A couple weeks ago I met with the Phoenix ChooseFI Local group and it was one of the most amazing meetings ever.

Gathered around a large table were over a dozen people who are taking control of their financial lives.  Some are starting this as a new level goal while others are expanding their financial skills.

There were quick introductions where everyone told a little about their story. Savers. Real estate investors. Small business or side hustlers. I could feel my energy and excitement grow every couple minutes with each new “I’m into this” story.

The attendees (FI’er’s) were ALL interested to learn more and be better with Finances.  Specifically to control their finances and gain financial power for their lives.  It wasn’t like some of those tv/movie “financial seminars” I’d viewed or imaged.  The gung-ho, rah-rah, let’s-go-make-money ideals.  This was a “how do you…”  “How could I…”  …get into the powerful position of money/financial confidence.

So fast forward two weeks and I’m in San Diego (life is great) and I’m able to meet up with another ChooseFI Local group.  Nearly thirty (stars) at a neighborhood church meeting room. Some retired. Some brand new. Some feeling the need to fine tune. Some feeling the need or newfound desire to get their money smacked down and under control.

Again as everyone introduced themselves I felt the energy of grown and experience from these amazing people.  Different people at different stages of finances but all with the same thinking of being in control.

I STRONGLY recommend finding a local ChooseFI group and attending/sharing.  You can quietly listen and/or talk and talk because the group(s) are really easy going and very smart and totally welcoming.  In all honesty, life-changing.

[continuing my car theme from my last post]

50 Years: My wife and I were thinking about how things change. Small changes over time add up to huge differences from point A to point B. We thought about her ’69 mustang and how it’s almost 50 years old. Older than me! We thought about the MASSIVE changes in technology over the recent 50 years, such as better braking, stability, computer controlled everything, adaptive cruise control, blind spot sensors, rear cameras, not to mention self-driving cars/semis.

We then thought about how the 69 mustang was hugely different than say a 1918 model T, or even a 1915 high-end Cadillac. This of the open wheels, hand crank, buggy carriage setup, kazoo horn…

Next 50 years: Here’s my next thought—I may be around 50 years from now and be able to witness another of these cycles. It’s possible the cycles will speed up—similar to binary growth/compounding—allowing two-fold of these “cycles” in the next 50 years.

These changes are limitless in automotive, air travel, technology, medicine, science, space travel, even super-duper-earth-travel?

[This is the positive way to look at future “progress/growth” rather than the stressful FIRE thoughts about inflation and how much more everything will cost in the future. Those mid 60’s mustangs were around $2500 new. In today’s dollars, that would equal about $20,000. Projecting forward just seems scary. If the average new car today is $30k, then it would be possible a new car in 2057 could be $250k.]

Hold on for the amazing future:

Can you even imagine the future you will be part of?

How can we prepare our financial lives for such changes?

This is such a great time to be alive and living in this world…and into the future. “Find The Positive!”

Well…Money people constantly talk about “the number.”  It’s your retirement number, the target you’re shooting for, the goal, the goal-to-end-all-goals.  I have some thoughts about this super magical number—or more specifically—your goal(s).

When I was 25 I thought about an early retirement around age 55.  I thought how reaching a million dollars would surely enable an early retirement.  Oh, how I could live off the income generated from that magical million dollars.  Well, I’ve read and learned that it turns out “one million” dollars wouldn’t actually be what it was 30 years earlier.  Oops!  Time to rethink think magic number.  You would think business school would have made that more clear—and more importantly taught us three simple words “total market index.”

So if the target is no longer (for many people) the magical million dollars, what is the target?  What is your savings goal?  It seems to me that looking at the issue in reverse may yield the best answer.  Your financial well being is based on what you spend, not what you earn in most cases.  Therefore, understanding how much you spend is critical to your financial well being before and during retirement.

I’ve tracked my monthly spending for 20+ years.  Each month I look at bank statements to log each transaction to get a really good idea of spending, usually to about 98% accuracy or so.  [we’ve learned it really doesn’t change too much over the years if you keep the same house, cars, spouse, etc]

Once you know what your spending pattern is while you’re working, you can then project how that spending may change in retirement (more opportunities to spend?).

Saving 25x (30x?) your yearly spending amount allows for the standard Safe Withdrawal Rate over a lengthy retirement based on many studies of historical models.  Yet based on unbelievably low current and recent fixed income rates the 4% SWR rule places retirees, and especially early retirees in a conundrum.  The first question, can you withdrawal 4% of your portfolio balance on year one—and adjust for inflation in subsequent years?  There is no way to answer this until you are 15, 20, 30 years into retirement.  Well, what about the logic that you spend more early in your retirement, in your “Go-Go” years?  As you, and your body, decide to do less adventurous/active/expensive activities as the years progress you may very well spend less money.  Will medical costs in those later life years increase, most probably.  Will those medical costs be more than your 4% inflation-adjusted spend rate?  Nobody knows your specific case.

The option I am working with is, what if I can use a withdrawal rate of 3%, or 2.5%, even 3.5%.  Some calculations I’ve performed show one half of one percent compounded over 20,30,40 years is DRAMATIC.  I also consider the possibility that my investment portfolio may perform better, or much better, than a worse case withdrawal rate.  Many financial advisors consider this the Flexible Withdrawal Strategy.  Where you withdrawal a little more following a good return year—pull a little more of the high profits— and less following a subpar year—live more basic.  The flexible withdrawal rate strategy seems to come back to controlling your fixed spending requirements for poor return years so you can maximize your Go-Go following the good years.  They say the overall stock market goes up approx 70% of the years.  Seven good years and three basic years every decade seems like a great idea to me.  Maybe you will want to rest and recover those three years from all your Go-Go activities.

My current working plan—being only 3+ years into FIRE— is to stick pretty close to my pre-FIRE spending rate, which was the target for my FIRE spending.  This plan luckily falls well below the 4% SWR.  My wife and I also seem to have stumbled into some flexible part-time working opportunities that we enjoy enough to do it.  We may spend a day or two per week, every few weeks working and gain some nice “playchecks” to buy “extra stuff” or put towards the basic bills.

So, “the number” is really just a checkpoint to allow you to route along the lifestyle you’ve planned to live.  The goal of “retirement” seems to be to have a plan for living life.  Your net worth should be tied directly to living.

So many people write about being in FIRE/FIREd.  Many others document their journey leading up to FI/FIRE.  I read so many of these blogs because there is so much amazing information, and even more to learn from each perspective.  Even to those already in FIRE, we have so much to learn.

BUT, and this is very important if you’re thinking about FIRE—technically a person can be in FIRE while still having a partner/spouse who works, but that is not a fully FIREd household.  Yes, it’s true that a smart household will continue to maintain an income, but I don’t believe that is the true idea of FIRE.

I’m not diminishing the FI portion of those blogger’s lives.  I just feel that having only one “RE” spouse is quite similar to a stay-at-home spouse…even if that couple is FI and the working income is not required.  It may also depend on how you personally feel about trading time for money (“work”).

I’m quite sure one “FIREd” person + with one working person is very different from a fully FIRED household.

The reason I feel this way is from firsthand experience.  When the direct deposits from your employer stop as you RE, your life finances have an entirely different foundation.  Monthly cash flow is the real deal.  Companies want your money when you pay your bills.  It is crucial that you have an income/inflow plan.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the bucket strategy, dividend/interest, pensions/annuities, gifts, or from a side hustle—planning before your cash flows outbound is critical.  It feels very strange at the start of FIRE to pay bills when there are no paychecks.

Most of us living below our means, and pushing towards FIRE, know the pleasure of saving and watching our accounts/net worth grow from our hard work and planning.  It is probably a very similar feeling to someone living paycheck to paycheck who buys something new and shows it off (like a fancy car, home remodel, clothes/shoes, a new gadget to replace the not-even-old-yet gadget).  Seriously, to each/their own—save or spend.  No judgment here—well a little judgment of course.

I understand a couple could be fully FIREd, and one or both people could have multiple streams of income—both passive and active.  Maintaining an income or multiple streams of income may be the true target for FIRE.  It may be you FIREd from a career that wasn’t in your heart and now you are pursuing a passion that may give you some income.  I can definitely understand following a passion or even just a strong interest.  This is a major part of the “freedom” of FI.  It seems obvious to me that many people who FIRE are high achievers who aren’t going to just shut down their skillset because they have FU money.  They are going to use their FU money to allow them to live their lives in the manner they choose.

So when I think about one person blogging on their FIRE while someone else in the home is working, especially when that work income is counted in the budget/plan, I think that is still a step from a fully FIREd household.

To be very clear, my wife “retired early” but I loved my job so I kept working for 3 years (over working) because I had one of the best jobs in the world.  I had planned to FIRE with her, but I didn’t feel the need to quit my career just yet.  So “we” weren’t FIREd, but we were FI, with FU money to spare for years—which made working even easier.

Also, as I mentioned before, we lived off our retirement budget for most of those three years that I over worked like the Mock Retirement idea.  Nearly every penny of that income went off to investments without being touched.  Yes, our “retirement” budget was a little higher (trip to Paris for free using that ‘over working’ income) but our tracking showed we were smart in our yearly spend estimates.

When you read about people in FIRE, just consider the varying levels of FIRE.

1. Fully FIREd household: Both partners not working traditional careers.
2. Partially FIREd: One partner not working traditional career, the other working, hopefully in something they really enjoy
3. FI household: both partners doing whatever they choose to do each day because the inflow of income is not required to live their lifetime.  Working at what they enjoy is the nature of the FI over-achievers.
4. FU household: working in careers to push up the net worth number. However, you are in control because of your savings/planning.  It’s like FI jr.  This is HUGE.

I think everyone who really works towards bettering their financial situation, especially consistently over the longer term, is so amazing.  Planning far ahead, delaying gratification (a little), balancing life now and in the future is so very hard.  But there’s a comic that has some logic:

“Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.”  Keep stocking up so you can make your own rules!!!

I’ve heard over and over than many people spend more time planning their vacation than their financial life. I actually thought this could be true since I feel in the best cases people just think “my work just moved some money into my 401k, I’m good” or “I saved $50 this paycheck.”

Those of us—I know you’re one of the rarest of us—who plan and think about how to structure your savings and future goals are few and far between.

So why am I writing this post? Last week I had an unplanned opportunity to head to LA for a week. I had five days or so to plan what I wanted to do. I spent an hour mapping out a plan for a few days at the beach, then a couple days in Hollywood, then back to the beach for a few more days.

I then began researching hotels, motels, then AirBnBs. After 3 hours or so, I had my AirBnB’s booked and secured. I quite was amazed that the whole afternoon had flown by as I picked great locations to sleep. I then saw some news about “the stock market’s gains for the day” and realized, I probably just spent more time booking my 7 hotel nights than most people spend figuring out their financial plan for a year.

I then preceded—over the next few days—to map out activities to undertake while I was in LA. I made a list of all my favorite things. I then made a list of things I thought would be different (see space shuttle), and some of which I always wanted to do (hike to the Hollywood sign, eat at the Rainbow Bar & Grill). I organized all of this planning into my schetchle and then I did even more planning.

All of a sudden, my 7 day LA adventure, had taken the better part of 4 days of planning. I’d hate to guess at how many people spend part of four days PER YEAR planning their finances. Even though their financial plan can affect over 50 years of life!

I have to say, my LA adventure was AMAZING. I’ve been to LA dozens of times but this trip was a magical combination of old favorite activities and new adventures. My days of planning, thinking and estimating helped make this one of my best vacations ever. “I love it when a plan comes together.”

By correlation, there is no doubt planning for your financial life will help make your life better. Fact: I know that my past financial planning efforts, driving us into FIRE, is what allowed me to take the time to both plan and enjoy this LA adventure.

It’s time to step up and plan. Take time to think about what you want in the future. Sketch out some goals, dreams, and plans. The experts say to write these down, share them with others, etc. Of course, we don’t reach every single milestone or dream, but you will reach many and get close to others. Being close to a dream is far better than being in a nightmare.