Tipping Point – Financially Free at 43
This weekend the see-saw tipped and we gently slid off the end into a warm, soapy bath of freedom. I’m sploshing about in this bath as I type, feeling comfortable, but a little unnerved by it all. The best adjective we’ve managed to come up for it between the two of us is weird. This isn’t supposed to happen until we’re at least 50; more realistically, 55 to 70. I’m 43. Ju is only actually 42, but that didn’t rhyme with ‘free’. Going off our UK state pension age of 67, we’ve hit the target 24 years early.
YEAH BABY!!!
Ahem. So yes, despite this being a deliberate goal for the past 2 years, and a sort of hazy aspiration for maybe another 5 years before that, it does feel very odd indeed to be sat here typing this. What it means is this: we no longer have to trade our time for money. From this point onwards, whether we opt to work or not is up to us.
Smug? No, I don’t think so. We’ve projected out our financial situation over the coming decades using a spreadsheet model, but of course this is only a guestimate of what will happen. We have a beefy emergency fund, but something both dramatic and prolonged could hammer it flat: most likely something health-related, but who knows? We do have the enormous advantage of living in the UK which has state health provision. Again, there’s no guarantee the NHS will endure over the coming decades.
A large part of our freedom has come from reducing our living costs, so while we have money coming in without working it’s not bucket-loads. We’re aiming to live on around £15k per year, if we want to go on an Arctic cruise or something else equally costly, we’ll have to work out how to generate the funds for it.
But sinking back into the bath: we’re in our early 40’s. We have transferable skills in project management, marketing, people management and travel blogging (**wink**). We have energy. We have our eye out for opportunity. If we need to, we’ll find ‘traditional’ work again, or create jobs for ourselves. The income from this blog for instance, although relatively small is steadily rising through each advert click or purchase through Amazon.
Also, as our money is almost entirely invested in property, share funds and bonds, there is a good chance it will appreciate. Effectively, we may well get slowly get richer, as we sit on the beach. Weird.
Cheers, Jay
Congratulations! The big advantage is that you’ve prepared for this moment for a long time and know what you want to do. I look forward to your updates on how you’re doing it! Cheers.
Many congratulations Jay. I’m also on a similar journey and have about 18 months to run. I could just make it by my 43rd birthday but more likely I’ll be an ancient 44. I think from memory you’ve gone for the 4% Rule. In contrast I’m quite risk averse and am using 2.5% as my safe withdrawal rate. When I check out of ‘traditional’ work I really don’t want to ever have to think about going back.
I haven’t gone for direct rental like yourself but instead have UK and EU commercial property via ETF/mutual funds. On top of that I have bonds (UK index linked gilts and corporate), equities (UK, Aus, EU, US, Japan and Emerging Markets), gold and some cash.
Congratulations again on being FIRE’ed.
Thanks! Great path to be on. Once you’re on it, there is only one outcome: success. It’s inevitable, just keep popping away.
The vast majority of the investments we’ll live on until we can access private pension pots are in direct rental property, so the 4% SWR doesn’t apply to us. We’ve been letting out property for a decade so have a reasonable idea of our income and costs. Once we actually get access to our pension pots, we’ll go from financially free to living in serious abundance.
When we left work 4 years ago to travel, I couldn’t imagine going back to the same work. 2 years later at was back at it. We’d seen ow difficult it can be to earn money, especially in the poorer parts of the world, and having the opportunity to get cash again and get ourselves in a ‘safe’ position suddenly seemed the appropriate thing to do.
Anyway, congratulations in advance and thanks for taking the time to write. Your conservative approach will surely serve you well, go for it and enjoy it when you get there. Expect it to feel weird. :-)
Cheers, Jay
Well done on achieving financial freedom at such an early age – just shows what can be done with planning and determination. Good luck with whatever develops in the future.
Well done the two of you. I look forward to reading about your exploits over the coming months.
Richard
Well done…all that hard work and focus has paid off. We got to your point 4 years ago and 15 years later than you age wise, through a more conventional route, and it is great….It does still feel odd that I can do pretty much what I like every day (the law, and the Missus, permitting) and the pension keeps rolling in month after month with no more work on my part. We set off shortly for three months travelling, nothing booked except for the ferry….
Get back to work you schlacker! Leave the car parks of the world free for the old people in their Motorcaravans :-)
Old people like you Phil? !-) Enjoy them while you can mate… Soon we’ll be all over them!
All very impressive. Not sure how you can live on £15k a year though – even if you are in a motorhome. I can only assume you don’t have children and don’t like eating out. Let’s hope you get on well and have no further ambition.
Hi Simon
Short challenge, short response:
1. Not sure how you can live on £15k a year though. How come you’re not sure? We’ve tracked our spending for years and we know how much we need.
2. Even if you are in a motorhome. If we only lived in a motorhome we could easily live on £10k if we chose to, but we don’t just live in a motorhome.
3. I can only assume you don’t have children. Correct. We never claimed to have children.
4. And don’t like eating out. We love eating out, but do so as a luxury. Seems reasonable to me?
5. Let’s hope you get on well. Meaning what sorry – as a couple? If you do, we do, thanks.
6. And have no further ambition. Are you serious? We have ambition coming out of our ears. Maybe not the kind of ambition you’re talking about in terms of obtaining a house with 4 more bedrooms than we need/an SUV/a GSXR1000/5 star luxury cruises?
You are of course very much correct, we could well find we need more money to be truly happy. In which case we’ll find some more work/make some more work to get the money. Current thinking though, which is based on years of thought, is we’ll do OK as-is.
Cheers, Jay
Hello Jay
Nice response.
Good luck on your travels, I totally agree with your cost estimations,living and traveling in a motorhome is cheap, safe and enjoyable.
I do think you both need to brave out the free Wildcamping situation in the U.K.
Last weekend we stayed in our motorhome on a quite street in Edinburgh, had a great time at the fringe.
For our travels we use a couple of offline maps “maps and me” and Galileo, these are great for finding car parks, which we then stay in for the night, we also use Galileo when we walk as it can track, you plus shows the tracks you wish to walk.
This year in Brittany we used these to walk the GR34 coastal route, enabling use return to the motorhome.
We had used aires and have found that remote car parks are a lot quieter and on route, we used the aires for service stops.
Good luck on your travels, we will keep tracking your adventures.
John and Jan
Ah, you’re very right John. We’ve done some parking in the street/kipping in the UK but generally only a single night or so at mate’s places. Odd, since we had no qualms (or not too many qualms) free camping in various places in Europe. Must. Try. Harder. :-) Thanks also for the offline maps tips, much appreciated.
Cheers, Jay
Congratulations to both of you – it must be a great feeling so let it sink in and enjoy the freedom. I bet the next long-term trip will feel different to the last, knowing you’re not drawing down on finite savings with the need to return to full time work. We’re about 3 years behind you (but a decade older!) and can’t wait to reach FI. You’ve certainly inspired us and many others. Enjoy the ‘gap life!’.
Paul