F.I.R.E (financial independence retire early)

[boyee]

You guys are making me hungry.  Hey why is food so much better in the Pi than in the US?  Is it the quality of the cook or was the cow just slaughtered that morning?  All the times I have been to a wet market the meat just tasted better.  And not just Filipino food, Best ham burger I've ever had was in Pasig.  

[BrettGC]

16 minutes ago, boyee said:

You guys are making me hungry.  Hey why is food so much better in the Pi than in the US?  Is it the quality of the cook or was the cow just slaughtered that morning?  All the times I have been to a wet market the meat just tasted better.  And not just Filipino food, Best ham burger I've ever had was in Pasig.  

Bo we're in the minority here in liking the local food.  I've never eaten a lot of dead cow so that suits. I love it normally after I've added some sort of spicy sauce, the variety is incredible too.  Unfortunately most of it being very high GI, unless you cook it completely from scratch and have brown instead of white rice, my borderline type 2 diabetes doesn't love it so much.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

9 hours ago, boyee said:

We live on less than 50% of our income so we can  invest the rest .

I have been preaching that to my kids for years.  I try to follow it myself but it comes down to what each individual considers an investment.  Not just stocks and bonds but your house is an investment and in some cases your car is an investment etc. etc.

9 hours ago, boyee said:

That is to have enough money in the bank and live off of 4% withdrawal rate.

I think this means that you take 4% of your capital each year and that is what you live on?  Why not continue with what is working for you?  I mean if you got there by spending half of you income and investing the rest then why not continue by spending half of whatever you earn on your investments and re-investing the rest.  You will get richer over time instead of poorer.

[bigpearl]

3 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I have been preaching that to my kids for years.  I try to follow it myself but it comes down to what each individual considers an investment.  Not just stocks and bonds but your house is an investment and in some cases your car is an investment etc. etc.

I think this means that you take 4% of your capital each year and that is what you live on?  Why not continue with what is working for you?  I mean if you got there by spending half of you income and investing the rest then why not continue by spending half of whatever you earn on your investments and re-investing the rest.  You will get richer over time instead of poorer.

lol Dave, been there and now I am going the opposite way as I have no one apart from So to leave money to when I push up the daisies. My children won't give me the steam off their sh*t but constantly ask for handouts,,,,,, familiar?  Spend it and enjoy life, fill your bucket list and then some. We all built our fortune in younger years, into middle years and then we look at retirement, enjoy your hard earned cash, budget and spend. The future for my kids is survival, selfish maybe but in reality from personal experience, did it myself, they will need to work harder and smarter for their retirement years.

Back to the OP, all needs are unique and very personal. The best saying and advice in this and other forums is "boots on the ground". Get your hands dirty, experience and enjoy or move on. The 4% scenario has opened a can of worms for me/us and means I have to die several years earlier than my budget allows. At the end of the day micro managing a budget is a fallacy as we all know, contingencies and fudge factors are alway anticipated by the wary. Looking forward to my gentler years.

cheers, Steve.

[Jack Peterson]

 Does anyone remember the saying " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?"  Boots on the ground me hearties

[stevewool]

Been looking into this f.i.r.e thing over the last few nights and I cannot make sense of it, maybe it's my age or I just cannot be bothered looking at it properly.

I am happy with what my plans are and maybe they are similar to this plan , but investments is not number one on my list, hard cash to me is better, yes I can hear all the shouting from many (NOOOOOO ), each to there own but good luck to us all in our futures .

[boyee]

Everyone has their own strategy and if it works for you, life is good and you sleep at night then you are better than most in my book.  why change.  In a previous life I was a financial planer, well...Okay I sold life insurance.  don't judge.  The standard advice in retirement planning has always been you don't want to outlive your money.  "Do you want a lower or higher standard of living when you stop working?"  No one ever says lower so the advice is always to stock pile an enormous amount of money.  If you make $100,000 per year then you will need at least that x 30 to enjoy the golden years right.  I say forget mainstream financial commission motivated tactics.  wall-street fiduciaries have sold us a dream, one that enslaves our soul during my hour long commute  to a job I don't like so I can buy crap I don't need to impress people I don't know.  There is a paradigm shift on the horizon, I think many of the folks on this forum are leading the way. 

[davewe]

10 hours ago, boyee said:

Everyone has their own strategy and if it works for you, life is good and you sleep at night then you are better than most in my book.  why change.  In a previous life I was a financial planer, well...Okay I sold life insurance.  don't judge.  The standard advice in retirement planning has always been you don't want to outlive your money.  "Do you want a lower or higher standard of living when you stop working?"  No one ever says lower so the advice is always to stock pile an enormous amount of money.  If you make $100,000 per year then you will need at least that x 30 to enjoy the golden years right.  I say forget mainstream financial commission motivated tactics.  wall-street fiduciaries have sold us a dream, one that enslaves our soul during my hour long commute  to a job I don't like so I can buy crap I don't need to impress people I don't know.  There is a paradigm shift on the horizon, I think many of the folks on this forum are leading the way. 

I think it's a great strategy and wish I had done it to some degree earlier in life. Like most people of my age I spent and lived for today. But in my parents and grandparents generation savings was common and essential. There was no Social Security, pensions didn't exist or were tiny, and credit was not as easy to get as it is today; consequently you had to save. I honestly didn't get serious about saving until 10 years before I retired and once I started saved every dime I could manage. 

I admire what you're doing.

[Jollygoodfellow]

19 hours ago, stevewool said:

Been looking into this f.i.r.e thing over the last few nights

This one ? 

[MikeB]

OP, I don't know what your FIN should be. Prior to retirement I spent countless hours running and re-running the numbers until I was SURE I had it all figured out. Read a lot of expert advice on expat forums, all of it along the "this is what I do" line. After I came to the Phils my life changed so much it's completely unrecognizable to what is was before. All my budget plans are as useful as a politician's promise. You don't mention medical insurance and costs, if you stay in the US you better plan for medical needs; in the Phils, of course, it's FAR cheaper but quality is certainly a consideration.

It's good to plan, you should do it. I'm reminded of an old Yiddish expression, " Man plans and God laughs".