The Intersection of FIRE and Disney

[calypso726]

Some have answered already but I'm curious...what decision that you have made do you think has best helped you to be in a position to save? And the opposite...what things tempt you to get off the path?

Best decision was to make paying off the mortgage a priority. This has allowed us to add more to the savings towards retirement and have more disposable income for nicer vacations, like Adventures by Disney.

Hamilton. I was sorely tempted to spend any amount to see Lin Manuel Miranda revise his role in Puerto Rico when the tickets sold out while waiting in the virtual queue. I did not purchase the special $5,000 tickets that are available but will admit that I seriously thought about it for a few minutes.

I have a question I'm curious about which actually pertains to the intersection of Disney and financial stuff (perhaps not FIRE specific, but FIRE would definitely be included). How much of all of these types of decisions do you feel relates to your family of origin? So, as an example my family was always really frugal, really entrepreneurial, future focused way before Ramsey or MMM or Bogleheads, etc... We never took vacations as such, but finally took a trip to Disney when MK and EPCOT was all there was, and stayed off site of course. So, oddly, my view of finances and of Disney was significantly impacted by my FoO (Family of Origin). So, some people are the opposite of their FoO and some people carry on from their FoO.

My views lean to FI much more than RE, for sociological, psychological, religious reasons, etc... but more than that, my husband, family and such has always pushed to be your own boss, own your own business, and I'm not sure that RE applies the same, or is sought the same, in that circumstance. So, for us the goal has always been avoiding debt, saving more than you spend, make sure you have enough for retirement, and also to leave to family when you are done with it. My advice is really schooling centric; there are ways of getting your education without going into crippling debt, make sure you dig into the different colleges and what they offer. My husband has a PhD and I have a Masters, we both belonged to programs where our tuition was paid and we got a stipend if we worked for the college programs in which we were enrolled. We also sought scholarships and grants. It was hard going to grad school and working part and full time, living away from home, etc... but the work was definitely worth it for us.

I would also consider us mild minimalists (lol) as we don't have too much house or too much stuff. I cook all our food, and we grow a garden, we don't really like to shop much. But, this is where Disney comes in; as others on this thread we don't go into debt (not even close, if so I'd never do it) to take a Disney trip. We know the discounts and have gone for over 30 years. We don't go hog wild when we are there. I think that was one of the points of living as we have lived; have enough money to do what we want and make money serve God and us, and not the other way around where you're serving money and those that hold debt over you (the banks, credit card companies, loan companies, etc...). So, time with family and seeing the world via travel is part of that for us.

This is one interesting area where I think philosophy and practicality live side by side; as your philosophy goes, your actions in regards to money follow. I'm just interested to know from those of a like mind when it comes to money; did that philosophy come to you by way of family, or other?

I grew up in the projects. We were poor and there was no one who understood enough to teach me about preparing for college. It never occurred to me seek financial aid or student loans. I put myself through college, taking one class at a time since it was all I could afford while waiting tables and living on my own. It took me a little over 10 years to graduate. Growing up, we did not take vacations, go on trips or out to dinner because there was no money for that. Financial responsibility and preparing for retirement is also a self taught notion.

As an adult, I enjoy vacations and traveling the world. We will spend money on those experiences. We don't go into debt for those experiences but will happily exploit credit card rewards to fund experiences we would not otherwise pay for.

If I had an extra 40-50k that I had to spend I’d definitely do Adventures by Disney trips lol. Other than that idk lol I was looking on Saks to use my Platnium credit and the prices for infant outfits were at highs of $200. Is that really that much better than the $5 onesies at carters?

Since it is just the two of us, we aren't spending that much for Adventures by Disney. I don't think we'd be doing an ABD every year if we had kids.

This year we had the personal plat and the Schwab plat and were able to get $200 in Saks gift cards. I decided to purchase a perfume that smelled really nice and was in a price range I'd never usually look at.

 

[Haley R]

Best decision was to make paying off the mortgage a priority. This has allowed us to add more to the savings towards retirement and have more disposable income for nicer vacations, like Adventures by Disney.

Hamilton. I was sorely tempted to spend any amount to see Lin Manuel Miranda revise his role in Puerto Rico when the tickets sold out while waiting in the virtual queue. I did not purchase the special $5,000 tickets that are available but will admit that I seriously thought about it for a few minutes.



I grew up in the projects. We were poor and there was no one who understood enough to teach me about preparing for college. It never occurred to me seek financial aid or student loans. I put myself through college, taking one class at a time since it was all I could afford while waiting tables and living on my own. It took me a little over 10 years to graduate. Growing up, we did not take vacations, go on trips or out to dinner because there was no money for that. Financial responsibility and preparing for retirement is also a self taught notion.

As an adult, I enjoy vacations and traveling the world. We will spend money on those experiences. We don't go into debt for those experiences but will happily exploit credit card rewards to fund experiences we would not otherwise pay for.




Since it is just the two of us, we aren't spending that much for Adventures by Disney. I don't think we'd be doing an ABD every year if we had kids.

This year we had the personal plat and the Schwab plat and were able to get $200 in Saks gift cards. I decided to purchase a perfume that smelled really nice and was in a price range I'd never usually look at.

What would you say is more important: focusing on mortgage or maximizing ROTH IRAs?

 

[calypso726]

What would you say is more important: focusing on mortgage or maximizing ROTH IRAs?

When we did this, it was focusing on the mortgage. However, at the time, we were in a position that we could feasibly have the mortgage paid off in under 5 years. DH has his own business and also has a regular job. He put all the income from the business into the mortgage. I get that not everyone might be in a position to do something like that. But there is a way to split the difference. It was how we started before DH's business. We set up the mortgage to be paid bi-weekly. The mortgage was $1400 per month so we'd pay $700 every other week. This allowed us to get in an extra payment per year without really feeling it. If we had to do this all over again and did not have DH's business income to throw at the mortgage then we'd do bi-weekly mortgage payments and fully fund the ROTH IRAs.

 

[bcwife76]

Dh and I are both 42, we have two children ages 10 & 8. I'm not sure we have been 'chasing' FIRE since I only learned about FIRE within the past month or so. But we have been aggressively saving. My dh works a physically demanding job and would like to retire at 55. I am currently a SAHM and have been for 10 years. We paid off our mortgage in 2016. I would like to return to work, if only part time, within the next 2-3 years but I am DONE with the soul-sucking kind of work I was used to before I had kids. After graduating university I left the retail world behind and worked for 10 years in publishing. It was soul crushing, stress-inducing work (I went on stress leave for 2 months at age 27) so if/when I go back to work it will damn well be something I want to do. Like I said, we are fortunate that I don't 'have to' work but even more money coming in would get those savings up even higher.

 

[Haley R]

When we did this, it was focusing on the mortgage. However, at the time, we were in a position that we could feasibly have the mortgage paid off in under 5 years. DH has his own business and also has a regular job. He put all the income from the business into the mortgage. I get that not everyone might be in a position to do something like that. But there is a way to split the difference. It was how we started before DH's business. We set up the mortgage to be paid bi-monthly. The mortgage was $1400 per month so we'd pay $700 every other week. This allowed us to get in an extra payment per year without really feeling it. If we had to do this all over again and did not have DH's business income to throw at the mortgage then we'd do bi-monthly mortgage payments and fully fund the ROTH IRAs.

We pay our mortgage once a month and I believe it’s somewhere like $1,200?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

What would you say is more important: focusing on mortgage or maximizing ROTH IRAs?

I did not even entertain paying additional principal on my mortgage until I was maximizing all retirement accounts available to me. (In our case that was $18,000 in my 401k, $6,900 in family HSA and $11,000 in our 2 IRAs - your situation may vary depending on what is available to you). Unless you are very close to paying off your house (which at your age I'd assume isn't the case) I would not focus on paying that down. Additionally I'd assume your mortgage is at a very low interest rate (and depending on your tax situation you may be able to deduct that interest from your taxable income which will return a portion of that back to you).

I would also say that nobody on an internet board could give you "solid" advice on this one without all the facts. IMO this is a somewhat complicated question that people love to try and give advice on. Heck, your situation may differ from mine and my advice above may actually be terrible, lol.

So basically I've said nothing...but I'd imagine in your situation that it would NOT make sense to devote funds to the mortgage at this point.

Another consideration that I often forget about are student loans...if you have those that could affect this decision too. Again people can dish out advice on this too but it's a very situation specific scenario as well, lol.

 

[Haley R]

I did not even entertain paying additional principal on my mortgage until I was maximizing all retirement accounts available to me. (In our case that was $18,000 in my 401k, $6,900 in family HSA and $11,000 in our 2 IRAs - your situation may vary depending on what is available to you). Unless you are very close to paying off your house (which at your age I'd assume isn't the case) I would not focus on paying that down. Additionally I'd assume your mortgage is at a very low interest rate (and depending on your tax situation you may be able to deduct that interest from your taxable income which will return a portion of that back to you).

I would also say that nobody on an internet board could give you "solid" advice on this one without all the facts. IMO this is a somewhat complicated question that people love to try and give advice on. Heck, your situation may differ from mine and my advice above may actually be terrible, lol.

So basically I've said nothing...but I'd imagine in your situation that it would NOT make sense to devote funds to the mortgage at this point.

Another consideration that I often forget about are student loans...if you have those that could affect this decision too. Again people can dish out advice on this too but it's a very situation specific scenario as well, lol.

Lol thanks for at least trying to answer my question. I guess it really is hard with everyone having different financial situations and being at different ages. Dh and I both still have student loans to pay off but we have paid off all of the high interest ones. We just did one of his to put towards our southwest card that we got. Which reminds me that we need to check if our points have come through yet. Flights keep going up in point value.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I did not even entertain paying additional principal on my mortgage until I was maximizing all retirement accounts available to me. (In our case that was $18,000 in my 401k, $6,900 in family HSA and $11,000 in our 2 IRAs - your situation may vary depending on what is available to you). Unless you are very close to paying off your house (which at your age I'd assume isn't the case) I would not focus on paying that down. Additionally I'd assume your mortgage is at a very low interest rate (and depending on your tax situation you may be able to deduct that interest from your taxable income which will return a portion of that back to you).

I would also say that nobody on an internet board could give you "solid" advice on this one without all the facts. IMO this is a somewhat complicated question that people love to try and give advice on. Heck, your situation may differ from mine and my advice above may actually be terrible, lol.

So basically I've said nothing...but I'd imagine in your situation that it would NOT make sense to devote funds to the mortgage at this point.

Another consideration that I often forget about are student loans...if you have those that could affect this decision too. Again people can dish out advice on this too but it's a very situation specific scenario as well, lol.

The other thing I love about these questions is you typically can come up with a different answer whether you are focusing on one of the following angles:

• Financial
• Legal
• Psychological

So then you can google it and get 3 different answers to the same question.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Lol thanks for at least trying to answer my question. I guess it really is hard with everyone having different financial situations and being at different ages. Dh and I both still have student loans to pay off but we have paid off all of the high interest ones. We just did one of his to put towards our southwest card that we got. Which reminds me that we need to check if our points have come through yet. Flights keep going up in point value.

You're welcome! I think it's always good to hear people's perspectives on things too. It can just get confusing when one friend might say, max retirement accounts, another says paydown the mortgage, and a 3rd says payoff student loans. For your situation there probably is a BEST answer, BUT the good news is that no matter which of those options you would choose - you're DEFINITIVELY doing better than the person who isn't saving for retirement, isn't paying down their mortgage early, and isn't paying ahead on student loans and instead is wasting their money on (insert random consumer wasteful spending category here).

 

[Haley R]

You're welcome! I think it's always good to hear people's perspectives on things too. It can just get confusing when one friend might say, max retirement accounts, another says paydown the mortgage, and a 3rd says payoff student loans. For your situation there probably is a BEST answer, BUT the good news is that no matter which of those options you would choose - you're DEFINITIVELY doing better than the person who isn't saving for retirement, isn't paying down their mortgage early, and isn't paying ahead on student loans and instead is wasting their money on (insert random consumer wasteful spending category here).

All very true lol.

 

[calypso726]

We pay our mortgage once a month and I believe it’s somewhere like $1,200?

Depending on your loan amount and interest rate, bi-weekly mortgage payments can save you about $30,000 or so in interest. When we set it up at the time, the bank was charging a one time fee of $250 or so and DH balked at that and didn't want to do it. I told him that saving $250 over saving $30,000 was sheer idiocy and grounds for divorce as I refused to be married to an idiot We both laughed and he called the bank.

I did not even entertain paying additional principal on my mortgage until I was maximizing all retirement accounts available to me. (In our case that was $18,000 in my 401k, $6,900 in family HSA and $11,000 in our 2 IRAs - your situation may vary depending on what is available to you). Unless you are very close to paying off your house (which at your age I'd assume isn't the case) I would not focus on paying that down. Additionally I'd assume your mortgage is at a very low interest rate (and depending on your tax situation you may be able to deduct that interest from your taxable income which will return a portion of that back to you).

I would also say that nobody on an internet board could give you "solid" advice on this one without all the facts. IMO this is a somewhat complicated question that people love to try and give advice on. Heck, your situation may differ from mine and my advice above may actually be terrible, lol.

So basically I've said nothing...but I'd imagine in your situation that it would NOT make sense to devote funds to the mortgage at this point.

Another consideration that I often forget about are student loans...if you have those that could affect this decision too. Again people can dish out advice on this too but it's a very situation specific scenario as well, lol.

This is exactly why I explained our reasoning for focusing on the mortgage over everything else when we did. I wanted to add context as to why we chose the path that we did. It was possible in our situation to pay it off in just under 5 years. If DH did not have a whole separate income to devote to that, then we would not have gone that route. We would have focused on saving a lot of interest with a bi-weekly mortgage payment and maxing the retirement accounts.

 

[QueenIsabella]

The "mortgage vs. retirement accounts" question is a very personal one. You can deduct mortgage interest, which is argued as a good idea, but anyone can use the standard deduction, too, so this is less of a "bargain" than it's purported to be. OTOH, there are tax advantages to some types of retirement accounts, as well.

And don't discount the psychological aspects! It's hard, especially when you're young, to think about saving money for decades. Even if you're basically frugal. In working with DD23 (graduated college, first real job with benefits, a little money to put away), I encouraged her to put some money in a Roth. I emphasized that, should she need to, she can withdraw her initial deposit in 5 years. Obviously, she'll benefit much more if she doesn't touch it, and I'm hoping that, in 5 years time, she'll have gotten used to it being there and just leave it alone. But knowing that she could access it in a few years made it more palatable.

We currently have a mortgage--we moved here 3 years ago. We don't prepay on it at this time. We could write a check to pay it off at any time. I refuse to let DH retire without the mortgage being paid off. It could be paid off a week before, I don't care, so long as it's paid off. We have a very low interest rate. Others can and do choose a different strategy, but this woks for us.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Sorry, forgot to add: for all you people who keep saying you want to travel with Adventures by Disney--there are better, nicer travel tours that you can take. We looked at ABD and found them to be lacking compared to others in their price range. Interestingly, they get mixed reviews right her on the DIS's ABD forum. As with anything, price it out, see who has what you're really looking for.

 

[Haley R]

Sorry, forgot to add: for all you people who keep saying you want to travel with Adventures by Disney--there are better, nicer travel tours that you can take. We looked at ABD and found them to be lacking compared to others in their price range. Interestingly, they get mixed reviews right her on the DIS's ABD forum. As with anything, price it out, see who has what you're really looking for.

We are going to Japan next year and instead of doing adventures by Disney (WAY out of our price range), I’m just planning the entire trip myself. There are so many good resources online and here on the dis.

 

[Haley R]

Depending on your loan amount and interest rate, bi-weekly mortgage payments can save you about $30,000 or so in interest. When we set it up at the time, the bank was charging a one time fee of $250 or so and DH balked at that and didn't want to do it. I told him that saving $250 over saving $30,000 was sheer idiocy and grounds for divorce as I refused to be married to an idiot We both laughed and he called the bank.



This is exactly why I explained our reasoning for focusing on the mortgage over everything else when we did. I wanted to add context as to why we chose the path that we did. It was possible in our situation to pay it off in just under 5 years. If DH did not have a whole separate income to devote to that, then we would not have gone that route. We would have focused on saving a lot of interest with a bi-weekly mortgage payment and maxing the retirement accounts.

I’ll have to ask Dh what he thinks about bi-monthly. I guess I’m confused how that saves you money in interest?

 

[piccolopat]

We're in a bit of a different position than many of you. DH is 64 and has been retired from his civil service job for some time now. I just turned 60 this year and retired in August. We started on the path to FIRE late, about 12 years ago, and during that time we paid for most college costs and a wedding for DD. The plan was for me to work until I was 62, a bit early as my full SS age is just shy of 67 but certainly not early as far as the FIRE movement goes. I loved my job and would have worked the two more years if my company didn't move. The move changed my commute from 3 hours a day round trip to 5 last year and after working there almost 4 decades I was really not interested in looking for another job. I decided at that time to do the commute for a year so that I got past age 59 1/2 and could take withdrawals from my 401k without penalty if needed. I spent much of the last three years continuing to max out my 401k savings while also saving as much as possible in a cash equivalent account. I did this so I had 2 years of expenses saved in cash in case the market turned, something coming in handy right now. I'm lucky because I was grandfathered in for retiree health insurance from work due to my time there. That's one big impediment to so many people who might otherwise leave work before they qualify for Medicare.

We're planning a move in about 3 years to a lower tax cost state (we're in NY where property taxes are outrageous) but not sure yet where that will be. We have lots of travel plans and we're trying to figure out where we want to go and when as we can't do everything in just a few years! Currently tackling a list of long delayed home projects and letting go of a lot of the "stuff" we accumulated in over 40 years of marriage so we only have what we really want by the time we move. We could have saved a lot of money if we hadn't bought so much of this stuff and saved countless hours of dusting. Random fact - I direct the Contemporary Music Group at our church where I also play flute/piccolo and DH plays guitar and cantors. That work helps keep us busy in retirement.

FI has made my early retirement possible and I strongly recommend it!

 

[piccolopat]

We are going to Japan next year and instead of doing adventures by Disney (WAY out of our price range), I’m just planning the entire trip myself. There are so many good resources online and here on the dis.

I'm old enough to remember planning trips before the Internet which has made it so much easier. Back in the olden days, I would get brochures from various travel agencies, airlines and the "Mobil Travel Guide". I would then plan my own travel using those itineraries and hotels as a guide. I would have to write to hotels and places to get brochures and make reservations. We saved a lot doing things on our own and we continue to do this today. We are not adverse to using a good tour company for some destinations but the value has to be there before we go down that path. We would also need any organized tour to have a lot of free time so we can do some of the "off the beaten path" stuff that we enjoy. It's helpful that I love planning our travels.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I’ll have to ask Dh what he thinks about bi-monthly. I guess I’m confused how that saves you money in interest?

I'm confused about this too and would love for someone to explain. Our mortgage is just on autopay for the 1st of every month.

 

[fbb]

I'm confused about this too and would love for someone to explain. Our mortgage is just on autopay for the 1st of every month.

Paying $500 26 times a year instead of paying $1000 12 times a year

 

[chalee94]

Paying $500 26 times a year instead of paying $1000 12 times a year

In other words, just make an extra payment each year...