California E&S Insurance

Today is the 3rd day of the rest of my life! Retired last week thanks to FIRE I retired on Friday! Didn't get to posting until today because I was too busy doing whatever the fuck I want. # Quick Stats Net worth: $1MM + 100K home equity + 20K car equity Budget: 40K per year Age: 27 # The career tl;dr: Software 2016-2021, huge salary and got lucky with stock. I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents for teaching me frugality, to my brother for teaching me how to be a high achiever, and to the internet for filling in the rest of the gaps. This journey really starts in 2007 when I started high school. My local state university had a full-ride scholarship, and I decided I was going get it. In college, I picked a comp sci major because it was the most lucrative option that I was interested in. Leaving college, I had 40K in my pocket thanks to the scholarship, high paying internships, jobs for professors, living with family, and working jobs in high school. I built a strong resume, and practiced interviewing intensely, so I could basically pick whatever company I wanted to work for. I picked a pre-IPO company over a FAANG, which shouldn't have been the right call, but I got very lucky. My interviews went so well that I started out at a Software Eng. II position, which basically means I got a promotion before even starting. My mentor/manager there was incredible, and I owe much of my career success to him. Over the next three years, I was promoted once as an engineer and then promoted to management. The company IPO-ed and the stock popped! That's really the peak of my career. I burnt out after that, and moved into a non-management role within the company. This didn't really help, so I jumped to another company where I worked as a engineer for about half a year before going back into management. This too didn't really help, and I never got back onto my A-game. I truly love building software, but I am just so over working for large companies. Between negotiating great salaries, getting big raises, and most importantly my companies' stocks doing incredibly well, I now have $1MM. # About the Money... tl;dr: 4% rule. 40K expenses, $1MM invested + 120K home/car equity. ## FIRE Number My FIRE number was originally 750K, but as I got closer to it, I realized that is was too low. Healthcare costs rise as you get older, and I want to do more travelling than I initially budgeted. I blew past 750K and didn't immediately quit. It gets easier (and I got lucky). The first 500K took me 4.5 years in the workforce. The second 500K took me six months. ## Budget I spent 30K in 2020 and I could have lived leaner, but 30K was a comfortable balance of frugality and splurging. For 2021, I am budgeting 40K. This differs from my 2020 budget by adding $2,820 for health insurance, $1,800 to amortize vehicle purchases, and the rest is for transportation/travel/entertainment that wasn't possible during a pandemic. ## Investments My investment breakdown is roughly: * 46% VTI * 40% company stocks (from where I worked) * 9% VT * 5% 401(k) (fairly diverse ETFs, almost all equities) The goal is 100% VTI, but I can't dot it yet for tax reasons. Why no bonds? What about the sequence-of-returns risk? Well, if the sequence-of-returns is really good, then I am set for life. If it is really bad, then I will go back to work and top up. My career capital is my hedge against that risk. I can also reduce spending during hard times. ## Social Security To qualify for social security, you need 10 years of work. My three weeks of work this month are enough to count as a whole year. This puts me at 9 years, so I will need to make 6K some year in the future. While I am not counting on social security, it would be nice. So I will do a gig or turn a profit on a hobby sometime between now and 65. # About Life... 2020 was great financially, but otherwise terrible for me. I suffered from depression which was fueled by a cycle of stress from being behind at work causing me to get further behind at work. I already feel much better. ## Do I tell people I am retired? A few people who are very familiar with my FIRE plans know that I am retired. Everyone else, I am telling that I am taking a one year break from the corporate world. I want to leave that door open, and one year may change my perspective. ## Goals and Hobbies I need to lose some weight and get in better shape. I have also been single since the start of the pandemic and I do want a long-term partner. But I am not in a hurry. Being retired and single is the pinnacle of freedom. I have two hobbies that might actually make me money. There is a website I am building, and super excited to launch. I am also designing some board games that I want to kickstart. The idea of making money on these is exciting because it would be purely disposable income. There is also a certain thrill of making something valuable enough that others are willing to pay for it. I am not worried at all about being bored. There are places to hike/backpack, board games to play, friends to catch up with, places to visit, code to write, and so much more. For the first time in a long time, I am excited to wake up each morning!

{
  "score": 0,
  "title": "Today is the 3rd day of the rest of my life! Retired last week thanks to FIRE",
  "subreddit": "financialindependence",
  "num_comments": 855,
  "scrape_method": "apify_targeted"
}