#2558
Postby TopOnePercent » November 8th, 2016, 11:23 pm
I called myself Financially Independent, with the option of Early Retirement, as soon as my planned retirement spending equalled Wealth times 2.5%.
An interesting and useful (for me) metric. I've just done some quick calculations and I could possibly FIRE in another 5 years, were I to ignore increasing costs in the near term (Children to get through uni).
Unfortunately the other major blocker is that nearly 60% of my wealth is in private pensions, and at the age of 42, the minimum age for putting them into payment has risen to 58, likely to hit 60 before I can claim my money. The other small factors are my remaining mortgage, which would reduce my income too low to live on, if I cleared it using assets, and finally the fact that my good lady wife has not yet had the sense to leave me for someone ... well, less me.
If I was determined enough I could stop being an employee and start being a contractor, thus increasing my income while significantly reducing my largest bill (Income taxes). That would almost definitely put me in the position where I could FIRE after 5 more years, by reassigning what used to be income taxes into buy to let properties in my Northern homelands.
Overall I don't think I'd have sufficient padding to weather a downturn without damaging my wealth enough to avoid cuts to standard of living, and my profession is such that once you've been out of it for a couple of years, you're history.
Last edited by
TopOnePercent on November 8th, 2016, 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.