Am as ready for retirement as I think I am?
I certainly have first world problems. I think I'm rocking it but would love encouragement or recommendations to think about. I've never labeled my practices and choices FIRE but I think it fits. Realizing that everyone's priorities are different, here's my story and situation:
I'm 55, at the age of my original retirement goal. Work is stressful, stress kills, etc. My wife and I have always had steady jobs, in growth industries. We've always planned for a downturn that never came. The smartest thing we ever did was engage a professional CFP. Our tendencies and habits lend well to this entire plan.
We've prioritized 529 plans for each of our two kids. They are now about done and have used every penny. We also worked towards maximizing every 401k, 403b, IRA, Roth IRA option we had, eventually maxing out all contributions we could make, landing us in a position to make what I call "overflow investments" like mutual funds that when combined with stock grants, ended up financing our >$1M house build. We have no mortgage, car debts, anything. We set all of this money aside and pretended we didn't have it. We took family trips, bought the kids cars, did what we wanted. Never wasted money on fancy vehicles or super expensive hobbies. We never really felt like a well-to-do family until we took on the house project and realized how smart and achievable it was. It's just assets in another column.
I have some projects going at work right now that are exciting. I want to see them through, train up a replacement and leave my organization in a good place. I envision a retirement at the end of 2028, worst case the end of 2030 when I'm over the 59.5 mark. We're projected to have 11-12k/month in retirement income, with health insurance covered (to get us to medicare/age 65) along with 20k/year for travel. We're heavily planned. Judging by my reports, I don't seem to need more than 5-6k/month most of the time. The magic number I see projected that generates this income is 3.9M. In a few more months, I intend to give our CFP new lower cost-of-living estimates and rework the projections. If I went to 2030, it's more like 4.4M.
The "blue mountain chart" shows our portfolio value increasing until we die at age 100. Now we're talking legacy, generational wealth, etc. I'm close to being done with building wealth and have a mindset switch coming. I need to enjoy this, make plans for more hobbies, perhaps help my kids buy their first home, set up grand kids for college, etc.
The lesson I want to pass along is that low and slow wins the race. Get an expert (if you're not one yourself), work hard, stay the course, enjoy the ride along the way. We've been super fortunate with our jobs and are super grateful. I don't want to be too confident, but I think I probably should be. Am I missing anything?