The Intersection of FIRE and Disney

[BridgetBordeaux]

I am still fairly new to the thread but having been chasing FiRE for many years, just never knew that name for it before. I appreciate your comments. We do have a mix of stocks, bonds, etc. The thing I have been lacking is tracking our exact spending. That doesn’t mean we haven’t been saving - we have. We owned shares in a family business which we sold last year. This upped our savings considerably. I just need to get a little better feel for knowing what all the differences in our expenses will be when we do retire. Right now my DH and I are very excited to have made the decision that it will happen next year.

Hello-- I only pop in here every once in a while to skim over some posts.
If my advice is repeating what you have already done, I apologize in advance.
Please consult a professional to review your financial situation.
Income now, income later, investment mix, early timeframe expenses, medium timeframe expenses, expenses pretty far out.
Life insurance and Long Term Care options also need to be explored.
A forum on a Disney site can certainly give you a rough idea of the basic structure of things, but a professional can do an unbiased review of your situation.
Sometimes the company that has your mutual funds might be a resource.......or there are other Fee Based advisors that will make suggestions on tweaking your plan.....and their only pay is the fee you pay.....they make nothing on what you decide to buy or sell.

If you are in your 50's you might need to live off your money for 40 years......think about what life was like and what things cost in 1980 compared to now......that is how long 40 years is.

I wish you the best of luck and certainly understand the desire to retire early.

I had a mix of military, civilian, and state employment and have been able to retire at 53.5 years old.

I am presently in my late 50's.

I also am waiting for 60 and then 62 when my 2 non military pensions kick in (State pension and S/S)

 

[disfanforlife]

Hello-- I only pop in here every once in a while to skim over some posts.
If my advice is repeating what you have already done, I apologize in advance.
Please consult a professional to review your financial situation.
Income now, income later, investment mix, early timeframe expenses, medium timeframe expenses, expenses pretty far out.
Life insurance and Long Term Care options also need to be explored.
A forum on a Disney site can certainly give you a rough idea of the basic structure of things, but a professional can do an unbiased review of your situation.
Sometimes the company that has your mutual funds might be a resource.......or there are other Fee Based advisors that will make suggestions on tweaking your plan.....and their only pay is the fee you pay.....they make nothing on what you decide to buy or sell.

If you are in your 50's you might need to live off your money for 40 years......think about what life was like and what things cost in 1980 compared to now......that is how long 40 years is.

I wish you the best of luck and certainly understand the desire to retire early.

I had a mix of military, civilian, and state employment and have been able to retire at 53.5 years old.

I am presently in my late 50's.

I also am waiting for 60 and then 62 when my 2 non military pensions kick in (State pension and S/S)

Thank you. You are absolutely right. We have consulted with a financial advisor in the past and plan to again. I know I joined this thread because I found it through some other Disney threads that I have been participating on. I am not relying on the advice here but am certainly open to ideas and find it interesting to see how other people are working towards FIRE. I know it could be a long time to live off our savings if we are fortunate enough to live a long life. There is a chance my husband will get bored during retirement and want to work again anyways. But we do want to try it. We both worked in a family business for over 30 years and are excited about the idea of having some time to do the things that we have put off over the years.

 

[AmyAnne]

4) I had a strange thought the other night. Once the pandemic is truly behind us... later in 2021? 2022? Whenever that is... I think I might actually try to spend some money. I feel like we live a truly awesome life right now as a family of 4 spending ~$50k a year (+/- $15k depending on the year and various major expenses) but I also want to make sure I'm not missing out on something I could enjoy now. How much money we'll spend, where we'd spend it... your guess is as good as mine! But I'm thinking I might try to be intentional about spending some more money in the future to see if it improves my quality of life now. Perhaps this idea has come as I've become more familiar with the concept of CoastFire (which the term in and of itself has numerous meanings in churning circles) and I've realized that if we wanted, we could be done saving now. I guess this is one to stay posted on... The goal is to be able to retire, not to have $10 million.

I endorse this enthusiastically. When my oldest started high school, DH and I decided that we were going to take some big, international trips as a family before DS left for college. We ended up taking one big trip pretty much every year for the next 12 or so years, and now that all of the kids are out of the house and I haven't been able to make a trip work for all of us at the same time for a few years, I value those trips much more than I could have imagined I would. I will say that DH and I both like our jobs most days and are in no hurry to retire, so we are more FI than RE. And we drive Toyotas until they fall apart, and a fancy date night for us is Chipotle (take-out now, of course).

 

[disfanforlife]

I endorse this enthusiastically. When my oldest started high school, DH and I decided that we were going to take some big, international trips as a family before DS left for college. We ended up taking one big trip pretty much every year for the next 12 or so years, and now that all of the kids are out of the house and I haven't been able to make a trip work for all of us at the same time for a few years, I value those trips much more than I could have imagined I would. I will say that DH and I both like our jobs most days and are in no hurry to retire, so we are more FI than RE. And we drive Toyotas until they fall apart, and a fancy date night for us is Chipotle (take-out now, of course).

That is wonderful! That is partly why we bought DVC. We hadn’t vacationed in many years and wanted to. Having DVC made sure went away as a family for many years and I am so glad we did! We also wanted to do some bigger trips but due to our vacation time being opposite when kids were off from school made it difficult. Hoping when travel opens up to go to Europe - maybe as a graduation trip for our youngest from college.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Interesting thread on r/financialindependence here.

Wow do some people hate their job. I’m glad I don’t get that “Sunday Scaries” feeling.

 

[happ]

Interesting thread on r/financialindependence here.

Wow do some people hate their job. I’m glad I don’t get that “Sunday Scaries” feeling.

I used to have the Sunday Scaries when I taught high school many years ago. That was a rough feeling.

 

[Mome Rath]

Isn't it something like 70 to 80 percent of people don't like their jobs? It's a pretty good bet that many of them are just apathetic, but as for the rest, there has to be some Sunday Scaries.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I don't have the "sunday scaries" but I do log into my computer and do 30 minutes of email on Sunday night. Not sure if that is better or worse.

 

[Sjm9911]

Ok people, im not a fire person. I have posted here before. Just a hypothedical. If you were 55 and would have 80k a year for retirement income and everything else paid off, would you do it. I know , depends on spending, where you live , etc, etc. I would have discounted but not free insurance. So say 600 a month for a plan. Just postulating , so......go!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Ok people, im not a fire person. I have posted here before. Just a hypothedical. If you were 55 and would have 80k a year for retirement income and everything else paid off, would you do it. I know , depends on spending, where you live , etc, etc. I would have discounted but not free insurance. So say 600 a month for a plan. Just postulating , so......go!

That’s like $30k more a year than I spend now . I’ll have to figure out how to spend it!!

That said, this basically describes what I’m hoping to do at 45!

 

[disfanforlife]

Ok people, im not a fire person. I have posted here before. Just a hypothedical. If you were 55 and would have 80k a year for retirement income and everything else paid off, would you do it. I know , depends on spending, where you live , etc, etc. I would have discounted but not free insurance. So say 600 a month for a plan. Just postulating , so......go!

YES, we are about your age with similar financial situation and are planning to retire by the end of 2021.

 

[Mome Rath]

Ok people, im not a fire person. I have posted here before. Just a hypothedical. If you were 55 and would have 80k a year for retirement income and everything else paid off, would you do it. I know , depends on spending, where you live , etc, etc. I would have discounted but not free insurance. So say 600 a month for a plan. Just postulating , so......go!

Yep!

 

[bernina]

Ok people, im not a fire person. I have posted here before. Just a hypothedical. If you were 55 and would have 80k a year for retirement income and everything else paid off, would you do it. I know , depends on spending, where you live , etc, etc. I would have discounted but not free insurance. So say 600 a month for a plan. Just postulating , so......go!

Definitely, as long as you have a plan for health insurance (sounds like you do) and give a thought to long term care insurance for the future or how you'd handle costs not traditionally covered by Medicare/health insurance.

 

[Sjm9911]

This is intresting. So, i may consider it. Long term, if needed , i can get free nursing care at a facillity if it comes to that. Kinda of a job perk. I do have a younger daughter, thats basicly why im waiting untill 55. So this is 5 years out. I also underestimated my money a bit. So, i will try to follow along some. My house will not be paid off but i have the money to offset that. But I figure returns on the money are a bit better then the intrest rate of the morgage. I also plan on changing some stocks to optimize dividands. So swapping, volatility/ return for a bit more stability and less chance for stock growth. As i said just tossing ideas around. I also like where i live now, but i know in 10/ 15 years i will need to downsize. That will also probably nessasatate a move to another state. Nj is expensive and not really retirement friendly. I am hoping i can flote the morgage with my bugeted money and not tap into the retirement monies. So i would need to cut back spending a bit at that time.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Is the 80k a pension, business income, or pulling from investments?

I get a bit nervous about carrying a mortgage in retirement when it's the last category only because you have to pull that money regardless of where the market is.

I'm still saying yes regardless though as 80k should be plenty to live on for most people.

 

[Sjm9911]

Pension, and it will probably be a bit more. I plan on keeping the investments and dividands untill needed , and then maybe only draw off the dividands and interest at first. So maybe at 65 start pulling the intrest and dividands. I can not get SS. But will get the medical covrage. That will lessen the medical payment at that age, but after it goes up should be simmiler in payment.

 

[Mome Rath]

Ah, I thought "everything else paid off" included the house. I personally wouldn't want to retire until the house is paid off, but that's me and my approach to debt of any kind; so I (personally speaking) wouldn't retire until all debt is gone. If that includes selling and downsizing, that would work too. Mortgages are points of contention in the different financial communities.

 

[Cynt]

Ok people, im not a fire person. I have posted here before. Just a hypothedical. If you were 55 and would have 80k a year for retirement income and everything else paid off, would you do it. I know , depends on spending, where you live , etc, etc. I would have discounted but not free insurance. So say 600 a month for a plan. Just postulating , so......go!

Absolutely.

 

[Sjm9911]

I have the money to pay off the house , but if im making more investing it, why bother paying off the house? It dosent change the money im getting monthly, i didnt include it. I also under stated the amount i will get. I just said 80 k a year. I can eaither pay off the house or not, i will still get the 80 k a year. I have the money to pay it off. It dosent effect the pension in any way.

 

[Sjm9911]

You alsonhave to take into consideration where i am. Starter home in nj around me are about 450k property taxes are 10 to 30 k. While my house isnt paid off the taxes are 10k a year. Thus the downsizing and moving eventually.