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I just started my dream job but I've also started pursuing FI although I would never RE. If I ever do FI, the most I would do is to try to reduce some of my workload for a salary cut. Probably the more accurate reason why I'm pursuing FI is that it's more of an artifact of the fact that I'm pretty content right now at a low expense level. Spending more money at this time wouldn't make me much happier. I have no kids and I rent a cheap apartment, so I can afford to save a lot without feeling constricted. Life and goals can change, but the amount of savings I'm building up right now would definitely make raising my expense level easier in the future. In one or two more years of saving, I'll have enough saved so that I'll be FI when I'm 65 – even without SS – without any additional contributions (5% real growth rate). That would free me from the need to save for normal retirement, which would be its own sort of FI-lite.
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Sep 15, 2017 12:56
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| # ¿ Jun 2, 2024 11:24 |
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Social security will definitely be there in some form or another. I use it as a way to strengthen the 4% withdraw argument. People debate whether 4% is "very safe", but if you're getting a nontrivial injection of money around 65-70, that can make up for a decent amount. If you're going to get 1k a month, that's like another $300k of net worth. Of course, this is more tenuous if you retire very early like in your 20s or 30s, but that's not really going to be a concern for me.
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Jan 31, 2019 14:18
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You don't have to go full FI to get the benefits. I'm aiming for about 80% of my actual FI number. That's enough to cover my bare essentials at 4% withdrawal rate. I kinda like my job and even if I quit for some reason, I don't see myself just chilling out, not doing anything for work. Thus, if my stash covers my necessities, then I can use any work (even part time) on top of that for either beer money or to reduce my withdrawals during bad market years. That's enough financial security for me.
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Apr 8, 2019 13:24
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I'm in accumulation phase, and I discovered that I am completely unperturbed by market fluctuations. In fact, I was more nervous during the market highs of the last two years than during any of the last two months (with regards to the market).
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Apr 28, 2020 21:42
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I'm curious, is anyone in this thread attempting to RE, and if so, are you following the 4% rule or being more conservative? I'm just interested in attaining FI so that I'm not reliant on my employer and can take arbitrarily long sabbaticals if I do leave my job (which is not terribly likely). The earliest I can see myself retiring is at 55, which is still 20 years away, but probably more likely the normal 60-65 range. Since I don't think I'll be retiring early, I'm ok with setting my goal as 25 or even 20x annual spend as I'll probably hit it well before I actually retire. That level would still allow me to not worry about my job, and all the growth between when I hit 20-25x and actual retirement would be more than enough to get me under any reasonable SWR when I do actually retire.
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Apr 29, 2020 14:22
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4% is the usual number that gets brought up when discussion safe withdrawal rates although there are people who advocate for 3.5-ish% as actually safe (see the ERN series above). I would say that 4-5% can work, but you'd have to have a decent amount of spending flexibility or additional income for the bad times.
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Jul 11, 2020 18:55
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If a HSA, (depending on your situation) 529, or mega backdoor roth is available to you (you'd need to check with your HR), definitely do that. Otherwise, just buy index funds from a normal brokerage account.
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Aug 3, 2020 12:28
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SlyFrog posted:I stand by my point that for a huge chunk of Americans at least, work isn't purposeful or meaningful. I don't think it's always the work itself that's meaningful or purposeful (although sometimes it is). Most people can't stay in stasis. We need to feel progress so we create aspirations and work to achieve them be it with jobs (progress up the career track) or in life (buy a nice house, pay for kids college). Having paid work gives people a framework to work towards these various goals.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:51
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moana posted:Can someone kick me in the shins and help me decide whether to quit my job? I've been going back and forth on it. We are at a 2% withdrawal rate right now, would be at 4.5% if I quit. If you have solid plans to get back to work, it's not really full retirement but more of a sabbatical, so I think 4.5% is fine when viewed in this light. This is why my current FI plan is only to get to 20x, because I know I'll always want to do something even if it's taking a part time gig at a cafe or bookstore or whatever. I will say that classroom teaching is very different from 1 on 1 tutoring (probably even more so in the K-12 setting I would imagine). The former is way more stressful than the latter, since you'll have to manage a classroom of kids, all with different willingness and capacities to learn. I would carefully consider whether this is the right thing for you because I doubt it's the right thing for most people.
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Jun 13, 2021 12:51
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Doing tasks, even if menial, could still provides some feelings of progress and productivity as opposed to TV and video games. Also, having an external source of pressure helps you actually do things if your internal motivation is not high. If I were to retire early, I'd definitely try to pick up some part time job just to give me some routine. I also like the fact that many menial tasks around the house like laundry, dishes, and cleaning floors have a reliable point of completion as opposed to my job (academic research).
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Nov 27, 2021 19:32
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By the way, I realize that I have no experience at all with what menial task jobs are like having spent my entire life in academia. What I wrote is just the perception of those jobs I have right now, and they are probably wrong. But if I were to RE (which isn't for at least another 10-15 years if at all), then trying them out is risk-free.
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Nov 27, 2021 19:59
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| # ¿ Jun 2, 2024 11:24 |
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I like the ethos of leanfire (frugality and anti-consumerism), but yeah I'd find it hard to actually fully retire on it given how little flexibility you have in your budget. I instead view it as the ultimate emergency fund. Job getting unbearable? Take a flyer and try something else. Worse comes to worse, you can survive on your stash for almost indefinitely long until you find something else to do. I'm considering a career pivot and being close to (not even at) leanfire makes such a move feel a lot less riskier for me.
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Nov 28, 2021 18:18
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