https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/15/millionaire-who-retired-at-35-why-im-not-scared-of-a-recession.html

"People thought we were crazy living so minimally during a bull market where everybody's making money. [They said] we should be living large," Adcock says. "But we didn't do that. Now we're making almost no changes, and everybody else is."

See? If he can do it, so can you.

  • silent_water [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    can you afford top-notch insurance on 40k/yr though? doesn't that shit get expensive? like this is something I actively want to do in the next decade - I'm not sure I'm going to be able to work much longer than that, if I can even get that far. my math is probably tighter living in a VHCOL area though. we're moving to a cheaper city which will help but it's gonna be a while before I know what our true expenses are. like I'm worried about vet bills for an exotic bird, personal health bills when I don't have employer-sponsored health insurance any longer but I'm too young for medicare (my health just took a scary and sharp turn for the worse), and house repairs in the long term.

      • silent_water [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        fair enough, I'm just saying that I think any plan like this has to self-insure to some degree, which means having a slightly larger savings target before you start living off of distributions.

          • silent_water [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            the way I see it this is an adversarial system and if you’re not taking advantage, you’re being taken advantage of.

            damn straight.

            I mean, in many states if you own a house and only live off retirement income then you can run up debt until the cows come home and they can’t take a penny from you

            can't they put liens against your house and then force you to sell via court judgements? I know they can if you declare certain forms of bankruptcy for sure, but I'm not clear when liens can force a sale if you just don't do that.