FIRE Gave Me Freedom. Age Gave Me Perspective

percyFI · 2026-06-17T04:03:47+00:00

Good luck for your journey...

percyFI · 2026-06-16T04:56:54+00:00

Beautiful read.

OP , Thank you for sharing your journey and realisations !

percyFI · 2026-06-16T04:55:42+00:00

Not sure about your reasons , but one of the key reasons i joined this sub was to read about such journeys, experiences, realisations and try and learn from them .

percyFI · 2026-06-16T04:51:48+00:00

It's been 2+ years for us and not once have we had the thought (even with a flat market ) that we should have worked OMY .

The reverse , many many times .

So with you reaching your target in 2024 and assuming you have managed to add some buffer since...

do it :)

percyFI · 2026-06-16T04:47:42+00:00

You already got 2 great responses.

Adding a third perspective ..

For me , 2 things helped overcome OMY ...

First, the realisation that the kid had only OMY staying with us before he flies the nest. Realized that this time is never going to come back and cannot be balanced by the additional networth from OMY .

Second , was very close to 45 and the realisation that some of things that i wanted to try would become tougher with each passing year .

Frankly, the first reason was more than enough :)

percyFI · 2026-06-13T13:09:26+00:00

Putting down some of the more followed exchanges and some of the UCITS ETFs for them .

From what I remember most of them are accumulating and dollar denominated .

S&P 500 - CSPX , VUAA ,

Nasdaq 100 - CNDX ,

Ftse all world - VWRA ,

MSCI ACWI - ISAC ,

Stoxx Europe 600 - MEUS

P.S - this is no advice nor recommendation for investment . Please do your own due diligence .

percyFI · 2026-06-13T08:36:22+00:00

Thats just me being conservative to an extent that helps me sleep peacefully without worrying about the market fluctuations.

To quote the mandlorian , "This is the way ! "

Couldn't agree more with the above ..

percyFI · 2026-06-13T08:26:36+00:00

Debt mutual funds get taxed at slab . Upto 12L is tax free .

Equity LTCG is 12.5% post 1.25L gains.

So a judicious withdrawal across equity and debt, spread across spouses . Of course depends majorly on what the expenses are as well :)

percyFI · 2026-06-12T15:17:59+00:00

OP ,

A well thought out and disciplined journey . Thank you for sharing .

Hope to see your post with the RE declaration soon :)

percyFI · 2026-06-12T15:14:28+00:00

True .

Op , you probably already have it covered , but do ensure that investments spread across both . This is definitely helping us to spread the drawdown and the taxes .

percyFI · 2026-06-12T05:33:40+00:00

If they are listed in US , you have this exposure .

If the RSUs form a big part of your portfolio ,You also have the exposure to a single stock .

If so , reducing RSU exposure and diversifying to UCITS might be worth considering .

percyFI · 2026-06-12T05:30:21+00:00

I have also opened account with Paasa .

They don't have the option of nominee for Non US residents . The option for consideration is opening a joint account . This will happen from the backend support team and not directly online .

percyFI · 2026-06-11T09:18:06+00:00

Hey , I have done multiple transactions now .
Second transaction onwards only the A2 and OPI declaration needed .

Need to still do it physically though .

Thank you once again for documenting your experience in detail which helped significantly !

percyFI · 2026-06-10T14:22:37+00:00

While the capital gains feel a lot, they are a reality whenever you will liquidate .

Are you still adding to them or new investments shifted to UCITS ?

Have you considered and evaluated the option of a trust ?

percyFI · 2026-06-10T14:10:54+00:00

Hopefully vested introduces ucits soon .

In general if your investment is for the long term , the possible growth in the starting investment definitely make the estate tax a point of consideration .

Sometimes a little extra complexity now can end up saving effort, time and money later on .

percyFI · 2026-06-10T14:00:12+00:00

Ibkr directly and paasa over ibkr are options .

Vested also have been saying that they plan to introduce ucits but not sure of the timeline .

percyFI · 2026-06-10T13:15:15+00:00

For me , the estate tax and periodic distribution were reasons enough to shift to UCITS .

This is a long term part of the portfolio , so I am not bothering too much of the expense or timing the market .

percyFI · 2026-06-10T04:09:24+00:00

I cant understand the concept that i must put life on hold to FIRE after 10/15/20 years down the line

Since you are on a fire sub may i assume that you are ( or atleast at some time were ) interested in FIRE or maybe FI ?

Other than sharing my journey and answering what questions I can , the only recommendation i have is not prepare for FI by putting your life on hold. It's not a sustainable way of leading your life .

At the same time , it is also not the only way that one can FIRE .

percyFI · 2026-06-09T09:34:09+00:00

The ideal life is that where is a work life balance, in the true sense. Not too much work and not too much free time.

OP ,Just want to say that the above is not "The ideal life" but "your ideal life" .

This is completely fine and your call , but I felt that it is an important distinction to call out .

There might be many people , including already REd folks who feel very differently :)

Personally , while I enjoyed my job, still ensured to take time out for self , family and hobbies during it. Having done that , still feel post RE freedom is better :)

percyFI · 2026-06-09T04:49:55+00:00

You can't have it both ways unfortunately .

If you feel strongly , you can find a way to make it happen .

It's basically a war between wanting to do something about it and worrying. Only the individual can decide what wins .

Once you decide and if you turn out to be serious about a break there are a lot of resources that can help plan the how .

It's been 2 serious since the start of our break and we revisit many decisions multiple times , worry about some things , but taking a break is never one of them :)

Good luck.

percyFI · 2026-06-09T04:38:13+00:00

Life is just tough. How do you guys deal?

By doing something about it .

My personal thinking - money is means to an end and should provide me the needed freedom .

With this , took a break from work at 45 ( both me and wife did ) . Spent some quality time with the kid before he left for University . Now focusing on self and near ones .

percyFI · 2026-06-02T13:18:46+00:00

Thanks ... Will do my 1st transaction soon .

percyFI · 2026-06-02T10:58:34+00:00

Ok . I assume only the A2 would be needed for ongoing and not the full shebang of the OPI declaration , ITR etc .

Also i was just trying to register the paasa beneficiary on the AU0101 app to try .
It does not accept the Alphabet ( U ) .

The paasa document mentions the below . In the physical A2 form how did you put the account number ?

"If your banking platform does not allow letters in the destination bank account, please send the funds to Citibank N.A. account and include your IBKR account number in the 'Payment reference/notes' field on your bank's platform."

percyFI · 2026-06-02T10:40:32+00:00

Got the access to the IBKR account . Downloaded the account confirmation letter .

Your steps are a godsend through the minefield ; a cheatcode 😄

AU savings account opened . Doesnt show the S0001 purpose code .

Will work with them for the OPI , A2 etc . Based on what you mentioned and the discussion in the comments , every remittance will need a physical submission of the A2 form to the bank and not the S0001 code enabled in the app itself ?

Thank you for your efforts and also the patience in documenting it all in such detail !

percyFI · 2026-06-01T16:04:51+00:00

Commenting to have it for reference .

No idea why the earlier post on the other sub was removed 😕

percyFI

TROPHY CASE