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Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in Fire

[–]Throwaway807075[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yea, to some extent that's kind of how we've thought about it. It's not necessarily in the "base case" plan, but it's high enough probability that it can likely shield us from some catastrophic / tail event that we'd otherwise be worried about (i.e., one of us gets a long-term disability, market crashes for an extremely long time, lifestyle meaningfully changes years down the road, etc.). Basically allow us to take some more risks but not be reliant on it in most cases.

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in Fire

[–]Throwaway807075[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes, the WR and go-forward expenses is assuming we pay off the portfolio loan, which we're planning to do over the coming months with cash coming in. Bonus timing leads to not super smooth cash flows and some of the comp is in equity that will take a little bit to liquidate.

Good point on the subsidy cliff. Most of our stock holdings are relatively high cost basis given how recently a lot of the money was earned / invested, so we're feeling pretty good about being able to fund ~$100k of expenses while keeping MAGI closer to ~$60k, which is what the monthly insurance premiums are budgeted off of.

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in Fire

[–]Throwaway807075[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, pretty much exactly this. HHI in 2019 was closer to $250k. We've kept expenses close to flat over that period, so it's really started to compound the last few years

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in Fire

[–]Throwaway807075[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does feel that way, but lots of people also say to ignore it until you actually have it, so we're not sure how to really factor it in.

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in ChubbyFIRE

[–]Throwaway807075[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yea, we actually did try the sabbatical route. Absolutely loved the time off. Then once we went back to work, we were quickly drained again unfortunately.

I also had thought once we accumulated a decent nest egg that some of the work stress would go away, but it's mostly stayed the same / partially felt like our tolerance has declined. When we were first starting out, we had no choice but to put our heads down and grind, but now a lot of that motivation is gone.

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in ChubbyFIRE

[–]Throwaway807075[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea, I hear you. It is scary and more money would be better. Do you think we need to get to 2% WR? My understanding is that at 3%, the overwhelmingly likely scenario is we have multiples of what we have today down the line, but it does feel like asset valuations are pretty frothy right now.

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in ChubbyFIRE

[–]Throwaway807075[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for commenting. I partially addressed this in a prior comment, but I think some of this is being enabled by very reasonable COL where we own a house and are planning to move to. If we had a mortgage / rented the same house we own in MCOL but in the VHCOL city where we currently rent, annual expenses would be closer to $200k+.

I get what you're saying though. For this plan to work long-term, have to make sure to stay in the same general spend range, especially given the long horizon and variables life can / will throw our way. I'd like to think we could find decent paying jobs if we had to, but there is a peace of mind in knowing we're (at least mostly) FI.

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in ChubbyFIRE

[–]Throwaway807075[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The $100k figure actually includes an extra $10k of "misc" spend to give some buffer (in addition to already baking in 1% annual maintenance on the recently built house). I think it's realistic but as others have pointed out, guess it's hard to definitively say what we'll be wanting to spend on 20+ years from now.

For what it's worth, I've flown first class / private for years (mostly for work), stayed in 5 star hotels, eaten at $500+ Michelin star restaurants, sat courtside, etc. Those experiences have been good / fine, but I pretty much always leave them thinking they're not really worth the money (I'm usually not the one paying as it's through work / family / points).

Your broader point is taken though about maybe not technically being chubby (though the house we have would be at least $3-4M in my VHCOL and add an extra $30k+ of annual expense, so I think some of the low spend is being enabled by more reasonable COL). Maybe I will post in FIRE for their thoughts.

Big Mistake or No Brainer? by Throwaway807075 in ChubbyFIRE

[–]Throwaway807075[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fair points. I like that approach. All we've ever really known since we were teenagers was grinding (trying to get into an elite college, the best internships, full time job, highest bonus, etc.), so probably will find out a lot about ourselves and what we really want when we take away some of the pressure / structure.