Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Cost of living increase just touched my paycheck. Since my investments yield $50/mo for every $10k invested, this COLA is equivalent to having $30k invested. It's moments like this that make having a salary seem golden... then the next frustration reminds me that I need to finish up.

You're stuck in golden handcuffs anyway, aren't you? In some ways, you and DH are lucky that your timing is going to work out well with the market. Even if you could retire now, wouldn't you hesitate because of the direction of the market? By the time the economy recovers you and DH will be able to walk off into the sunset with a full retirement package and no worries. (trying to help, is it working?)
DH's company is very good at knowing how big of a carrot to hold out in front of him. Now that he talks about retiring at work, he's *suddenly* eligible for stock options. Of course, he has to stick around a few years to cash them in...

Tick-tock, tick-tock... yes, 3 or 4 years of golden handcuffs remaining.

An extra $150/month is nice... But the deal killer is the 160 hours a month occupying a work chair.

I in this same situation...I just got a big promotion making more than I ever have now....
It's a tough decision for me....

When is enough enough?

It sounds so definitive stopping your job. But is it definitive?.
When I look back to the 13 years of fi now, I see that I have in that period worked with pleasure on three free chosen projects which made money enough to supply my funds further. It costed me 4, 2 and 14 months so less than two years.
And in the other 11 years I was able, by doing all kind of things, from maintenance to installing solar-panels, to decrease my spending. But increased my skills, not to speak of my improvement on piano playing.
Since I took the plunge, the cost of living increased too, but all those years my spending decreased! Think a little about that...and perhaps plunge!
(the last 10 years of non fi life I worked as an entrepreneur so I was already used to fluctuations in income, that colored my views I think)

Hi George, what sorts of investments are you involved in? Just curious :p

@epoch707 - see the trading thread: viewtopic.php?t=1323
and there's also my leveraged income experiment, for a little different view of the investing world:

viewtopic.php?t=975
Overall, I prefer dividend growth companies where the dividend growth outpaces historical inflation. Second in preference are consistent high yield dividends.