Coast Retire

Almost all of us trade our time for money. While we can go make more money, we cannot make more time. I suggest adopting the mindset that every dollar you waste is a fraction of your life being thrown away. This mindset is a powerful motivational tool towards coast retirement.  If you can minimize your desires for material possessions that do not improve your happiness, you can win back your life and live it on your terms.  Want a 5,000 SF house? Think about how you will only use 20% of it on a regular basis. What about the number of hours you will spend cleaning it? Did you think about how you will pay significantly more to maintain it? Want a luxury car?  Think about the impact this will have on you and your closest family and friends. For a moment, the new car will feel great. But, over time it'll be like any other car, just getting you from point A to B. Your family, friends and neighbors will see your new car and most will desire one now too, potentially wreaking hav...

The graph below shows the path to $1,000,000 (assuming a 7.2% annual return) by the age of 60. The red line represents the coast retirement finish line you are racing towards. The sooner you get there, the less you have to contribute. With every decade that goes by the finish line gets twice as far from you, so you want to sprint to complete this race as quickly as possible.  If you invest $125,000 by age 30, you can COAST RETIRE! This means that even without further contributions, your portfolio can double to $250,000 by age 40; double again to $500,000 by age 50; and double again to $1,000,000 by age 60.  $1,000,000 with a withdrawal rate of 4% can cover $40,000 of annual expenses in retirement. Please  remember that life may not work out as planed,  so you might need to make adjustments to your path as needed based upon actual returns and your lifestyle. Hopefully this framework can excite you to take action today and start sprinting towards the path to a million....