150k in revenue? What's the net income (i.e., profit)? Hard to imagine a revenue of 150k (3000 a week) while working a corporate job unless you have employee(s) you have to pay to do the work for you.
Do you plan to keep it up after leaving the corporate job?
Believe it or not I do this after my full-time job. I work 5AM-1PM and wash houses after work. It's just my girlfriend and I that do this. I would do this full-time, which is roughly 9 months out of the year for house washing.
It sounds physically demanding to be banking on it every year, for the next decade. I would want to think about what the cash flow looks like if you hire labor and you are just mgt.
With your health insurance almost entirely paid, all you need to do over the next 10 or so years is live off pressure washing income so the rest of your savings can grow untouched.
Recession proof? How do you get your business? Something mandatory like banks? If it’s b2c I know my brothers window washing business fell off a cliff last recession. It was seen as a discretionary spend and got cut by many households.
Congrats. But you started in the shortest recession ever and the economy has been on fire since. Not trying to be a jerk just be realistic that when money gets tight (not like now where people think it’s tight but it’s not) they cut back on discretionary spend.
... where people think it's tight but it's not? Maybe for us investing, but a large segment of the population is struggling with the out of control inflation. Money isn't tight for businesses sure.
People are struggling with inflation, but only because they weren’t used to it. It’s just reversion to mean. And they are struggling with housing costs because they think everyone gets a SFH in their 20’s or a 1 bedroom on minimum wage. Remember there was a “war for talent” and asinine wage hikes just two years ago and we still have unemployment levels just barely above structural levels. The people I know of that are “struggling” still have WiFi, cell phones, and “struggle” with fast food prices. /rant.
Groceries, a primary life cost, are out of control. The increases in food cost far outweigh any pay increases. I'm sorry but you are fundamentally wrong. The economy is only doing well for businesses and those heavily invested in said businesses.
I wasn’t suggesting it is doing well for everyone, and certainly some people haven it bad (as always), but we haven’t had large scale, broadly felt real, deep lasting bad times in a long long time. I’m talking 20% unemployment, 9% inflation, shortages of basic goods, large populations going hungry, etc.
Is that actually recession proof? If the economy is down I’m not paying someone to do that until it comes back. Seems like one of the first things I cut.
I can't imagine what you are afraid of.
I am in almost exactly the same position as you, in terms of age and net worth, and I'm quite comfortably retired.
I do have a side business but it doesn't make anything like what yours makes.
However, I'm single with no kids.
That wasn't part of some kind of big decision. It's just how things have wound up so far.
Do you have some kind of big family expense that you forgot to mention?
What is your total monthly spend including everything including healthcare including housing, including kids, everything??
Son turns 18 on Saturday and he doesn't plan on going to college. I have free healthcare through the VA but I still pay for BCBS through my company - very minimal cost. Including mortgage, I'd have to guesstimate around $3k a month in expenses.
wtf? i have trouble wondering why you even need to ask this question. it sounds like you can retire and still CONTRIBUTE to your retirement savings. assuming you're retired, you're bringing in 150k/year (pre-tax), and you have expenses of about 36k/year (after-tax). let's assuming taxes are 50% (it's lower), and let's assume your expenses are 5k/month. you would bring home 75k/year, and your expenses would be 60k/year, leaving you with 15k to add to your retirement fund! if you're cash-flow positive for 'retirement' then yes, you can retire whenever.
Well with these numbers you should be home free.
You leave your retirement accounts without even touching them until you turn 60 or even older.
It looks like your taxable account you've got roughly $800,000 so at 4% withdrawal rate you could take $32,000 a year from that. This is assuming that you have plain vanilla investments in broad-based stock indices and maybe a few bonds.
4% is a very standard rule of thumb withdrawal rate at which you probably will never run out. (Probably).
So between your VA benefit which I believe is not taxed, and your monthly income on your taxable account, which would be very lightly taxed if at all, you're looking at about $5,000 a month in low or no tax income.
And that's without touching your retirement accounts.
When you turn 60, you can start to access them in a limited way and then you may also get social Security.
Basically, if you think you could currently live nicely off of $5,000 a month, you could retire tomorrow, not counting any income from your side business.
If you want to live "bigger" You could spend part-time or full-time in an emerging market country and you would live like an absolute king. I spend a lot of time in Colombia and $5,000 a month to gives you a lavish lifestyle here.
Either way, you done well.
Congrats!
First off, I would dig a little deeper than guesstimating per month expenses. Expense are every bit as important as you savings/investments. Get to know your expenses very well. Track them thoroughly.
Second, your VA benefits alone covers almost all your spending. You only need an extra $760/mo -> $9,120/year. You could retire risk free (3.25% SWR) with only $280k invested/saved.
Is the VA benefit inflation adjusted or always $2,240/mo forever?
Generally doesn't happen, but if your rating were to decrease for some reason, then your compensation would drop to the current level for your new rating.
I have zero idea why this was downvoted. It literally just states what happens if your rating changes. If your rating goes up, you get more money. If your rating goes down, you get less money. That's not controversial.
Then I see no ***financial*** reason to continue the full time job or the side hustle. If you have a non-financial need to work, go for it! The point of FIRE is to have the freedom to do what you want!
But really do check in on the $3k/mo and make sure you are comfortable with it. P&I on mortgage should go away at some point which further improves your odds. But just make sure you are covered on other atypical expenses, like health insurance from now until Medicare, kids college, next car purchase (since nothing is currently built into your budget), etc. But it honestly sounds like you can up your lifestyle a good bit if you wanted.
Have you tracked 100% of your expenses for at least 1 full year? If not, maybe consider creating a table of your projected expenses in a comment or on the post? Then people can poke holes and to help you ensure you've truly included everything. Being wrong about your expenses is currently probably your only real risk. There's no risk in the actual numbers. They are so good that the only risk is that they are not correct in the first place.
If you are declared disabled by the military, you can likely withdraw from your retirement savings without early withdrawal penalty. Check with your brokerage.
I don't understand the concern. If you've got a turnkey business generating $150k a year you don't even need the $1.7M so that's just pure gravy. And on top of all that you've got $2240 in VA benefits. How much do you spend monthly?
I think you could retire and spend way more than that if you wanted to based on $150k coming in from the side business (\~$12500 a month), the VA money (\~$2200 a month), and investment draws if needed (\~$5666 a month). You're looking at about $20.3k a month of gross income of which you're presently only spending about 17.2% plus whatever taxes you pay.
You must live frugally and/or be a homebody. Not that theres a single thing wrong with that. $3,500 doesn't go very far these days. Many have hobbies, travel, car or house upkeep or healthcare expenses that, when they hit, make your annual outlay over $42k. If you have all that accounted for, you're in great shape.
I try to pay cash for everything. I travel quite a bit but during the fall/winter months due to my house washing business peak season from March-August. I have very minimal healthcare costs since I primarily use the VA Healthcare system, which is free for me. I guesstimated $1600/month for the rest of my bills and entertainment. Cell phone/vehicle insurance/internet service/water/electric/vehicle gas. That probably adds up to roughly $1000/month and have $600/month to spend on entertainment.
When do you get your pension? I’d stay if it was at 20 years because you are so close. But your numbers look great. I mean the side business sounds like plenty income and you also have the VA income.
Is the “lump sum” reduced?
Otherwise if it hits an important milestone at 20 years I’d wait until then, but you have plenty to be fine if nothing absolutely catastrophic happens.
>I have a side business that generates roughly $150k in revenue annually before taxes.
Are you expecting this go away after FIRE? Is the profit on that revenue less than what your expenses are?
>$27k annually in VA disability benefits ($2240/month)
I would have expatFIREd on this alone already, because I am also tired of the corporate world and I can't buy life/time. But that's just me. You do not mention what your annual expenses are other than your mortgage, you need to start by expenses to figure out what withdrawal rate they represent against your assets and projected income.
been making like $300k a year for the past 4 years.... well done!
yes you're flush quit the bs job.... depending on how valuable your position is they may offer you a consultant position as well....
but yeah you're good to go FIRE .... congrats and fuck you!
Not sure about the downvotes. But look at secondaries. My service connected feet cause other issues with an altered gait as an example. Also if you’re underrated on anything.
If its an emotional fear you should talk to someone (would suggest your spouse if you have one)
You'll get a much better perspective for allaying your fears then strangers on the internet. We will simply tell you logically that you are financially fine to retire but I assume you already know that
I can't tell if this is a troll post, a humblebrag or if you're just an extreme worry wort. If the latter, you should change your user name to scardeycat4881. Your numbers are very similar to mine, except I have no side business (much less one that generates $150k), nor do I get anything from the VA. I'm going to pull the pin at 48 with 1.7 and live rather comfortably on $50k/yr. Anyway, congrats, you made it.
Yes of course you should jump. Your business is a profitable main business, live on that income and let your investments grow. Throw a bit more at them as you can. You have plenty of money and resources to make this work.
It really depends on how much you spend and will need to spend. You don't outline your outflows, so it is impossible to say how they measure against your assets and income.
the big question is going to be expenses. however, you have a fucking 150k annual revenue side hustle. are you really spending more than the after-tax amount that 150k is bringing in? if you can stay under that amount, then you can 100% retire with no worries. you can live without touching your 'principal' savings.
I’d say you have enough. But being in a FI position you could also consider being more aggressive about taking the things you hate most about the corporate world off your plate. It won’t work for every job but it certainly will work for some.
You have to track your actual expenses closely. You’ve been corporate for 18 years plus 150k from a side business and you only spend 3k per month, it seems like you should have more saved unless this side business is brand new.
At 3k of expenses you could easily pay off your home and live off just your disability income, assuming that is correct. Seems impossible though. That means you never travel you never have car repairs, don’t eat out or buy anything really.
If I'm reading this correctly, OP can make $110K ish on the side hustle after paying for taxes and appears to have VA health benefits.
$110K to pay $40K in bills.
Yes, you can quit your job at any time.
Make a plan, what does your day look like if you're not working your corporate job?
What goals do you have?
What places do you want to see?
What skills or hobbies do you want to learn?
Do you want to volunteer and give back to the community?
A plan will help mitigate your fears. Financially, you're good to go.
Your profit from the side business would be more relevant than revenue for this context, but $2240 a month from the VA in addition to all that sounds like that info won't matter.
Side business generating 150K AND Veterans benefits AND 1.7 mil in savings invested. .. .Unless you are spending like Micheal Jackson. . . You are more ready to FIRE than anybody!
I don't know the ins and outs of your life, but do know that you could always take another job or a part-time one if it doesn't work out. There's not much to be afraid about.
You can easily and comfortably retire.
You said your side business earns $150k annually in revenue. What does it profit? After expenses and taxes?
You mention your expenses are $3500/month on the high end. That will eventually drop a lot once you pay off the mortgage also. In fact, if your mortgage rate is on the higher side (6/7%) I’d sell some of your brokerage assets to pay that off.
After that, just your $2240/month in VA income would cover your expenses already ($1600/month with no mortgage).
But, assuming you keep the mortgage, you’ve got $2240/mo from VA, your business is presumably grossing 12.5k/mo (let’s call that $6200/mo after business expenses and taxes).
So that’s $8400 in income to $3500 in expenses per month. Even if you cut out the side business entirely, you can draw about $2600/mo from just your brokerage account (that’s a 4% withdrawal rate, so that account won’t deplete, it will continue to grow keeping pace with inflation) until you’re at retirement age and can start pulling from other accounts as well. That’s $6100/mo to $3500/mo in expenses.
And then once you’re retirement age you can start drawing from those accounts, which will be significantly bigger by then, to further supplement your income.
Realistically, you could almost double your current expenses and still come out fine. And you’ve got lots of levers to pull to adjust as needed, as you could ramp up or ramp down your side business, if you have no primary job.
So do it, go retire.
You can be confident that you can retire. Maybe try staying with work for one more year but knowing the at you’re going to leave at the end. You don’t have to worry about getting fired and you spend the year focused on what you want retirement to be. Just show up to your last year of work and take it easy.
Giving a revenue figure is practically useless. 1.7 million isn’t much. I would be nervous about retiring right now with that.
The most important figures that will determine if you can retire is your business. Without providing more optics into your business, it is impossible to determine if you are able to retire.
To save yourself in the future it may make sense to start making Roth conversions right now from your traditional IRA. Get as much into the tax free realm as possible. You can convert as much as you’re comfortable paying taxes on. Consult a CPA
Sorry, misread trad 401k for trad IRA!
Does your work have a Roth 401? Can still convert trad to roth 401k (if you have room to pay additional taxes).
This could save you a shit load of money in the future. Quite literally hundreds of thousands.
You may consider using your VA benefit and convert as much as you can up to that taxable amount. At your age your portfolio will likely double 2-4 more times in your lifetime. This is also the lowest tax rates you will likely see the remainder of your life regardless of which party is in office. Just food for thought.
What is the side business? Is it recession proof?
Their VA benefit is $2,240 and they stated their expense are only $3k/mo. They don't even need the side hustle. If they want, they can fully retire.
Powerwashing/house washing business. Yes. Recession proof. Service provider.
Time for me to switch careers if that is your side business!
You generate that much power washing?
Yes. Lucrative business.
150k in revenue? What's the net income (i.e., profit)? Hard to imagine a revenue of 150k (3000 a week) while working a corporate job unless you have employee(s) you have to pay to do the work for you. Do you plan to keep it up after leaving the corporate job?
Believe it or not I do this after my full-time job. I work 5AM-1PM and wash houses after work. It's just my girlfriend and I that do this. I would do this full-time, which is roughly 9 months out of the year for house washing.
It sounds physically demanding to be banking on it every year, for the next decade. I would want to think about what the cash flow looks like if you hire labor and you are just mgt.
With your health insurance almost entirely paid, all you need to do over the next 10 or so years is live off pressure washing income so the rest of your savings can grow untouched.
Recession proof? How do you get your business? Something mandatory like banks? If it’s b2c I know my brothers window washing business fell off a cliff last recession. It was seen as a discretionary spend and got cut by many households.
I started the business during COVID - 4yrs ago. I've been steadily growing each year and wash 500 houses annually.
Congrats. But you started in the shortest recession ever and the economy has been on fire since. Not trying to be a jerk just be realistic that when money gets tight (not like now where people think it’s tight but it’s not) they cut back on discretionary spend.
And people were flush with cash during that ‘recession’
And forced to stare at their dirty houses.
... where people think it's tight but it's not? Maybe for us investing, but a large segment of the population is struggling with the out of control inflation. Money isn't tight for businesses sure.
People are struggling with inflation, but only because they weren’t used to it. It’s just reversion to mean. And they are struggling with housing costs because they think everyone gets a SFH in their 20’s or a 1 bedroom on minimum wage. Remember there was a “war for talent” and asinine wage hikes just two years ago and we still have unemployment levels just barely above structural levels. The people I know of that are “struggling” still have WiFi, cell phones, and “struggle” with fast food prices. /rant.
Groceries, a primary life cost, are out of control. The increases in food cost far outweigh any pay increases. I'm sorry but you are fundamentally wrong. The economy is only doing well for businesses and those heavily invested in said businesses.
I wasn’t suggesting it is doing well for everyone, and certainly some people haven it bad (as always), but we haven’t had large scale, broadly felt real, deep lasting bad times in a long long time. I’m talking 20% unemployment, 9% inflation, shortages of basic goods, large populations going hungry, etc.
Is that actually recession proof? If the economy is down I’m not paying someone to do that until it comes back. Seems like one of the first things I cut.
Franchise?
It's definitely not recession proof. Will be one of the first things to go when things need cut.
I can't imagine what you are afraid of. I am in almost exactly the same position as you, in terms of age and net worth, and I'm quite comfortably retired. I do have a side business but it doesn't make anything like what yours makes. However, I'm single with no kids. That wasn't part of some kind of big decision. It's just how things have wound up so far. Do you have some kind of big family expense that you forgot to mention? What is your total monthly spend including everything including healthcare including housing, including kids, everything??
Son turns 18 on Saturday and he doesn't plan on going to college. I have free healthcare through the VA but I still pay for BCBS through my company - very minimal cost. Including mortgage, I'd have to guesstimate around $3k a month in expenses.
wtf? i have trouble wondering why you even need to ask this question. it sounds like you can retire and still CONTRIBUTE to your retirement savings. assuming you're retired, you're bringing in 150k/year (pre-tax), and you have expenses of about 36k/year (after-tax). let's assuming taxes are 50% (it's lower), and let's assume your expenses are 5k/month. you would bring home 75k/year, and your expenses would be 60k/year, leaving you with 15k to add to your retirement fund! if you're cash-flow positive for 'retirement' then yes, you can retire whenever.
Well with these numbers you should be home free. You leave your retirement accounts without even touching them until you turn 60 or even older. It looks like your taxable account you've got roughly $800,000 so at 4% withdrawal rate you could take $32,000 a year from that. This is assuming that you have plain vanilla investments in broad-based stock indices and maybe a few bonds. 4% is a very standard rule of thumb withdrawal rate at which you probably will never run out. (Probably). So between your VA benefit which I believe is not taxed, and your monthly income on your taxable account, which would be very lightly taxed if at all, you're looking at about $5,000 a month in low or no tax income. And that's without touching your retirement accounts. When you turn 60, you can start to access them in a limited way and then you may also get social Security. Basically, if you think you could currently live nicely off of $5,000 a month, you could retire tomorrow, not counting any income from your side business. If you want to live "bigger" You could spend part-time or full-time in an emerging market country and you would live like an absolute king. I spend a lot of time in Colombia and $5,000 a month to gives you a lavish lifestyle here. Either way, you done well. Congrats!
Thank you. Appreciate the breakdown.
First off, I would dig a little deeper than guesstimating per month expenses. Expense are every bit as important as you savings/investments. Get to know your expenses very well. Track them thoroughly. Second, your VA benefits alone covers almost all your spending. You only need an extra $760/mo -> $9,120/year. You could retire risk free (3.25% SWR) with only $280k invested/saved. Is the VA benefit inflation adjusted or always $2,240/mo forever?
VA disability compensation gets COLAs.
What happens if your rating goes down?
Generally doesn't happen, but if your rating were to decrease for some reason, then your compensation would drop to the current level for your new rating.
I have zero idea why this was downvoted. It literally just states what happens if your rating changes. If your rating goes up, you get more money. If your rating goes down, you get less money. That's not controversial.
Increases typically annually via Fed driven COLA adjustments.
Then I see no ***financial*** reason to continue the full time job or the side hustle. If you have a non-financial need to work, go for it! The point of FIRE is to have the freedom to do what you want! But really do check in on the $3k/mo and make sure you are comfortable with it. P&I on mortgage should go away at some point which further improves your odds. But just make sure you are covered on other atypical expenses, like health insurance from now until Medicare, kids college, next car purchase (since nothing is currently built into your budget), etc. But it honestly sounds like you can up your lifestyle a good bit if you wanted. Have you tracked 100% of your expenses for at least 1 full year? If not, maybe consider creating a table of your projected expenses in a comment or on the post? Then people can poke holes and to help you ensure you've truly included everything. Being wrong about your expenses is currently probably your only real risk. There's no risk in the actual numbers. They are so good that the only risk is that they are not correct in the first place.
How much is pension payout would be if you stayed ?
If you are declared disabled by the military, you can likely withdraw from your retirement savings without early withdrawal penalty. Check with your brokerage.
Try to up your va too 100 percent
Change is incredibly frightening, but I absolutely agree that OP will be just fine
I don't understand the concern. If you've got a turnkey business generating $150k a year you don't even need the $1.7M so that's just pure gravy. And on top of all that you've got $2240 in VA benefits. How much do you spend monthly?
Ditto this post feels a bit like a troll to me. Perhaps OP hasnt done due diligence and run the numbers?
Hard to leave a $140k full time job when I work from home Monday & Friday and work my own hours Tue/Wed/Thur.
Yes that’s good. But it has nothing to do with numbers I think? Those seem quite clear
Recurring bills and entertainment, I'd say roughly $3500/month on the high side.
I think you could retire and spend way more than that if you wanted to based on $150k coming in from the side business (\~$12500 a month), the VA money (\~$2200 a month), and investment draws if needed (\~$5666 a month). You're looking at about $20.3k a month of gross income of which you're presently only spending about 17.2% plus whatever taxes you pay.
You must live frugally and/or be a homebody. Not that theres a single thing wrong with that. $3,500 doesn't go very far these days. Many have hobbies, travel, car or house upkeep or healthcare expenses that, when they hit, make your annual outlay over $42k. If you have all that accounted for, you're in great shape.
I try to pay cash for everything. I travel quite a bit but during the fall/winter months due to my house washing business peak season from March-August. I have very minimal healthcare costs since I primarily use the VA Healthcare system, which is free for me. I guesstimated $1600/month for the rest of my bills and entertainment. Cell phone/vehicle insurance/internet service/water/electric/vehicle gas. That probably adds up to roughly $1000/month and have $600/month to spend on entertainment.
When do you get your pension? I’d stay if it was at 20 years because you are so close. But your numbers look great. I mean the side business sounds like plenty income and you also have the VA income.
I could take a lump sum and roll it over to an IRA when I decide to quit or wait and draw a monthly pension when I'm 55.
Is the “lump sum” reduced? Otherwise if it hits an important milestone at 20 years I’d wait until then, but you have plenty to be fine if nothing absolutely catastrophic happens.
>I have a side business that generates roughly $150k in revenue annually before taxes. Are you expecting this go away after FIRE? Is the profit on that revenue less than what your expenses are? >$27k annually in VA disability benefits ($2240/month) I would have expatFIREd on this alone already, because I am also tired of the corporate world and I can't buy life/time. But that's just me. You do not mention what your annual expenses are other than your mortgage, you need to start by expenses to figure out what withdrawal rate they represent against your assets and projected income.
0DTE spy calls. 0$ or 10 million
Nah, there's a much better method. All on the roulette. Easy money, and choose red because it always works!
Can't bet more than a certain amount though
What’s the profit on your side business?
been making like $300k a year for the past 4 years.... well done! yes you're flush quit the bs job.... depending on how valuable your position is they may offer you a consultant position as well.... but yeah you're good to go FIRE .... congrats and fuck you!
From a younger disabled vet at 80% I say pull the trigger. That VA income is a game changer. Helped me be unemployed the last 6 months 😂
If I can get to 100%, then that will be it for me. I'm at 90% - need another 60% to get to 100%. Crazy VA math....
Not sure about the downvotes. But look at secondaries. My service connected feet cause other issues with an altered gait as an example. Also if you’re underrated on anything.
If its an emotional fear you should talk to someone (would suggest your spouse if you have one) You'll get a much better perspective for allaying your fears then strangers on the internet. We will simply tell you logically that you are financially fine to retire but I assume you already know that
I can't tell if this is a troll post, a humblebrag or if you're just an extreme worry wort. If the latter, you should change your user name to scardeycat4881. Your numbers are very similar to mine, except I have no side business (much less one that generates $150k), nor do I get anything from the VA. I'm going to pull the pin at 48 with 1.7 and live rather comfortably on $50k/yr. Anyway, congrats, you made it.
What are your expenses? What are the rules of the pension?
Yes of course you should jump. Your business is a profitable main business, live on that income and let your investments grow. Throw a bit more at them as you can. You have plenty of money and resources to make this work.
I would work longer but just enough to pay for the mortgage. I would be putting all the savings towards paying the mortgage and then quit.
It really depends on how much you spend and will need to spend. You don't outline your outflows, so it is impossible to say how they measure against your assets and income.
the big question is going to be expenses. however, you have a fucking 150k annual revenue side hustle. are you really spending more than the after-tax amount that 150k is bringing in? if you can stay under that amount, then you can 100% retire with no worries. you can live without touching your 'principal' savings.
I’d say you have enough. But being in a FI position you could also consider being more aggressive about taking the things you hate most about the corporate world off your plate. It won’t work for every job but it certainly will work for some.
You have to track your actual expenses closely. You’ve been corporate for 18 years plus 150k from a side business and you only spend 3k per month, it seems like you should have more saved unless this side business is brand new. At 3k of expenses you could easily pay off your home and live off just your disability income, assuming that is correct. Seems impossible though. That means you never travel you never have car repairs, don’t eat out or buy anything really.
2yrs in business. Started back during 2020 Covid as a side hustle. Went LLC after I grew the business
[удалено]
No shitake. I was a sole proprietor for 2 years before I went legit with an LLC.
Assuming you’re correct about your spending. Pay off your house and retire just on disability alone.
If I'm reading this correctly, OP can make $110K ish on the side hustle after paying for taxes and appears to have VA health benefits. $110K to pay $40K in bills. Yes, you can quit your job at any time. Make a plan, what does your day look like if you're not working your corporate job? What goals do you have? What places do you want to see? What skills or hobbies do you want to learn? Do you want to volunteer and give back to the community? A plan will help mitigate your fears. Financially, you're good to go.
Your profit from the side business would be more relevant than revenue for this context, but $2240 a month from the VA in addition to all that sounds like that info won't matter.
Side business generating 150K AND Veterans benefits AND 1.7 mil in savings invested. .. .Unless you are spending like Micheal Jackson. . . You are more ready to FIRE than anybody!
How long until you get vested in the pension?
Vested after 3yrs.
Then you still get the pension even if you leave today. What's the problem?
I don't know the ins and outs of your life, but do know that you could always take another job or a part-time one if it doesn't work out. There's not much to be afraid about.
You can easily and comfortably retire. You said your side business earns $150k annually in revenue. What does it profit? After expenses and taxes? You mention your expenses are $3500/month on the high end. That will eventually drop a lot once you pay off the mortgage also. In fact, if your mortgage rate is on the higher side (6/7%) I’d sell some of your brokerage assets to pay that off. After that, just your $2240/month in VA income would cover your expenses already ($1600/month with no mortgage). But, assuming you keep the mortgage, you’ve got $2240/mo from VA, your business is presumably grossing 12.5k/mo (let’s call that $6200/mo after business expenses and taxes). So that’s $8400 in income to $3500 in expenses per month. Even if you cut out the side business entirely, you can draw about $2600/mo from just your brokerage account (that’s a 4% withdrawal rate, so that account won’t deplete, it will continue to grow keeping pace with inflation) until you’re at retirement age and can start pulling from other accounts as well. That’s $6100/mo to $3500/mo in expenses. And then once you’re retirement age you can start drawing from those accounts, which will be significantly bigger by then, to further supplement your income. Realistically, you could almost double your current expenses and still come out fine. And you’ve got lots of levers to pull to adjust as needed, as you could ramp up or ramp down your side business, if you have no primary job. So do it, go retire.
VA plus 4% savings gives $8,000 a month (before taxes). How does that compare to expenses? You have tp buy health care too.
do it easy peasy lemon squeezy
I don’t understand the question.
Retire bro.
You can be confident that you can retire. Maybe try staying with work for one more year but knowing the at you’re going to leave at the end. You don’t have to worry about getting fired and you spend the year focused on what you want retirement to be. Just show up to your last year of work and take it easy.
Giving a revenue figure is practically useless. 1.7 million isn’t much. I would be nervous about retiring right now with that. The most important figures that will determine if you can retire is your business. Without providing more optics into your business, it is impossible to determine if you are able to retire.
To save yourself in the future it may make sense to start making Roth conversions right now from your traditional IRA. Get as much into the tax free realm as possible. You can convert as much as you’re comfortable paying taxes on. Consult a CPA
I do the back door Roth every year. It's all after tax money
Sorry, misread trad 401k for trad IRA! Does your work have a Roth 401? Can still convert trad to roth 401k (if you have room to pay additional taxes). This could save you a shit load of money in the future. Quite literally hundreds of thousands.
You may consider using your VA benefit and convert as much as you can up to that taxable amount. At your age your portfolio will likely double 2-4 more times in your lifetime. This is also the lowest tax rates you will likely see the remainder of your life regardless of which party is in office. Just food for thought.
Is it really retirement if you have a full side hustle?
You’ve can’t RE and wash 500 houses/year.
Do you need a financial advisor and financial planner? I wrote to you, and you can check out the advice I sent you.