Who FIREd the Earliest with the Lowest FIRE Score and Why You Did?

[momoney]

Interested to hear about how some are "pulling it off" and why they chose to go that route. And does the current inflation cause you to lose sleep at night?

 

[Rianne]

What do you mean by least? It depends on spending and debt, IMO.

 

[momoney]

What do you mean by least? It depends on spending and debt, IMO.

By the least I mean a lower probability your money will last the duration you need it to.

 

[Gumby]

Being a belt, suspenders, velcro and safety pins kind of guy, that wouldn't have been me.

 

[Fermion]

Interested to hear about how some are "pulling it off" and why they chose to go that route. And does the current inflation cause you to lose sleep at night?

There are a lot of things that assist you on the lower end of the income scale. Cheaper ACA costs, lower taxes, a few programs you become eligible for. I am not positive the calculators take these into account. For example, starting in August in Washington state, it appears that a couple making less than $60,000 or so a year will qualify for a practically free electric vehicle 3 year lease. How could one have predicted that?

 

[MarieIG]

By the least I mean a lower probability your money will last the duration you need it t

Another belt, suspenders, velcro and safety pins kind of retiree here.

A lower probability that assets would not last the duration would raise my stress level.

 

[Rianne]

Plugging in numbers to any calculator, if my spending were say $300K/year, my probability would be 50%. If my spending were $50K/year, my probability would be 100% plus a lot left over. And other income means a lot, so SS and/or pension would make your probability higher. If your health is good do expect to live to 90 or 100? Many factors go into a success rate. What your investments are makes a difference as well. What tax bracket are you in? Do you want to leave anything to beneficiaries or die with "0" Firecalc provides a good predictor based on historical data, except for taxes. I will calculate for a worse-case scenario to see if we'd be ok in a black swan event. The market crashes for several years, like in the 70s.

 

[jim584672]

I took the low road for spending, some would say impossibly low spending. But this gives a very low SWR, which is nice. Retired almost 10 years now.

 

[Koolau]

Interested to hear about how some are "pulling it off" and why they chose to go that route. And does the current inflation cause you to lose sleep at night?

I over prepared with 100% probability of success with FIRECalc. BUT, to your inflation question: I don't lose sleep but I have seriously modified my behavior due to inflation. We rarely eat out anymore. 5 years ago we ate out one meal a day most days. We've modified MANY behaviors to reduce the effects of inflation even though (in theory) we don't have to.

 

[Gumby]

I over prepared with 100% probability of success with FIRECalc. BUT, to your inflation question: I don't lose sleep but I have seriously modified my behavior due to inflation. We rarely eat out anymore. 5 years ago we ate out one meal a day most days. We've modified MANY behaviors to reduce the effects of inflation even though (in theory) we don't have to.

To use a nautical metaphor - in theory, the bilge pump is designed to handle a certain amount of water leakage into the boat, but we still fix the leaks when we find them.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Unexpected things happened in my case. When I divorced husband 2 he had hid 3/4ths of our assets. In retrospect I should have hired a PI to find them. So had a big restart at age 43.

When I retired I was married to someone where we each had a pension and we left it to each other so besides investments we had that security. A grey divorce at 67 changed that as we each signed off on our pensions so we could get the monthly amount we forfeited to pay for that back each month. Luckily my pension has a COLA and in 4 years it will be up to 5% a year.

I am a huge planner but some things can’t be predicted. My entire life changed as I sold the house and bought a small condo. I have cut out or substituted for cheaper options many things.

However, I have went to Europe twice and am going for the last time next year. Luckily that completes my bucket list as I did a lot of traveling when married. On the plus side I don’t have to take care of anyone but myself and my 2 dogs. So my life is much easier in many ways except financially.

 

[rk911]

When I FIRE'd in '05 (and my wifevin. '06) our net worth had just crossed over from 6 to 7-figures. Between 55 and 62 my wife and I had 3-pension checks but we entered retirement with $0 in debt and living, still living, well beneath our means.

 

[aaronc879]

There are a lot of things that assist you on the lower end of the income scale. Cheaper ACA costs, lower taxes, a few programs you become eligible for. I am not positive the calculators take these into account. For example, starting in August in Washington state, it appears that a couple making less than $60,000 or so a year will qualify for a practically free electric vehicle 3 year lease. How could one have predicted that?

Just be willing to live in your car and your set for 3 years.

 

[pacergal]

Being a belt, suspenders, velcro and safety pins kind of guy, that wouldn't have been me.

Same here. We do not have millions, but we are SIRE, with pensions only 2% max cola's. I checked and double checked calculators to 100%, living to age 100. Still mostly LBYM lifestyle, with a few BTD moments thrown in for fun.
And I worked on call for a few years after retirement.

 

[Dtail]

FIRED with a 100% success score on Firecalc and over a 100 sore on Fidelity.
Couldn't find work after a voluntary layoff, but discovered this site and various calculators and then retired.
I rerun the calculators various times, effectively re-retiring each year and currently use the 100% success rate as a minimum guideline for budgeting expenses.

 

[Midpack]

I retired with a 200%+ "success rate" and we're now beyond that, but that's still no guarantee and who cares what anyone else chooses? Answers don't mean anything anyway while SIRE and FIRE are lumped together - if you're fully SIRE your FIRE score doesn't matter...

 

[rodi]

I'm sure I wasn't the lowest it earliest, but I was pretty young (52) and a much leaner FIRE than many here. Especially considering we still had 2 minor age kids with college in front of them. That said, firecalc and Fidelity RIP gave us 100% if we kept spending under control. Which we have. ACA tax subsidies helped. (Limits what I am willing to pull from tax deferred accounts so it keeps me from over spending).

 

[Major Tom]

I took the low road for spending, some would say impossibly low spending. But this gives a very low SWR, which is nice.

I did a similar thing. Won't go into the details, but I adjusted my spending down in order to keep an acceptable SWR. Most people in my situation would have kept working in order to fund their expected lifestyle in retirement. Being able to get up whenever I wanted, and do what I wanted, was more important to me than what material quality of life I was able to maintain while doing so. Because of this, I gradually eased into retirement over the course of 2 years, beginning at age 45. FWIW, I'm single and live alone, so am able to make these sorts of decisions more easily.

I am a huge planner but some things can’t be predicted. My entire life changed as I sold the house and bought a small condo. I have cut out or substituted for cheaper options many things.

Ain't that the truth! Planning as well as flexibility is the golden combination, IMO.

 

[Aerides]

We went on the early side age-wise (46) but with a cushion over the "safe" WR math. The earlier you retire, the bigger your risk, so to go early and cheap is a harder gamble than going later or with more money. We also made sure we'd have no issues lasting till at least 59.5 on our taxable accounts, and didn't factor Social Security in because it was too far out.

Retiring in your 30's means your money has to last longer than most people get in retirement, JUST to make it to actual retirement age.

 

[FREE866]

Once I hit 100% on Firecalc and others I went for it. Retired at 50. Now in my 8th year. Stock market doing well, albeit very bumpy ( like it always is), has me now in a fantastic position. Immensely grateful.

 

[HI Bill]

I could never go below 90% using a base level of spending. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I waited until I hit 96-100% spending 2X the base expense level. It's worked out well, and this year we (well mostly, I) spent 3X the base level, which equates to a 6% WR (going back to 5% next year using VPW unless a health issue derails things).

 

[Jerry1]

I could never go below 90% . . .

Yeah, I couldn’t have pulled the trigger at less than 100% probability and even with that, I had extra conservativeness built in.

I was way over 100% using just my required spending and just over 100% even after adding in my discretionary spending. I guess this just doesn’t seem like an area I want to take a lot of risk with. Now, had I been let go before I made my number, I would have done what’s necessary to make it work.

 

[FREE866]

Right. I think Monte Carlo "experts" even say 80% is fine. I wanted to go to 100% in case of something cataclysmic happening, which is a very very low possibility, but still.

 

[marko]

Didn't have much choice as my RE was not voluntary. But despite not having any plan for retirement, we were quite ok financially.

A bit like golf, the mental aspect is as important than the physical (financial) aspect.

 

[momoney]

After looking at the "death curve" on engaging data, I wonder how many people wished they would have been less conservative.

Rich, Broke or Dead? Post-Retirement FIRE Calculator: Visualizing Early Retirement Success and Longevity Risk - Engaging Data

A FI/RE early retirement calculator visualizing longevity risk in early retirement and enables you to compare the probability success, failure and mortality.

engaging-data.com