I started off as lean FIRE, then switched to FIRE, and now that I’m about to hit that number I want to increase it again! Anyone else feel that fear of never having enough? How did you overcome it? I have a budget for my retirement years but am always finding reasons to pump up the numbers.
Posted May 18, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC
The longer you can tolerate waiting and saving, the more secure you’ll be. Chubby and fat are where it’s at. I just think it’s nice to have the ability to stretch out a bit, to accommodate what life throws at you. Lean is way too restrictive for me, and even right at 25x / 4% relies a bit too much on everything going perfectly from there on out.
This being said, if your job absolutely sucks and you’ve had it, go for it.
Figure out your FIRE monthly budget.
Start living off that monthly budget.
Put everything you make from today until you pull the trigger in a separate 'bonus' brokerage account.
This will get you closer to the mindset of living off your nest egg, and not living off your income.
This. Have a goal with the extra money. Accelerate paying off a loan, double this years charitable giving, buy yourself a new bike, save an extra trip, add money to an income/dividend account so the extra money will pay you income for the next ten+ years. Need to set some goals which will motivate you to work for a while longer and get you comfortable leaving .
This happens to me sometimes, I'm trying to stay lean but I want to give myself a nice cash cushion of 1-2 years for when I finally pull the plug so I will feel better about not having enough.
It's there along with analysis paralysis, and one more year syndrome. If you are not burned out and can stand to keep working than do it, it costs you nothing. The bright side is that when you feel over it, you now have the option to leave, thats the independence part!
You can get there almost as quickly by just going part time and enjoying today. Stop saving and just earn enough to cover your bills while the snowball rolls along to the finish line without your help. If you're comfortable enough to FIRE then you're in a good position to negotiate at work for reduced hours in exchange for reduced pay.
Brilliant! Thanks.
"One more year" syndrome at play here. I don't know your exact situation but maybe it is a scarcity mindset block that you have holding you back. What if you tried shifting your focus to how much you have rather than what else you could have.
Sounds like the treadmill you were working to avoid.
Absolutely. I am stuck because of irrational fear. I’ll never be able to see the future, which is paralyzing despite my budget and the resulting FI number! Also finding an exit strategy from the US is daunting, but my budget would be hard to live within if I stay.
There is a big difference between having to work because you have no money, planned poorly, made bad decisions and continuing to work because you just don’t know what you want to do yet. Keep working. If you’re this afraid, you are going to retire and be miserable because you don’t think you can spend. Just keep working until it feels right to let go. You’ll know when the time comes. You’ll feel it without this fear and doubt.
A lot of people have a heart attack shortly after retiring from this uncertainty and fear of out living their money. ** not necessarily people FIRE'ing but in general.
I was born and raised in Brazil. Came here with $500 on my pocket 20 years ago and now at 1.2M NW. I could easily retire in Brazil now but can't manage to stay there more than 3 weeks every other year (violence, corruption, very high cost for anything above average quality).
I want to retire in Alicante (Spain) and probably could if it wasn't for the 45% tax I would have to pay.
I think it's too risky to Expat/FIRE without NW big enough to FIRE in US because if you have issues and decide or need to come back you most likely won't have enough. I will try to get to 2.5M so I can go wherever I want and can still come back without worrying about working again.
I always see people here saying that they may need to work after FIRE if they have a big unexpected expense or if the market goes down ... I think if they just went to a cheaper place for a year or two (US VLCOL or cheap country) maybe some of them would be just fine.
My original number back in 2011 was $X. This is before I had heard of FIRE.
A few years ago I hit that number. Then I doubled it. Now my goal is $3X, which I hope to hit in a couple more years. Hard to imagine that I will need much beyond that, but I may very well find it difficult to leave my job at that.
One reason this amount has increased is the inflation in asset prices (mostly real estate) we've seen since that goal was set (my number didn't account for that inflation). The other reasons are that (1) I have a kid and (2) my standard of living has increased a bit.
As long as you're happy with the change in your decisions, there's no issue in my opinion. Keep those decisions flexible, you may get close and decide that one of those earlier numbers sounds better due to life situations, work changes, etc.