u/Jbaker318

37, still deep in the accumulation phase. But been on a retirement bender as of late. Was doing the B&B thing of what is your point of accumulation. As a 37 year old I have no point lol. So I got to thinking more about flexibility and setting myself up when I do have more of a point - I have a young family so we don't have a ton of free time to go on lavish vacations or anything, nor would I want to with a 3 year old (car rides are a nightmare enough).

Anyways I had just been doing the FOO thing and filling up the buckets, maxing out the Roth 401ks, etc. I been learning about this world and stumbled on the idea of Coast Fi. Used the proverbial calculator and it says at my current rate I can coast fi in 6 years (@ 43). I don't really like the idea of not maximizing the 'easy' buckets: employer match, HSA, and Roth IRA.

Once I get near the Coast Fi # shifting deposits from all in on 401K style deposits to brokerage. I would have my retirement set with the Coast+ (+ being I still do employer match, HSA and Roth IRA), and then start filling brokerage bucket to build a bridge if I wanted to retire early for real. Since I'm not going completely Coast, I think shifting 2 years earlier makes sense because I'm not taking my foot off the gas completely. Basically want to give myself flexibility so I am not retirement rich if something happens and I need funds ahead of retirement.

My plan structure:

* Now until 41 - still go all on FOO accumulation we all know and love - max HSA, Roth IRA, and both Roth 401ks (mine and my spouses).

* At 41 (2 years earlier than actual coast fi #) - Shift to CoastFi+ (TM pending 😉): Continue to max hsa, max Roth IRA, and do 5% 401ks for company match. Effectively will be at 18% savings rate on that end. Shift rest of money to fill brokerage bucket.

* At 51 - Assess how everything is doing and see what retirement looks like. At this point will have a lot more visibility on what the retirement years will look like.

**Obviously Im going to look at this stuff way more than that, just trying to sound cool calm and collect :)

Anyone have similar plan / strat?

Built a very basic tool using TMG's guidelines they give during their annual net worth show - ie at 30 your NW should be 1x gross annual income, and at 40 that should be 3x. So took their multiples, built a polynomial trendline to fill in the gaps (the years between the major decades). Also built in 2 different multiples: Revised Retirement [Accounts / 401K] - Starts close to TMG's guidelines but then shifts to significantly less as other vehicles will start accounting for more of your total net worth, and Revised NW - Starts less than TMG's guidelines due to early on debts (college/home/auto) but then quickly aligns with TMG's normal guidelines.

How to use: Download the sheet as a copy and edit to your hearts content. The YELLOW cells on the Input sheet are meant to be adjusted per your situation. If you want to go wild and adjust your own target multiples (ie you think Retirement multiple at 50 should be higher), then feel free to adjust; the trendline and formulas will adjust accordingly.

Feel free to ping me with any questions. You have to be a bit of a TMG fan to understand the assumptions with the figures. Please no, "Income isnt a good measure, it should be cost," that's a different discussion. Also please understand how TMG calculates Net Worth (and how to calculate home's value). Sorry for those under 30 and those over 65 - TMG doesn't cover that in their multiples guidelines...

This is a very basic V1 version. Pardon the clunky UI :)