Figuring Out My Timeline to Retirement! (Or “Other”)

In the comments of my last net worth update, Anonymous asked me when I plan to retire. For most financial independence writers, that’s one of the first questions they answer. So, seeing that question made me realize I keep ducking actually writing about it. 😅 As I noted in that article, I have enough to very well retire at the (unripe) age of 30. I shaved down my answer to:

My retirement date will be more about when I no longer want to work or I’m unable to, instead of about my net worth. Since I can happily live on my net worth right now, I’d retire right now if that’s what I most wanted. It’s just that I’ve got other things I want to prioritize first.

That same day, I read an article from Gwen at Fiery Millennials. She wrote about how she’s questioning where she wants her career progression to go now that she’s on a slower path to FI. I left a longer comment on her piece, with the most important bit being:

I think your approach should be deciding what you most want to prioritize. Money is only the deciding factor if Gwen decides it is! If higher comps/remote work is more important than feeling comfortable with the status quo, then job hopping is the way. If it’s vice versa, then staying is what’s best.

Writing both responses in the same day got me thinking about my own choices and factors for my career progression. I’ve written about my career history and how I went from $15 an hour to a six-figure salary. What I haven’t written about in-depth is what comes after. I certainly don’t plan to work ‘til my final day of life; there’s too much other stuff to go do! I also didn’t think I would put off retiring from my marketing career; the reasons I am putting it off are below!

So here I’ll type out each of the main factors that determine my career plans and timeline to retirement. (Spoiler: my retirement date is totally up in the air, but I’m at least able to retire whenever I please.)

Factor: My Specific Golden Handcuffs

That term “golden handcuffs” comes up often in FI circles, in addition to “‘one more year’ syndrome”. The latter is what happens when someone reaches their FIRE number but holds off from actually pulling the plug on their job to pad their numbers… or because they’re nervous about the economy… or for whatever reason they can conjure to put off making a scary major life change.

“Golden handcuffs” are the particular financial benefits and incentives a company offers you to keep you where you are. Of course, you can wriggle out of those whenever you want. But by doing so, you’ll be forced to leave the gold behind. That’s hard to do for anybody, let alone someone with advanced financials who knows exactly what that gold can do.

My golden handcuffs are two things. One is high salary for an easy-to-me workload; the second, company equity/profit sharing bringing me money every quarter. I want to stay in LA for at least another year or two, and I would rather live here with a biweekly paycheck. In addition, I’ve been increasingly of the belief that my company is preparing itself to be acquired. Everyone’s lips are (mostly) zipped and I have zero hand in the decision-making, but there have been clues. Clues are something I’ve been trained since toddlerhood to find, especially blue ones. If that’s the case, I predict that it will happen in late 2025 or early 2026.

And if that DOES come to be, then I would get a big payout from the equity I’m holding.

I haven’t mentioned said equity in an article before because I lowkey thought they wouldn’t be worth anything. That was before this year, when I started seeing some three- and four-digit quarterly payouts appear in my bank account. Should I leave before an acquisition takes place, I forfeit my equity. Since I think an acquisition will happen sooner rather than later, I’m loathe to resign before that happens.

Factor: My Pay to Work/Life-Balance Ratio

We still have another 3 months of the year to go, but I’m projecting that my 2024 gross pay will shake out to $115,000. After taxes (and including my 401(k) contributions and match) that is about $90,000. That’s way above the median US salary of $59k in 2024.

I’m also projecting that my total yearly spend will be in the low $40k range. (Yes, even in as pricey of a city as Los Angeles.) Having that much money I can then save (and invest!) dunks me into a lake of pure relief and peace. My lake there is also crystal clear. It’s completely absent of pollutants like toxic bosses, stressful work tasks, and chemical fertilizer runoff. In fact, my work situation – or “the lake” if you still like that metaphor – is downright pleasant!

I work remote full-time, which is absolutely priceless for optimal mental health. My coworkers keep Zoom meetings to a minimum and let me do my thing. Best of all, my company and bosses genuinely give a shit about me being happy as an employee. They greenlit my going to Europe for a month, two years in a row. They also greenlit my choice to work remotely from the West Coast. It’s an insanely good gig I hold thanks to the power of luck and an optimal LinkedIn profile.

All of which to say: I plan to ride this gravy train until it hits the mashed potatoes.

If I get the pink slip, I’m very confident I’ll receive a good severance package. Should the company get acquired and I can unlock all my company ownership, I am equally confident I’ll take the money and RUN should the acquisition be made by a private equity firm. Until and unless either of these things happen, I don’t see why I should give up the golden goose just yet. There’s only one factor that would throw a hard wrench into this plan and that is:

Factor: My 2022 Diagnosis

In late 2022 I was diagnosed with something that is classified as “severe”. Those quotation marks aren’t there to denigrate; it genuinely is severe and impacts me significantly. It is also known to progress into an inability to work; on its own it’s already classified as a disability. I do see its effect on practically every facet of my life. I can also see how it’s already made certain parts of my job get harder and harder to handle over time.

Moving closer to my aunts and switching to full-time remote work has helped tremendously minimize that impact. But there’s always the potential and not-low probability that this diagnosis will force me out of the traditional workforce. Luckily, I’ve recently reached a high enough net worth that I can live nicely without needing to work. It’s just that this factor is the biggest threat to forcing me into retirement earlier than I feel ready to.

Factor: My Net Worth

I have more than half a million dollars to my name; as of today, it’s actually at $520,000. With the standard 4% rule, I can take out $1,700+ a month to live off of in perpetuity. There are over three hundred cities worldwide that The Earth Awaits lists as within that budget range; these include some of my favorite places ever, like Florence in Italy and Prague in the Czech Republic. That list doesn’t even cover every possible area, so I know it will cover other areas with a similar cost of living that haven’t made it to the site.

Thanks to this high net worth, I can retire literally right this second. The only caveat would be that I’d have to leave Los Angeles to do so. This leads me to the next factor:

Factor: The Cost of Living in My Current City

I don’t want to leave LA yet. To keep living here I project a $40,000 yearly spend at minimum. This is double what my net worth can comfortably support. It’s more than I would be comfortable spending as well, even if only for a few years.

Subfactor: My Irish Citizenship

Soft launching this news here: as of last month I am officially an Irish citizen!!! Article to follow about this in the future; for now, I only mention it to underline the unique advantage it gives me here. Irish citizenship is the only citizenship that grant you freedom of movement into both the EU and the UK, thanks to the respective EU Charter and the 1922 Common Travel Area rights.

Long story short, I have my pick of European destinations, including global cities, that fit within my budget… WITHOUT needing to adhere to visa restrictions. If I find a place that is home to me, I can live there the rest of my life as a done deal. This ease of legally living on one-and-a-half continents sure does expand my options in retirement. Woohoo! What I hope will end up moving the needle on this is my final – and most important – factor.

Factor: My Goals and Dreams

I have had my diagnosis for an estimated “most of my life”. I didn’t know why I was experiencing what I was experiencing until I got the formal diagnosis. After that, I had new reference points for what my future most likely entails. To be honest, I didn’t like what I found. And to be perfectly honest, I felt despair about what I found. It’s made me critically examine my life goals and dreams with a new realistic lens. Doing so also led me to discard dreams I’ve had since middle school because I no longer believe they’re doable. Instead, I’ll make the best of things and nail down some different goals and dreams to strive for.

I have three, in the order I believe they’ll be chronologically accomplished:

1. Make a faithful, multi-season TV adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo,
2. Found therapy centers in five U.S. cities that offer affordable mental health therapies and other community support services with above-average employee compensation, and
3. Travel the world/find a home.

I’m already planning on riding my job gravy train, as stated above. Once that ends via layoff or acquisition, I will go full-throttle on Goal Number One. In between pay from that and my current/near future net worth, I should have enough to then pivot to being a nonprofit founder. Once I’m happy with that, I will go off and visit everywhere on Earth that catches my fancy.

I’m already imagining living in Japan and Korea for a year, then bopping around Oceania until I miss the cold enough to wander around Scandinavia. My thinking is, even completing just some of each goal will be more than worthwhile. Time-wise, these will take several years to accomplish. I can obviously retire between Goals Two and Three, so I hope my diagnosis progression holds off long enough for me to get there.

Which is to say, there’s no set timeline for when I do retire. It could be in my 40s or 50s after accomplishing two disparate, massively difficult endeavors. It could be next year, if my diagnosis decides enough is enough and I must accept being too disabled to work.

Conclusion: My Plans Right Now

I plan to stay in LA for the next couple of years, until I’m 32 or 33. I plan to work full-time in that time frame, whether in my current role or something else. If I go into something else, I’ll work to break into TV screenwriting; after my current job concludes, I won’t be interested in finding something else in marketing.

If I can’t break into screenwriting, or if my diagnosis forces me to, I will formally retire from full-time career work. After that, I can see myself going on a six-month road trip throughout the US and Canada. I can also see myself living a few months with friends and helping them with home improvement projects. Once those things are off my to-do list, I would channel A Purple Life and travel the world. I’ve got a head start on that thanks to a couple of monthlong trips to Europe, so I already know it’s something I would enjoy and can work around my diagnosis to do.

My net worth is a huge reason I have choice in the face of a serious medical issue, job uncertainty, and massive life aspirations. I’ve now spent almost five years recording everything I’ve done to achieve that on this site, so others might do the same and be better off for it.

I do not have one set path. What I do have is a path I’m walking on that will bring me somewhere I’ll be happy to find, no matter what that may be. 🫶

Cover image credit: Derick McKinney via Unsplash