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I just updated my annual spreadsheet (haven’t been on top of it) and some “fun” facts that no one asked for:
- Our portfolio almost covers my base salary at a naive 4% withdrawal
- Our net worth is 81% of total lifetime gross earnings
- My pay at my current job has increased an average of 20% annually over the last decade (with considerable volatility)
- My pay this year is almost 7x more than my first job out of college (inflation adjusted)
- Our highest earning year was 4 years ago
- Our net worth has increased a bit over 6x since I heavily got into FIRE
- My 401k is worth just under double the gross contributions
A few Qs because I hate myself:
- what is your base salary?
- what is your pay currently?
- do you amend your base salary calculations when you get a raise?
- also what do you do that gives you a 20% raise every year?
I’m conflicted on giving numbers, by default it feels like an unintended flex. But hey, it’s the fire community and we love numbers so…
- $150k
- complicated, but has averaged $750k the last few years
- I don’t, this was a factoid, I concentrate on expenditures
- tech in finance, mostly leading teams and managing people
Thanks for your candid response!
However it does confirm that I will never see these numbers in my lifetime.
I doubt it means much, but the first 12 years of my career were on a more modest path. Luck and opportunity have an outsized impact. The only “smart” thing I did was leave a comfortable job for a higher stress one, but that’s probably survivorship bias talking.
I cashed out all my non-retirement stocks last week. There’s too much uncertainty.
I’m using the bulk of the proceeds to pay off 90% of my mortgage. The fixed interest rate is 7.5%. I’ll use the rest for taxes and additional cushion. I should be able to pay off my house entirely by this December and be entirely debt-free once again. If I sound blasé about it it’s because it still doesn’t feel real to me; I grew up on the lower end of middle-class and I’m now on track to do something my parents haven’t even done yet. My parents argued about money constantly and it’s one of the reasons they divorced.
All the money that’s freed up (my mortgage money and the taxes I had from periodic sales) will go toward liquidity and index funds. Should free up quite a bit to dump into retirement. I’m just going to buy and hold for the next few years at least.
I’ve got to admit, looking at the projections of working just five additional years beyond my retirement goal, it’s hard to justify the difference in savings to retire early. But at least I’m on my way to financial independence.
