I think they’re great tools, too. I have an employment benefit (well, I pay imputed taxes on it) of a certain amount for financial planning every year. Some of the recommended planners seemed scammy, but I picked a reasonable one and had them run numbers. I got a report with so many numbers it makes my eyes glaze over, but once I got through it I realized they were basically running exactly the same kinds of simulations as these tools. Great to validate where I am, and I don’t need to go back to them. |
All I can say is that my father in law was forced to retire at age 58 and never worked full time again (consulted, taught a couple university classes). When he died at age 84, he and my MIL had the same $500,000 they had when he retired. |
That’s pretty amazing. |
Agreed. Once you really get a handle on how they work it is easy to run your own. I prefer the online (as long as you have a decent level of data input) is that you can see all the different trajectories (even if you can follow them) and you are given a range. Worst case, best case, average. As long as I can live with the worst case I feel okay. Many FAs give one outcome, though also state the variability percentage. Granted, FA's is based on 1000s of scenarios and I think that some online calculators are based on around 200. So there's that. |
That's great! It really is all about expenses. How much one spends as it relates to how much they have. |
I was going to say I think the FIRE calculators are way too optimistic since they do not consider long term care. Retiring at 55/61 with a NW of 7M+, a pension of 50k, and presumably a nearly maxed SS, is not really the definition of Financial Independence Retire Early as you have been independent for a long time and missed the retire early part. |
FIRE as a movement is also about finding a way to have just as good of a life while spending less money. Maybe focus on that a bit and you can get out of the rat race even sooner. |
No. I want to retire when I cam but spending a lot. Have no desire to spend less. Probably stay until 65 to do that. |
Thing is plenty of people don’t mind work in their 40s and 50s, and collecting a salary is preferable to paying down principle. So much more beneficial financially to find a job you don’t mind and enjoy your daily life as opposed to being unemployed and forced to watch every penny. |