The Intersection of FIRE and Disney

[mgarbowski]

Thanks for the responses. The ideas and experiences help.
More context: my wife is 4 years younger so we’ll have to deal with the ACA for her eventually unless she keeps working and switches to her employer’s plan. Also our youngest should graduate in May 2026 and hopefully go on her own insurance a few months later.
So I kind of like deferring the need to go ACA until it’s only for my wife to make the cost less and potentially disrupt the relationships with fewer providers. Against that, I’d really like to be done working after this year.
There’s no clear right answer; we just need to decide.

 

[RivShore]

We estimated our income for 2024 and our premium (Med, Dental) is around $350

Is that for spouse too (and i assume monthly)? It does not sound bad for 2. Would love to hear your experiences with it as you start to use it. We will be in the same boat in a few years.

We work part time for a staffing company (mostly college sports events but the choices are many -- we pick our shifts)

Can I ask what state you are in? That sounds like a great idea and we are in FL so I would think there would be many options here.

 

[QueenIsabella]

We haven't looked at our 2023 numbers yet. We're coast FIRE, so not a big deal. Plus, we're still at the big "out-flow" stage--3 in college. But, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with that. And when we committed to having kid #4, DH committed to retiring at 65 (which happens to be when the youngest graduates college).

On the good side, DH spent November in Maui, helping with the Lahaina clean-up and rebuild. It was exhausting--12 hours a day, 7 days a week--but he found it very fulfilling. He's put in for availability to go back in the spring, and has been putting feelers out to do the same work after he retires. What he does isn't physically taxing, and they just threw money at him, so it has potential as a retirement gig.

 

[leeniewdw]

Is that for spouse too (and i assume monthly)? It does not sound bad for 2. Would love to hear your experiences with it as you start to use it. We will be in the same boat in a few years.


Can I ask what state you are in? That sounds like a great idea and we are in FL so I would think there would be many options here.

We are in NC. We work for 1 Staffing agency that has contracts for so many things. Last night we worked for a University basketball game, tomorrow we're working at a local Performing Arts center. I believe our company is just local to our region, but I do know of one called "Best" (not sure if it's Best Staffing or some other name) that must have wider contracts because they do staffing for a large local university for Football and Basketball here in NC, and I happened to notice that was the name on the shirts for the staff at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

And yes, the premium I listed was for myself and DH. We estimated a low income (between 40-45k) and will continue to work part time, use some cash reserves and hopefully only do some Roth conversions at the end of the year (if needed) to hit that income number as close as possible. We aren't planning big travel this year (not NO travel, just not international and trying very hard to lean on our travel points/miles) and just experience our first full year of no "corporate income" (my severance ended in June '23). We have no mortgage and no other debt.

One thing about the ACA plan we chose, is that it's an EPO plan. This differs from PPOs in that if you go out of network..there is NO coverage. That's a little scary, but the PPO plans were more like $2k/month.

Final note: I'm the youngest of 6 children so some of my siblings are 10-13 years older than me, putting them in their early 70s. Two of my siblings have had health developments in the last year that are ... scary. Obviously I don't want to burn thru our retirement funds in the next 10 years, but given our professional work demands and schedules, I have no doubt we made the right decision.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Wrong group

 

[QueenIsabella]

Okay, got our 2023 end of year numbers, and we're up $100k. I'm kind of surprised, given our high rate of spending (did I mention the 3 college tuitions?). Plus travel--2023 was a big travel year for us--and some comparatively smaller home improvements (new water heater, air conditioner repair, new washer/dryer...).

Teeing up for this year, we have yet another HVAC repair (house has 3 zones, all HVAC systems were old when we moved in), replacing the picket fence, and some travel (kids going to England and Japan, our annual family trip). And the youngest will leave for "real" college, versus dual enrollment, so that will be tuition, room, and board.

2025 will be a big travel year, likely either Iceland or Alaska. Plus a newer car for DD20--she'll be graduating. The money flows out so quickly!

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Hope everyone's 2024 went well. Seems like we have hit escape velocity as our NW increase this year was 1.5x our gross salary.

 

[disfanforlife]

I

Hope everyone's 2024 went well. Seems like we have hit escape velocity as our NW increase this year was 1.5x our gross salary.

I retired last spring! So happy to have been able to do so as we are new grandparents and have he time now to help watch our grandson. I hope everyone’s 2024 went well too!

 

[Budzooka]

Hope everyone's 2024 went well. Seems like we have hit escape velocity as our NW increase this year was 1.5x our gross salary.

The ending to 2024 softened a bit in Dec but a good year overall. We saved 30% of our income to retirement and am aiming to trade my high stress job for something at more of a relaxed pace within the next 5 years. I am anticipating a transaction in 2025 that will generate more liquidity from stock options that will help that goal come much more into focus.

In the meantime, just need to keep plugging away.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

How is 2025 treating everyone?

@leeniewdw How did your ACA plan work out in 2024? Any issues with it being EPO vs PPO or staying in-network?

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

How is 2025 treating everyone?

 

[Cfabar1]

had no idea there was a Disney/FIRE board... will need to keep watching this...

I have found that Disney is one of my biggest obstacles to achieving FIRE! My savings rate would be much higher without WDW visits and DCL trips! Any advice on how to balance these things?

 

[QueenIsabella]

How is 2025 treating everyone?

@leeniewdw How did your ACA plan work out in 2024? Any issues with it being EPO vs PPO or staying in-network?

Well, tax season was painful. Most of the pain came from switching financial advisors--the old guy had our kids' trusts in something that couldn't be transferred "in kind", so it was sold, generating capital gains. While we technically could have tapped the trusts to pay the gains, we chose not to, to leave more money in them for the kids.

We also expected this to be a big "spend" year, with three kids in college and the fourth getting married. Luckily, these are defined expenses for a defined time period. We leased DD21 a car for a birthday/graduation present--Toyota was running a deal, and we plan to buy it off-lease.

Our oldest turns 30 in June, and our younger daughter graduates next month. Both these events trigger their trusts (DD29 gets the balance of hers; DD21 gets 25%). The older DD is looking at houses, but it looks like they'll push that decision to next year.

Beyond that, I make a point to not check our net worth too often--it's not healthy, regardless of how the market is doing.

For next year, we have another college graduation (he already has a car, though), and possibly a family trip to Iceland. And if the house purchase happens, we plan to send our oldest some "settling in" money. We already told her we wouldn't help with the down payment--that's what the trust money is for.

 

[wabbott]

Well, tax season was painful. Most of the pain came from switching financial advisors--the old guy had our kids' trusts in something that couldn't be transferred "in kind", so it was sold, generating capital gains. While we technically could have tapped the trusts to pay the gains, we chose not to, to leave more money in them for the kids.

We also expected this to be a big "spend" year, with three kids in college and the fourth getting married. Luckily, these are defined expenses for a defined time period. We leased DD21 a car for a birthday/graduation present--Toyota was running a deal, and we plan to buy it off-lease.

Our oldest turns 30 in June, and our younger daughter graduates next month. Both these events trigger their trusts (DD29 gets the balance of hers; DD21 gets 25%). The older DD is looking at houses, but it looks like they'll push that decision to next year.

Beyond that, I make a point to not check our net worth too often--it's not healthy, regardless of how the market is doing.

For next year, we have another college graduation (he already has a car, though), and possibly a family trip to Iceland. And if the house purchase happens, we plan to send our oldest some "settling in" money. We already told her we wouldn't help with the down payment--that's what the trust money is for.

Good to hear from you! We @ Destin, FL this week, and you be interested to know I have my Spreadsheet of Phenomenal Cosmic Power loaded into my thumb drive and working flawlessly on my 14 year old Dell laptop.

And to further prove my skinflint ways, the machine is doing its job with Window 7.

 

[mgarbowski]

Lol I retired on 2/28. Worst timing possible. But - I converted enough holdings into cash to pay for 1.5 - 2 years of spend the first week of March, so I should not need to sell anything for a while and hopefully things bounce back. Also, I built in a considerable cushion. We should be fine.

 

[Budzooka]

had no idea there was a Disney/FIRE board... will need to keep watching this...

I have found that Disney is one of my biggest obstacles to achieving FIRE! My savings rate would be much higher without WDW visits and DCL trips! Any advice on how to balance these things?

It’s tough. We are looking to retire in the next few years and are constantly torn between enjoying the moment versus feeling more comfortable with our retirement plan. The kids are not this age once and our oldest is already phasing out of being able to always vacation because of her school and work commitments.

We travel quite a bit but work hard to subsidize that travel with points and discounted gift cards. It’s still a splurge but every little bit counts.

 

[WinterSolider]

had no idea there was a Disney/FIRE board... will need to keep watching this...

I have found that Disney is one of my biggest obstacles to achieving FIRE! My savings rate would be much higher without WDW visits and DCL trips! Any advice on how to balance these things?

We're building DVC into all of our models. Build up enough DVC points over time so that, at a minimum, we have enough to fund our Disney trips in perpetuity and rent out enough excess points to cover our dues.

 

[QueenIsabella]

It’s tough. We are looking to retire in the next few years and are constantly torn between enjoying the moment versus feeling more comfortable with our retirement plan. The kids are not this age once and our oldest is already phasing out of being able to always vacation because of her school and work commitments.

We travel quite a bit but work hard to subsidize that travel with points and discounted gift cards. It’s still a splurge but every little bit counts.

It's a balancing act, for sure. In the past couple years, we've faced some unexpected things--my brother died in 2023, for example, and I needed emergency surgery and spent 2 weeks in the hospital, back in November. I'll need more surgery this fall (non-emergent--the doctor is waiting until after my daughter's wedding. It has a 3-month recovery time.)

Education and travel happen to be two big ones for us. And it's expensive with a family of 6 (7, if you included our future son-in-law, who is always invited). We save where we can--our family prefers hotels with more space, fewer fancy amenities (Residence Inn and Holiday Inn Express fit us nicely). And we're not generally big on fancy meals. We try to emphasize experiences when we travel--the trip to Iceland will include a couple extra days so we can visit Silfra--the meeting of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. You can snorkel between them! We also want to do "The Time Warp" into/out of the Arctic Circle (yes, we're THAT family!). These things don't come cheap, but the memories will be priceless!

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

It's a balancing act, for sure. In the past couple years, we've faced some unexpected things--my brother died in 2023, for example, and I needed emergency surgery and spent 2 weeks in the hospital, back in November. I'll need more surgery this fall (non-emergent--the doctor is waiting until after my daughter's wedding. It has a 3-month recovery time.)

Education and travel happen to be two big ones for us. And it's expensive with a family of 6 (7, if you included our future son-in-law, who is always invited). We save where we can--our family prefers hotels with more space, fewer fancy amenities (Residence Inn and Holiday Inn Express fit us nicely). And we're not generally big on fancy meals. We try to emphasize experiences when we travel--the trip to Iceland will include a couple extra days so we can visit Silfra--the meeting of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. You can snorkel between them! We also want to do "The Time Warp" into/out of the Arctic Circle (yes, we're THAT family!). These things don't come cheap, but the memories will be priceless!

Iceland is our favorite place to travel to and we are also a family of 6 plus significant others, so we usually travel in parties of 8 or more. I should have a couple trip reports in my signature, if you want to check them out. We are headed to the Faroe Islands this summer.

DH and I are 47. I took a sabbatical at 43 and haven't yet returned. DH is still working with a target of 52-55 for retirement. We are very big into travel and really maximize points and miles as much as possible. Something we have been thinking a lot about for the next ten years is selecting travel destinations that will be tougher to do when we are older and prioritizing them for now.

 

[NewbieMom]

Iceland is our favorite place to travel to and we are also a family of 6 plus significant others, so we usually travel in parties of 8 or more. I should have a couple trip reports in my signature, if you want to check them out. We are headed to the Faroe Islands this summer.

DH and I are 47. I took a sabbatical at 43 and haven't yet returned. DH is still working with a target of 52-55 for retirement. We are very big into travel and really maximize points and miles as much as possible. Something we have been thinking a lot about for the next ten years is selecting travel destinations that will be tougher to do when we are older and prioritizing them for now.

Can I ask how financially comfortable you were to make that sabbatical decision? (Not talking specific numbers, but generally did your DH's income cover expenses? Was your skillset/industry pretty easy to return to work should you need?)

For several years now I've been wanting to take a 1-2 year sabbatical to spend more time with the kids as they get older. In February, when markets were hitting all time highs, I had mentally said I'll give notice after I get my annual bonus end of March. But then April 2nd happened and I'm now questioning is this a good time again?