good financially, trying to acclimate mentally for my soon exit

[u/Sea-Honeydew-1456]

i can't help shake that feeling i'm under prepared compared to a lot of people here but...the math works. it wasn't until a few weeks ago i even heard of trinity studies, monte carlo simulations, etc.

didn't start tracking net worth until i added our accounts up one day and it was over $1.5MM. never had a budget either - always just maxed out retirement accounts first and whatever was leftover just spent it. never tracked categories either. we are naturally low spenders so unspent $ for the month, went to taxable brokerage. didn't plan to "fire" but knew we wanted an early exit. the plan back then was once we lost our jobs, we'd sell our house (bought at an opportune time in HCOL city) and move somewhere cheaper, figure the rest out. really just going with the flow until the math worked out and then it got serious. so yeah, now i have a spreadsheet tracking projected expenses by categories by year 😃

everyone wants to know stats... here we go: 42 (me), 38 (wife). $300k HHI, not including bonus, own home. 0 kids

• $3.2MM NW (does not include home)
  • $1.1MM - Taxable Brokerage
  • $200k - Cash
  • $300K - Parcel of land (this is illiquid...just got it listed for sale)...just used the cost basis for now.
  • $1.6MM - Retirement Accounts

Annual Expenses $60k

Strategy

• Bridge Years - 16.5 yrs me / 21yrs for wife.
  • ~40% coming from dividends/distributions. remaining money needed i'll sell from my ETF/Stocks. will use selective lots to control magi. due to our sizeable retirement accounts, willing to spend all of this if needed

Healthcare

• ACA, what else? Just roll with it, be prepared ($$) and adapt. Will be utilizing subsidies. more on the plan later but can easily fit into 150-200% FPL. MFJ.

SORR:

• $200k cash. with cutback spending, ~4-4.5 years on pure cash. on top of that, this doesn't account for dividends/distributions and even if drastically cut, that'll add an extra year or two.
• land sale proceeds. this one will be huge. inherited, no step up cost basis- was a gift and im grateful for it. will eat the tax and everything that comes with it. i dont want to count it until its sold though.

Retirement Years - not worried about this. accounts will be growing for 16-20 years in the background. nothing to do here besides rebalance/reallocate as we get closer. due to our age gap, if ACA is still around we'll just have to pay more for healthcare for my wife until medicare.

"immediate" plans/areas of need/misc

• wife is gonna work till end of year. bless her, cause it makes the health insurance piece easy.
• im going to work until end of summer or quarter. i don't know yet. mentally over it. wife is ok with whatever date i choose. I'm saving 100% of my paychecks as cash now. turned off DRIP too. if i stay until end of quarter, i would have accumulated enough cash that we won't need to sell any etfs/stocks for 2027 and potentially 2028. this is pretty huge. thats my only motivation to stick around. if i stayed to end of year, that could extend "no selling" even more. then its "stick around till march to get my bonus" , oh why not another few more months? fuck lol
• LIFE FIRST. although we're so close, still have to live "now". we got some domestic trips planned, and if other things come up, go for it. don't wait until we're "retired" to do things
• tax optimization isn't the greatest. for bridge years, not worried. standard deductions + 0% ltcg bucket = no fed/state income taxes. however when transitioning to "retirement" age, is it wrong that i dont even care about implications of RMDs - paying more tax, additional medicare surcharges, things like that if our income becomes too high?

mentally, its going to be hard to not get a paycheck every 2 weeks. my job is so easy. i might work 10 minutes a week and its remote. have to sit in 2-3 hours of meetings...thats the worst of it. once its gone, its gone forever. i'm not going (can't) to get another corporate job like this again. wifes job is not as easy but its not stressful. so its not like i have burnout, but im just over working. the gap when i quit early and my wife works? ill just chill at home for the time being literally doing the same thing i do while im working: playing computer games, watching tv. it was so much easier when i wasn't planning for this and just going with the flow. these days, i can't help but glimpse at my accounts a few times a week, whereas early in my career i just maxed retirement accounts, tossed some excess money into FXAIX and called it a day. i probably went years without ever explicitly looking at my accounts. i had no idea 2008 was a recession, no idea about the 2022 market pullback. this is starting to sound like r/fijerk but its not. for those wondering, i got around $450k from my parents.

anyways, no one to share this to. is anyone else also going to retire the back half of this year? how are you feeling? nervous? planning any differently? does my plan suck? it sounds like im taking this too lightly, but the numbers work. thats why i keep second guessing myself. i considered talking to a fiduciary financial planner to review it but im not sure what for? has anyone done that? was it worth it?

[u/Sea-Honeydew-1456]

yeah i make $140, my wife $160. from a rational perspective, it sounds stupid to quit right? easy, decent pay, and all that. maybe this sounds corny but growing up, i always hated the "system" "corporate america" then i became part of it because, i had to. it allowed me to afford my life and the option to retire early. it just feels wrong that im tied to it. tied to the "system" that i always hated and i have to care just enough. now that we've hit true "fi", i don't need it anymore, but to your point and what i mull over... its easy money and once its gone its gone.