Thanks, Calgary Girl, and congratulations to everyone else on these new milestones!
I'm just thankful we still have a place where we can talk about such things. Don't get me wrong; I do feel compassion for people who are struggling right now. But, it seems like it's getting to the point that talking about any sort of good fortune these days is something akin to trying to show off your brand-new Cadillac in 1934!
My investible assets had flirted with the $2M mark back in early 2020, and I was toying with the idea of going ahead and retiring. But, I'm starting to fall into the "One More Year" syndrome. In retrospect, I'm starting to think I could have retired in late 2018.
I bought a new house that September, and probably couldn't have done it if I was retired, because I wouldn't have qualified for the mortgage. But I probably could have retired right after that. We did have that little end-of-year correction in 2018, that knocked my investible assets down about about 18%, peak-to-trough. I have a feeling I would not have weathered that well, seeing my values plummet the moment after I retired. But, it recovered quickly, and I was about even again by the end of April, 2019.
During the COVID crash, I lost about 35% from my Feb 19 peak to the Mar 23 trough. But again, it was a fairly quick recovery. I got most of it back by July, and in August I popped $2M again.
Still, with these uncertain times, I'm a bit leery about pulling the plug. But, call it selective memory, or whatever. It seems like remembering how quickly things can go south always sticks in my mind. But, my mind tends to forget how quickly things tend to recover.
I guess the one consolation is, the longer I wait to retire, the less likely I am to fail at it. Also, with the whole COVID thing, and working from home, it almost feels like the best of both worlds. I'm stuck in limbo a bit...where it's not quite retirement, but it's not quite the typical work grind, either. So for the time being, it just seems like easy money rolling in.