It’s Official: I’m Quitting My Job In 10 Months. Here’s The Plan!

This is a continuation of my monthly series that records what’s happening in my final stretch to early retirement. If you’re interested in previous posts, they’re here.

I’m not one to bury the lede so: We’re doing this people! Thank you so much for all of your comments on my last post about this decision. I really appreciate all of your encouragement, concerns and advice. After careful consideration it’s been decided: I’m leaving my job in September 2020. Continue reading “It’s Official: I’m Quitting My Job In 10 Months. Here’s The Plan!”

Should I Lock Myself Into Quitting My Job In 11 Months?

This is a continuation of my monthly series that records what’s happening in my final stretch to early retirement. If you’re interested in previous posts, they’re here.

The time has come: IT’S DECISION TIME. I need to decide if next month I will book my month long trip to New Zealand and Australia for October 2020. My Mom and I are working on her goal of experiencing palaces in the sky by using travel hacking to book the Etihad First Class Apartments for our flight from Down Under. Check it out: Continue reading “Should I Lock Myself Into Quitting My Job In 11 Months?”

Half A Million Together and Keeping Finances Separate

We finally did it! After saving intentionally for almost 4 years we reached a new milestone: my partner and I have amassed half a million dollars together. I can hardly believe it. This is a special number for me because it’s the amount I need to retire. Now I know what you’re thinking: Why doesn’t he just give you his portion so you can retire now? I’ve wondered the same thing! 🙂 Continue reading “Half A Million Together and Keeping Finances Separate”

A Minimum Wage Employee By My Side

I just realized that my passive income from investments (assuming an average 7% market return) has now surpassed what a minimum wage employee would make working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. WOWZA! At the beginning of 2018 I had $237,000, which would generate $16,590 at 7% while a minimum wage employee would receive $15,080. That’s wild!

I have an invisible minimum wage employee working hella hard while I sleep, away from my day job, which I think is a very cool idea. I’ve touched on this phenomenon in a previous post, but she was just a teenager working part time after school then. Now she’s a full-timer. This just got serious!

Now we should probably working on raising that minimum wage (Washington did recently) so the average isn’t so low!

Halfway to Retirement!

As part of my many retirement charts I’ve created one that shows visually how much I’ve saved in $10,000 increments. The market is already going gangbusters in 2018 (though who knows how long it will last) and as a result without any paycheck I have more than $250,000. Originally I was just excited to fill in another bubble on my visual net worth sheet and enthralled by the fun of thinking about having “a quarter of a million,” but I just realized something: $250,000 is half of what I need to retire. I’m halfway there! That’s crazy! And based on the magic of compound interest my money will keep working for me and start earning money faster than I can. It looks like I’m halfway to retirement money-wise and less than halfway in regards to time: 2 years and 11 months to go!

2017 State of the Union

This year I had more than just monetary goals. They were:

  • Max my 401K ($18,000)
  • Max a Roth IRA ($5,500)
  • Overall invest $54,500 for a savings rate of 75%
  • Have a net worth of $200,000
  • Decrease my spending from $22,491.86 to $18,000
  • Lose 28 lbs by eating low-carb/high-fat and have a normal BMI for the first time without starving myself
  • Determine when I can retire based on my current salary and savings rate

Continue reading “2017 State of the Union”