netternator
Dryer sheet wannabe
Hi Everyone,
New retired at 51 living on the East Coast. Been working in a science-based career since 1998 with an 8-year "break" for more flex time with kids. During this time, I consulted and exhausted much energy into several passive income schemes (podcasting, online courses, web-based business, etc). Consulting income was decent, but all my business ideas never went anywhere (lacked the confidence to invest the time and $ to make things work). After feeling exhausted and discouraged, I went back to work full time 4 years ago and just quit that job. Reasons for leaving were extreme boredom, misalignment of values, and having my eyes opened up to the FIRE movement. This is starting my 2nd full week of freedom! Woo-hoo! Hubby is an engineer whose been with the same company his whole career. I'm working on convincing him to come along for the ride. He's more conservative than I plus I do think that is more 'mainstream' for a female to leave the workforce. Taking the leap to leave was the hardest part due to general inertia and sense of obligation to keep working.
We surpassed our fat FIRE number rather blindly while stumbling upon the early retirement mindset about 2 years ago. Still nervous about health care if hubby also leaves his job. Also thinking about moving to a lower taxation state (we are in MD). We have about 550K equity in our home with about 225K left on a 15-year 2.25% rate mortgage. In 2 years, planning to downsize to a smaller home we can pay cash for with our equity. I'm looking forward to using the next couple of years to slowly organize and improve our home so it's ready for sale. We have 2 kids: one a freshman in college and the other a junior at the local public HS. Extremely fortunate that grandparents fully funded 529s for their education.
Some books/podcasts that got me to this point
New retired at 51 living on the East Coast. Been working in a science-based career since 1998 with an 8-year "break" for more flex time with kids. During this time, I consulted and exhausted much energy into several passive income schemes (podcasting, online courses, web-based business, etc). Consulting income was decent, but all my business ideas never went anywhere (lacked the confidence to invest the time and $ to make things work). After feeling exhausted and discouraged, I went back to work full time 4 years ago and just quit that job. Reasons for leaving were extreme boredom, misalignment of values, and having my eyes opened up to the FIRE movement. This is starting my 2nd full week of freedom! Woo-hoo! Hubby is an engineer whose been with the same company his whole career. I'm working on convincing him to come along for the ride. He's more conservative than I plus I do think that is more 'mainstream' for a female to leave the workforce. Taking the leap to leave was the hardest part due to general inertia and sense of obligation to keep working.
We surpassed our fat FIRE number rather blindly while stumbling upon the early retirement mindset about 2 years ago. Still nervous about health care if hubby also leaves his job. Also thinking about moving to a lower taxation state (we are in MD). We have about 550K equity in our home with about 225K left on a 15-year 2.25% rate mortgage. In 2 years, planning to downsize to a smaller home we can pay cash for with our equity. I'm looking forward to using the next couple of years to slowly organize and improve our home so it's ready for sale. We have 2 kids: one a freshman in college and the other a junior at the local public HS. Extremely fortunate that grandparents fully funded 529s for their education.
Some books/podcasts that got me to this point
- Tim Ferris show and the "4-hour workweek": was my initial push to take my career "break" in 2012 so I credit him with changing my mindset from the daily grind. Can't say his passive income tactics worked out for me, but this is what got me to discover FIRE. His "Mr Money Mustache" interview was my first intro to FIRE.
- Credit card hacking: "the points guy" and "one mile at a time". When I first left my corporate job in 2012, I missed the travel and was able to take many trips and dozens of free hotel stays over the years. this definitely got me into the "optimization" mindset. Currently working on the Capital One Venture bonus but the Chase Ultimate Rewards is my favorite travel portal using points.
- Favorite podcasts: Choose FI, Journey to Launch, Afford Anything, All the Hacks.
- Favorite Books: Die with Zero (this is what put me over the edge to quit), Millionaire Next Door, Quit Like a Millionaire
- Also enrolled in Paula Pant's online real estate course which was excellent! I had the notion that when I left my job, I would get into real estate since I still felt like I needed a "job". But after taking the course and doing more FIRE calculators, I realized that with our age and nest egg, this is not necessary. Plus, the current interest rates and inflated housing market really suck. I also had a silly idea to buy a condo for my son to live in while in college. the knowledge from the course made me understand that that was a bad idea (very inflated market where he goes to school).
- Having the right retirement mindset with a routine and goals
- Friendships and spending time with my daughter during her last 1.5 years at home. We have some goals to do some serious backpacking!
- Working on my health and fitness - I've let this slide...
- Getting our finances in order. Have some assets with Morgan Stanley (a family connection) but thinking of getting out of that due to the fees. Looking to set up more of a cash cushion/yield shield as described in the Quit Like a Millionaire book.
- Finding a team of fiduciary/tax advisor that is familiar with the FIRE mindset and optimizing for early retirement.
- Setting up a "bucketed" approach with our retirement funds.
- Looking into setting up a 72t which will give us assess to our retirements accounts so hubby can quit as well.
Meanwhile you've already got your answer.
