I think I needed a "creative" outlet to capture my thoughts and plans on our journey to early retirement. The current plan is to retire in early 2023. The ER timing is dependent on a couple of decisions -
first - do I need to still be employed to collect my incentive comp for 2022 when it's paid in April 2023?
second - will my employer recognize my eligibility under the rule of 55 (I'll be 54 on the planned date, but it'll be the year in which I turn 55)?
We have been diligent savers throughout our lives, always living well below our means. That intentionality, combined with no small amount of good fortune and good health, should allow us to retire with a portfolio in excess of $5M (in fact, we're already in excess of that number). I recognize that to most that's a ludicrous amount of accumulation and that we likely could retire early today and live comfortably in perpetuity. That being said, we have a plan, and (at least for now) we'll stick with that plan. It's worked for us thus far, so I'm not focused on fixing what isn't broken.
Between now and ER, we'll focus on buiding our cash cushion - thru monthly savings from our budget, incentive comp, and dividends/cap gains from our brokerage account - to provide a measure of protection against sequence of returns risk in the first few years of ER.
more later...need to go wake a kid for school and take pandemic pup for a walk.
April 29th, 2021 at 10:54 am 1619693648
April 29th, 2021 at 06:25 pm 1619720704
April 29th, 2021 at 09:39 pm 1619732364
May 1st, 2021 at 01:39 am 1619833166