Welcome to our Financial Independence progress page.

Below is how far along we are to hitting our FI Number.

We plan on withdrawing 4% of our total portfolio for 20 years. From age 42 to 62.

After 20 years, our withdrawal will be supplemented by my carpenter’s union pension at age 62 (or 55 if absolutely necessary) and social security.

A key piece to our plan is geo arbitrage: Our current plan is to rent our primary residence out to travel full time when we FIRE. We are fortunate to have a 2.8% mortgage rate. With inflation, our current monthly rentable rate is around double our mortgage in today’s dollar.

My FI number is calculated using our annual expense, minus what I project my house will rent out annually, times 25.

One thing about our FI number is that we don’t see it as a threshold that we will cross.

It’s not a finish line.

For us, the FI number serves only as a beacon that we are near our destination. A lighthouse on the shore of freedom. When we get near our number we will then assess the conditions around us and make plans based on those conditions.

I’ll keep this page periodically updated, so you may be reading an older update in the pic below.

The closer we get to FIRE, the more detailed I’ll be in sharing our withdrawal strategy. For now, it’s all about consistently pumping money into the market and having fun. This is the “boring” middle of FIRE, but it doesn’t have to be boring at all.

“Journey Over Destination.”

–Knights Radiant (Brandon Sanderson)

What we own

Our investments are primarily in low-fee index funds.

Our taxable accounts consist of VTSAX & VTIAX.

Traditional IRA accounts VTSAX & VBTLX

Roth IRA consists of VFWAX, and VTSAX.

We are about 90% domestic and 10% international.

My wife and I both max out our Traditional 401k’s. Money left over goes into a taxable account weekly and automatically before we can touch it. My two daughters both own VTI in a UTMA account–which is funded weekly in token amounts.

I also have a HYSA with American Express and contribute about $200 weekly. I guess you could call this my emergency fund (a fund in which I don’t believe in) but the purpose of this cash is to support my first year in retirement.

My goal for 2024 is to continue with our investing strategy. I’m aiming for a 80-20 domestic to international equity allocation by the time 2026 rolls around. And for a portfolio that is 90-10 equity to bonds. I believe in the Bolglehead Lazy Fund strategy.

My bond allocation is low due to two reasons.

1. My pension, which I’ll get at 62.
2. My future rental income from my home, which I’ll get once I retire early.

So where are we?

We are 90% of the way to our FI number–updated 10/24.

June 2024 Investing Update- 85% there! Things are going well for the “boring middle”. I’m continuing to enjoy my work more than ever, and the commute is not bad at all, which makes life good right now. I could probably keep this up perpetually, I’m having so much fun in life right now. Enjoying my life in the moment sure makes FIRE easy, as I’m not constantly looking forward to the future. I’m happy now…and that’s all that matters.

We’ve upped our savings rate again with some recent raises we’ve gotten. I crossed a big milestone in my salary last Friday 6/21. I’m having more and more internal urges to reallocate a percentage of my portfolio to bond funds. I’ve acquired so much, I’m suddenly discovering a fear I didn’t know I have for risk. This year when I rebalance, I will more than likely rebalance to 5-10% bonds.

Feb 2024 Investing Update-

This bull market is pretty incredible. My wife and I popped a bottle of champagne on January 26th to celebrate a big saving milestone. The illogical and surreal feeling of buying during a down market now is reaping illogical and surreal returns during a bull.

2026 is now truly the year the FIRE trigger will be pulled, barring a massive market meltdown. We’re saving more than ever now, though taxes are taking a huge hit to us this year. I’m still not buying bonds and have decided to rebalance once I get closer to the “date”. We’re still on course, head down, buying each week. At this point in my investing career, nothing except job loss will keep me from buying low fee index funds each week.

I have started to divert funds to a high yield savings account. This cash will be my first year of retirement money.

Work is very unstable and slow right now, I’m sure glad I have my savings. The news and media makes it seem like we’ve avoided a recession, but I can tell you in Northern California, construction of private buildings is almost at zero. I have multiple friends that were laid off in the last few weeks. Luckily, work in the public sector, airlines, and universities are carrying my company. I for one can’t wait till interest rates are cut so developers can start building again-but the building process takes 2 years on average from start to shovels in the ground, so my local mini-recession will likely endure till I FIRE.

Jul 2023 Investing Update-

Bull market, welcome. Stay awhile. You’ve been missed.

The tables have indeed turned for the US stock markets. Midway through 2023 and its up 18% YTD. Nothing has changed in my “boglehead-ish” strategy of using index funds and weekly buying of VTSAX and international VFWAX & VXUS. We are spending more this year than last to date. Some of it is inflation related, the rest is due to making the most out of now, the present moment, today.

We are still planning on a 2025 being our retirement year. Though I admit it may be 12/31/25, or spring 2026, when it’s all said and done–hell, maybe school year end 2026. I feel less rushed than before to pull the trigger. I guess I’m just realizing how good I have it right now. Decent commute. Kids and wife are happy. Work is ok. Health is on the mend. That kinda stuff. Plus, having a bit of fluff in the tank won’t hurt either.

Nov 2022 Investing Update–

Wow. 2022 isn’t over but man, at the time of my update it sure has been a brutal year…through the lens of the present moment. In a few years, I’m sure 2022 will be the best investing money I’ve ever spent. But yeah, it’s scary at the moment when you plop in money and watch it shrivel away week to week.

Despite the S&P being down 17% as of this update (11.19.22), we as a family, are up 4% on our portfolio value. This is solely by pumping in money blindly each week.

How Did We Get Here?

I bought my first few stocks in 2007 at the age of 24, and had no idea what I was doing. I purchased (1) stock of Airgas and (1) stock of Budweiser and slowly added to them every few weeks. I sold it all a few years later when the recession hit hard and I lost my job and needed cash.

It would take another 10 years of personal and financial mistakes before we came to our senses and started to invest for real. The spark was when I opened a 401k in 2013 and I had no idea what I was looking at.

Financial Foundation

In March of 2020, we seriously began to pursue Financial Independence. Our Financial Foundation is carefully composed of a few handpicked yet broad index funds, then poured with high strength concrete by getting down to a 50% savings rate. All structures need a solid foundation. Especially those that plan to go sky high. Once the structural walls and columns are set and poured, it’s just a matter of stacking over what’s already built.

We hope to reach this FI milestone in 2026.

Any questions please reach out in the comments or at happilydisengaged@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: I’m not a financial expert or advisor. I’m a carpenter who likes to invest my money in the stock market. You should not treat any opinion expressed on this website/blog, as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of our opinion.