CoastFi - Coast to Financial Independence.
I have “officially” hit “CoastFI”. CoastFI means that you’ve saved and invested enough that if you leave your money invested, and don’t invest anymore, it will grow and will provide you with the amount of money you want at your desired traditional retirement age.
For me this means that if I leave my 401k/IRA/HSA/Brokerage account invested and growing a 7% annually, it will grow to $3.5 million by the time I’m 59 (the earliest age you can usually withdraw money from a 401k), or $5.2 million when I’m 65, the “traditional’ retirement age. This is without investing another dime today.
I also assume that there is 3% inflation a year, so effectively my money is growing 4% above inflation each year.
When taking inflation into account my $3.5 million at 59 is equivalent to $1.6 million today.
$5.2 million when I’m 65 is equivalent to $2 million in 2023 dollars.
$2 million allows you to withdraw 4% a year ($80,000) to live off of. This is due to the estimates that 4% is a safe withdrawal rate of a portfolio. Since $80,000/year is higher than the average household income, and higher than my yearly spending, I think this is a great place to be!
This is not taking into account any Social Security that I may, or may not, get when I retire. It also doesn’t include a (modest) pension. Those are extra things on top of my own retirement that might help me (or might not!) when I retire.
Getting to CoastFI is a great first step on the way to FIRE. Financial Independence, Retired Early, which is my ultimate goal.
Here’s a pretty indepth article about the FIRE movement.
If you’d like to talk about your current financial situation, evaluate if you are on track to retire “on time”, coast to retirement, or even retire early, let me know. I’d be happy to help advise you on your financial journey.
You can contact me via email HooglandAxel@Highland-WealthManagement.com