re: 45 Years of age, at what level would you stop saving for retirement?

What year are you big law wise? I have a solo practice. Highly recommend. I started hitting 7 figures last year

Not sure what else I can add that hasn't already been saying except to share experiences.

I slowed my 401k contributions once my assets were outrunning my income.

I retired at 52. My withdrawals are significantly higher than 4%. I obviously would not be withdrawing that much unless my assets weren't performing. When they stop performing, I have significant cash reserves to get me through for approximately 5 years until I will have to deviate from plan.

I reject the notion of defining my income by something like a 4% rule and then modeling a probability of not spending all my money by the time I die. This is way too simple of an approach if you want to actually get the most out of your assets. I'm either a genius or a dumbass, but I rest easy in knowing whatever the final outcome that it will have been my own doing.

415k is my base (not a partner). The move is definitely QOL motivated. In the process of getting everything set up now and looking to open doors Jan. 1.

quote:

---

I retired 4 months ago at 59 and contributed the max pretax amount to my 401K even on my last pay deposit. Why pay unnecessary taxes?

---

mini-thread hijack.. how is retirement four months in?

I think that you may not have to save aggressively, and could spend more, but I would not stop saving. At the age of 45, a lot can change. Maybe your work skills could become obsolete or less in-demand. Your health could change and you could become disabled, or work could become burdensome. I don't know if you mentioned your family, but perhaps you have a child or grandchild who has health problems, or has a business failure and needs financial assistance. It would be a helpless feeling to not be able to help out. I am 66, and could have retired years ago. I still save, but I am able to give more to charity, and I try to spend a little more. When you are my age, it's kind of hard to ramp up spending, especially in that it does not bring me a lot of additional satisfaction. Occasionally picking up the check for my friends at our lowbrow restaurant choices is a nice change.

I’ll be working until I drop dead.

quote:

---

I think most in this thread have missed the question. It’s not whether one should retire with 800k at 40, it’s whether one should dial back saving for retirement at that time. With 20 plus years for the portfolio to grow, that could be a possibility.

Whether or not it is a good idea depends on an individuals financial situation and goals. But there is a point where you run into the “problem” of having more money than you can spend in retirement, and you may be better served to spend more now, trade that money for time, etc.

---

From reading the coast FIRE subreddit, it seems alot of people who reach coast fire early (before age 40) will drastically reduce if not stop contributions all together. Imo that is a mistake as there are too many unknowns that could derail the plan. Now if the expected spend is very low (2-3%) of portfolio, then yeah go ahead and stop contributions.

I know alot of places cite this Fidelity chart. At age 40 Fidelity says you should have at least 3x your salary. When I was 40, I was at almost 5x my income. At age 50 now, I'm at over 15x.

In hindsight, could I have stopped saving at 40? Probably but I wouldn't have been very confident at the time. At age 50, I'm highly confident I'll be able to retire early and that's why I have significantly reduced my contributions. The saver in me won't let me completely stop.

Now more than likely, I have over saved. Which I'm fine with, better than have under saved. I'll just be spending more than planned which I've already started doing as I coast these final few years of working.

The fear of the unknown at 32 would haunt me. Outside of a major illness or accident, you have 40-60 years left. If you have all these assets at 32, imagine what you would have at 42 if you kept working?

Quit the job if you hate it and want to try something new. You have the freedom to do that.

quote:

---

wahootiger

---

Gonna be awesome man.

I started this year and I’m making roughly double while putting in roughly half the hours.

I make more than I ever have and I play 2-3 rounds of golf every week and I’m able to be really involved with my kids and their school/extracurriculars.


Back to the theme of this thread, if I can keep up (or increase) this revenue level for the next 2-3 years, I’ll probably be able to just coast from there and just work whatever comes in. If business keeps coming in after that, great. But if things dry up in a few years then I’m good either way. Looking forward to my second career (lol) as a high school golf coach.

Sorry for the thread hijack again.

What practice area? Any tips for starting out?