I find the recommendation to quit a 40 hr $300,000 job in order to take a 40 hr $30,000 year job an interesting one. As hard as it might be to imagine for some, the new job very well might have stress that is comparable or even more than the much higher paying job. Retail work is not something highly competent workers seek out, and you’re just going to have to trust me on that one. I know.OP, if you are expelled from your job, consider ending your career but continuing to work 40 hours, at a simple, low paying retail job, just so you are not hanging out at the house while your wife continues to work for a few more years. That may be labelled as coasting into FIRE (Financially Independent Retired Early). One retiree is enthusiastic about working retail at a golf course, since he enjoys visiting with the customers and free golf is a job benefit on his days off.
As an early retiree, I used the RMD portfolio spending method because it is age-based, but that does mean that very early retirees will be spending less from the portfolio. That suited me since I had a no-COLA pension that would fade in value over future decades. Delayed SS with COLA was welcome when it was engaged.
If it were me I’d stick with the current job and take care not to exert myself beyond a certain level of stress before I jumped from a luxury ship in order to see what floating around on a dingy for who knows how long feels like.
Coast fire is one of the more risky mindsets a worker can latch onto the way I imagine it. I’ve never met a person who tried it, but if anyone has done it with success I’d be interested to hear how it went.
After having said all of that, I think $3MM with a paid for home is the beginnings of a fairly safe FIRE plan as long as the spending that is mentioned can be adhered to. Having two kids not yet launched is definitely a complicating factor, but a huge plus is having a substantially younger spouse who is going to work for a pretty nice income for years to come.
Based on what was described here (not knowing details like asset allocation and specific investments) I think retirement is okay. Waiting a couple more years would be wife to consider fully, though. $3.5MM doesn’t sound too much different than $3MM, but it really is.
Statistics: Posted by Wanderingwheelz — Mon Jun 03, 2024 3:36 am — Replies 30 — Views 3980