I recently had the honor to virtually meet Mr1500 by PoF’s introduction, who blogs about 1500 days to retirement. I thought it would be fun to share my journey to financial independence as well.
I originally wrote Why I Can Retire at 38, But Won’t on Apr 11, 2016 @ 12:19, which means if I meet my ultra-conservative financial goals (set up for me to surpass easily, building in a positive feedback loop and self-fulfilling prophecy J for the next 6.8 years, I’d be able to retire by January 28, 2023 (Apr 11, 2023 minus 73 days.)
Today (7/25/2016), I have approximately 2375 days (6.5 years) till FI (financial independence.) Rounding it up, I’ll just call my journey “2400 days to Financial Independence.” I’ll be writing at minimum annual posts on my progress to FI and likely will have more posts as I get closer to FI.
What I plan to do when I reach FI, (Cliff note version)
- Cut back work to 30 hours/week.
- Teach Math and Sciences at Mini’s middle and high school.
- Become a yoga instructor.
- Resume writing children’s books.
How is my progress to FI? (Cliff note version)
- Retirement funds: Exceed target.
- Day to day: Feel great and will continue to follow my idiotically simple investment plan.
What I plan to do when I reach FI, (Elaborated)
- Cut back work to 30 hours/week. I learned from venerable radiologists that we need to work at least 2 full days per week to stay sharp in our trade.
- Get credentials to teach middle/high school math and/or sciences and apply to teach at Mini’s school. Mini has requested repeatedly that I use my wonderful teaching skills on her (she’s witnessed from the innumerable tutoring sessions held at home since she was an infant and the various teaching awards I have gotten.)
- Train more intensively to get credentialed as a yoga instructor.
- Pick up my college dream of writing children’s book on college level academic subjects.
How is my progress to FI? (Elaborated)
- Retirement funds: $47,892.5 in Roth-Vanguard Index funds.
- $31,225.97 liquid asset in case I see the dream home.
- 7k of credit card debt at 0% interest rate without additional liability under my name.
- Mini’s 529 on target to top off at 14k for 2016.
- Starting SEP-IRA and maxing Mini’s Roth IRA at 5.5k for 2016.
- On target to max out 23.5k of Roth 2016 plus getting ~1k of company 401k match.
- Day to day: continue to select lowest fee, most stupid simple index funds.
- Invest $ passively and emotion-lessly. Embrace life actively and feeling everything to the fullest.
If you like this article, you might enjoy other DWM articles on Personal Finance, Investing, Retirement, Practice Management, & Lifestyle.
The funniest thing about early retirement has been to just work ~25 years on things I enjoy. Good luck on your journey!
Sam
i would still love to practice radiology as it is so rewarding. i just would like to scale it back so that i have more time and energy to do other things i love too!
thank you Sam 🙂
I agreed with putting goals toward FI. Personally, I haven’t written down what I would do after achieving FI. Getting out of debt is more important at this point in my life. Your post is very inspiring
thank you so much. i always find it fun to share my journey with friends and learn about theirs. i wish you the best and let me know if there’s anything i could do to be helpful 🙂
Sounds like a great plan, DWM! It will be fun to see the annual progress. I think it’s smart to have a defined action plan for after you’ve achieved FI. Without one, FI is a goal with less meaning.
Cheers!
-PoF
thank you PoF. there’s so much we could do once FI is obtained. i’m also really grateful that i love my life today, on most days 🙂 thanks for continuing to be a source of inspiration and ideas to better serve our community of colleagues and patients.