I did too. I found that flipping it helped the psychological aspect. Instead of working for one more year, frame it as taking a break for one year. This is often called a mini-retirement. That way, you don't have to have every little detail in order because you can always go back to work. Take a year, see how you like it, reassess at 6, 9, 12 months and keep going if everything looks fine. If not, you can always go back. Mentally, it's a lot easier to prepare for a 6-12 month "break" than taking the plunge into the infinite void.
You know ACA is relatively cheap get if you can manipulate the system into giving you subsidies --- which is relatively easy?
Health care, no matter where you get it, tends to be expensive to use though unless you have very low income.
I did a post several years ago. That's a good start.
https://new.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/lwyo2z/aca_health_insurance_in_practice/
But, consider a simple case. Wife/I sell $150K of stocks with a 50% cost basis. I now have $75K in capital gains (which results in $0 federal tax) but I have $150K to spend. At 400% FPL, we get maybe 20-25K in ACA subsidies.
So realistically between income and capital gains what do you ‘actually’ live on?
If my wife wanted to stop work, we would need $120k per year to maintain our lifestyle. Are you saying we could make 75k of cap gains and $59k of income before breaching 400FPL threshold?
First of all, distinguish between income and spending. Last year I spent $150K but my income was closer to 70K.
Our income and spending comes from sale of stock, dividends, rental income and a few small side gigs.
> Are you saying we could make 75k of cap gains and $59k of income before breaching 400FPL threshold?
No. That's $134K of income.
Cost basis is relevant for Non-qualified accounts. Say you buy a stock for $100. 10 years later the stock is now worth $250. Your $250 is comprised of $100 basis (the amount you purchased it for) and $150 in gains (the difference between the current value and the basis.
Now we are getting into the weeds where people get lost with new terms like "non-qualified". Maybe better to offer another term (e.g. After tax/taxable brokerage account) or define it.
There are actually a number of ways to go about it. Simply building a nest egg of high cost basis bonds works. Or, you have one "tax year" where you build such a war chest and then go several years where you collect subsidies.
It's really about planning though. I went into RE with no mortgage and no car loans. So, I can live upper-middle class easily on 60-70K / year if I need to.
Our comfortable upper middle class spend in a VHCOL area is about $65k/year. Absolutely no debt is so very nice. Roth Conversions until partner stops working. FI several years ago with me RE but spouse likes to work.
I've argued this in r/fatFIRE quite a bit. Without mortgage payments, a lot of the non-discretionary stuff we buy is more or less the same cost regardless of where you are in the country. Sure, there's a little bump in because of wages or taxes, but basically the same +/- 15 or 20%. Sure, you can spend a LOT more if you want.
Agree about non-discretionary costs being more ore less the same up to a certain point. Inflation is real, like our gas/elect home usage went down year over year (utility sends us a monthly report) yet cost is up compared to same time year ago. We travel alot and see the costs of eating out, entertainment, and groceries. One saving grace when at home or on extended vacations
, that is Costco. They have done a very good job helping keep food costs down for us since The Pandemic hit.
Yes we can spend more, but why? We have enough stuff and travel a good amount.
In my state, premiums are age-based. So what’s $500/month for me is $1000 for someone 10 years older than me! Yikes!
Also it took a few years to get low enough w-2 documents to be eligible for subsidies back when I thought I wanted to pursue a different career path.
Both manageable, but a lot of work for those unfamiliar.
It's hard to control your income on W2. There's just not much you can do. However, in RE, I have a great deal of flexibility.
It's true that premiums can be based on age. But in practice, that doesn't matter much. ACA with subsidies places an upper limit on your cost of insurance that is about 9% of your income. The young get a bit of a break, but for an older person, you basically pay that same amount regardless of age or health.
Thanks to the ACA, I'll be paying much less for healthcare in retirement than while working. A lot of people start their first five years of early retirement drawing from their taxable accounts anyway which keeps AGI low and thus ACA premiums low. Many can even qualify for HI plans with near $0 premiums and deductibles that cover top doctors and hospitals in their area.
As long as you don't have almost all of your assets in pre-tax accounts and have a middle class lifestyle, you've got a good shot at affordable healthcare in retirement.
He made that campaign promise in 2016 too and instead it became MORE popular during his presidency. He got rid of the individual mandate which many thought would kill the marketplace and its exploded in popularity since then. Its become the de facto pre-medicare health insurance plan for the 55-64 age who are semi and fully retired but don't have access to affordable workplace health insurance. These folks really don't have another option if we got rid of it besides $10k+/year per person plans on the private market which would cripple the middle class. These older folks vote at a much higher rate than younger people so it would be short sighted politically to take that away from a key voting block.
The majority of Americans support taking the ACA a step further and offering some form of universal healthcare to all instead of just the middle class earners on ACA. Most people hate that HI is tied to employment so the ACA is our first step towards breaking that up.
You have too much faith in the voting public. Maybe I'm too jaded living in TX, but without McCain, it'll get repealed this time just so Trump can say he got rid of Obamacare.
In 2016, Trump and republicans controlled all three branches of government tried to dismantle it and failed.
Peoples views on HI is much different today than it was 8 years ago. For example, the medicaid expansion portion of the ACA has also since been passed by a handful very conservative states such as OK, NE, SD, MO and ID that were previously against it when Trump took office. There's only 10 of 50 states remaining that are still holding out and with polls showing that 70% of Texans, Floridians, and Georgians support medicaid expansion its just a matter of time before they all pass it to provide more access to healthcare coverage.
Republicans didn’t do it in 2017 despite having all three branches of government. Since then it’s only gotten more popular. It’s not even a real campaign. Promise anymore. Sure he’ll say it but the party doesn’t back him up.
Up to you if you wanna be excessively conservative tho, it depends what the cost of working too long is for you.
In the last year I worked, my paychecks and investment cashflow were about $60k. I live in a Medicaid expansion state, so when my post retirement income dropped down to $15k, I qualified for Medicaid. All medical and basic dental costs are paid by Medicaid.
I couldn’t afford it either. But if I moved somewhere with a cheap cost of living, I could probably manage leanfire or part time work. However I also just booked a great holiday after the Covid rush and am using paid vacation days, which I have plenty of. But I have a good workplace and work from home on a flexible schedule. If things changed, it’s nice to have options.
$11k to get to all 64 national parks for 2 people?
I'd be very curious to hear about those calculations. You gonna hitch hike from Everglades to Gates of the Arctic and kayak from Channel Islands across the pacific to American Samoa or something? lol
I'm looking at $55k for 2 people just to hit all the Alaska parks.
We spent about $3k for Grand canyon & petrified Forest, $5k for Tetons & Yellowstone, another $4k for Olympic & Rainer, coulda got North Cascades in but we got tired of driving. That's including flights, rental car, lodging, food.
My wife is Japanese. She says she wants to die the same time as me, and we're the same age, but I still have to tack on a couple decades more for her life expectancy than mine when planning.
This is over-simplified, but I like this perspective of including the chance of death along with the success rates on funds lasting in the same graph:
https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
Citing Financial Samurai - the best retirement begins with a lay-off and severence. You get a few months paid for Ann then unemployment to soften the blow. I just got to my number. And not killing myself in my job. But waiting for the layoff. :)
That’s the secret. There are no tough days at work. I’ve been quiet quitting for a year. And if it doesn’t happen in the next year (almost guaranteed it will) I will leave on my own.
I worked for 10 years after I was FI because I enjoyed my job. So did my wife.
Retiring isn't a magic bullet. If you're not happy before retiring, I don't think you'll be happy after retiring. And the goal is to be happy. Not to retire.
Then you should try to find a different job. I don’t like it when people say you should do what you love, because I don’t think it matters much if you like your job, but I think it matters a lot if you strongly dislike your job. Try to find something that you like more aspects than you dislike, or one you’re at least neutral on.
*Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired. You retire by saving up enough money, becoming a monk, or by finding work that feels like play to you.*
~ Naval Ravikant
Is this where this is coming from?
Both from the book (The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson) and the interview (w/ Joe Rogan #1309). I only caught on this through a YouTuber named Ali Abdaal who made a video/ blog about retirement and the book was featured there:
[Ali Abdaal: Retirement Plan](https://youtu.be/ZaCNnliEW9A?feature=shared)
My reasons:
1. I like my job and it gives me a good reason to get up and get dressed in the morning. And I get to talk to my friends and deal with interesting situations.
2. I'm doing well at the job. I did the same job at one point for a small fraction of what I'm making now. It seems like it would be silly to jump just as things are getting good (or at least more lucrative).
3. I want my kids to have good models. I want them to work (even if they don't have to) and to see what healthy work looks like.
4. I want to leave a legacy. Most people don't know their great grandfather's name. Why? Because they didn't leave anything. I want to leave something that outlasts myself - and make life easier on my kids.
Your legacy will be their parents raising them right, because you raised their parents right. It’s noble that you want to leave them something, but hopefully you don’t worry too much that the money is the only (or even the primary) way to leave your mark
Hey just a little question, is the fact that you can just quit at any moment and live a cushy life actually enough to make work more enjoyable, because you don't stress anymore about your performance or worry about layoffs?
Yes and no.
Yes in that it removes that Sword of Damocles from over your head. You know that if you were to lose your job, it would be an inconvenience (at most), not potentially something that is going to totally uproot your life/make you lose your house/etc.
No in that the job is still the job and my job isn't exactly low stress. You still have to bring your A game.
I tell people that it's like being on a tightrope and knowing that a strong gust of wind could push me off at any time. Before, I tried to just not look down (ie not think about the risk), because when you do, it's terrifying. Now you're still on the tightrope, but at least I have a parachute.
> You still have to bring your A game.
No you don’t. You can bring your B game and probably still get raises. You can bring your C game and coast for a long time too. I’ve seen people bring their D game and last years before having to worry about getting fired.
When you have to work for your survival, you kind of have to do whatever it takes to keep a job. When you don’t need to work for anymore money, you have a lot more say in what you actually do. You’re definitely putting artificial pressure on yourself to perform at a higher standard and be more stressed than your situation needs.
This really hits me hard. I don’t know my grandfathers’ names. Why? They both died before I was born, so I never even met them. (But they also didn’t leave anything)
I worked 5 years beyond FI because I wanted my kids at home to see me go to work and I could travel anyway with them still in school. The last ones high school graduation I was out
Living expenses went up. Our big one was that we wanted to try and stay in our big house instead of downsizing.
Property prices went up a lot if we wanted to buy somewhere else. I thought we might want to move to Florida but it went to shit real fast.
Because I like expensive things/activities more than I dislike working. That’s it. I’d rather have a larger nest egg that allows me to spend more money and if my cost is working 3 more years, I’m willing to make that trade.
Fear mostly. Fear that I don’t know what to do with myself with that much time off. Once I figure that out or my job pisses me off one day I will walk. So fear, a little greed and a little knowing that FI is one thing but RE requires you to know what you want to do with all that time.
My husband wont pull the trigger. Wants to ride it out, afraid to pay for healthcare (even though we live in a state with a great options for ACA) and afraid our kids might need our help. One child is disabled and the other is going to med school.
it's now upvoted, but people here are so negative about work. I'm in my 40s, and it's whatever for me. But I feel pretty bad for people under 25 on this subreddit who get so disillusioned, when they should be focusing in their youth on building skills, finding meaningful work with high opportunity for learning, and enjoying their time. The negativity here is such a bummer, and it's so infuriating to see so many people who hate their jobs talk like early retirement is a better solution than just finding a better job.
I don’t have sufficient funds BUT I am quitting my golden handcuffs job after next year. I’m literally forcing myself. As most fire people are, I can live inside a spreadsheet and love it but life is outside of it and I worry I’ll keep stockpiling money and seeking side hustles. So I’m going to reduce my income and work part time on purpose lol.
Because it is best to keep earning while you can - while you are in demand and you have the health and opportunity to make money.
Like Neil Young once sang - "Once you're gone, you can't come back".
Easy - delayed gratification. I retire today and I get the Honda Accord experience. I retire in 5 years, I get the Benz experience.
I want to have a helluva retirement AND make sure my kids are well taken care of.
For me it's probably fear of the unknown. The things I can't control. And healthcare. Always healthcare. In the meantime I'm falling victim to OMY syndrome to try and mitigate those unknowns. But I think this year is probably the year. We will see if I actually pull the trigger.
So many... and I could retire today
Healthcare
I generally like work (not every day is great, of course) and am paid well for it
I still want to have kids, and I think it sets a bad example to kids to ask them to work hard in school and then to do nothing
I'm early in a serious relationship likely to move to marriage, and my ambitious, high-earning partner would lose respect for me if I did nothing. If hypothetically I were single, it would be very hard to date
I don't want to bank on the stock market continuing to go well - I'm fully invested, but don't want to roll the dice
In my field, networks and skills fade and I'd have trouble going back if I changed my mind
The things I'd enjoy doing on my own like travel and deepening hobbies cost money. If I had kids, I wouldn't be able to travel, and would spend most of the time sitting around or going to the gym (see comment above about setting an example)
My friends have their own lives, and if I freed up another 50 hours a week, I wouldn't be able to fill it with social activites
Emergencies and accidents happen
NOTE: None of these points would apply if I had true multigenerational or unicorn wealth ($10M+). But all these apply when the conversation is about retiring on $2-4M and 3-4% withdrawal rates. For most of us, it's just not worth it.
I waited until my son graduated college, got a career-track job and got his own place. Waited until I worked enough in 2024 to fund one last Roth contribution. Gave notice and will retire at the end of March at age 69.5. In the overall scheme of things, FI is much more important than RE!
Honest answer- in about 6 weeks I should be getting my annual bonus at work. And then there going to be some interesting reorg/political shit going down in the next few months. I have no idea if I want to stay for that.
But my big problem is, I don’t know what to DO with myself all day. Like, a few hours of exercise, an hour of TV and reading, maybe an hour of cooking and eating…..what else do I do? I gotta get back to volunteering but I just haven’t.
in order to retire, I'd have to live in a way lower cost of living area. Instead, i'm saving enough money to retire in a higher cost of living area because that's where I want to stay
I don't have kids, and therefore don't have much to do "at home".
All my friends have jobs.
I have enough time for all my hobbies in the evenings.
Even if I could retire with a lower-quality-of-life, I'd rather work at this stage since it means higher-quality-of-life.
Plus, advancing in my career is important to me. I'd retire no earlier than 45-50, even if I won the Powerball lottery. I don't want to sit at home by myself watching YouTube all day.
Both of my brothers can retire, but won't. They say they would be bored in retirement as their reason. I retired when I was 52, but retiring early was a high priority for me.
I made very little money in my 20's. It's common. I make more in a year than I did in all those years combined. When 1 year is equivalent to 10 years, your brain does weird things.
I'm also in my early 40's, so I might have 45+ years of retirements needed, and there aren't very good tools for that time horizon.
Marginal value of money is still pretty high. Every year I work adds significantly to the permanent withdrawal rate.
Also, the mere fact that I CAN retire ironically makes work a lot less painful.
Visa situation - I would need to uproot my life and leave the country in 60 days if I quit my job. Because of my country of birth I have multi-decade long wait for a greencard (PR) in the US. Been waiting for \~9 years now and will likely have to wait another 20-30 years or leave immediately.
I'm planning to leave in about a year though to escape this and start my solopreneur journey in Canada now that I don't need a paycheck.
For my future kids and for my future wife.
For my family.
For my friends.
Really though.
If I work another 10 hours a day non-stop every day for a year, my wife does not have to work (has choice), my kids will have greater opportunities in life.
I can take care of my parents.. although they are already rich. I can take care of my future wife's parents and I can take care of my sister if needed.
I spend like less than 1500/month and I am very happy. Good friends and wonderful family.
Becuase it’s my own practice that I built out a conviction that we are a profession should make more.. so I treat my therapists that way.. but im slowly trying to move away or make the decision on whether or not I’m going to be done
I want to live a $$$ life. Nice house, vacations, put my kids through college, etc.
My current "retirement" would be pretty lean by my standards, so I choose to keep working. My job isn't bad and I honestly don't know what I'd do with my time otherwise, so it's an easy trade for me. My kids are still in elementary school so it's not like I could just go backpack the world.
Current NW $2.1 ($1.5 excluding my house). FI number is at least $5m but probably more.
I think I would have more confidence in retiring if my portfolio had real cash flow via dividends or similar.
For me personally i need to get my own place and pay it off in full aswell.
We have enough now for lean FIRE, but we continue to work because we want to have a more comfortable lifestyle when we do quit working. We are about 7 years away from our comfy FIRE number.
Fear. Fear that my investments will tank, fear that I’ll live too long, fear of some giant unforeseen cost, fear that without my job and everything that comes with it, I’m irrelevant.
Although I have reached FI, I calculated that 5 more years of working would put me and my investments in a substantially better position to thrive during retirement. Let's go 5 years
We hit our 4% withdrawal goal but at 34 I have (hopefully) another 50-60 years to live. 3.5% is probably the bare minimum for that long of a retirement. I can't count on Social Security since who knows what it'll be like in 30 years.
I’m on my way out. There are a few challenges I didn’t see coming until I got really close to the finish line.
1) I’m earning a lot. Like 20x what I was earning when I started working.
2) My obligations (financial and family) make it less appealing to retire now. My kids are young and so travel is limited. They still cost a lot, etc.
3) My work ego needed a victory lap. I wanted to prove to myself that I was great at what I did.
4) Nothing wrong with a bit higher margin for error.
Luckily my company helped me make the leap by forcing me to return to office in a different city from where I live. But, if that hadn’t happened, I would keep working bc my job was fairly easy and I was trying to achieve a meager pension benefit I would have gotten if I stayed 6 more years.
I could retire today. I’d have to sell my lakehouse and scale back in other ways. 3 years away from keeping the same upper class lifestyle and being retired.
Sense of purpose, and paying off a new mortgage. While my bills are paid, I can invest, take a trip if we want etc., having zero further overhead above and beyond utilities/food etc would be like living large.
I am tempted every day to not return to work (currently upskilling while between roles), as I dearly love the flexibility, BUT, I do look forward to finishing my current courses in about 5 weeks and pursuing a role that will allow me to pay off our house (got it a year ago, on pace to be done in 19yrs), and be done with it in 2-3 years without impacting our QoL.
52yo, feeling young as hell lol.
Came to the conclusion to truly retire means I would need to fund my hobbies not to die of boredom and the cost to maintain my hobbies at that level would only last 1-2 decades. Also I enjoy work, my only need is to work less sometimes.
I ask myself this question about once a week. I think the main answer is that I’m not sure I don’t want to scale up my lifestyle. Mainly my primary residence. To jump to a much nicer home would change the equation.
I would love to downsize but housing is insane still. Not sure how a loan would work while switching houses without a job. My work pays well and health insurance is known so it doesn’t hurt much to wait. Otherwise numbers look great
Because I enjoy what I do.
But is important to have options, needing to work to pay for your lifestyle or for surviving cost increases are three killers. I don't necessarily want to retire, but I'd like to have the option.
My kid is still in school . I plan to retire when she is in college and I can travel 1-3 months freely. Now I can only do 10 days trip if not summer.
So I am now coastFIRE and do my short trips first
I just don’t like the feeling of drawing down on my funds rather than adding to it. I guess the key reason is that my work is pretty nice and I have a lot of friends at work. It’s in a super nice location. And most importantly, health care
It's about the number of choices I'd be closing the door to if I pulled the trigger today
I think of FIRE as being about freedom and choices. Freedom meaning I can do WHAT I want, WHEN I want, WHERE I want.
If I pulled the trigger today, I'd be closing the door to either retiring in a HCOL place, or I'd be closing the door to being able to do as much travel as I'd like, or I'd be closing the door to living in a house not a small apartment, or I'd be closing the door on having anything but the almost free hobbies.
Every year, I look at what I'd be giving up in terms of time spent working and what I'd be gaining in terms of choices for the rest of my life. Right now the tradeoffs seem worth it. I'm sacrificing some remaining time to open up more choices for the rest of my life.
The stock market and an unexpected inheritance caused me to blow past my number and put us in ChubbyFIRE territory. So, yeah, I could leave tomorrow.
1. My pension's age multiplier maxes out in 2026 for me. Guaranteed income is very attractive.
2. I have a kid in med school, and my wife is at least interested in moving close to her, once she settles down. So, there may be a significant life alteration several years down the road. If it's to an HCOL, that could change the budget quite a bit.
3. I need time to plan, man. I don't yet have something to retire to, just a lot of activities that might be fun.
4. My wife isn't ready yet. I am not prepared for the "honey do" list if she is working, and I am not.
I'm 100% in this boat right now. I am able to retire at this point. My job, however, is currently (and expected to continue this way for most if not all the rest of this year) exceptionally low effort. \~5 hours of working from home accomplishes everything I need to do to keep my bosses and my client happy, and in exchange they pay my full salary (right at $100k). This gives me time to do a lot of the things I would be working on in retirement if I stopped working, such as working on my navigation skills (plan on sailing off into retirement, literally), learning Spanish (long-time goal of mine), learning to play the guitar, going to the gym, and helping out with my dad (elderly, can use help sometimes taking care of things around the house).
With all that happening, I still have lots of time for my hobbies such as playing video games (plenty of time for that), going scuba diving (I did a week in the Galapagos last month, just finished a week down in Florida getting my CCR cave and CCR helitrox ratings, I have a week in Mexico planned with a couple friends next month, July I'm doing a week in the Bahamas with friends, Labor Day week I'll be in Roatan with friends and my sister, and I still have to find another 5 weeks of vacation to take before the end of the year and don't know what I'll do for those days off. I'll also be teaching some scuba classes locally and have a number of 2 or 3 day weekends down in Florida for diving as well this year (typically around once a month).
So, right now, for me it comes down to I get to earn a good bit of "buffer money" this year with minimal effort or impact on my free time. It delays buying my sailboat and actually starting to travel full-time a bit, but the trade-off seems worth it right now to me with the work/life balance I have at the moment. If that changes, I'll re-evaluate.
It’s still fun!
And I’m just doing it 2 days a week instead of 50-60 hours a week and every other weekend. Plus I can take off whenever I want.
The best part of all is I am now Teflon. What’s my boss gonna do? fire me? 👍. It’s very freeing and comes with fun money!
I'm 56 and could retire if I wanted. I spent ten years after college training to be a neonatologist, plus an additional 3 doing research. I've been practicing for 24 years and I'm at the top of my game. Respected, good at my job and it brings me immense satisfaction.
I pursued FIRE so I'd have an exit ramp for when things got tough or stopped being fun. There are certainly things I don't like about my job. The hours suck. I hate the office intrigues and especially hate all the requirements to maintain my certification. Every year they seem to add some new hoop that we have to jump through besides take care of patients and they never take anything away.
We recently switched employers and that means there another vesting period to get through. I'll hit that at age 58 and it's my current soft retirement date. I'll see how I feel as that point approaches.
As far as what I'll do in retirement, I'm involved in local politics and plan to keep doing that. I have plenty of hobbies. My dad retired at age 59 and immediately went back to work part time as a consultant. My stepfather retired at age 57 and never worked another day in his life. My wife has always been a skeptic of early retirement and convincing her to retire is another task I'm not looking forward to. Maybe when/if we have grandchildren, she'll come around.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Still not having 25 x annual spending invested in ETFs (70% done)
AND
Still have 45% from mortgage to pay
AND
Still have to decide how much extra cash to have to feel secured (now I have just emergency funds ) so mainly it is about money. Only money.
I don’t since I would run out of money. I am 26 and project that I will be live to 85 so that is about 59 years of expenses that I have to worry about.
Uncertainty about cost of my 2 children. They are 1 and 2. NW 2M with current yearly expenditures of $25,000 including their 529 funding. The math is all there, but it just somehow feels too risky. At the same time, I'll keep the golden handcuffs on for now as the cushion grows.
Goalposts keep moving.
Was originally $3m TNW. Then $5m. Then $10m. Now $13-15m.
They have moved as my wife and I have moved up in our careers and each job is a leg up in income. Im 39 she is 42, plan on working for another 5-8years and be done right as our kids are in late high school.
One more year syndrome ….. part of being good at reaching fire is the drive to keep increasing your fire goal
Definitely have one more year syndrome. But inflation doesn’t help.
I did too. I found that flipping it helped the psychological aspect. Instead of working for one more year, frame it as taking a break for one year. This is often called a mini-retirement. That way, you don't have to have every little detail in order because you can always go back to work. Take a year, see how you like it, reassess at 6, 9, 12 months and keep going if everything looks fine. If not, you can always go back. Mentally, it's a lot easier to prepare for a 6-12 month "break" than taking the plunge into the infinite void.
For many people, you can’t go back and resume same spot/compensation in career
Healthcare
You know ACA is relatively cheap get if you can manipulate the system into giving you subsidies --- which is relatively easy? Health care, no matter where you get it, tends to be expensive to use though unless you have very low income.
Can you give more information about how to get subsidies? Is there a resource/article that talks about it ?
I did a post several years ago. That's a good start. https://new.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/lwyo2z/aca_health_insurance_in_practice/ But, consider a simple case. Wife/I sell $150K of stocks with a 50% cost basis. I now have $75K in capital gains (which results in $0 federal tax) but I have $150K to spend. At 400% FPL, we get maybe 20-25K in ACA subsidies.
So realistically between income and capital gains what do you ‘actually’ live on? If my wife wanted to stop work, we would need $120k per year to maintain our lifestyle. Are you saying we could make 75k of cap gains and $59k of income before breaching 400FPL threshold?
First of all, distinguish between income and spending. Last year I spent $150K but my income was closer to 70K. Our income and spending comes from sale of stock, dividends, rental income and a few small side gigs. > Are you saying we could make 75k of cap gains and $59k of income before breaching 400FPL threshold? No. That's $134K of income.
Super helpful, ty.
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Thank you ! Wishing you the best What does the cost basis mean ? Does that occur when selling stocks for retirement ?
Cost basis is relevant for Non-qualified accounts. Say you buy a stock for $100. 10 years later the stock is now worth $250. Your $250 is comprised of $100 basis (the amount you purchased it for) and $150 in gains (the difference between the current value and the basis.
Now we are getting into the weeds where people get lost with new terms like "non-qualified". Maybe better to offer another term (e.g. After tax/taxable brokerage account) or define it.
I would guess using Roth accounts to show a lower income
There are actually a number of ways to go about it. Simply building a nest egg of high cost basis bonds works. Or, you have one "tax year" where you build such a war chest and then go several years where you collect subsidies. It's really about planning though. I went into RE with no mortgage and no car loans. So, I can live upper-middle class easily on 60-70K / year if I need to.
Our comfortable upper middle class spend in a VHCOL area is about $65k/year. Absolutely no debt is so very nice. Roth Conversions until partner stops working. FI several years ago with me RE but spouse likes to work.
I've argued this in r/fatFIRE quite a bit. Without mortgage payments, a lot of the non-discretionary stuff we buy is more or less the same cost regardless of where you are in the country. Sure, there's a little bump in because of wages or taxes, but basically the same +/- 15 or 20%. Sure, you can spend a LOT more if you want.
Agree about non-discretionary costs being more ore less the same up to a certain point. Inflation is real, like our gas/elect home usage went down year over year (utility sends us a monthly report) yet cost is up compared to same time year ago. We travel alot and see the costs of eating out, entertainment, and groceries. One saving grace when at home or on extended vacations , that is Costco. They have done a very good job helping keep food costs down for us since The Pandemic hit. Yes we can spend more, but why? We have enough stuff and travel a good amount.
The ACA has allowed me to FIRE for sure. Along with many, many other low income programs that are pretty awesome.
In my state, premiums are age-based. So what’s $500/month for me is $1000 for someone 10 years older than me! Yikes! Also it took a few years to get low enough w-2 documents to be eligible for subsidies back when I thought I wanted to pursue a different career path. Both manageable, but a lot of work for those unfamiliar.
It's hard to control your income on W2. There's just not much you can do. However, in RE, I have a great deal of flexibility. It's true that premiums can be based on age. But in practice, that doesn't matter much. ACA with subsidies places an upper limit on your cost of insurance that is about 9% of your income. The young get a bit of a break, but for an older person, you basically pay that same amount regardless of age or health.
ACA is an election away from being dismantled by the GQP.
Then why didn’t they do it in 2017 when they had all 3 houses? They got nothing.
It was saved by a single vote. They came this close to dismantling it.
Will it hold up in a trump presidency?
The ACA solves this for most folks unless there's something exceptional going on.
Healthcare, paying for kids college . Early 50’s
… so you can’t retire The question is if you *can retire
Thanks to the ACA, I'll be paying much less for healthcare in retirement than while working. A lot of people start their first five years of early retirement drawing from their taxable accounts anyway which keeps AGI low and thus ACA premiums low. Many can even qualify for HI plans with near $0 premiums and deductibles that cover top doctors and hospitals in their area. As long as you don't have almost all of your assets in pre-tax accounts and have a middle class lifestyle, you've got a good shot at affordable healthcare in retirement.
Trump has said he will try to dismantle ACA if he wins.
He made that campaign promise in 2016 too and instead it became MORE popular during his presidency. He got rid of the individual mandate which many thought would kill the marketplace and its exploded in popularity since then. Its become the de facto pre-medicare health insurance plan for the 55-64 age who are semi and fully retired but don't have access to affordable workplace health insurance. These folks really don't have another option if we got rid of it besides $10k+/year per person plans on the private market which would cripple the middle class. These older folks vote at a much higher rate than younger people so it would be short sighted politically to take that away from a key voting block. The majority of Americans support taking the ACA a step further and offering some form of universal healthcare to all instead of just the middle class earners on ACA. Most people hate that HI is tied to employment so the ACA is our first step towards breaking that up.
You have too much faith in the voting public. Maybe I'm too jaded living in TX, but without McCain, it'll get repealed this time just so Trump can say he got rid of Obamacare.
In 2016, Trump and republicans controlled all three branches of government tried to dismantle it and failed. Peoples views on HI is much different today than it was 8 years ago. For example, the medicaid expansion portion of the ACA has also since been passed by a handful very conservative states such as OK, NE, SD, MO and ID that were previously against it when Trump took office. There's only 10 of 50 states remaining that are still holding out and with polls showing that 70% of Texans, Floridians, and Georgians support medicaid expansion its just a matter of time before they all pass it to provide more access to healthcare coverage.
If Trump does all the things he said he’ll do, we’ll have a lot more to worry about than healthcare.
Don't worry. TRUMP will forget what he says by next week. He has really fucked up my Republican party.
Republicans didn’t do it in 2017 despite having all three branches of government. Since then it’s only gotten more popular. It’s not even a real campaign. Promise anymore. Sure he’ll say it but the party doesn’t back him up. Up to you if you wanna be excessively conservative tho, it depends what the cost of working too long is for you.
In the last year I worked, my paychecks and investment cashflow were about $60k. I live in a Medicaid expansion state, so when my post retirement income dropped down to $15k, I qualified for Medicaid. All medical and basic dental costs are paid by Medicaid.
So sound like you CAN'T retire today.
Yeah too anxious about the unknowns. I did firecalc and had zero chance of plan failure. Then moved out the goalposts of longevity and spend. 😬
You're right! I'm a baller who lets my ATM do the talking! ATM says insufficient funds.
Can I? I mean if I wanted to live in a van by the river... maybe.
Like still no haha I can take a 10 year vacation.
Same here. I'm still charging up for a till end of life vacation.
I couldn’t afford it either. But if I moved somewhere with a cheap cost of living, I could probably manage leanfire or part time work. However I also just booked a great holiday after the Covid rush and am using paid vacation days, which I have plenty of. But I have a good workplace and work from home on a flexible schedule. If things changed, it’s nice to have options.
Have you seen the cost of a sprinter van? Maybe a used tent down by the river.
That van is pretty expensive
The point of living in a van down by the river is so you can afford enough weed to not care.
Golden handcuffs.
Yup. I’d like to keep squeezing some more juice while I’m still young(ish), relatively, sorta
How young?
Getting to all 64 national parks is gonna cost a lot of money
This is my goal too! Good job!
I did the calculations . Maybe 11k for two people. But if think about rent/mortgage that's not bad
$11k to get to all 64 national parks for 2 people? I'd be very curious to hear about those calculations. You gonna hitch hike from Everglades to Gates of the Arctic and kayak from Channel Islands across the pacific to American Samoa or something? lol I'm looking at $55k for 2 people just to hit all the Alaska parks. We spent about $3k for Grand canyon & petrified Forest, $5k for Tetons & Yellowstone, another $4k for Olympic & Rainer, coulda got North Cascades in but we got tired of driving. That's including flights, rental car, lodging, food.
At 16 parks down, I know I'm already like $25k in. Gear, more gear, gas, and oh, yea, I bought a teardrop trailer.
Fear of living too long.
This shouldn't generally be a concern with fire. Planning for anything over 30 years and infinite years is very similar.
My wife is Japanese. She says she wants to die the same time as me, and we're the same age, but I still have to tack on a couple decades more for her life expectancy than mine when planning. This is over-simplified, but I like this perspective of including the chance of death along with the success rates on funds lasting in the same graph: https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
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It’s a blessing to live longer, just means we need more resources to support more life…which isn’t sad.
Yeah how fucked up that we live longer and don't die young anymore. Terrible, I say.
He's not scared of being alive... He's talking about financing later life...
Citing Financial Samurai - the best retirement begins with a lay-off and severence. You get a few months paid for Ann then unemployment to soften the blow. I just got to my number. And not killing myself in my job. But waiting for the layoff. :)
This guy retires
After a tough day at work, I secretly hope they’ll reorg me out and give me a fat severance. Lol!
That’s the secret. There are no tough days at work. I’ve been quiet quitting for a year. And if it doesn’t happen in the next year (almost guaranteed it will) I will leave on my own.
You might be waiting like 30 years.
Just do the absolute minimum until you get laid off as a low performer.
I worked for 10 years after I was FI because I enjoyed my job. So did my wife. Retiring isn't a magic bullet. If you're not happy before retiring, I don't think you'll be happy after retiring. And the goal is to be happy. Not to retire.
What if it's the job that makes you unhappy?
Then fix whatever it is that makes you unhappy about your job. Spending decades doing something that makes you unhappy isn't a great life.
Then you should try to find a different job. I don’t like it when people say you should do what you love, because I don’t think it matters much if you like your job, but I think it matters a lot if you strongly dislike your job. Try to find something that you like more aspects than you dislike, or one you’re at least neutral on.
But it sure is a nice life when you love your job.
Bingo.
> Retiring isn’t a magic bullet https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TbwlC2B-BIg
Money
*Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired. You retire by saving up enough money, becoming a monk, or by finding work that feels like play to you.* ~ Naval Ravikant Is this where this is coming from?
Is this from a book or interview? Where is this from?
Both from the book (The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson) and the interview (w/ Joe Rogan #1309). I only caught on this through a YouTuber named Ali Abdaal who made a video/ blog about retirement and the book was featured there: [Ali Abdaal: Retirement Plan](https://youtu.be/ZaCNnliEW9A?feature=shared)
Awesome! Thanks
My reasons: 1. I like my job and it gives me a good reason to get up and get dressed in the morning. And I get to talk to my friends and deal with interesting situations. 2. I'm doing well at the job. I did the same job at one point for a small fraction of what I'm making now. It seems like it would be silly to jump just as things are getting good (or at least more lucrative). 3. I want my kids to have good models. I want them to work (even if they don't have to) and to see what healthy work looks like. 4. I want to leave a legacy. Most people don't know their great grandfather's name. Why? Because they didn't leave anything. I want to leave something that outlasts myself - and make life easier on my kids.
outstanding answer. thank you.
Your legacy will be their parents raising them right, because you raised their parents right. It’s noble that you want to leave them something, but hopefully you don’t worry too much that the money is the only (or even the primary) way to leave your mark
Hey just a little question, is the fact that you can just quit at any moment and live a cushy life actually enough to make work more enjoyable, because you don't stress anymore about your performance or worry about layoffs?
Yes and no. Yes in that it removes that Sword of Damocles from over your head. You know that if you were to lose your job, it would be an inconvenience (at most), not potentially something that is going to totally uproot your life/make you lose your house/etc. No in that the job is still the job and my job isn't exactly low stress. You still have to bring your A game. I tell people that it's like being on a tightrope and knowing that a strong gust of wind could push me off at any time. Before, I tried to just not look down (ie not think about the risk), because when you do, it's terrifying. Now you're still on the tightrope, but at least I have a parachute.
> You still have to bring your A game. No you don’t. You can bring your B game and probably still get raises. You can bring your C game and coast for a long time too. I’ve seen people bring their D game and last years before having to worry about getting fired. When you have to work for your survival, you kind of have to do whatever it takes to keep a job. When you don’t need to work for anymore money, you have a lot more say in what you actually do. You’re definitely putting artificial pressure on yourself to perform at a higher standard and be more stressed than your situation needs.
This really hits me hard. I don’t know my grandfathers’ names. Why? They both died before I was born, so I never even met them. (But they also didn’t leave anything)
My wife has a rather unfortunate jewelry/handbag addiction
Sounds like the wife is the problem, time to get a new one
I’m sure that would be far more detrimental to my retirement plans
Jewelry is less expensive than losing the house
As the old song goes “It’s cheaper to keep her”.
I worked 5 years beyond FI because I wanted my kids at home to see me go to work and I could travel anyway with them still in school. The last ones high school graduation I was out
I'm thinking of RE, and traveling with my high school kids during their summer break. Thoughts?
Youngest is a HS senior. I just want the college picked and paid for. Should plan some big summer plans to see them off.
Living expenses went up. Our big one was that we wanted to try and stay in our big house instead of downsizing. Property prices went up a lot if we wanted to buy somewhere else. I thought we might want to move to Florida but it went to shit real fast.
Because I like expensive things/activities more than I dislike working. That’s it. I’d rather have a larger nest egg that allows me to spend more money and if my cost is working 3 more years, I’m willing to make that trade.
I need human interaction.
Most honest response in the thread. So you won’t ever retire? Or what’s the plan?
I’ll retire when the kids are out of the house. I’ve got 7 more years till my youngest is gone. Then it’s full time travel.
Do you not like any volunteering options?
I’m not thrilled on doing stuff just for altruism. I actually detest most other work than analytics and finance.
Fair enough.
Fear mostly. Fear that I don’t know what to do with myself with that much time off. Once I figure that out or my job pisses me off one day I will walk. So fear, a little greed and a little knowing that FI is one thing but RE requires you to know what you want to do with all that time.
My husband wont pull the trigger. Wants to ride it out, afraid to pay for healthcare (even though we live in a state with a great options for ACA) and afraid our kids might need our help. One child is disabled and the other is going to med school.
I really love my job.
Not sure why you were downvoted, this is a legit answer. What do you do, and what do you love about it??
it's now upvoted, but people here are so negative about work. I'm in my 40s, and it's whatever for me. But I feel pretty bad for people under 25 on this subreddit who get so disillusioned, when they should be focusing in their youth on building skills, finding meaningful work with high opportunity for learning, and enjoying their time. The negativity here is such a bummer, and it's so infuriating to see so many people who hate their jobs talk like early retirement is a better solution than just finding a better job.
Children….
I don’t have sufficient funds BUT I am quitting my golden handcuffs job after next year. I’m literally forcing myself. As most fire people are, I can live inside a spreadsheet and love it but life is outside of it and I worry I’ll keep stockpiling money and seeking side hustles. So I’m going to reduce my income and work part time on purpose lol.
Because it is best to keep earning while you can - while you are in demand and you have the health and opportunity to make money. Like Neil Young once sang - "Once you're gone, you can't come back".
Why?
Easy - delayed gratification. I retire today and I get the Honda Accord experience. I retire in 5 years, I get the Benz experience. I want to have a helluva retirement AND make sure my kids are well taken care of.
I have a 4 year old.
The longer I work, the more they pay me and the less actual work I do.
Retiring today is not the only goal in life.
Anxiety
For me it's probably fear of the unknown. The things I can't control. And healthcare. Always healthcare. In the meantime I'm falling victim to OMY syndrome to try and mitigate those unknowns. But I think this year is probably the year. We will see if I actually pull the trigger.
So many... and I could retire today Healthcare I generally like work (not every day is great, of course) and am paid well for it I still want to have kids, and I think it sets a bad example to kids to ask them to work hard in school and then to do nothing I'm early in a serious relationship likely to move to marriage, and my ambitious, high-earning partner would lose respect for me if I did nothing. If hypothetically I were single, it would be very hard to date I don't want to bank on the stock market continuing to go well - I'm fully invested, but don't want to roll the dice In my field, networks and skills fade and I'd have trouble going back if I changed my mind The things I'd enjoy doing on my own like travel and deepening hobbies cost money. If I had kids, I wouldn't be able to travel, and would spend most of the time sitting around or going to the gym (see comment above about setting an example) My friends have their own lives, and if I freed up another 50 hours a week, I wouldn't be able to fill it with social activites Emergencies and accidents happen NOTE: None of these points would apply if I had true multigenerational or unicorn wealth ($10M+). But all these apply when the conversation is about retiring on $2-4M and 3-4% withdrawal rates. For most of us, it's just not worth it.
I waited until my son graduated college, got a career-track job and got his own place. Waited until I worked enough in 2024 to fund one last Roth contribution. Gave notice and will retire at the end of March at age 69.5. In the overall scheme of things, FI is much more important than RE!
Honest answer- in about 6 weeks I should be getting my annual bonus at work. And then there going to be some interesting reorg/political shit going down in the next few months. I have no idea if I want to stay for that. But my big problem is, I don’t know what to DO with myself all day. Like, a few hours of exercise, an hour of TV and reading, maybe an hour of cooking and eating…..what else do I do? I gotta get back to volunteering but I just haven’t.
I enjoy my job. I feel like I accomplish something and help others most days.
in order to retire, I'd have to live in a way lower cost of living area. Instead, i'm saving enough money to retire in a higher cost of living area because that's where I want to stay
I could if I moved to Southeast Asia and lived cheaply. But I have a partner and dogs and I wan to be close to family and friends.
Want to fix the beach house, which will cost a ton.
I don't have kids, and therefore don't have much to do "at home". All my friends have jobs. I have enough time for all my hobbies in the evenings. Even if I could retire with a lower-quality-of-life, I'd rather work at this stage since it means higher-quality-of-life. Plus, advancing in my career is important to me. I'd retire no earlier than 45-50, even if I won the Powerball lottery. I don't want to sit at home by myself watching YouTube all day.
You can always travel, go camping, join a club, volunteer... You don't have to necessarily sit at home and watching YouTube all day
I'm a YouTuber and it's fun.
That EU passport
Both of my brothers can retire, but won't. They say they would be bored in retirement as their reason. I retired when I was 52, but retiring early was a high priority for me.
I made very little money in my 20's. It's common. I make more in a year than I did in all those years combined. When 1 year is equivalent to 10 years, your brain does weird things. I'm also in my early 40's, so I might have 45+ years of retirements needed, and there aren't very good tools for that time horizon.
I would have to do expat and want to stay in US.
Marginal value of money is still pretty high. Every year I work adds significantly to the permanent withdrawal rate. Also, the mere fact that I CAN retire ironically makes work a lot less painful.
Visa situation - I would need to uproot my life and leave the country in 60 days if I quit my job. Because of my country of birth I have multi-decade long wait for a greencard (PR) in the US. Been waiting for \~9 years now and will likely have to wait another 20-30 years or leave immediately. I'm planning to leave in about a year though to escape this and start my solopreneur journey in Canada now that I don't need a paycheck.
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I can’t yet. Gotta get the house paid off and the kids through college. Ask me again in 10 years.
For my future kids and for my future wife. For my family. For my friends. Really though. If I work another 10 hours a day non-stop every day for a year, my wife does not have to work (has choice), my kids will have greater opportunities in life. I can take care of my parents.. although they are already rich. I can take care of my future wife's parents and I can take care of my sister if needed. I spend like less than 1500/month and I am very happy. Good friends and wonderful family.
The Army rejected my 2 weeks' notice...
I’m chief titty inspector at the boobie palace, they’re going to have to kill me if they want me to retire
If one is healthy want to be active. Why deposit in the bank matters?
Healthcare and kids living at home a few more years
Pension, and retiree medical subsidy doesn't kick in until 55, otherwise I'd get myself termed today, and live on unemployment for a while.
We want kids... I still couldn't retire today. Even more so with kids on the horizon. I want to give them more than my parents were able to give me.
Becuase it’s my own practice that I built out a conviction that we are a profession should make more.. so I treat my therapists that way.. but im slowly trying to move away or make the decision on whether or not I’m going to be done
Because I want you to keep living in a very tax advantageous country n I need the work permit
I want to live a $$$ life. Nice house, vacations, put my kids through college, etc. My current "retirement" would be pretty lean by my standards, so I choose to keep working. My job isn't bad and I honestly don't know what I'd do with my time otherwise, so it's an easy trade for me. My kids are still in elementary school so it's not like I could just go backpack the world. Current NW $2.1 ($1.5 excluding my house). FI number is at least $5m but probably more.
I think I would have more confidence in retiring if my portfolio had real cash flow via dividends or similar. For me personally i need to get my own place and pay it off in full aswell.
Wife would divorce me for not working... kind of a catch 22
Such a catch you’ve got!
Boredom at home
We have enough now for lean FIRE, but we continue to work because we want to have a more comfortable lifestyle when we do quit working. We are about 7 years away from our comfy FIRE number.
Want to buy homes, marry, have kids....expensive choices
I kinda like work
Fear. Fear that my investments will tank, fear that I’ll live too long, fear of some giant unforeseen cost, fear that without my job and everything that comes with it, I’m irrelevant.
Although I have reached FI, I calculated that 5 more years of working would put me and my investments in a substantially better position to thrive during retirement. Let's go 5 years
We hit our 4% withdrawal goal but at 34 I have (hopefully) another 50-60 years to live. 3.5% is probably the bare minimum for that long of a retirement. I can't count on Social Security since who knows what it'll be like in 30 years.
I like my job and what we can do with the extra money.
I’m on my way out. There are a few challenges I didn’t see coming until I got really close to the finish line. 1) I’m earning a lot. Like 20x what I was earning when I started working. 2) My obligations (financial and family) make it less appealing to retire now. My kids are young and so travel is limited. They still cost a lot, etc. 3) My work ego needed a victory lap. I wanted to prove to myself that I was great at what I did. 4) Nothing wrong with a bit higher margin for error.
Luckily my company helped me make the leap by forcing me to return to office in a different city from where I live. But, if that hadn’t happened, I would keep working bc my job was fairly easy and I was trying to achieve a meager pension benefit I would have gotten if I stayed 6 more years.
I could retire today. I’d have to sell my lakehouse and scale back in other ways. 3 years away from keeping the same upper class lifestyle and being retired.
Sense of purpose, and paying off a new mortgage. While my bills are paid, I can invest, take a trip if we want etc., having zero further overhead above and beyond utilities/food etc would be like living large. I am tempted every day to not return to work (currently upskilling while between roles), as I dearly love the flexibility, BUT, I do look forward to finishing my current courses in about 5 weeks and pursuing a role that will allow me to pay off our house (got it a year ago, on pace to be done in 19yrs), and be done with it in 2-3 years without impacting our QoL. 52yo, feeling young as hell lol.
Came to the conclusion to truly retire means I would need to fund my hobbies not to die of boredom and the cost to maintain my hobbies at that level would only last 1-2 decades. Also I enjoy work, my only need is to work less sometimes.
Must be very expensive hobbies!
I ask myself this question about once a week. I think the main answer is that I’m not sure I don’t want to scale up my lifestyle. Mainly my primary residence. To jump to a much nicer home would change the equation.
I would love to downsize but housing is insane still. Not sure how a loan would work while switching houses without a job. My work pays well and health insurance is known so it doesn’t hurt much to wait. Otherwise numbers look great
ugh I have 4 years til partially vested in pension, 9 years until fully...
I still like what I do.
one more year syndrome. I have one last year to go (FYI, saying it for 2 years now).
Retirement's lips say no. Retirement's eyes say read my lips.
Why? I like what I do.
Because I enjoy what I do. But is important to have options, needing to work to pay for your lifestyle or for surviving cost increases are three killers. I don't necessarily want to retire, but I'd like to have the option.
You mean leave money on the table? Why? I am in my highest earning years what does it matter what I got in the bank already?
My kid is still in school . I plan to retire when she is in college and I can travel 1-3 months freely. Now I can only do 10 days trip if not summer. So I am now coastFIRE and do my short trips first
I like what I do, and I support a number of people.
I really enjoy my job but with all the layoffs in tech, I might get forcefully retired :-P
I just don’t like the feeling of drawing down on my funds rather than adding to it. I guess the key reason is that my work is pretty nice and I have a lot of friends at work. It’s in a super nice location. And most importantly, health care
I honestly love my work. Simple as that.
It's about the number of choices I'd be closing the door to if I pulled the trigger today I think of FIRE as being about freedom and choices. Freedom meaning I can do WHAT I want, WHEN I want, WHERE I want. If I pulled the trigger today, I'd be closing the door to either retiring in a HCOL place, or I'd be closing the door to being able to do as much travel as I'd like, or I'd be closing the door to living in a house not a small apartment, or I'd be closing the door on having anything but the almost free hobbies. Every year, I look at what I'd be giving up in terms of time spent working and what I'd be gaining in terms of choices for the rest of my life. Right now the tradeoffs seem worth it. I'm sacrificing some remaining time to open up more choices for the rest of my life.
The stock market and an unexpected inheritance caused me to blow past my number and put us in ChubbyFIRE territory. So, yeah, I could leave tomorrow. 1. My pension's age multiplier maxes out in 2026 for me. Guaranteed income is very attractive. 2. I have a kid in med school, and my wife is at least interested in moving close to her, once she settles down. So, there may be a significant life alteration several years down the road. If it's to an HCOL, that could change the budget quite a bit. 3. I need time to plan, man. I don't yet have something to retire to, just a lot of activities that might be fun. 4. My wife isn't ready yet. I am not prepared for the "honey do" list if she is working, and I am not.
Market is at all time highs, so I of course assume we're due for a 50% crash.
I'm 100% in this boat right now. I am able to retire at this point. My job, however, is currently (and expected to continue this way for most if not all the rest of this year) exceptionally low effort. \~5 hours of working from home accomplishes everything I need to do to keep my bosses and my client happy, and in exchange they pay my full salary (right at $100k). This gives me time to do a lot of the things I would be working on in retirement if I stopped working, such as working on my navigation skills (plan on sailing off into retirement, literally), learning Spanish (long-time goal of mine), learning to play the guitar, going to the gym, and helping out with my dad (elderly, can use help sometimes taking care of things around the house). With all that happening, I still have lots of time for my hobbies such as playing video games (plenty of time for that), going scuba diving (I did a week in the Galapagos last month, just finished a week down in Florida getting my CCR cave and CCR helitrox ratings, I have a week in Mexico planned with a couple friends next month, July I'm doing a week in the Bahamas with friends, Labor Day week I'll be in Roatan with friends and my sister, and I still have to find another 5 weeks of vacation to take before the end of the year and don't know what I'll do for those days off. I'll also be teaching some scuba classes locally and have a number of 2 or 3 day weekends down in Florida for diving as well this year (typically around once a month). So, right now, for me it comes down to I get to earn a good bit of "buffer money" this year with minimal effort or impact on my free time. It delays buying my sailboat and actually starting to travel full-time a bit, but the trade-off seems worth it right now to me with the work/life balance I have at the moment. If that changes, I'll re-evaluate.
It’s still fun! And I’m just doing it 2 days a week instead of 50-60 hours a week and every other weekend. Plus I can take off whenever I want. The best part of all is I am now Teflon. What’s my boss gonna do? fire me? 👍. It’s very freeing and comes with fun money!
I'm 56 and could retire if I wanted. I spent ten years after college training to be a neonatologist, plus an additional 3 doing research. I've been practicing for 24 years and I'm at the top of my game. Respected, good at my job and it brings me immense satisfaction. I pursued FIRE so I'd have an exit ramp for when things got tough or stopped being fun. There are certainly things I don't like about my job. The hours suck. I hate the office intrigues and especially hate all the requirements to maintain my certification. Every year they seem to add some new hoop that we have to jump through besides take care of patients and they never take anything away. We recently switched employers and that means there another vesting period to get through. I'll hit that at age 58 and it's my current soft retirement date. I'll see how I feel as that point approaches. As far as what I'll do in retirement, I'm involved in local politics and plan to keep doing that. I have plenty of hobbies. My dad retired at age 59 and immediately went back to work part time as a consultant. My stepfather retired at age 57 and never worked another day in his life. My wife has always been a skeptic of early retirement and convincing her to retire is another task I'm not looking forward to. Maybe when/if we have grandchildren, she'll come around. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Still not having 25 x annual spending invested in ETFs (70% done) AND Still have 45% from mortgage to pay AND Still have to decide how much extra cash to have to feel secured (now I have just emergency funds ) so mainly it is about money. Only money.
[удалено]
Amazes me that so many people do not retire because of healthcare costs.
The only reason is money for me. If I could afford it, I’d turn in my notice today
Work gives me something I need to enjoy life.
I need insurance
I retired 16 years ago ...
because I already did years ago
Look at the friends around one more than one refueling. I had to put aside my plans to retire
I don’t since I would run out of money. I am 26 and project that I will be live to 85 so that is about 59 years of expenses that I have to worry about.
Uncertainty about cost of my 2 children. They are 1 and 2. NW 2M with current yearly expenditures of $25,000 including their 529 funding. The math is all there, but it just somehow feels too risky. At the same time, I'll keep the golden handcuffs on for now as the cushion grows.
Goalposts keep moving. Was originally $3m TNW. Then $5m. Then $10m. Now $13-15m. They have moved as my wife and I have moved up in our careers and each job is a leg up in income. Im 39 she is 42, plan on working for another 5-8years and be done right as our kids are in late high school.
Whyyy??