Dear all,
I am a long time lurker here and finally decided to post. My question is: how do/did you convince your spouse to RE, when you know you already have way more nest eggs to count on to RE?
Our situation in a nutshell:
Me: 44, working full time @$120K/yr
DH: 53, working full time - @$500K/yr with HIGH stress and LONG hours
no kids
NW around $8M
before tax: $3.5M (about 50% stocks/50% bonds)
401Ks: $1M
after tax:$500K including emergency fund
2 properties fully paid for: $3M
no debt
Annual expenses including taxes
$200K +/-
A small non-COLA pension @20K/yr for me starting at 65, no pension for DH
Some property/restaurant investments that will bring $20K/yr income
I have run every FIRE calculations I could find out there and every time it gives me a 100% success rate with our current size of assets/expenses. When we retire we will sell one property and downsize. This should give us another $1.5M to add to investible portfolio, totally $6.5M in investible assets. It will also lower our annual expenses by $30+K. Even with more traveling and paying for our own health care insurance, I think $200K/yr will be the upper end of our annual expense budget after RE, and we have plenty of room to reduce expenses if needed to (the property we intend to keep only costs $10K/yr in real estate taxes, and has been fully renovated recently). I plan for us to live on investment income (dividends + muni bonds + investment profit sharing) plus <1% SWR of the $6.5M until 60, when DH starts to draw in his 401K; then SS @65 plus my pension.
Now, all look good except(!) DH will not agree to retire! He HATES his job, has several health issues due to job-related stress, having OMY syndrome (but for some reason just can't pull the plug), and often comes home totally stressed out and miserable. His job is 24/7, and we have not had a real vacation in years. It is ruining our lives, health, and marriage. In all fairness though, I know DH is doing his best trying to provide a good life for us, and I truly appreciate his efforts. But it is really bothering me that even after I showed him all the calculations with 100% success rate, he is not willing to give up his Megacorp career and slow down. At the same time, I am not able to RE either (although I also hate my job), because I don't want to stay at home by myself all day... Many travel plans have been postponed because of DH's highly-demanding job. It makes me very unhappy. DH talks about retiring at 60, but that is some 7 years from now! I just don't see how I can put up with this for another 7 years.
So, how do/did you convince your spouse to take a leap of faith and jump off the ship?
I am a long time lurker here and finally decided to post. My question is: how do/did you convince your spouse to RE, when you know you already have way more nest eggs to count on to RE?
Our situation in a nutshell:
Me: 44, working full time @$120K/yr
DH: 53, working full time - @$500K/yr with HIGH stress and LONG hours
no kids
NW around $8M
before tax: $3.5M (about 50% stocks/50% bonds)
401Ks: $1M
after tax:$500K including emergency fund
2 properties fully paid for: $3M
no debt
Annual expenses including taxes
$200K +/-
A small non-COLA pension @20K/yr for me starting at 65, no pension for DH
Some property/restaurant investments that will bring $20K/yr income
I have run every FIRE calculations I could find out there and every time it gives me a 100% success rate with our current size of assets/expenses. When we retire we will sell one property and downsize. This should give us another $1.5M to add to investible portfolio, totally $6.5M in investible assets. It will also lower our annual expenses by $30+K. Even with more traveling and paying for our own health care insurance, I think $200K/yr will be the upper end of our annual expense budget after RE, and we have plenty of room to reduce expenses if needed to (the property we intend to keep only costs $10K/yr in real estate taxes, and has been fully renovated recently). I plan for us to live on investment income (dividends + muni bonds + investment profit sharing) plus <1% SWR of the $6.5M until 60, when DH starts to draw in his 401K; then SS @65 plus my pension.
Now, all look good except(!) DH will not agree to retire! He HATES his job, has several health issues due to job-related stress, having OMY syndrome (but for some reason just can't pull the plug), and often comes home totally stressed out and miserable. His job is 24/7, and we have not had a real vacation in years. It is ruining our lives, health, and marriage. In all fairness though, I know DH is doing his best trying to provide a good life for us, and I truly appreciate his efforts. But it is really bothering me that even after I showed him all the calculations with 100% success rate, he is not willing to give up his Megacorp career and slow down. At the same time, I am not able to RE either (although I also hate my job), because I don't want to stay at home by myself all day... Many travel plans have been postponed because of DH's highly-demanding job. It makes me very unhappy. DH talks about retiring at 60, but that is some 7 years from now! I just don't see how I can put up with this for another 7 years.
So, how do/did you convince your spouse to take a leap of faith and jump off the ship?