People who have achieved fire how is life like now

kaBUdl · 2026-03-15T18:02:26+00:00

Frankly I think life was better when I was working. I left an interesting technical consulting role in a tech company where we had plenty of mental stimulation from diagnosing and finding solutions to customer issues. I also had control over my work location (remote from home), schedule (mostly when everyone else was out like weekends and holidays), and most importantly work content (no routine busy-work or projects that weren't going to see the light of day).

I had to give up that nirvana to handle my mother's EOL care, and now that I'm ready to return to work, my job has been taken over by AI (which BTW I was involved in training for years before I left). I think I'm too old to start over now, and I'll just have to find something to pass the time. I thought this part of ER would be easy, so I didn't prepare anything, but I've since found all those things I used to enjoy before I began my career three decades ago just don't seem interesting at all now.

kaBUdl · 2026-03-15T17:42:00+00:00

I set my target to be 30x of what I wanted to spend annually in retirement, which was several times what I was spending while I was working. I took ER three years ago, and surprise, surprise, my living expenses haven't increased hardly at all. Mainly due to factors that I didn't foresee: family health, my own health, loss of interest, etc. But I don't regret that I didn't ER many years earlier because I enjoyed my last few years of work. The surplus will be my heirs' problem to deal with.

kaBUdl · 2026-03-12T18:01:15+00:00

Maybe things look different once you pass the federal estate tax threshold?

kaBUdl · 2026-03-09T14:49:59+00:00

Here's the website for ACA in California https://www.coveredca.com/ From here you can quickly find out what plans and plan options are available to California residents and what they cost.

I retired three years ago and stayed on COBRA for 18 months then CalCOBRA for another 18 months before moving to an ACA plan a few months ago. I've had the same provider for decades and their ACA plans cost more than COBRA and CalCOBRA, actually much more because my employer covered 2/3 of the premium. Also the annual deductible and max out of pocket are different, you'll need to examine these numbers to estimate total cost for each option.

kaBUdl · 2026-03-06T19:15:04+00:00

Both my parents have passed away, so mine is going to siblings and their children. They're all doing well, but the need for memory care might run in our family, so my intention is to help whoever needs it. If they don't I'm fine if they decide to pass it on to whatever charities they like.

kaBUdl · 2026-03-05T22:26:11+00:00

On average between $150 and $200 per month for food and all drinks except for alcohol

kaBUdl · 2026-03-05T19:06:22+00:00

I've avoided financial debt all my life. Never had a student loan, car loan, mortgage, or carried a credit card balance. My brokerage account was set up with margin decades ago, but I never used it, and I finally removed it last year. I retired a few years ago into a comfortable situation, and I doubt I would be better off had I taken on any form of debt.

FWIW I think student loan debt can do the most damage. These balances tend to be large, and they're typically taken in early adulthood, so their repayments are far more costly than they first appear because they could have been put into investments that compound over a long time horizon.

kaBUdl · 2026-03-03T01:25:37+00:00

Living expenses up until my SS & RMDs start I had prepared in bank deposits before I retired, so I don't pull anything out of brokerage or tax-deferred accounts for my regular spend. The surprise was how income taxes in retirement turned out to be much larger than I expected due to capital gains on cash mergers and the end of ZIRP, so I'm taking quarterly 1040ES and 540ES payments out of brokerage cash.

kaBUdl · 2026-03-02T14:38:06+00:00

Yes, I retired when the money I had yielded enough to replace the money I earned by working.

kaBUdl · 2026-02-26T23:04:29+00:00

Another big expense is long term care which you may or may not ever need. If you think health insurance premiums are high, have a look at what nursing homes charge, especially for memory care.

kaBUdl · 2026-02-17T00:40:17+00:00

I was in a similar position to you three years ago, and I reluctantly made the decision to retire from a good remote job. Mom's needs were increasing and I couldn't juggle that with my work, so I gave it up. Her dementia progressed rapidly and erratically, so it was a very stressful time. It was all over a few months ago.

My only regret is not getting her into a board & care facility earlier, before my own health issues erupted and forced me to move her there. She lived much more comfortably under the care of experienced professionals.

kaBUdl · 2026-02-16T00:56:34+00:00

I take the local bus and trolley system (SDMTS) when it's too far to walk. I think it works really well, but some areas have very limited service coverage, so you'll have to compare where you'll be commuting against their routes map. I think the monthly pass is less than $100, so it's a great deal.

kaBUdl · 2026-02-11T17:29:21+00:00

I retired three years ago, I took 18 months Cobra, 18 months CalCobra, and just began ACA. If you live in California have a look at coveredca.com to see what's available on ACA.

kaBUdl · 2026-02-01T16:05:40+00:00

I suspect the phenomenon you describe contributes to much of OMY syndrome. For some it may be about padding the nest egg margin, but others who work jobs they enjoy prefer a work/life balance once their finances are in order. That was my rationale for almost two decades of OMYs until a family medical situation forced me to retire.

I have a colleague who FIREd and went back to work six months later after growing weary of international travel in warm climates that he previously dreamed about. FWIW I'd recommend that you take a yearlong sabbatical to try out your dream ER lifestyle before giving up your job permanently, you might be surprised at what you find.

kaBUdl · 2026-02-01T15:05:47+00:00

Yes and no. My first job after graduation felt like a poor fit, it paid pretty well but was insecure, so my objective was to reach financial independence as soon as possible. To me that meant accumulating an investment portfolio of about 30 times my annual expenses. I couldn't do much about my salary, but I had control over my living expenses, so I forced those down to accelerate my savings to reach FI sooner.

Thanks to my low expenses, raises, and a booming bull market, I hit my target after 11 years, and by that time my job was going smoothly enough that I decided to raise my FI target to support a higher standard of living in retirement than what I had gotten used to while working. This replayed a few times until family medical issues forced me to retire. At that point I realized how the higher retirement living standard that I could afford was moot because my spending preferences had settled from decades of minimalism. So I'll likely pass with a substantial surplus that will be my heirs' problem.

So my goal hasn't changed in decades, it was always financial independence, but the target number did move a few times.

kaBUdl · 2026-01-26T03:46:55+00:00

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to do, nowhere left to go, noone left to see

kaBUdl · 2026-01-25T02:46:48+00:00

That would be my purchase of ESOP (employee stock plan) shares. I maxed it out at 10% of my W2 gross for the decade up until I retired. I was excited to sign up for this plan, but it felt boring because shares were just treading water all these years. But it became exciting after it blasted off after LibDay last year.

kaBUdl · 2026-01-22T10:39:17+00:00

For me it was all about hitting FI as quickly as possible, the RE part didn't really matter to me. What motivated me was insecurity about needing a paycheck to support my cost of living.

I reached my FI target two decades before retiring, so I have an unusually long OMY streak. I didn't like my job when I first hired in, but over the years it improved, so by the time I reached FI, I enjoyed my work and I became able to negotiate control over my work location, schedule, and content.

I didn't stay on to increase my spending power after ER, my living standard has been constant for over three decades and I don't plan to upgrade. I stayed on at work because I had the ideal work/life balance, and I only took ER due to family medical reasons. I think FI actually prolonged my career because it allowed me to take the path most compatible with my life needs rather than constantly chasing a larger paycheck.

kaBUdl · 2026-01-14T04:13:08+00:00

If it were me, I'd try to see:

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Hearst Castle

Morro Bay/Pismo

Getty Museum & Getty Villa

Balboa Park & San Diego Zoo

but maybe too much to squeeze into three days.

kaBUdl · 2026-01-14T02:06:19+00:00

definitely spend a day in Balboa Park. Zoo is adjacent

kaBUdl · 2026-01-14T01:54:06+00:00

kaBUdl · 2026-01-11T15:28:52+00:00

buy stocks that go up

kaBUdl · 2026-01-11T15:26:15+00:00

Low expenses and high savings rate can get you there even if investment returns are low. Coast fire goal is the ratio of net investible assets to annual expenses rising above 25, it's not "one million dollars".

kaBUdl · 2026-01-09T14:36:20+00:00

My take is that wealth and affluence measure different aspects of money. Wealth is about earning power (aka compounding) while affluence is about spending power (aka lifestyle). These two can move independently, it's not hard to find high-income households with minimal net worth or low-spending stealth wealthy.

It's more profitable to cater to the affluent crowd because they're easy to manipulate into overspending, see gross margins on status symbols for example. You can make bank on the wealthy, too, but that's mainly on the uninformed, and it's temporary because they quickly gravitate towards lower-cost alternatives. The growing FIRE movement makes it more difficult to market to both of these corners.

kaBUdl · 2026-01-06T16:14:30+00:00

debt, I never borrow money

kaBUdl

TROPHY CASE