(Source unknown)
I love to read blogs and this is a question and subject that I keep reading about. If only I could create a career reading
blogs *hmmmm* something to think about.
One of my favorite blog as of late is a blog written about “FIRE”. For those of you who might not be aware of
this term (as I wasn’t until I started reading about it…imagine – I thought it
was strike a match and light a fire) – it is an acronym for Financial
Independence Retire Early. If you are
interested in reading more about this mindset – please check out the blog – Our Next Life Blog
This blog is owned by a couple (she is in her 30s and he is
in his early 40s) who have a goal to retire by the end of 2017. WOW…is that not a great goal? This blog talks in great detail about their
preparation and planning to get to this magical point in their life. They want to travel and enjoy life while they
are still young enough to do so.
Now – let me say – while I love the idea of retiring early –
I am closer to retirement age than I am to “let’s retire early” age. Nonetheless, this blog has really made me
think about doing some serious planning for retirement. I am the typical American, I have a job, I
have a 401K, I have some money set aside as an emergency fund AND I also have a
mortgage and credit card debt. The
financial independence part of FIRE is very appealing to me. I want to take better control of my money as
I look down the tunnel to retirement. I
want to be financially independent or as much so as I can be when I reach
retirement age. In order to do this, I
must take a good hard look at the steps that I need to take to achieve this
goal as I prepare to enter into financial independence/retirement:
>
Pay off mortgage (only a few more years to mark this
off the list)
>
Pay off consumer debt (credit card debt) – I have
a daily/monthly plan. I track my credit
cards monthly, I have them ranked by balance, monthly finance charge and
month/year of when I plan to pay them off.
Will share more of this in another post.
>
No car payments – I AM THERE!!!!
>
Build a larger slush fund. This fund is my “easy to go to money” for
small expenditures that I did not budget for or might have surprised me. I can use this slush fund for a class that I
might want to take such as “Photography 101”
Right now – my goal is to have $3000 in my slush fund
>
Continue to fund my “emergency fund” which will
be used for those truly unexpected expenses.
Prime example of this is having to have the attic of my house completely
stripped of all insulation due to “Rocky Raccoon” taking up residence in my
attic. This pinged me for almost
$12,000. If not for homeowner’s
insurance and my portion of the deductible I would have had to use a credit
card. YAY for emergency funds. Now to build this fund back up to before the
Rocky episode.
>
One other thing that I am planning to do is to
begin living off the “estimated” amount that I would receive from social security
each month. A couple of reasons for this
– it will allow me the confidence that I can live off the amount and it will
also allow me to “bank” the amount of my monthly paycheck either into my slush
fund or my emergency fund.
>
I have a couple of pensions (very small amounts)
that I will be eligible for when I turn 65 however I do not really want to
depend on that as part of my monthly income for monthly expenses. I would like to set that small amount aside
for future travel plans during the retirement years.
>
I would like to find a resource for “after
retirement commences” income. This is
something that rather excites me. An
opportunity for something new that I can do and not feel the pressure of a
demanding job.
Let me say – these steps could be used for
those want to retire early or those who are looking at a traditional
timeframe. I am far from a financial
guru but I do believe that if I can accomplish these steps I will truly be good
and ready for retirement.
What are your plans to achieve retirement? Are you ready for
(Source Unknown)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment