Paying yourself first by saving a % off the top and then building your budget around what is left over was key for us. We just ignored that money existed. I never felt like we were sacrificing. Great tips
We love your channel David. We are just trying to turn it around to save first and spend second. Since we’ve made that shift, our lives have changed dramatically. We can’t wait to see how fast the next few months and years grow!
This has been the biggest game changer for me. People often focus on bills first, but by paying yourself first, it forces you to maintain reasonable expenses.
Excellent list. The only thing I would add is that saving money for retirement can actually be fun. It can be like a game to see how much and how fast you can save. You didn’t mention that, but in all of your videos, it seems like you guys are having fun saving and reaching various goals too. 👍
Thanks Steve for watching and sharing! You are 100% right, we are actually having fun with this. Even when we miss a goal we set, its still fun trying to obtain it. It's fun being the co-CEOs of our family finances!
I would love to know more about the taxable accounts. We started over late in life and while we have done well we have 500K in retirement accouts (traditional) and nearly that much in CDs and cash from profit in our business. I recently learned about the benefits of long term capital gains and I am wondering if I should move $100,000 to taxable. I’m 53.5 and husband is 66.5. So the CDs are my bridge to accessing retirement accounts. I have significantly more in retirement accounts that he does and I’m not sure that I want to pull on those until I’m 65. Would love if you know more about harvesting long term capital gains from taxable accounts if you would share if this is part of your plan. Thanks a million. I’m one state over in Arkansas. Welcome to the south.
Love the background. As you know we are not financial advisors. We can give you the reason why we are using Taxable Accounts now and how we plan to use them when we retire early. Now we are using it to build the 'bridge' from our early retirement to 59.5 when we can pull money from our traditional retirement accounts without penalty. We are building up 4 years worth of retirement expenses in cash in the taxable account. That cash is sitting in a money market position gaining 5% interest and we can take it out at any point in a day and its in our checking out next day. We are also building up 4.5yrs worth of expenses with Dividend ETFs that generate income with moderate growth in that same taxable account to bridge years 5-8 until we are 59.5. Each year once in retirement we will sell off a years worth of ETFs and turn it to cash so we always have 4 yrs of cash in case the market has bad years we are safe. We will do a video on our bucket system where we can explain this with images.
@@OurRetireEarlyJourney great. Thank you. I was recently reading a book and attended a follow up to the book on a Catching Up to FI event online. That addressed investing in taxable brokerage accounts outside of your retirement and if you are in a lower income bracket during retirement prior to 59 1/2 pulling from those or even after, without capital gains taxes, if they have set for a year or two. Still a little confused by it. I appreciate you sharing your draw down strategy. What it bouls down to is I have kept things fairly simple with index funds, CDs and high yield savings accounts. The more you learn and read about this stuff the more complicated it can become. I have to remind myself sometimes to keep it simple. Thanks so much for your reply .
I love these 8 steps and they are so important. I skipped Step 1 and retired without a plan. It was the worst idea ever. I spent months stressed and worried, only to find out I was doing just fine. If I had created a plan, I would have known that. 🤔
Thank you for watching and sharing. We do have an expense line in the budget for clothing! Since we will be on the younger side in retirement, we know that we will still be buying clothing.
Thank you for watching! What steps are you doing to be able to retire early? Any that you would add to our list?
Paying yourself first by saving a % off the top and then building your budget around what is left over was key for us. We just ignored that money existed. I never felt like we were sacrificing. Great tips
We love your channel David. We are just trying to turn it around to save first and spend second. Since we’ve made that shift, our lives have changed dramatically. We can’t wait to see how fast the next few months and years grow!
This has been the biggest game changer for me. People often focus on bills first, but by paying yourself first, it forces you to maintain reasonable expenses.
@@Lazirus951 Agreed! We automate most of our savings so it never hits our accounts to be able to spend it.
Excellent list. The only thing I would add is that saving money for retirement can actually be fun. It can be like a game to see how much and how fast you can save. You didn’t mention that, but in all of your videos, it seems like you guys are having fun saving and reaching various goals too. 👍
Thanks Steve for watching and sharing! You are 100% right, we are actually having fun with this. Even when we miss a goal we set, its still fun trying to obtain it. It's fun being the co-CEOs of our family finances!
Was #8 another Easter egg? Great video. Makes perfect sense. Buzz
No Easter Egg in this one, but maybe we should start planning them in! 😂
@@OurRetireEarlyJourney Yes there is. Read #8 again.
@@BuzzRetirementGarage No more babies! We are too old for more babies. Our youngest will be 17 next month.
Absolutely - written plan is very important.
Thanks for watching and the feedback Tiger!
Solid points 👍🏼🇺🇸
Thanks Failure! Hope you have a great rest of your week.
I would love to know more about the taxable accounts. We started over late in life and while we have done well we have 500K in retirement accouts (traditional) and nearly that much in CDs and cash from profit in our business. I recently learned about the benefits of long term capital gains and I am wondering if I should move $100,000 to taxable. I’m 53.5 and husband is 66.5. So the CDs are my bridge to accessing retirement accounts. I have significantly more in retirement accounts that he does and I’m not sure that I want to pull on those until I’m 65.
Would love if you know more about harvesting long term capital gains from taxable accounts if you would share if this is part of your plan. Thanks a million.
I’m one state over in Arkansas. Welcome to the south.
Love the background. As you know we are not financial advisors. We can give you the reason why we are using Taxable Accounts now and how we plan to use them when we retire early. Now we are using it to build the 'bridge' from our early retirement to 59.5 when we can pull money from our traditional retirement accounts without penalty. We are building up 4 years worth of retirement expenses in cash in the taxable account. That cash is sitting in a money market position gaining 5% interest and we can take it out at any point in a day and its in our checking out next day. We are also building up 4.5yrs worth of expenses with Dividend ETFs that generate income with moderate growth in that same taxable account to bridge years 5-8 until we are 59.5. Each year once in retirement we will sell off a years worth of ETFs and turn it to cash so we always have 4 yrs of cash in case the market has bad years we are safe. We will do a video on our bucket system where we can explain this with images.
@@OurRetireEarlyJourney great. Thank you. I was recently reading a book and attended a follow up to the book on a Catching Up to FI event online. That addressed investing in taxable brokerage accounts outside of your retirement and if you are in a lower income bracket during retirement prior to 59 1/2 pulling from those or even after, without capital gains taxes, if they have set for a year or two. Still a little confused by it.
I appreciate you sharing your draw down strategy.
What it bouls down to is I have kept things fairly simple with index funds, CDs and high yield savings accounts. The more you learn and read about this stuff the more complicated it can become. I have to remind myself sometimes to keep it simple.
Thanks so much for your reply .
I love these 8 steps and they are so important. I skipped Step 1 and retired without a plan. It was the worst idea ever. I spent months stressed and worried, only to find out I was doing just fine. If I had created a plan, I would have known that. 🤔
We had learn that lesson from recent retirees who reflected back and did not take those steps. We are grateful for those lessons.
Love it
Thank you for watching and leaving us a note! 😊
Do you worry that your employers see your plan to exit early? Maybe not now, but when the date gets closer?
We actually do not. It's natural for everyone to retire at some point in their lives. It's something employers have to deal with all the time.
Budget for clothes for the wife.
Thank you for watching and sharing. We do have an expense line in the budget for clothing! Since we will be on the younger side in retirement, we know that we will still be buying clothing.