re: Who in here follows the "FIRE" mindset when it comes to money?

I read "Die With Zero" and consider it often.

It sounds great in theory, but it's hard to execute to. Especially when your brain always wants more.

I have more money than I ever expected to have at this point in my life, but I still struggle to actually spend any of it. One of my honest worries is being 80 years old with $15m in the bank, wishing I had enjoyed it more.

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If I die with a bunch of money then so be it.

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Yeah, this is where I am too. I'd rather have too much than not enough, and my kids will use the excess. I also plan on giving my kids gifts once I retire to help them along the way. I never had that, and it would have been extremely helpful.

I think I'm pretty much good to go, but my wife is very conservative and wants to pad the figures, so I'll work until 55 unless I get downsized.

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Yeah, this is where I am too. I'd rather have too much than not enough, and my kids will use the excess. I also plan on giving my kids gifts once I retire to help them along the way. I never had that, and it would have been extremely helpful. I think I'm pretty much good to go, but my wife is very conservative and wants to pad the figures, so I'll work until 55 unless I get downsized.

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You think she would read the book and see if it changes her mind? Stop waiting and padding and start stacking experiences before it’s too late. Do extra experiences with your kids now.

You see story the other day about Michael Irvin’s wife having early onset dementia at age 58? Mental health, physical health, random freak accidents all in play. Not worth waiting

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You think she would read the book and see if it changes her mind?

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No, but I'm trying.

There are good reasons to work until 55. The primary one being I can take advantage of the Rule of 55 with my 401k to avoid paying penalties. There's a part of me that says it would be worth paying it to stop working.

I get that they want to discourage people from withdrawing money from their 401k "early", but seems like they should allow those of us north of 50 on our way to 8 figures to retire without penalty. I think I got it covered, Uncle Sam.

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You see story the other day about Michael Irvin’s wife having early onset dementia at age 58?

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No, but I tell her often that there are no guarantees in life. I had an uncle die of cancer six months after he retired. There are plenty of examples to point to, but I think she's just on that treadmill and is working out of habit and due to the American psyche of productivity = moral goodness.

I use 7%. It's conservative, but not overly so imo.

7% is right around the historical real rate of return so it's a good number to have as a baseline.

SWR assumption has a big impact on the prediction, too.

SWR is a moving target. FYI the academics that study retirement income planning use 6% for rate of return.

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1) Do I count 401k/Roth IRA as liquid, since technically I can access that if I need to?

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Yes. I've never seen this not be counted.

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2) How do you consider Tax on withdrawals?

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As you know, taxes can be very complicated or simple. If yours are simple, then you'd do it normally. If you have after-tax withdrawals then no impact. If you're withdrawing from traditional 401k or IRA, then the distribution counts as income. Look up the tax brackets and do the math. It's not hard.

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3) Is it as simple as multiplying assets (non-RE) by the SWR (4%, 6%, whatever) and if you can survive off of that, you can technically FIRE?

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There are 1,000 FIRE calculators, but back-of-the-envelope is divide your annual pre-tax needed distribution by 0.04.

EDIT: Compare that with your total amount saved (liquid). If you have that much, then you're "pretty much there." At least that's what I've read...

I’m planning for 55 (11 yrs out) and using the Rule of 55 to withdraw before 59.5

I’ll also have taxable account but not considering that in any retirement calculations.

Health insurance will be a wild card when I get to 55.
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Why are you excluding taxable? It is a big part of my retirement.

Wife and I are both healthy and not old enough for medicare. We pay about $2k per month in premiums for health insurance. We also have $7k deductible each. You definitely want to plan for insurance costs if retiring early.

People getting out of the game at 40. You must be making a hell of a lot of money. Also what do you plan on doing. I for one can tell you that after one to two years of retirement it can get boring as hell. 40 is way to young to call it in . No matter how much money you have. I got out at 62 and I would go back to work in a heart beat. I do stay active helping my kids and doing things for others. And if you want to know I have more money than I need and give to my kids every year.