Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hi All, not checked into the forum for 2 years. Since then lots happened, the Covid pandemic of course. 9 months ago I quit my job, and my wife and I have been RE now for 6 months. Great to have all this free time. Miss a little, the office banter and regular income from earning. But lifestyle now i...

I think an ultra conservative swr can leave people in their jobs too long. I've only been stock investing the last 2 years (other than that into retirement/pension funds). However my stock investments have a weighted average return over the past 5 years of 11.7%. Admittedly past returns are not a gu...

@steveo73 - nice to discuss with someone in a very similar position here. I agree everyone should use the data and tailor it to their own situation and risk appetite. I read somewhere that one aspect sometimes ignored is adjusting your "4%" as you go along. So in a bear market you pull bac...

It is all relative. I have a taste for £3 coffees, which to many here would say is wasteful. But we live frugally compared to our net worth, and our neighbours. Nobody says anything to my/our face. I think they probably think we're eccentric for having local holidays and small cars. Maybe they think...

@jacob, thanks for US system perspective and taking time to reply. Love the chart of levels of personal finance. I'm level 5 MMM on the chart. My spending is not truly ERE and to be honest don't want to take it too frugal. Except to those i know on levels 1 and 2 I'm probably seen as extreme or craz...

Added gold ETF to my portfolio this week. Concerned too much froth in the market, and gold doing so well this year, want to get back in.

@slsdly - thanks for the Canadian perspective. I think many FIRE people do not plan to bridge the gap either. But this means you should extra funds in late retirement. @Dream of Freedom - think the Roth IRA has similarities to the UK Investment ISA, but as different tax regimes not directly comparab...

"Mind the Gap!, Mind the Gap!" Do you get that stateside? The London tube has an audible warning every time you cross the horizontal gap onto a tube. Not that I'd take the tube in Covid-19 times, and I live in another region of the UK, but when I did work there it always used to tickle me....

I am about the same age, in the UK, child free and mortgage free, and am also thinking of pulling the plug. Maybe its with the lockdown! The decision is totally yours and what feels right to you. Couple of thoughts, after a break, you can supplement your retired income with some part time work which...

I have difficulty with the recent volatility in stocks. No way round it for me I've had to add bonds and gold to reduce volatility, accepting lower overall returns. And agree with stepping back and not checking prices and news feed so often.

US stocks lot more resilient than rest of the world. S&P 500 1 year down 1% compared to UK FTSE 100 down 19%. Recent experience has confirmed my view that best not to be country bias as need large US exposure through a US or Global tracker.

@JWJ I had an inheritance earlier this year. Sounds like I have done something similar to your initial plan. I have put one third in a couple of index trackers, and two thirds in the best interest paying bank/building society/bond accounts, to preserve capital and against inflation. My future plan i...

How do you define ERE as opposed to traditional ER? My thoughts.. Traditional early retirement would be to leave before statutory retirement age, which in the UK is 65-67. So this would be ER from 55-65. ERE to me would be to retire before aged 55. Or is it lifestyle or the individual's philosophy w...

Welcome, and good numbers and savings rate.

Is VA a form of benefit in the US?

@Basuragomi - net graphs and write up. The net worth looks good.

This is something I've found when started serious saving is that you get a linear progression of net worth, and that (quite likely) continue.

@giskard - good and inspiring read, and glad to hear you are more energised, and happier. Credit to build investments and gain the security that goes with it at a relatively young age.

Welcome, nice write up and looking fwd to the graphs!

Have you thought about moving to another cheaper Canadian city, now you have hit 4% swr and you could buy a cheap home and could up your lifestyle in ER?

@Hazel is ok, welcome to the Board. Good to hear from someone in a similar situation. I am looking fwd to stopping work, but at the same time am wary of such a big life change, so am phasing in an early retirement. ERE has inspired me too, even though I as well, have left it late. I also started sav...

Hi there, not dissimilar to my numbers. Yes October was a poor month of market returns (my equity portfolio was down 2.5%), but when look at the YTD numbers the returns have been very good for 2019.

Congrats on breakin the $1m. A number of UK Fire bloggers have £1m as their FI target ($1.3m), which you are not far from. The work I guess would be voluntary for you, and you could reassess your life options.