Early-retirement wannabe

atush

Marine_life wrote: »

Precisely.

Over the last four years since this thread started I've been doing a lot of reading around early retirement especially online forums and blogs (including yours) and taken some inspiration from them.

What I really don't like is the cult like approach that seems to envelop around some early retirement proponents including the people over at mrmoneymustache.com/. I actually like the man himself but his followers are like zealots who seek to analyse each blog post as if it were something moses had brought down from the mount.

My own philosophy on ER is to have enough money that we will be very comfortable but also have a big buffer in case anything unexpected happens and we are on track for that. That is also based on the assumption that we will have zero revenues and our investment returns equal inflation i.e. incredibly conservative.

Having said that I am not averse to a bit of vacuos comsumerism (in various forms be that cars or holidays) which would see me ostracised on the MMM forums. So I expect that the spoils of any work I choose to undertake will be be used for that - importantly so that I can directly correlate the spoils of what I do into some immediate gratification :-)

Yep, I have read that blog but like you dont post as I do like vacations and eating nice food at home. And god forbid going out occasionally with family. None of which is allowed over there lol.

atush

115K wrote: »

Sorry, I meant to say we do want to move house again anyway so just wondering whether it would be better in the next couple of years or just around retirement age. I keep reading that there might be a house price crash but people have been saying this for years! One other option could be to move to a very slightly bigger house (bigger garden for the dogs really) and just add a little to the mortgage debt.

We don't need to move now honestly, we could wait.

If we don't move now then I am trying to build up around £15k in a cash ISA and then move to putting money in S&S ISA's instead. The more cautious side of me thinks that would be better than moving house now. We worked out that after my husband is 60 we should be okay for money as he has a final salary scheme so it's just really thinking about the years between now and then.

When you retire will it be outside of London? Ie you could afford a nicer place w/o paying over the odds? If so, concentrating on pension now and buying later could make sense.

kidmugsy

115K wrote: »

It seems like nearly every person on my street is putting their house up for sale.

That might be a sign of a "top". There's no knowing.

115K

atush wrote: »

When you retire will it be outside of London? Ie you could afford a nicer place w/o paying over the odds? If so, concentrating on pension now and buying later could make sense.

We're not sure, we have family and friends in London/Essex but we could move away and just travel if we wanted to see them.

kidmugsy wrote: »

That might be a sign of a "top". There's no knowing.

Very true. We only bought for the first time in 2003, I wish I had bought before 2003 but I wasn't ready to settle down then as I only left uni in 1999.

jamesd

Marine_life wrote: »

What I really don't like is the cult like approach that seems to envelop around some early retirement proponents including the people over at mrmoneymustache.com/. ... I am not averse to a bit of vacuos comsumerism (in various forms be that cars or holidays) which would see me ostracised on the MMM forums. So I expect that the spoils of any work I choose to undertake will be be used for that - importantly so that I can directly correlate the spoils of what I do into some immediate gratification :-)

Same here. While I have been quite committed I have not made substantial quality of life sacrifices or even always the most efficient choices. Balance exists and I'm doing fine on the big picture level and know it.

gadgetmind

jamesd wrote: »

I have not made substantial quality of life sacrifices or even always the most efficient choices.

Agreed. A lot of what I spend money on would have True Believers tutting, but I save between 30% and 60% of my gross salary pa. (Figure depends on what silly games HMG are playing with pensions that year!)

boglehead

Marine_life wrote: »

But what you say is true, INTJ is not necessarily a profile for a successful business person - you need the "E".

Errrr.... Really, must be another unfounded dogma, Given the fact that over a third of sp500 CEOs are 'I'... My boss being one of them... Making $15m a year... Not too bad for an 'I'

Marine_life

Big events this week.

Last weekend we completed the purchase of our retirement home which was a little bit surreal. The property was owned by a couple who had retired and built the house for themsleves six years ago....but I swear they had never been there as the house is almost completely brand new. Its a big house (about 2,500 sq ft) but one of the prerequisites of retiring early has been that my wife refuses to downsize. Ah well....at least it is an eneergy efficient building.

Its not my ideal strategy as we are now the owners (outright) of two houses with a combined equity of around €1.1 million. We need to get rid of our current house to fund our retirement but that is now on hold until early next year so at the moment unfortunately we will be carrying the cost of two houses.

We spent the week "on holiday" in our new house in Austria and it has really cemented the idea that I am ready for retirement. I know a holiday is a holiday and living is different but I am definitely ready.

54 days to go.

gfplux

Congratulations marine life.
2500 square feet is as you know large by UK standards but normal by some EU country's. Does that floor space include basement and garages or is just the living space.

mark55man

Well done ML - at least you will be manage the move out in a leisurely fashion as befits a man of retirement.


You may even be able to make better choices about disposition of items not coming with you - and possibly for those that are sold attract a better price by not being a rushed seller