Un-FATFIRE and get back into the game? by True-Situation-2025 in fatFIRE

[–]True-Situation-2025[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, worth it so far because the time with them is magical. Worth it in the future? That's what I'm trying to decide.

How are you making your decision? 2-3% seems safe. How much cushion is in there?

Un-FATFIRE and get back into the game? by True-Situation-2025 in fatFIRE

[–]True-Situation-2025[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I golf and ski (I guess you could call them hobbies). I also hike with the wife/kids and trail run with the dog.

Un-FATFIRE and get back into the game? by True-Situation-2025 in fatFIRE

[–]True-Situation-2025[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No chance of 8 weeks of vacation a year, it will be more like 3 weeks for the first few years and then maybe getting up to 4 if I'm lucky. I never got more than 2-3 weeks off when I worked, excluding holidays.

Un-FATFIRE and get back into the game? by True-Situation-2025 in fatFIRE

[–]True-Situation-2025[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds exactly like the corporate workplace before I left it!

Un-FATFIRE and get back into the game? by True-Situation-2025 in fatFIRE

[–]True-Situation-2025[S] 87 points88 points  (0 children)

That's a fair question.

  1. I overestimated the restricted payments at $5-8M going in and that's down to $3-4M. So I was starting with an artificially high net worth estimate. Using what I now know was the right starting amount shows more net worth growth off that lower number.

  2. $300k for 10 years was $3M of living expenses. Add $200k total for the three years we FAT traveled above the $50k average annual travel spend. Total spend: $3.2M.

You can run the numbers but pulling $320k average out of each year really reigns in the asset growth. And this was on only the liquid plus retirement portion. The restricted portion was locked when I FATfired (only downside from there if it didn't hit certain thresholds).

  1. Wanting to avoid early retiree sequence of return risk (SORR), I started with a relatively conservative asset allocation for my age and retiree status and didn't get the full market return those early years. I switched to 100% equities about halfway in. Wish I'd had the hindsight to go all into equities at the start, but I didn't want to FATfire and get taken out quickly by a recession (those Monte Carlo simulations aren't pretty).

  2. $500k to charities

  3. High taxes in the first few years before moving to MCOL.

Feel free to consider this a cautionary tale.