The Intersection of FIRE and Disney

[QueenIsabella]

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.

I will have to read your trip reports when I get some time! Our big hang-up right now on Iceland is, the daughter most anxious to go is afraid of snorkeling! She has anxiety, just can't manage it (I found out in Hawaii...). So, our deal is, she has to overcome this fear before I book the trip. On the good side, we have a modest in-ground pool, so she can practice in the back yard for as long as she needs. The whole family is willing to do whatever to help her.

Also on our short list: Alaska (land/sea), and a trip to take our older son to Italy--he's never been, but his siblings have. We're big fans of Tauck's tours.

 

[cheryl.UK]

Without realising even that FIRE is a thing (never heard of it over here in the UK) I think I'm about to achieve it albeit at 59. I've been saving hard, topping up my teacher's pension, paid off my mortgage, car loans, credit cards, DVC, remodelled the house, topped out my state pension and I'm about to retire early with money in the bank and a yearly income which will still take me to Disney and afford a fairly comfortable life if I don't go mad. Have I missed anything?

 

[Sjm9911]

You always miss something and second guess everything. Just run your numbers through a fire calculator. That gives you a bit of assurances.

 

[Sjm9911]

I like this one. But it takes a learning curve to use it. https://www.firecalc.com/

 

[Frwinkley]

Without realising even that FIRE is a thing (never heard of it over here in the UK) I think I'm about to achieve it albeit at 59. I've been saving hard, topping up my teacher's pension, paid off my mortgage, car loans, credit cards, DVC, remodelled the house, topped out my state pension and I'm about to retire early with money in the bank and a yearly income which will still take me to Disney and afford a fairly comfortable life if I don't go mad. Have I missed anything?

How long have you been teaching?

I changed careers mid-life (early 40s) and just retired from teaching after 20 years this past year. My pension covers about 2/3rds of our monthly expenses (my DH has a very small one so that helps). I too saved hard (no debt, no mortgage) and saved enough cash to supplement our pensions until social security. We do not have to touch any of our retirement assets, which is especially good in this market.

Retirement is wonderful! I loved my job immensely, but by the end, I was ready to go. I adore my coworkers and keep in touch with them, having lunch, dinner, etc. I've been back to school a few times to volunteer for events....really makes me realize that I'm glad to be done!

You have worked hard! Enjoy your retirement!

 

[wabbott]

Without realising even that FIRE is a thing (never heard of it over here in the UK) I think I'm about to achieve it albeit at 59. I've been saving hard, topping up my teacher's pension, paid off my mortgage, car loans, credit cards, DVC, remodelled the house, topped out my state pension and I'm about to retire early with money in the bank and a yearly income which will still take me to Disney and afford a fairly comfortable life if I don't go mad. Have I missed anything?

I would suggest that you keep an accurate record of you outgo, especially credit card transactions. Nothing can upset a budget quicker than a big credit card monthly bill that you didn't anticipate.

Simply keep your cc receipts and when you get home from shopping, record them on a spreadsheet. This will keep you up-to-date on what's going out and what for.

Do the same for your checkbook on another page of the spreadsheet that duplicates your paper check register.

No less an authority on money than John D. Rockefeller - the richest man in the world - was a meticulous record-keeper of every transaction he made.

 

[Cfabar1]

I would suggest that you keep an accurate record of you outgo, especially credit card transactions. Nothing can upset a budget quicker than a big credit card monthly bill that you didn't anticipate.

This is so true.... we keep thinking this will be the month our savings can start growing again and we keep getting zapped with medical bills... Some from events a year ago that were just billed now! Am thinking we will have one more month (after this month's unexpected/expected $1200 payment) of large ones and they will finally go away! Fingers crossed!

Simply keep your cc receipts and when you get home from shopping, record them on a spreadsheet. This will keep you up-to-date on what's going out and what for.

Yes, we have started doing this - and I know it is controversial for some on this board, but we are also trying very hard to limit the number of CCs we actively use. The extra 1% in rewards I think is offset by the psychological complication of seeing different amounts on different bills.

Do the same for your checkbook on another page of the spreadsheet that duplicates your paper check register.

Great idea!\

I am wondering for DisneyFIRE people do you have a set percentage of you income you try to budget for vacation/travel? And if so, do you designate a certain percentage specifically for Disney of your total income? When we started with Disney our only costs were a Pixie Pass and on occasion a nice meal and/or some merchandise (not a lot). It was an inconsequential percentage - but it has definitely grown since then.

 

[trenty]

Simply keep your cc receipts and when you get home from shopping, record them on a spreadsheet. This will keep you up-to-date on what's going out and what for.

There are many apps that can do this if you aren't comfortable with spreadsheets. I like EveryDollar - it's free and lets you record money coming in and going out (categorized) each month so you know what is left at any given time.

 

[wabbott]

There are many apps that can do this if you aren't comfortable with spreadsheets. I like EveryDollar - it's free and lets you record money coming in and going out (categorized) each month so you know what is left at any given time.

Looking @ that website, here's a very simple tutorial of what budgeting is all about. I was once told by a managerial type years ago, "If you can't measure it, you can't control it." A budget is but a measuring tool.

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/ramseyplus/everydollar/learn

 

[wabbott]

I am wondering for DisneyFIRE people do you have a set percentage of you income you try to budget for vacation/travel? And if so, do you designate a certain percentage specifically for Disney of your total income? When we started with Disney our only costs were a Pixie Pass and on occasion a nice meal and/or some merchandise (not a lot). It was an inconsequential percentage - but it has definitely grown since then.

For us, not exactly a set percentage, but more of a 'not to exceed' amount. We're at the age where time remaining is a very big consideration, too. Spend it, or leave it for the kids? I see many, many old folks still pinching pennies, even though they're well off.

Being the richest man in the graveyard doesn't appeal to me.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Without realising even that FIRE is a thing (never heard of it over here in the UK) I think I'm about to achieve it albeit at 59. I've been saving hard, topping up my teacher's pension, paid off my mortgage, car loans, credit cards, DVC, remodelled the house, topped out my state pension and I'm about to retire early with money in the bank and a yearly income which will still take me to Disney and afford a fairly comfortable life if I don't go mad. Have I missed anything?

For our retirement planning I have every so many years buying a new car. I do not want to finance so I put the car purchases as large withdraws of our money to make sure we will be good.
I know what we spend each month on our set expenses (food, utilities, streaming services, gas, etc). Some of those I have increased as we'll be driving around more probably when retired. I then looked at all our annual expenses (travel, insurances, property taxes, DVC dues, car registration, etc). Between the monthly expenses multiplied out for the entire year then our annual expenses I added on $10,000 (USD) buffer. This $10k will be there for larger unplanned expenses, furnace goes out and we need a new one, decide we want a new bicycle, etc. So just make sure you have a buffer for these unplanned expenses.
One thing our financial planner told us which really stuck with me, is while you may want to do more in retirement. If you aren't driving a $100k car now, you likely aren't going to change your lifestyle so much in retirement you'll buy one at that price. We expect to travel more in retirement and our planning reflects that. But we are home bodies when not traveling. We don't like to go out to eat. I don't foresee us now wanting to do that all the time. We enjoy the outdoors so we will likely do more activities around home such as hiking, biking, etc where now we only have 2 days a week to do that.

 

[wabbott]

Yes, we have started doing this - and I know it is controversial for some on this board, but we are also trying very hard to limit the number of CCs we actively use. The extra 1% in rewards I think is offset by the psychological complication of seeing different amounts on different bills.

After a while, keeping up with all those CCs, the rewards, the points, and cashback offers turns into work. But folks who do it claim it's worth it.

One of the unexpected benefits of the Excel checkbook register is that it's really convenient for your spending history. How much did I spend for this or that 3 years ago, etc,, without having to dig through paper check registers or bank statements. We've been doing ours since 2011, and it's handy as a shirt pocket.

 

[Budzooka]

After a while, keeping up with all those CCs, the rewards, the points, and cashback offers turns into work. But folks who do it claim it's worth it.

One of the unexpected benefits of the Excel checkbook register is that it's really convenient for your spending history. How much did I spend for this or that 3 years ago, etc,, without having to dig through paper check registers or bank statements. We've been doing ours since 2011, and it's handy as a shirt pocket.

Keeping up with points is definitely worth it. We are able to travel so much more than I ever dreamed from subsidizing with credit card points.

We use Quicken to track our expenses, which isn’t free but worth it for the reporting. I keep a detailed monthly budget and track where we spend every dollar to allow us to plan for now and projecting our retirement expenses.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

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?

Not comfortable at all I was so so burnt out, but I was really scared to make the decision. I thought I would just take 6 months off and return. DH was super supportive. What really did help was that we had already paid of our mortgage and we don't have any type of debt- no loans, no car loans, etc. Like you, we're in the cc game, but pay our balances in full monthly. So having had our mortgage completely paid off and no debt, that really helped ease some of the insecurity. I would say we cut our income by 70%. I left a really demanding career in US healthcare administration. Honestly, I am not sure how desireable I would be when it's time to return but I think my general experience would lead well to consulting, which is probably the avenue I will take in the future if I opt to ever return to work.
What I found, that was rather unexpected, is just how much money I was spending for convenience or necessity (childcare and gas). Not only fast food/takeout/eating out, but not shopping for the best price or just quickly ordering from Amazon because it's easy. By nature I am frugal in many areas, but the high demand job and four kids just seemed to make convenience a necessity. More time and a slower pace allows more thoughtful decision making in regards to spending.

Only you can make this decision and it is a difficult one, no matter how you cut it. What I can say is that I have never been more present with my family, my marriage is so amazing now and I finally started taking care of my health, which I'd pushed aside for the sake of my career. I've lost 50 lbs through lifestyle changes, had some skin cancer removed and a much needed surgery. I've been able to spend more time with my mom and improve that relationship. And we've taken dozens of trips in the past four years. I can't say I expected to achieve any of that when I set out on the sabbatical- I was just trying to survive and reset.

 

[leeniewdw]

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?

We, thankfully, had an uneventful 2024 in regard to health, so we mostly had our annual well visits and not much else. My longtime GYN was still in our new network, our primary care physician left our old network (though we didn't have a long relationship anyway), so we would have needed a new one anyway. So far so good. We did have to switch to a new dermatologist, but that's just for annual skin checks, nothing particularly tricky. Fingers crossed for continued good health! We re-upped to the same BCBS plan for this year.

As far as 2025...a bit unsettling would be one way to put it, lol! We are about to head for a long planned trip to Europe and won't curtail any plans/spending, but we did cancel a big fall "American road trip" because we just didn't want to have it hanging over our head trying to decide if it was worth going or feel like we needed to eat more out of a cooler as opposed to restaurants, etc. This was to some national parks out west, but fortunately this was repeat visits, so we've been there before. Between the cuts to the NPs and the economy, we just decided to bag it. We'll do something smaller that we'll figure out later.

Hope 2025 stabilizes at bit for all of us!

 

[Cfabar1]

The idea of the EPOs scares me too much, but for the right price I would probably be willing to do it. In our area the cost difference is not one that justifies going to EPO…

 

[leeniewdw]

Yeah, that seemed (and still does) seem particularly scary, but we live an area with very good health networks affiliated with 2 different medical schools. We were able to choose a network from one of them.

Given the changes in government, our biggest concern is loss of ACA and/or subsidies after this year. That would be a huge inflection point of our retirement plans. We'd still have 3 years before Medicare and would have decisions to make. To either try to seek a job that includes health insurance (me and millions of others, so not easy, especially as a senior), severely curtail our travel and discretionary spending to basically zero (in an effort to stick to our financial plan and sleep at night), or feel comfortable in withdrawing a LOT more from our plan for 3 years.

(My fear is that congress comes up with some 'replacement' that makes some segment better/cheaper so they can claim they reduced costs while another segment, likely us older folks, end up paying more. I hope that is a-political enough to pass muster here. ACA is a critical part of pre-Medicare retirement. I don't think they'd just pull ACA entirely, but guess we don't know.)

 

[Cfabar1]

Yeah, that seemed (and still does) seem particularly scary, but we live an area with very good health networks affiliated with 2 different medical schools. We were able to choose a network from one of them.

Given the changes in government, our biggest concern is loss of ACA and/or subsidies after this year. That would be a huge inflection point of our retirement plans. We'd still have 3 years before Medicare and would have decisions to make. To either try to seek a job that includes health insurance (me and millions of others, so not easy, especially as a senior), severely curtail our travel and discretionary spending to basically zero (in an effort to stick to our financial plan and sleep at night), or feel comfortable in withdrawing a LOT more from our plan for 3 years.

(My fear is that congress comes up with some 'replacement' that makes some segment better/cheaper so they can claim they reduced costs while another segment, likely us older folks, end up paying more. I hope that is a-political enough to pass muster here. ACA is a critical part of pre-Medicare retirement. I don't think they'd just pull ACA entirely, but guess we don't know.)

My best guess is they do not extend the enhanced subsidies that were expanded as a part of the reconciliation bill early in Biden’s first term and allow them to expire, but do not otherwise adjust the funding formula. But you never know!

 

[leeniewdw]

My best guess is they do not extend the enhanced subsidies that were expanded as a part of the reconciliation bill early in Biden’s first term and allow them to expire, but do not otherwise adjust the funding formula. But you never know!

This seems like a strong possibility. If that happens, we may end up doing some Roth conversions or withdrawals from pre-tax accounts this year even if we end up owing back some of our subsidy this year. Better than having something happen next year (or the next 3 years) that's a huge unexpected/hideous expense that would push us off the subsidy cliff. We did a little of that this year.

(If I could go back, I'd do a few things differently and deal with pre-tax 401k/IRAs sooner, but we ended up retiring a few years before our original thinking -- not complaining!)

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

(If I could go back, I'd do a few things differently and deal with pre-tax 401k/IRAs sooner, but we ended up retiring a few years before our original thinking -- not complaining!)

As in you'd put more funds into your 401k/IRA's or you'd do more Roth or? Would love to hear more about what you would do differently.