of 2008.
First, I knew in early 2007 I would probably leave by the end of 2008 so when I asked for a reduction in my weekly hours worked from 20 to 12 and probably could not resume to working 20 hours per week to regain eligibility in the company's group health plan, that was okay. I went on COBRA for 18 months starting in July of 2007.
In early 2008, I met with my first Account Executive at Fidelity who helped me input my data into their RIP (Retirement Income Program) and ran the simulations. She told me I was good to leave and ER at any time.
I was trying to find a reasonable affordable individual health insurance plan starting in 2009 and found one although I didn't know at the time its premiums would rise by 50% by the start of 2011.
I was waiting for the value of my company stock to hit a certain mark which it did that July (at the time, it was evaluated once every 3 months). The green light went on at that time and I began looking for a resignation date.
I was working on a complicated project which I liked and wanted to get it done by the time I left. I was also working on some smaller projects that summer to help transition the ER of a key worker in another division who used many of my programs.
I was no longer receiving any new stock shares because I failed to work 1,000 hours a year. That incentive was gone. My annual bonus I got in April but I didn't want to stick around another 5 months beyond just for that. The thought of commuting even 2 days a week during another winter was a terrible one.
I predicted at the end of September that I would be able to get that one big project done by the end of October so, after I learned the stock price dropped by only 1% in its 3rd quarter (9/30) evaluation (I was worried it might drop more with the markets crashing everywhere), I gave my notice for a 10/31 final date, only 9 more working days after I left for the day. I barely finished that big project on 10/31, packed up my stuff, had all my paperwork in order (which was considerable, for the rollover of my 401k and liquidation of the company stock), and went home for the last time.
