serious conversation concerning early retirement

[AtlSwiss]

when is enough enough?

just read your is your 401k too big? and it ignited my desire to open up a dialogue concerning the switch to retirement at my current age of 58 and my mind is full of questions, philosophical issues and creating multiple retirement strategies that obfuscate my mind and brings me back to analysis paralysis. How do you decide the path that makes you happier? quantify your happy quotient and one day say Time to Retire? Or start to engineer my layoff from my current employer and negotiate a severance sotheby?s st year of retirement is taken care of? (already like the sound of that option)

love to setup a session with you or to open up the dialogue via this forum.

[gocurrycracker]

Hi AltSwiss, welcome. Yessir, this is what the forum is for.

I also have a small side consulting business.

[prognastat]

This one would be a hard question for other people to answer outright, but through discussion you might get a better idea of what you want yourself.

The main problem is that this answer will be different for everyone. It depends on how risk averse you are, how flexible you are planning on being in FIRE.

The general idea many go by is the 4% rule where if 4% of your investments covers your yearly expenses you are in a good place to FIRE. However some very risk averse people wait until 3.5% or even 3% covers their expenses due to at this point in 100% of historical cases your stash would last 30+ years.

If however you are planning on being flexible in FIRE by being willing and able to cut your spending in times where your portfolio drops and withdrawing less in only those years and the 4% in years your portfolio performs well or taking a temp job when the market is down instead of withdrawing then you can potentially get away with FIREing earlier.

Another thing is some people don't fully stop making income in FIRE through things such as the consulting GCC mentions, having a blog or working on some other hobby that generates some income.

Some even move from a high cost of living area to a lower cost of living area to allow them to FIRE earlier.

[FrugalMcDougall]

Prog,

Brand new to the forum, lifestyle, the whole shooting match. You say you have your own consulting biz. I have considered doing so myself as I have over 20 years as an electrical engineer, but that is exactly what I want to get away from in the first place. The whole flipping deal.

When you say "consulting", are you referring to something like someone like me going overseas for 6-months out of the year? If so, that won't cut if for me. My body, brain, wife, family and my mental health need something easy to sustain me other than my investable assets. I do want to stay productive, but I want to do so on my time preferably.

[prognastat]

I was actually referring to GCC having a consulting job on the side. I myself am not FIRE yet and simply work fulltime in my accumulation fase.

[gocurrycracker]

Prog,

Brand new to the forum, lifestyle, the whole shooting match. You say you have your own consulting biz. I have considered doing so myself as I have over 20 years as an electrical engineer, but that is exactly what I want to get away from in the first place. The whole flipping deal.

When you say "consulting", are you referring to something like someone like me going overseas for 6-months out of the year? If so, that won't cut if for me. My body, brain, wife, family and my mental health need something easy to sustain me other than my investable assets. I do want to stay productive, but I want to do so on my time preferably.

I view the definition of "productivity" much differently now than I did 10 years ago...

Read a book? That's productive
Took a nap? Yes, definitely productive
Made some killer omelets for breakfast? Productivity!
Road bikes with Jr? So productive
Quality family time? Serious productivity

https://www.gocurrycracker.com/what-do-you-do-all-day/