You hit an FI number, now what?

[Hyper]

Once again, I'm definitely the oddball, black sheep!
No number but definitely blessed by the great Lord!
The recession hit our state later than others.
2012/2013 and my job had went from bad to extremely bad! That and a huge push from DW... I walked away @ 45yo. I did develope a small tract of land. Remodeled one home then built a new home so I kept busy.
Ff to Covid and an extremely bad new neighbor moving next door and the realization that DW was working basically to pay taxes.
We bought remote, off grid land across the state. Dw retired and we built a cabin and have been working on our land since.
I did do the RE planners but to be honest we had lost half our invested wealth twice and were done with the market.
We took what we had, knew what we spent and divided that into projected life longevity, without adding in SS, DW pension @ 65 or any interest income. We spent about 30% more than expected on the cabin build, etc due to inflation/fleecing but made 25% more on the sale of our home due to housing surging which easily covered the 30% inflation/fleecing.
No way I could ever be in the market again. We're blessed to be very comfortable!

 

[Badger]

Sorry to read that you had so much trouble with the stock market investments when so many others rode out the down markets and are doing well. My first thought was what would you do in a natural disaster that destroys the ability of the land to produce income. As Roseanne Roseannadanna said, " it just goes to show you, it’s always something! If it’s not one thing, it’s another!

 

[Koolau]

Yeah, I've reluctantly been in the stock market and it's been good to me since I stayed in the markets during the early years of the 2000's. I didn't bail out and I'm glad I stayed. I've kept a relatively low percent in equities, but they have made my FIRE "fat." YMMV

 

[AZsniper]

As a gov worker I suddenly hit my FI number on the 20 year anniversary of employment due to the ability to collect a pension. I have contributed 11.4% of my salary to the pension system. I did an ok job of saving into my 457 and 401k and paid off our house. I decided to work one more year, then one more year, and then one more year. Even though I am FI, DW and I decided to wait to retire until our youngest graduates HS, which will be in May. I will be 46 and even though I think about retiring every day, I do love my job even though it can be mentally and physically demanding and Long hours.

We are going to re-assess in January and decide if I will retire in the summer or if I will do "one more year" lol

 

[street]

I never had a number and never really gave FI any thought. I was going to work till I was having no fun or just tired with job. So, when my wife said one day you should retire, I looked inti it and found this site. The rest is history so at 58 I called it quits and seen I had more than enough stash to do so.

 

[Koolau]

I never had a number and never really gave FI any thought. I was going to work till I was having no fun or just tired with job. So, when my wife said one day you should retire, I looked inti it and found this site. The rest is history so at 58 I called it quits and seen I had more than enough stash to do so.

^^^^^

Yes, this site has been worth its weight in gold. I'm not sure I would have known I was "golden" without it. Thanks, FIRE Forum and participants.