Search found 65 matches

by karma
Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:54 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: FIREcalc
Replies: 13
Views: 27202

I may give this dory calculator a try. Something simple is good to try and entice people to FIRE. I don't suppose the "tool" is explicit enough for anyone to use. If it is, I'd try that, too.

karma
by karma
Sat Mar 12, 2005 6:24 am
Forum: Town Center
Topic: Community
Replies: 7
Views: 15936

I think the FIRE forum has the potential to be healthy if certain jihads were kept off it. If there are going to be fusses, leave them at the Town Center (though I think the recent personal attacks are beyond the pale). Perhaps we could all learn to get along. :) Anyway, having looked at recent thre...
by karma
Tue Mar 01, 2005 8:22 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: What to do?
Replies: 4
Views: 10594

Greetings, arrete. Too bad that your entry here was spoiled by ill-feeling. I've been harassed a few times myself. :? My favorite way to remind myself of the joys of retirement is to go to the grocery store on a Saturday, and then go on a Wednesday at midday. The difference is enough to make anyone ...
by karma
Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:09 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Rewarding Retirement
Replies: 4
Views: 10432

Rewarding Retirement

Many people wonder what they will do with their time if they retire early. Most of us have a nice long list to things to do - most of which we will never get to. Enjoying our retirement is what matters. People may have different approaches - puttering around the house, volunteer work, golfing or oth...
by karma
Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:08 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Getting to Enough
Replies: 8
Views: 15149

Healthcare insurance is definitely the big unknown. It is certainly something you should get smart on way ahead of retiring. Even with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in effect, programs, coverage and prices differ wildly state by state. Also consider COBRA (Consolidated ...
by karma
Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:50 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Getting to Enough
Replies: 8
Views: 15149

To me it IS a scary thought to have to live of my investments only. Having the 2 apartments take some of that fear out of the equation but when the day comes (max 3-4 years being my current posting) I will STILL be nervous I believe. I was really nervous the first 3 years - that would be about 1999...
by karma
Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:51 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Getting to Enough
Replies: 8
Views: 15149

Getting to Enough

What does it take to FIRE? I'm going to concentrate on the analysis here :)and I'm only going to talk about my own experience, because everybody's situation is different. I hope others add on about their experiences,

I started thinking seriously about FIRE about 1992. I was just realizing that the work environment was not working for me. For starters, though
- I had always maxed my retirement account
- We never cared about the Jones, so LBYM came pretty naturally. When I became serious about FIRE, I started budgeting so I could see where the money was going. That was an eye-opener that allowed me to save more to after-tax accounts.
- I had a small after-tax account where I would periodically stuff money
- My husband enjoys learning about stocks and has his own little method of determining if a stock is at a good buy point. He isn't always right, of course, but he's bought some pretty nifty stocks early on (Microsoft would be one). So I have my own built-in stock advisor.

As I started to get into FIRE-mode, I fired up the spreadsheets and started keeping track of my portfolio, retirement accounts, etc. I also read Your Money or Your Life. Just the exercise that forces you to compute your real wage (after taking out travel time, wear and tear, work clothes, etc) was worth the price of the book. The main thing, though, was that these people had retired early. Not sold on their financial advice, though.

In 1995, I received a small inheritance. While not large, it did jumpstart my thinking about when to retire. I switched to consulting, and doubled my salary in 1997. I immediately opened 2 Keoghs with Fidelity so I could once again max my retirement funds. I rolled my 403b from TIAA/CREF into a Vanguard Rollover IRA. I also started seriously adding to my after-tax fund. In 1998, I discovered The Retire Early Homepage ( http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/ )which had a lot less stuff than it does now. It did, however, have famous study about the 4% SWR. I poured over that, downloaded the spreadsheet and played.

Let me put a word in for playing with spreadsheets. They allow you to do "what-if"￾ scenarios where you can put in data that is relevant to you. Of course, the results are only as good as what you put in. No sense putting in 10 years longevity just to get a 8.5% spendout rate. I have always felt that the REHP study was fine within the limits of the study. People who try to use it inappropriately are going to get burned. I also have only used it or any other study as one piece of data among many used to come up with the decision that it was relatively safe to quit working. I'll also say that I was never a big fan of number crunching in the sense of moving data around to give you better results. The amount of error attached to any such SWR would swamp the benefits of slicing and dicing the data. I don't think fine-tuning works in this case. So I use the SWR as a mildly interesting rule of thumb.

I was getting pretty tired of work. I knew that according to the Schiller data, a SWR of about 3.5% would get me through 40 years. And that's just a worst case scenario, according to the data. If I could entertain a little more risk (95% level), the SWR could be about 4%. I thought I'd get a second opinion, so I ask my husband. He just looked a kind of average inflation rate and an average rate of return and came up with 5%. So I was home-free, because I could do the 4% amount (realizing that I don't have the same asset mix, and so on as the REHP study). Remember, to me it is one piece of information - a rule of thumb. I also relied heavily on knowing what my budget would be, the steadyness of my various assets, the fact that I heavily padded the budget just in case, and so on.

So I quit!

For the record, since 1999, I've taken out 20% of my assets as stated in 1999, but my actual loss of assets is only 6%. This swag was done in constant dollars. My spendout ranged between 2.9-4% (the high end were expected one time large expenses). And my portfolio is something like 51% equities, 41% mutual funds (retirement accounts), 1% REITS (recently sold some) and 7% money market funds. I've been naughty and never set up a CD ladder or the like. Oh, well.

So I can do a little analysis. :wink:

karma
by karma
Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:24 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

Work! I would stop work!


See - being retired 6+ years, I forgot the most important activity to cross off your list.

karma
by karma
Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:35 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

It seems to me that besides a Leisure/Activity tree, some kind of list for activities you want to stop would be good. You can get overwhelmed while retired just as you do when working. Maybe listing each activity you want to stop/reduce and a couple of ways to do it. Example - overcommitted on volun...
by karma
Sat Feb 05, 2005 12:36 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

karma - it is now fixed so my Activity Tree should be showing
by karma
Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:01 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

Bad news. I don't see anything!


I looked on my husbands computer without logging in to the board, and I could still see it. Is anyone else having ES's problem? It may be another job for SuperGummy.

karma
by karma
Sat Feb 05, 2005 10:42 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

Told you I'd be dangerous if I learned how to do this. My updated tree - except I called it an Activity Tree. I made it in Powerpoint, saved it as a jpeg.


karma - I edited this page, so the following posts may not make sense. I sure hope this works.
by karma
Fri Feb 04, 2005 6:33 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

:oops:Thank you for your kind words, Petey. Though I can do the math and do like spreadsheets, I am more interested in the nuances of the types of people who want to retire early, including successful transitions and how to deal with difficulties that might not occur to working folk. Maybe I'll try ...
by karma
Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:47 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

For that I would think it better to take vacation time in order to spend more time on your activities and live a little like you are FIREd. I would even go so far as to take extended unpaid leave in order to lengthen this period a little bit, and I think this would give a good feel for it. Petey - ...
by karma
Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:03 pm
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

Here ya go! I just had to help. Thanks to you, too, ES. :) If gummy hadn't done whatever he did, I would have asked you to put it up somehow. I still don't understand my problem, but I will perservere. In the meantime, everyone should draw their Leisure Tree. If you're still working, just put in a ...
by karma
Fri Feb 04, 2005 9:06 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: Goals in Retirement
Replies: 24
Views: 37697

Goals in Retirement

It has been mentioned that in retirement most people will probably continue with old activities plus add some new. Ernie Zelinski developed what he calls a Leisure Tree to help a person find out what they really want to do. The description is found on pages 113-121 in "The Joy of Not Working"￾ (1st edition).

A leisure tree is sort of like a 3-D list. Ernie suggests that you have at least 3 major categories to get you started: activities you are currently pursuing, activities that you have enjoyed in the past, and activities you think you might like to pursue. You can add other major categories that are important to you like travel or physical exercise. Then just start branching off the major categories with anything that hits your mind. Get as much on there as possible. If you have the same activity in multiple places, that activity might be a priority for you.

Here, with the help of gummy :!:is the picture of the Leisure Tree in the book (page 114).



I actually found an old leisure tree of my own when I start writing this post. I see I had "running"￾ and "gardening"￾ in several places - and I still do both. I also had volunteering, though not what I do now. Think I'll build myself another tree.

karma
by karma
Fri Feb 04, 2005 7:32 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: How I spend my post-FIRE time
Replies: 70
Views: 72595

:!:
by karma
Fri Feb 04, 2005 6:58 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: How I spend my post-FIRE time
Replies: 70
Views: 72595

:oops:Thanks for putting in the URL, ES. You'd think in umpteen years on message boards I would have thought of that. And none too soon! Looks like more rot has appeared.

karma
by karma
Fri Feb 04, 2005 4:42 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: How I spend my post-FIRE time
Replies: 70
Views: 72595

For any latercomers to this thread - it has basically been destroyed by inappropriate posting. I have started another on the same topic titled

FIRE - How to spend your time, part 2
Please continue there.

karma
by karma
Thu Feb 03, 2005 4:49 am
Forum: FIRE Board
Topic: FIRE - How to spend your time, part 2
Replies: 5
Views: 12282

When both of my parents were working, my mother would complain that she never had time to do watercolors, and that was what she would do when she retired. My father wisely replied that if she really wanted to do watercolors, she'd find a way to do them now. She never has done them in 25 years of ret...