My expenses are well below my income; I’m done saving for retirement
Note that a simple FIRE heuristic giving about 3% chance of running out of money at some point is to have 30x yearly expenses in 100% stock index with no leverage, which is a lot more than the usual impression along the lines of “my expenses are well below my income” and is still not something that can be reasonably described as safe.
I am far away from retirement so not at 30x yet. But assuming 7% real returns, my projected nest egg is about 108x my current living expenses around the age I want to retire. If something goes wrong before then I can always put more in. Compounding is fucking magic if you start it in your early 20s.
(This feels more like a dragon hoard than retirement savings, something that should only form as an incidental byproduct of doing what you actually value, or else under an expectation of an increase in yearly expenses.)
Haha. I didn’t really know what was a reasonable amount to save when I started because I had just gotten my first real job and really had no idea how expensive a lifestyle I might want in the future. But I knew I didn’t want to be poor ever again. So I set a fairly arbitrary goal, spent a few more years living on the poverty-level income I had had before getting a good job so that I could save while it still had lots and lots of time to grow, and now it’s done.
And from a stress/flexibility standpoint I think it was the right decision. I probably don’t have to think about saving ever again, except for fun, so if I want to take a job that is funner but pays less, I have absolute freedom to do that.
And it turns out even having money I can live pretty cheap. There were only a few material things I hated about being poor. The constant stress over money was the real problem most of the time. I don’t enjoy cooking and the food was boring when I couldn’t afford restaurants, so I eat more takeout. And walking 5 miles bc the bus doesn’t go where you want kinda sucks, so I take more cabs/ubers/lyfts.
Note that a simple FIRE heuristic giving about 3% chance of running out of money at some point is to have 30x yearly expenses in 100% stock index with no leverage, which is a lot more than the usual impression along the lines of “my expenses are well below my income” and is still not something that can be reasonably described as safe.
I am far away from retirement so not at 30x yet. But assuming 7% real returns, my projected nest egg is about 108x my current living expenses around the age I want to retire. If something goes wrong before then I can always put more in. Compounding is fucking magic if you start it in your early 20s.
(This feels more like a dragon hoard than retirement savings, something that should only form as an incidental byproduct of doing what you actually value, or else under an expectation of an increase in yearly expenses.)
Haha. I didn’t really know what was a reasonable amount to save when I started because I had just gotten my first real job and really had no idea how expensive a lifestyle I might want in the future. But I knew I didn’t want to be poor ever again. So I set a fairly arbitrary goal, spent a few more years living on the poverty-level income I had had before getting a good job so that I could save while it still had lots and lots of time to grow, and now it’s done.
And from a stress/flexibility standpoint I think it was the right decision. I probably don’t have to think about saving ever again, except for fun, so if I want to take a job that is funner but pays less, I have absolute freedom to do that.
And it turns out even having money I can live pretty cheap. There were only a few material things I hated about being poor. The constant stress over money was the real problem most of the time. I don’t enjoy cooking and the food was boring when I couldn’t afford restaurants, so I eat more takeout. And walking 5 miles bc the bus doesn’t go where you want kinda sucks, so I take more cabs/ubers/lyfts.