The Intersection of FIRE and Disney

[SouthFayetteFan]

Anybody care to share 2019 results? This might be a fun topic to interject some energy in the thread.

I just finished my year-end summary spreadsheet:

• We achieved a 37% savings rate in 2019.
• This may fly in the face of FIRE but we had our highest expense year ever! We spent $65k this year!
• The good news is that I can clearly see that $22k of that was related to a driveway replacement + drainage work + basketball court (tied to the drainage work) that should last for decades.
• If I "eliminate that" as a one-time expense, then my savings rate would be >50% and my expenses would be $43k (both in line with where we've been over the past 6 years).
• I might be crazy with my personal financial spreadsheet...but I'm not at the point that I'm depreciating property improvements over their useful life... that seems a bit "extra" even for me, haha! So I must take the full hit this year for that expense.

Looking forward to getting my hands around my taxes next. I have a very detailed tax projection for the year so I know exactly where things should come in. The only major question there is how much Roth vs. Traditional I do on the IRA side of things. I obviously have until April to make that decision.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I want to quickly add that if anybody wants to share their savings rate, please feel free to include how you calculate it but DO NOT feel obligated to do so. Also, this should be a no judgment zone on how people calculate savings rate. You could certainly provide an opinion on how you might do it differently but we probably should avoid telling anybody their way is wrong. That led to some weird exchanges here in the past!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Well - I'm prepared to share a HUGE accomplishment this evening. I just pushed submit on our MORTGAGE payoff! Through a bunch of Chase URs that I cashed out, I am sitting heavy on a cash position. Paying this mortgage off has been a major financial goal for us for the past 5 years. Roughly 5 years ago, I lost my job in a very surprise situation with a corporate buyout. Amazingly, some tremendous earning opportunities came about as a result of that with a transition "stay-on" bonus, severance pay (twice), and a new job. A subsequent transition "stay-on" bonus ensued from there a couple years later and all of this combined with general frugality, meant there was a lot of excess cash flow occurring.

(Side note: If you are in some sort of visible sales/mgmt role, it is imperative that you develop great working relationships with all the misc vendors and other professionals you encounter. My work at fostering those relationships provided numerous job opportunities from the moment my situation opened up. It was nice to be in demand, and I recognize that while a lot of work went into that, there was also a component of being blessed there as well).

While I could have invested this excess cash flow, and from a purely "numbers" perspective it would've made sense to do that (in retrospect)... I chose the guaranteed return of paying down debt. We first eliminated an auto loan and then went to work on the mortgage. For me, this meant two major things: 1) a guaranteed return in avoiding interest and 2) lower obligations in the event of a future job loss situation.

With our mortgage out of the way, we could now live off of $20k annually if necessary. Essentially, my dependency on a job for basic living expenses is over. I could FIRE right now if I wanted to cease all misc spending & quit all kids activities. I don't plan to do that, but it's nice to know that it is an option, lol!

As far as 2020 goals go: we will once again max out 401k, IRA, HSA (which we've done for many years running now) and then seek to begin accumulating some liquid investments. The power of goals is just amazing my friends!!

Congratulations!!!!

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Well - I'm prepared to share a HUGE accomplishment this evening. I just pushed submit on our MORTGAGE payoff! Through a bunch of Chase URs that I cashed out, I am sitting heavy on a cash position. Paying this mortgage off has been a major financial goal for us for the past 5 years. Roughly 5 years ago, I lost my job in a very surprise situation with a corporate buyout. Amazingly, some tremendous earning opportunities came about as a result of that with a transition "stay-on" bonus, severance pay (twice), and a new job. A subsequent transition "stay-on" bonus ensued from there a couple years later and all of this combined with general frugality, meant there was a lot of excess cash flow occurring.

(Side note: If you are in some sort of visible sales/mgmt role, it is imperative that you develop great working relationships with all the misc vendors and other professionals you encounter. My work at fostering those relationships provided numerous job opportunities from the moment my situation opened up. It was nice to be in demand, and I recognize that while a lot of work went into that, there was also a component of being blessed there as well).

While I could have invested this excess cash flow, and from a purely "numbers" perspective it would've made sense to do that (in retrospect)... I chose the guaranteed return of paying down debt. We first eliminated an auto loan and then went to work on the mortgage. For me, this meant two major things: 1) a guaranteed return in avoiding interest and 2) lower obligations in the event of a future job loss situation.

With our mortgage out of the way, we could now live off of $20k annually if necessary. Essentially, my dependency on a job for basic living expenses is over. I could FIRE right now if I wanted to cease all misc spending & quit all kids activities. I don't plan to do that, but it's nice to know that it is an option, lol!

As far as 2020 goals go: we will once again max out 401k, IRA, HSA (which we've done for many years running now) and then seek to begin accumulating some liquid investments. The power of goals is just amazing my friends!!

Congratulations my friend!!!!!

 

[QueenIsabella]

SFF--You're doing great! Sounds like a good year for you. I don't even want to talk about it. We had a major expense--a to-the-studs remodel of the kitchen, which wasn't originally planned for 2019. Then we had a leaky upstairs shower that resulted in a ton of downstairs damage and a to-the-studs remodel of the family room, which is ongoing, and I still don't have my shower back, because the bathroom also requires extensive remodeling.

Then we have the new-to-us vehicle (actually, a 2005 Toyota Sequoia) for the teens to drive, because we have to permitted learners in the house right now. Throw in DH losing his good job and having to take a contracting job at less pay with crappy benefits, and it's not been the best for us, financially.

On the good side, the market's been doing well, so I don't think we lost ground. Once the family room and bathroom are finished, we're holding off on more home renovations. But, we have college to look forward to--DD16 wants to go to law school. Yay.

 

[alryan]

Well - I'm prepared to share a HUGE accomplishment this evening. I just pushed submit on our MORTGAGE payoff! Through a bunch of Chase URs that I cashed out, I am sitting heavy on a cash position. Paying this mortgage off has been a major financial goal for us for the past 5 years. Roughly 5 years ago, I lost my job in a very surprise situation with a corporate buyout. Amazingly, some tremendous earning opportunities came about as a result of that with a transition "stay-on" bonus, severance pay (twice), and a new job. A subsequent transition "stay-on" bonus ensued from there a couple years later and all of this combined with general frugality, meant there was a lot of excess cash flow occurring.

(Side note: If you are in some sort of visible sales/mgmt role, it is imperative that you develop great working relationships with all the misc vendors and other professionals you encounter. My work at fostering those relationships provided numerous job opportunities from the moment my situation opened up. It was nice to be in demand, and I recognize that while a lot of work went into that, there was also a component of being blessed there as well).

While I could have invested this excess cash flow, and from a purely "numbers" perspective it would've made sense to do that (in retrospect)... I chose the guaranteed return of paying down debt. We first eliminated an auto loan and then went to work on the mortgage. For me, this meant two major things: 1) a guaranteed return in avoiding interest and 2) lower obligations in the event of a future job loss situation.

With our mortgage out of the way, we could now live off of $20k annually if necessary. Essentially, my dependency on a job for basic living expenses is over. I could FIRE right now if I wanted to cease all misc spending & quit all kids activities. I don't plan to do that, but it's nice to know that it is an option, lol!

As far as 2020 goals go: we will once again max out 401k, IRA, HSA (which we've done for many years running now) and then seek to begin accumulating some liquid investments. The power of goals is just amazing my friends!!

That is an amazing accomplishment, congratulations!!! I love hearing other's success stories. One reason I still listen to Dave Ramsey even though we haven't had any debt besides our mortgage in many years. In about two years we will have enough money in our Roth IRA contributions to be able to pull that out and pay off our mortgage if we would like. I know most people would say don't do it, you're making more money from the investments than the low interest on the mortgage, but I really like the idea of no debt, and to be able to live on much less. When it comes down to it I don't know if we'll do it, but I think we will consider it.

Anybody care to share 2019 results? This might be a fun topic to interject some energy in the thread.

I just finished my year-end summary spreadsheet:

• We achieved a 37% savings rate in 2019.
• This may fly in the face of FIRE but we had our highest expense year ever! We spent $65k this year!
• The good news is that I can clearly see that $22k of that was related to a driveway replacement + drainage work + basketball court (tied to the drainage work) that should last for decades.
• If I "eliminate that" as a one-time expense, then my savings rate would be >50% and my expenses would be $43k (both in line with where we've been over the past 6 years).
• I might be crazy with my personal financial spreadsheet...but I'm not at the point that I'm depreciating property improvements over their useful life... that seems a bit "extra" even for me, haha! So I must take the full hit this year for that expense.

Looking forward to getting my hands around my taxes next. I have a very detailed tax projection for the year so I know exactly where things should come in. The only major question there is how much Roth vs. Traditional I do on the IRA side of things. I obviously have until April to make that decision.

I love this time of year! As I've mentioned before we are more on the normal retirement track so no crazy saving % for us. But I'm still happy with the year we've had.

• Savings rate of 16%. I actually include 401k matches in this. I just divide our retirement contributions/gross income. I don't include other savings like for a new vehicle, only retirement savings.
• We had a 4th quarter where we made much more in our investments than our income
• Projecting out until DH is 62 (11 years) assuming 7% growth we are on track to hit the amount that I am comfortable with to retire. So DH was happy about that.​

Looking forward to 2020 we will continue at our present rate of saving. With the possibility that my youngest son my be going to school from homeschooling it's possible that I may work more, or not. It is nice that we are almost to the point that we don't need my income and with all of the kids' activities and just the general work to keep the household running I may not work any more than I do now..maybe even less! It is nice to have options. If all goes well we should cross another 100k threshold in 2020.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

We don't calculate savings rate, only net worth. Total NW went from 396k -> 516k over the past year although that increase is slightly inflated due to the December 2018's pullback. Our target was to get above 500k so we're happy with that.

That is an amazing accomplishment, congratulations!!! I love hearing other's success stories. One reason I still listen to Dave Ramsey even though we haven't had any debt besides our mortgage in many years. In about two years we will have enough money in our Roth IRA contributions to be able to pull that out and pay off our mortgage if we would like. I know most people would say don't do it, you're making more money from the investments than the low interest on the mortgage, but I really like the idea of no debt, and to be able to live on much less. When it comes down to it I don't know if we'll do it, but I think we will consider it.

Our plan is to accumulate the money to pay it off in our account but not pay it off until we're about to retire. We want to have the option to allow our "income" to fall below the threshold for ACA subsidies in retirement and removing about 20k in annual expenses is a nice start to that. Needing to worry about that is a decade or more away though so who knows what the rules will be by then.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Since somebody shared their calculation, I'll share mine too! My savings rate calculation is super complex (to the surprise of nobody...lol). Basically it's expressed as "total annual savings" divided by "gross pay less income taxes":

Numerator:

• 401k Contributions (Roth & Trad) + 401k Employer Match
• [PLUS] IRA Contributions (Roth & Trad)
• [PLUS] NET HSA Contributions (net of annual reimbursements) + HSA Employer Contribution
• [PLUS] Other Investment Share Purchases (or [LESS] sale of shares)
• [PLUS] Mortgage Principal Payments
• [PLUS] NET result of all liquid cash accounts (or [LESS] this amount if net cash decreases for the year)

Denominator:

• Paycheck Deposits (actual take home amount)
• [PLUS] 401k Contributions (Roth & Trad) + 401k Employer Match
• [PLUS] HSA Contributions (net of annual reimbursements) + HSA Employer Contribution
• [PLUS] Medical Dental Premiums withheld (and this also ends up being an expense of an equal amount which affects my "net result of liquid accounts")
• [PLUS] Tax Refund (or [LESS] Taxes Owed) - This is actually tied to a "prior year" event but it makes it easier to keep it within the calendar year.

I know there are a lot of ways to calculate this. I've been using this calculation since 2008 and the consistency is what makes the number meaningful to me. I look at it like what I said before: "total annual savings" divided by "gross pay less income taxes."

My spreadsheet gives me a number of interesting numbers that I can analyze year over year including:

• SUBTOTAL - WAGES & TAX REFUNDS
• GRAND TOTAL - CASH INFLOWS
• TOTAL - EXPENSES
• TOTAL - SAVINGS TRANSFERS
• GRAND TOTAL - CASH OUTFLOWS
• NET RESULT OF LIQUID CASH ACCOUNTS
• TOTAL NET SAVINGS (LOSS)
• Savings as a % of Take Home Pay
• Expenses as a % of Take Home Pay
• TOTAL CASH/INVESTMENTS (at year end)
• NET WORTH (at year end)'

I might enjoy this time of year a bit too much

 

[Carol_]

I have been keeping one eye on my finances for years, but just one.
This year, I opened the other eye, downloaded some apps, contacted all my myriad financial institutions and finally got a pretty clear idea of exactly what I owed and what I had in the bank and in my various tiny investments.
I maxed out my Roth IRA.
I chose some investments in the market.
I made rookie mistakes and paid inordinate fees.
I'm riding out those choices.
Now I'm deciding between putting extra cash into a traditional IRA, paying off some of a ginormous 3.4% student loan, or doing my taxes first to see if I indeed have any money leftover to do anything with.
Anybody have a good budgeting app that tracks my expenditures automagically other than Mint?

 

[RamblingMad]

I saved about a third, and half of that savings went into a down payment on a new home while selling the other one. A lot of money I would have saved went towards moving and home repairs. Not my best year. My old home was a money pit. I was constantly having to repair stuff. I did increase my net worth by about $100k, so I feel good about that. But I definitely didn't save as much as I would have liked. The good news is that my state income taxes are now 2% less and my property tax is half as much. Also, my new home has had its appliances recently replaced and new flooring put in. However, I do anticipate having to replace the HVAC equipment over the next couple of years, so I'm planning to replace one unit a year until they're all replaced.

 

[alryan]

Since somebody shared their calculation, I'll share mine too! My savings rate calculation is super complex (to the surprise of nobody...lol). Basically it's expressed as "total annual savings" divided by "gross pay less income taxes":

Numerator:

• 401k Contributions (Roth & Trad) + 401k Employer Match
• [PLUS] IRA Contributions (Roth & Trad)
• [PLUS] NET HSA Contributions (net of annual reimbursements) + HSA Employer Contribution
• [PLUS] Other Investment Share Purchases (or [LESS] sale of shares)
• [PLUS] Mortgage Principal Payments
• [PLUS] NET result of all liquid cash accounts (or [LESS] this amount if net cash decreases for the year)

Denominator:

• Paycheck Deposits (actual take home amount)
• [PLUS] 401k Contributions (Roth & Trad) + 401k Employer Match
• [PLUS] HSA Contributions (net of annual reimbursements) + HSA Employer Contribution
• [PLUS] Medical Dental Premiums withheld (and this also ends up being an expense of an equal amount which affects my "net result of liquid accounts")
• [PLUS] Tax Refund (or [LESS] Taxes Owed) - This is actually tied to a "prior year" event but it makes it easier to keep it within the calendar year.

I know there are a lot of ways to calculate this. I've been using this calculation since 2008 and the consistency is what makes the number meaningful to me. I look at it like what I said before: "total annual savings" divided by "gross pay less income taxes."

My spreadsheet gives me a number of interesting numbers that I can analyze year over year including:

• SUBTOTAL - WAGES & TAX REFUNDS
• GRAND TOTAL - CASH INFLOWS
• TOTAL - EXPENSES
• TOTAL - SAVINGS TRANSFERS
• GRAND TOTAL - CASH OUTFLOWS
• NET RESULT OF LIQUID CASH ACCOUNTS
• TOTAL NET SAVINGS (LOSS)
• Savings as a % of Take Home Pay
• Expenses as a % of Take Home Pay
• TOTAL CASH/INVESTMENTS (at year end)
• NET WORTH (at year end)'

I might enjoy this time of year a bit too much

OH. MY. GOODNESS. Clearly you do like this way too much We are not even in the same league! I do think I like your calculation better, but that is way too much work for me. I do have my limits

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

OH. MY. GOODNESS. Clearly you do like this way too much We are not even in the same league! I do think I like your calculation better, but that is way too much work for me. I do have my limits

It might be worth pointing out that all the factors in the Savings Rate calculation are pre-built outputs from my financial spreadsheet. I already track my income and spending to the penny and have done so since 2008, so when the year is over these figures just spit out automatically. Once I was tracking all the spending and such, building the meaningful analysis takes a lot less time.

A lot of this has also been developed over the course of a decade. Each year I spend a little bit of time adding new features to the spreadsheet that give me more insight into things. I definitely enjoy it though!

 

[trenty]

I have been keeping one eye on my finances for years, but just one.
This year, I opened the other eye, downloaded some apps, contacted all my myriad financial institutions and finally got a pretty clear idea of exactly what I owed and what I had in the bank and in my various tiny investments.
I maxed out my Roth IRA.
I chose some investments in the market.
I made rookie mistakes and paid inordinate fees.
I'm riding out those choices.
Now I'm deciding between putting extra cash into a traditional IRA, paying off some of a ginormous 3.4% student loan, or doing my taxes first to see if I indeed have any money leftover to do anything with.
Anybody have a good budgeting app that tracks my expenditures automagically other than Mint?

I use Everydollar.

 

[trenty]

I have been keeping one eye on my finances for years, but just one.
This year, I opened the other eye, downloaded some apps, contacted all my myriad financial institutions and finally got a pretty clear idea of exactly what I owed and what I had in the bank and in my various tiny investments.
I maxed out my Roth IRA.
I chose some investments in the market.
I made rookie mistakes and paid inordinate fees.
I'm riding out those choices.
Now I'm deciding between putting extra cash into a traditional IRA, paying off some of a ginormous 3.4% student loan, or doing my taxes first to see if I indeed have any money leftover to do anything with.
Anybody have a good budgeting app that tracks my expenditures automagically other than Mint?

I was a lot like you. We were "keeping an eye" on our finances and doing pretty well (so we thought). This year we opened both eyes, paid off some stupid debt, and started budgeting. I would pay off your student loan if I were you. I recommend reading TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER. While I do not agree with everything Ramsey preaches, his babysteps work.

 

[bernina]

Since somebody shared their calculation, I'll share mine too! My savings rate calculation is super complex (to the surprise of nobody...lol). Basically it's expressed as "total annual savings" divided by "gross pay less income taxes":

Numerator:

• 401k Contributions (Roth & Trad) + 401k Employer Match
• [PLUS] IRA Contributions (Roth & Trad)
• [PLUS] NET HSA Contributions (net of annual reimbursements) + HSA Employer Contribution
• [PLUS] Other Investment Share Purchases (or [LESS] sale of shares)
• [PLUS] Mortgage Principal Payments
• [PLUS] NET result of all liquid cash accounts (or [LESS] this amount if net cash decreases for the year)

Denominator:

• Paycheck Deposits (actual take home amount)
• [PLUS] 401k Contributions (Roth & Trad) + 401k Employer Match
• [PLUS] HSA Contributions (net of annual reimbursements) + HSA Employer Contribution
• [PLUS] Medical Dental Premiums withheld (and this also ends up being an expense of an equal amount which affects my "net result of liquid accounts")
• [PLUS] Tax Refund (or [LESS] Taxes Owed) - This is actually tied to a "prior year" event but it makes it easier to keep it within the calendar year.

I know there are a lot of ways to calculate this. I've been using this calculation since 2008 and the consistency is what makes the number meaningful to me. I look at it like what I said before: "total annual savings" divided by "gross pay less income taxes."

My spreadsheet gives me a number of interesting numbers that I can analyze year over year including:

• SUBTOTAL - WAGES & TAX REFUNDS
• GRAND TOTAL - CASH INFLOWS
• TOTAL - EXPENSES
• TOTAL - SAVINGS TRANSFERS
• GRAND TOTAL - CASH OUTFLOWS
• NET RESULT OF LIQUID CASH ACCOUNTS
• TOTAL NET SAVINGS (LOSS)
• Savings as a % of Take Home Pay
• Expenses as a % of Take Home Pay
• TOTAL CASH/INVESTMENTS (at year end)
• NET WORTH (at year end)'

I might enjoy this time of year a bit too much

Question, it looks like federal, state, SSN, and Medicare tax payments are excluded from the denominator by using your take home pay. I know you have a well studied reason for your calculations, can you explain how you arrived at this method?

I've done with and without taxes and it's about an 11% difference in savings rate for us.

I realize that using the same method year over year is the most important for consistency, I'm just really unsure of how I should be factoring current taxes into retirement planning. Right now those taxes are 23% of our denominator (calculated the same as you but adding in the tax payments) but in retirement will obviously be much different.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I was a lot like you. We were "keeping an eye" on our finances and doing pretty well (so we thought). This year we opened both eyes, paid off some stupid debt, and started budgeting. I would pay off your student loan if I were you. I recommend reading TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER. While I do not agree with everything Ramsey preaches, his babysteps work.

BS1-BS3 are decent although I disagree with small portions of those (snowball vs avalanche method, stopping 401k contributions). The minute you get into investing you should transition away from Ramsey as he doesn't know what he's talking about.

This is a good analysis of the Ramsey baby steps from a FIRE point of view: https://www.choosefi.com/analysis-dave-ramsey-baby-steps/

 

[trenty]

BS1-BS3 are decent although I disagree with small portions of those (snowball vs avalanche method, stopping 401k contributions). The minute you get into investing you should transition away from Ramsey as he doesn't know what he's talking about.

This is a good analysis of the Ramsey baby steps from a FIRE point of view: https://www.choosefi.com/analysis-dave-ramsey-baby-steps/

My major take-away from him is to be intentional with my money - know where everything is going.
I am set to FIRE at 55 in a few years. I was before reading the book, but have a renewed confidence since I started seriously and actively budgeting everything. Being debt free certainly helps.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Question, it looks like federal, state, SSN, and Medicare tax payments are excluded from the denominator by using your take home pay. I know you have a well studied reason for your calculations, can you explain how you arrived at this method?

I've done with and without taxes and it's about an 11% difference in savings rate for us.

I realize that using the same method year over year is the most important for consistency, I'm just really unsure of how I should be factoring current taxes into retirement planning. Right now those taxes are 23% of our denominator (calculated the same as you but adding in the tax payments) but in retirement will obviously be much different.

Oh boy, well I guess a bunch of reasons.

The primary reason is I don't honestly feel like tracking all of those figures and putting them in my spreadsheet. Every figure on my spreadsheet flows through my checking accounts or investment accounts eventually making it easy to reconcile to the penny.
Another major reason is that I like to focus on factors that are in my control. My goal was to develop a consistent formula that gave me an accurate YoY and emphasized controllables. So for me it's basically "Total Net Savings" [DIVIDED BY] "Take Home Pay" so to speak.

Like any good middle class American, I barely pay any income taxes. Medicare and SSN are taken before I see the money so I ignore them too. All that I would accomplish by adding those factors back in would be to show a lower savings rate each year. But would my absolute results be affected in any way... no, not really. So I guess it would be more conservative to add them back in...but at the same time I'm adding back things in my denominator that others choose not to (i.e. Employer Contribution into HSA, 401k Match) so in that respect I am making a conservative calculation. If I ignored them in the denominator I could claim a savings rate far higher.

To me, the primary message here is to find something accurate and consistent because otherwise you're leaving yourself open to playing games with the narrative. My thoughts on why I track savings rate and why I track it the way I do:

• Tracking my Net Worth change each year provides no value. Market Performance is not a controllable and over time will settle into a normal trend. I should not pat myself on the back if the market did well or penalize myself if it did poorly.
• Setting an absolute figure (i.e. I want to save $70k each year) is not consistent. As my income changes this may allow lifestyle creep which I of course want to avoid. Ideally I want to see my savings rate % increase as my income increases meaning that I am saving a larger portion of each incremental dollar coming in the door.
• By adding ALL of the factors into the numerator that I detailed, I get a TRUE savings figure. If I ignore the actual liquid results I could be playing games with the money. If I bought $20k in stock but my liquid accounts decreased by $15k did I save $20k or $5k? In my calculation I saved $5k because I take into account every penny in motion.

So those are my thoughts on how I ended up here. I also searched out a more "expert" level article that might provide food for thought - here's MMM on the topic:

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/26/calculating-net-worth/

• MMM Take Home Pay calculation = Gross Pay [PLUS] Employer 401(k) match [LESS] taxes and fees
• MMM Spending calculation = Everything that flows out of your wallet, bank account, credit cards, or automatic payroll deductions for things like insurance.
  • Items Included = Property taxes, sales tax, loan interest & fees
  • Items NOT included = Income Taxes, Other Payroll Taxes or Principal Portion of loan payments
• MMM Savings Rate calculation = Take Home Pay [LESS] Spending [DIVIDED BY] Take Home Pay

So there are a bunch of thoughts on the topic. I guess my calculation is pretty close to MMM's - in spirit they are virtually identical.

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

Well - I'm prepared to share a HUGE accomplishment this evening. I just pushed submit on our MORTGAGE payoff! Through a bunch of Chase URs that I cashed out, I am sitting heavy on a cash position. Paying this mortgage off has been a major financial goal for us for the past 5 years. Roughly 5 years ago, I lost my job in a very surprise situation with a corporate buyout. Amazingly, some tremendous earning opportunities came about as a result of that with a transition "stay-on" bonus, severance pay (twice), and a new job. A subsequent transition "stay-on" bonus ensued from there a couple years later and all of this combined with general frugality, meant there was a lot of excess cash flow occurring.

(Side note: If you are in some sort of visible sales/mgmt role, it is imperative that you develop great working relationships with all the misc vendors and other professionals you encounter. My work at fostering those relationships provided numerous job opportunities from the moment my situation opened up. It was nice to be in demand, and I recognize that while a lot of work went into that, there was also a component of being blessed there as well).

While I could have invested this excess cash flow, and from a purely "numbers" perspective it would've made sense to do that (in retrospect)... I chose the guaranteed return of paying down debt. We first eliminated an auto loan and then went to work on the mortgage. For me, this meant two major things: 1) a guaranteed return in avoiding interest and 2) lower obligations in the event of a future job loss situation.

With our mortgage out of the way, we could now live off of $20k annually if necessary. Essentially, my dependency on a job for basic living expenses is over. I could FIRE right now if I wanted to cease all misc spending & quit all kids activities. I don't plan to do that, but it's nice to know that it is an option, lol!

As far as 2020 goals go: we will once again max out 401k, IRA, HSA (which we've done for many years running now) and then seek to begin accumulating some liquid investments. The power of goals is just amazing my friends!!

LOVE it! Congratulations!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

LOVE it! Congratulations!

Thanks! It’s exciting to share with my DIS FIRE friends because this isn’t the type of thing I’d tell people in real life