[USER]

Ok…we am set to FIRE next year and are starting to 2nd guess ourselves. We have $1.5M in pre and post tax investments to support the gap years before we can collect our pensions in 2028.

We clear about $5k a month in rental income, and will have pensions of about $8k a month. Current spend is about $12k a month.

Will we need to work part time or are we good to go?

Happy either way.

[Rick]

Seems possible but…
Run scenarios in Boldin or similar. It allows you to do exactly as you are asking.

And yes, a high withdrawal rate for a short period of time is possible when it is greatly reduced by something like SS.

Some factors to consider:
How firm is the rental income? Is it solely rent minus mortgage?

Or does it include true landlord costs like ongoing maintenance, long term repairs, vacancy, potential for property management as you age or travel whatever.

How firm is your decision to claim SS and how much is it? Maybe you are claiming at age 62 and determine that math shows (it does) that claiming at that age is usually not ideal.

Then you delay for 5-8 years. And that would really impact to the possibility of your overall plan.

The high hurdle of your expenses at $12k seriously hampers your ability to be tax wise in most ways. Roth conversions get very expenses.

You maybe forced to generate income to pay things like a mortgage and definitely to buy things with sales tax.

This means a 15% capital gains tax, viewed as an income tax, really becomes an addition to your mortgage rate and to your sales tax.

In the end, a lot to guess from the info shared but based solely on that, I would lean No you should not leave your income sources.

You should focus on reducing that high hurdle of $12k. Bringing it down to even just $10k would help a ton.

[Max]

Sounds like you are in a good spot. $1k extra a month buffer too

[Dan]

You’ll have 13k coming in with only 12k going out, and over 1m “extra” as buffer after paying for the gap years.

Seems to me with the information shared should be good.

[Cody]

There are some missing variables to consider:
1. Your ages
2. Timing of the pension income (and survivor benefit details)

3. Social Security retirement benefits
4. Control over taxable income (and health insurance coverage/premiums)

5. Asset allocation and location
I recommend you visualize your variable sources of income and expenses and gain a directional understanding using financial planning software (Boldin, Pralana, etc.).

Or you could hire an advice-only financial planner to provide personalized advice.

[Author]

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