I've been a little obsessed with fatFIRE recently. FatFIRE is retiring early with a large retirement fund that would cover more than the basics. The idea of leanFIRE stresses me out. Leanfire is retiring with enough just for the basics. Regular FIRE is somewhere in between. I want to make sure I can travel as much as I want and not worry about running out of money. So fatFire it is.
Fatfire goals are 25 times expected yearly expenses with the goal of withdrawing 4% yearly as income. For my expected expenses, I used my current expenses and estimated a little higher. I'm currently paying for mortgage and childcare in a high cost of living area. I hope to replace that expenditure with travel or hobbies when I'm older.
My original first goal is to reach coast FI. Coast FI is the point where you have saved so much money in your funds that you only have to keep working to keep up with your current expenses. Some people call it barista FI because you are only making money to keep things going. For some, it's for healthcare benefits. For others, it's about being able to cut down. That's what it's about for me. However, reaching coastFI would mean that I would cut down later in life. The time I need to cut down is now while my children are children.
Enter firecalc.com
This handy calculator is what I use to determine how much I need to save and how I'm progressing toward my goal. With that information, I can make decisions about cutting down now vs. later and how much. This is only calculator I've seen that takes into account social security and pension.
Currently, my goal is to retire at 58. Kids will be done with college and also my pension would kick in. I can cut down to 80% now to retire at that age. If I wanted to go 50%, I can do that but will need to retire at 65. If I keep working and saving at the current rate, I can retire at 52. Conversely, if I stopped working now, I can live on 15,000 a year. I'm not sure what I want to do but it's nice to know I have options.
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