Determining when to retire is in part a math problem and in part a time problem. Retire too soon and you can end up with lots of time, but not enough money. Retire too late and you can end up with lots of money but not enough time.
Years ago I tuned into Suzie Orman every Saturday. In one of her segments she would coach a viewer regarding the question ‘when can I retire.’ She often advocated working until 70. If the viewer had a nice pension or other reliable income streams, sometimes she would ‘allow’ the viewer to retire earlier.
Having failed at my earlier attempts to produce enough income to supplant my job (real estate being one example, but I will cover others as well in another posting), I internalized this idea of working until I was 70. I could see our retirement accounts growing and knew by then we would have more than enough money.
The issue for me was time. My wife’s health is not great (more chronic than life-threatening issues), but if I am to spend time with her, even just to enjoy her company, than I needed to rethink this.
Enter FIRE. I have no specific recollection on how I found the Financial Independence Retire Early community. One day I found myself reading a Mister Money Mustache article and one thing led to another.
As I was already 60+, Retire Early did not really apply to me. Retire on Time became the goal. Of course FIROT is not the best acronym out there!
I had recently paid off my house (took 22 years, like others, I had other priorities as well) and was trying to figure out what to do with this money. When the student is ready the teacher appears. Between JL Collins, ChooseFI, Retirement Answer Man, Big Ern, and others in the community, I started making those 1% changes that make so much difference.
I opened a Vanguard account, moved some money into their money market fund, VTSAX, and their total bond fund. I set up regular transfers and increased the amounts over time. In less than 3 years I had increased my savings rate to well over 50%.
I focused on my after-tax savings, as I had spent most of my working life building up the pre-tax savings.
I also worked on reducing expenses. Some of this occurred naturally as the kids moved out into their adult lives. Our house is about 26 years old. Almost two years ago I replaced the roof, having saved into a fund for that purpose.
The next decision, to add solar panels, took some research, which I have documented in this series. That lowered our energy bill. We also reduced down to a single car. The story on how that came to be deserves it s own post.
By the beginning of 2020 I realized I was probably in good shape to retire by the end of the year. I had joined and was helping to lead a local ChooseFI chapter and I consulted with some folks who had come before me in this journey. They agreed.
In March I told my boss of my plans, giving her plenty of time to adjust. I was the leader of a team with members in two countries and I knew this was going to be a difficult transition. I have been with my current company for over 20 years and wanted things to work out in a mutually agreeable way.
I talked with my boss’s boss about this and she in turn talked with her boss and they made me a great offer, including a date we could mutually agree on. My workload then increased for a bit, as I spent more than a month training my replacement in addition to my normal duties.
The day before I left they threw me a great Zoom retirement party with some nice gifts. I put some thought into the those last emails one sends before leaving a company (a couple recipients commented that they were the best good-bye emails they had ever read). I felt good about the way I left.
Now, at 63.5 years young, it is time to attend to the next season of my life. Writing this blog and improving this website are two of my goals. I am soliciting feedback and suggestions for improvement. I also hope to be of help to others on this journey.
A note of gratitude to many in the FI community:
Brad Barret and Jonathan Mendonsa , thanks for building out the ChooseFI community – you inspired me to focus my efforts these past three years to get to this point. Jonathan, just one comment you made in one podcast made a huge difference.
JL Collins – your stock series and longer term perspective encouraged my to focus my asset allocation and to create my bucket strategy.
Big ERN (Karsten) – thanks for your explanation of the sequence of return risk. Those of us who spent our lives accumulating now have to learn how to decumulate, a topic which is not discussed as much.
Roger Whitney – each month you break down a complex subject into four smaller pieces, so we can all learn to rock retirement. Many thanks.
Dan Soltys, Alex Wong, Michael Scepaniak, and Dave Schlappich – fellow members of our local ChooseFI group who have advised and inspired me.
My thanks to all who gave advice and helped me to walk this journey.