The planning begins

What happened this last month?

As the months count down, it’s time for the planning to begin on how we’ll make the transition. If our current expenses continue at this rate, we will not have enough saved to transition to financial independence. That’s why we’re assuming that we won’t be purchasing two vehicles in a 12 month timespan in the future. We also plan on continuing to do some amount of work after leaving the 9-5 to also give us some flexibility in our spending. At this point, I think we’ve achieved a level of investments that we could leave the 9-5, but we’d probably need to pay special attention to our expenses for a while until our comfort level increases. If we were to keep our expenses where they currently are, we’d have to have approximately 2.5 times more saved than our original goal. That would also be including purchasing 2 cars each year and a horse trailer, which we won’t be doing.

As for this month’s expenses, we kept them pretty light. We opted to upgrade our room for the journey out west on Amtrak so we’d have more space and our own private restroom. We also opted to upgrade my wife’s iPhone, which was 4 generations behind. It still worked well, but the trade in value was pretty good. She had an iPhone 13 Pro before, but just went with the iPhone 17 this time since we weren’t sure there was a lot of extra value in having the Pro.

Where did we spend the most?

Our monthly expenses were about half compared to last last month. Annually, they’re down from last October, and are still increasing.

• $798 Amtrak room upgrade
• $518 Farrier and vet
• $469 Wife’s iPhone upgrade
• $448 Mini trial (horse show)
• $218 Life insurance

The Money Related Numbers

Completed! – 125.42% to target number (previously 122.87%)

This is our invested assets (401k, HSA, IRA, brokerage, etc.) divided by our target goal number.

33 months until original FI date (previously 34)

The number of months until my 45th birthday and our Financial Independence date.

Completed! – 0 months until calculated FI date (previously 0)

The number of expected months until we reach our target number. This is based on our current expected monthly contributions, assuming a 10% annual return.

The Expense Related Numbers

13.55 times annual spending (previously 13.20)

This is how many multiples of our annual spending we have saved up towards our goal. For example, if this value was 9.1 and we spent $10,000 annually, we would have $91,000 saved up.

54.19% to minimum FIRE (previously 52.78%)

The minimum number to achieve FIRE is 25 times our annual spending. This number shows how close we are to the absolute minimum.

10.80 times annual spending at goal number (previously 10.74)

We’d like to save 25 times our annual spending. This is how many times our annual spending we’ll have saved when we reach our goal number. If it’s 25 or greater, than our goal number will be enough to cover our expenses. If it’s lower than 25, we’ll need to either cut our expenses or increase our goal number.

How Much We Invested

2.76% Month to Month Change In How Much Saved (previously -11.51%)

This number shows the change in what we saved in our investment accounts this month compared to the prior month.

4.27% Month to Month Change in How Much Saved With Employer Contributions (previously -14.61%)

Same as the prior number, but with employer contributions counted.

-1.78% Month to Month Change in 12 Month Savings Average (previously -1.98%)

This number shows the change in our 12 month rolling average. This helps to smooth out months over time.

-1.58% of 12 Month Average Net Income Invested With Employer Contributions (previously -1.77%)

Same as the prior number, but with employer contributions counted.

How we track the numbers

I’ve been using Empower (referral link) to track our numbers. I put them into a spreadsheet that calculates the numbers you see above.