You know how I cope with stress - spreadsheets and plans. Humans plan, God laughs. Isn't that how the story goes.
So here's how the next 12 months might look. The abridged version from my zillions of notes written all over the place.
OPERATION CRUISE CONTROL
Phase 1: Aggressively Save (Aug to Dec 2021)
Money: Auto-invest everything other than minimum expenses; min expenses = approx $1100/mon
Money - if you make it this far, whatever balance is at end of 2021 is FIRE number, w/d rate is whatever will get you to $20k/yr in expenses or higher
Work: Set and Maintain low expectations
Mental - Continue work on self-soothing
Theme: Think Cruise Control until FIRE / Final Countdown
Phase 2: Final Accumulation (Jan to Mar 2022)
Money -
Pre-tax 401k (keep contributions same as in COVID 2021 Budget; #easychoice)
After tax 401k (keep contributions same as in COVID 2021 Budget; #easychoice)
Roth IRA (keep contributions same as in COVID 2021 Budget; #easychoice)
Individual broker account: either stop/ or reduce down to $500/mon; invest rest after big expenses taken care of at end of Mar 2022
Bonus Money: keep contribution the same; and invest rest
Money - buy big ticket items (furniture, appliances, go to Spain/Portugal, etc); invest the rest
Money - if you make it this far, whatever balance is at Mar 31, 2022 is FIRE number, your withdrawal rate will be whatever it takes to get $20k or more for annual expenses
Health - get checkup and any other medical spends
Work - maintain low expectations, work semi-independently, smile but don’t make waves
Theme: Think Cruise Control until FIRE / Final Countdown
Phase 3: Hoard Cash (April, May, Jun, July 2022)
Money - change pre-tax 401k to just the 6% for the match b/c no use leaving free money on table; Stop all other auto-investments, all other savings shall be saved as cash in high yield savings account (if possible)
Pre-tax 401k (6% to get match)
After tax 401k (stop, hoard cash)
Roth IRA (stop, hoard cash)
Individual Broker account (stop, hoard cash)
Bonus Money: n/a
Money - save rest as cash, this is how long I estimated it would take to save about $24k after 6% 401k deduction and taxes [about $7600/mon net pay - 1600/mon in expenses (utilities + mortgage + debit card allowance + student loan) = $6k/mon to save]
Health - it’ll also be good to get any other follow-up health appointments as needed and focus on logistics for other things, etc…
Work - maintain low expectations
Theme: Think Cruise Control until FIRE / Final Countdown
July 31, 2022 - QUIT DATE (ok to make it Friday, Aug 5 if need one more month of health insurance)
Escape Hatch (i.e. don’t quit work/life, if this)- Strong will to live.
(As of 8/25/21, I couldn’t even come up with any wishful or magical thinking scenarios that would make me want to cancel this plan. In an earlier version of this, I had to just keep working(/living) until you don't want to anymore. I don't want to anymore. I mean I don't want to quit everything in this very instant, but I know how this story ends. So in this moment, I am for once very glad I overturned all the stones, tried all the things, felt all the feels, and said all the words. )
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