In short
Whether it’s financially safe for Katie to stop her $200k W-2 medical sales job so she can stay home with their young son, and how long the portfolio can sustain them until Jesus retires at 50.
Guests
Katie (medical sales; base $162k plus variable commission; manages ~9 states; travels ~3 weeks/month; wants less travel/perks but fears quitting) and Jesus (CalPERS pension-eligible county job; expects pension at 62; open to supporting Katie’s choice).
Key claims
Their net worth is just over $2M, with ~$1.8M invested and ~$280k in cash. Estimated spending is ~$9.5k/month; childcare ~$3.6k/month drops if Katie stops working. They project stopping retirement contributions; only Jesus’s pension remains. With a cash + dividend + interest bridge, they likely can cover the “gap” without selling stocks immediately, but the emotional risk is opportunity cost and market downturns.
Notable examples
Using VOO’s ~1.06% dividend yield and ~3.5% cash interest to estimate ~$20k/year passive income; mortgage payments won’t inflate; stress-testing the “stock market crashes 50%” scenario by potentially re-entering the workforce.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOExploring Financial Decisions
0:07 to 0:25
Discuss Katie's potential job quit and the impact on their finances.
Exploring Financial Decisions
3:38 to 6:16
Discuss Katie's potential job quit and the impact on their finances.
“Yeah, well, thank you so much for listening and thank you for submitting the information and providing such great detail.”
Katie's Career and Future Aspirations
6:16 to 10:49
Katie shares her career in medical sales and future retirement goals.
“So with that$9 ,500 that you're spending and what Jesus is bringing in, does that include continuing to contribute to the retirement accounts or does that stop all retirement account contributions?”
Assessing Financial Viability
10:49 to 14:00
Katie and Jesus evaluate their financial readiness for life changes.
“So that's where I was like, all right, I'm writing in to them to see what they think.”
Assessing Financial Needs for Early Retirement
14:00 to 15:10
Explore the financial calculations needed to determine retirement viability.
“So we've got seven grand we've got to make up on a$2 million investment portfolio.”
Evaluating Cash Position and Investment Strategies
15:10 to 18:10
Discuss cash reserves and strategies for managing investment income.
“So we need to make up about$40 ,000 once we factor in the health care that's going to come out of Jesus's paycheck.”
Understanding Inflation and Mortgage Impact
18:10 to 20:30
Learn about the effects of inflation on expenses and mortgage stability.
“grand and you have a$10 ,000 in dividend yield.”
Addressing Long-Term Health Care Concerns
20:30 to 23:20
Discuss long-term care strategies and how to manage health-related financial risks.
“But other than that, I mean, besides travel and just, you know, normal things that we enjoy, I guess we just don't want to be limited in our day to day life.”
Exploring the Value of Pension and Retirement Planning
23:20 to 26:00
Examine how pensions contribute to overall retirement plans and financial independence.
“So you're going to get a$50 ,000 per year initial calculation, give or take, adjusted for inflation pension starting at age 62.”
Balancing Work, Family, and Financial Freedom
26:00 to 28:00
Discuss personal motivations for early retirement and life balance considerations.
“And how much of that time with me traveling am I willing to give up as well?”
Show all 23 chapters
Exploring the Decision to Quit
28:00 to 29:14
The discussion focuses on weighing the decision to leave a high-paying job for family priorities.
“Like, that's all stuff that I'm not going to be able to do in my current job.”
Financial Implications of Quitting
29:14 to 30:20
The conversation shifts to understanding the financial costs and benefits of quitting the current job.
“But if you're not sure or it's not, then I think there's no way you can't take three to six months here and just kind of see how that goes.”
Navigating Job Flexibility
30:20 to 31:36
The hosts discuss options for reducing work hours and the potential impact on pay and childcare.
“of, okay, if I were to quit my job now at the end of this year, whenever it might be, we could continue affording what we're doing right now and then still give him the option.”
Personal Reflections on Work-Life Balance
31:36 to 32:54
Katie shares her feelings about balancing work and family life, expressing her fears and desires.
“You will still be able to save for retirement if you're making half of your income.”
Understanding the Transition
32:54 to 34:06
The conversation delves into the emotional aspects of transitioning from full-time work to potentially staying home.
“So I think the biggest issue would be finding a nanny who's also willing to only work half the time.”
Assessing Financial Security
34:06 to 35:18
The hosts help Katie explore her financial security and the calculations involved in her decision to quit.
“But wow, especially as he's becoming a toddler.”
Overcoming Financial Fears
35:18 to 36:36
Katie discusses her fears about financial stability stemming from her family's past experiences.
“this person and take a pay doc and get a much better quality of life.”
Evaluating Income Needs Post-Job
36:36 to 37:56
The hosts analyze Katie's financial needs if she quits and discuss the implications of her partner's income.
“I think that I logically feel like we're okay.”
Understanding Financial Risks
37:56 to 39:25
The discussion covers potential risks associated with quitting, including stock market fluctuations and income loss.
“So you could do that without all of Scott's fancy dividends and interest on your cash thing.”
Long-Term Financial Projections
39:25 to 41:19
The conversation explores long-term financial projections and the couple's retirement numbers.
“retires early at 50, so we know how to have like our fire number, right, of what we need to go.”
Future Income Opportunities
41:19 to 42:05
The hosts discuss potential future income opportunities and strategies for Katie after quitting her job.
“So let's say that you literally had nothing left.”
Exploring Options for Quitting
42:05 to 44:34
Discussion on potential income-generating options while considering quitting a job.
“So that's like the best possible FIRE kind of quasi quit my job thing.”
Understanding Financial Independence
45:47 to 52:01
In-depth conversation on financial independence, risks, and portfolio management.
“bpmoney application times may vary and rates may vary scott i was going to bring up frank Vasquez, I'm glad you brought him up.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Mindy Jensen:Every business owner hits a point where they need more expertise than they can handle alone, but another full-time hire isn't always the answer. That's where Upwork comes in. It's where growing businesses find highly skilled freelance specialists, not just for one-off tasks, but to build an entire team, fill critical skill gaps, launch projects faster, and scale support up or down at a fraction of the cost and without the commitment of permanent headcount. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That's Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com.
0:35Mindy Jensen:Upwork.com. When you're ready to start your business, Northwest Registered Agent helps you do more than just file paperwork. You get all the tools to build a real business identity from day one. A business address, website, phone number, operating agreement, free guides, and more at no extra cost. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They are the largest registered agent and LLC service in the U.S. with over 1 ,500 corporate guides. These are real people who know your local laws and can help you in your business every step of the way.
1:10Mindy Jensen:With Northwest, your business is set up to stand on its own from day one. That means your home address, personal email and phone number stay private. Don't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get from Northwest for free. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com slash moneyfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com slash moneyfree. You know how the change in seasons hits and suddenly you just want to declutter the garage, clean out the closets, and get everything all organized? That same feeling hits me with my finances every spring.
1:46I used to have accounts scattered everywhere, making it hard to stay on track with my money goals. Let Monarch do your financial spring cleaning for you. One dashboard that gets your entire financial life organized. No more clutter, no more mess, no more scattered logins, just accounts, investments, property, and more all in one place. One thing that really surprised me was pulling up the cash flow view and seeing what percentage of my income was quietly going to lifestyle creep. Dining out and subscriptions I barely notice. It motivated me to make some quick adjustments. Get your first year of Monarch for half off just 50 bucks with the promo code pockets.
2:18Use the code pockets at monarch.com to get your first year half off at just$50. That's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with the code P O C K E T S.
2:30Mindy Jensen:Today's episode tackles one of the biggest and most emotional financial independence questions that families face. When is it actually safe for one or more parent to stop working? Our guests, Katie and Jesus, originally planned to pursue aggressive FIRE with a target of$3.2 million so that both spouses could retire early. But after having a child coupled with constant work travel and reevaluating what they really want life to look like, the goalposts have started to shift. Now, the question is no longer just how fast can we reach FI? It's can we afford for Katie to stay home, enjoy these early years with our son, and still build a long-term path to financial independence.
3:12Mindy Jensen:That's what we're going to figure out today.
3:19Mindy Jensen:Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the BiggerPocketsMoney podcast. My name is Mindy Jensen, and with me as always is my Loves Finance Friday episodes co-host, Scott Trench. Thanks, Mindy. Great to be here and excited to talk to Katie and Jesus about how their financial position is excelling. I'm so excited to talk to you guys today, and thank you for joining us here on the BiggerPocketsMoney podcast. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Excited to be here. Huge fans. Yeah, well, thank you so much for listening and thank you for submitting the information and providing such great detail. We're super excited to get into it today.
3:48Mindy, do you want to kind of preview what we're looking at today?
3:51Mindy Jensen:I do. One of their big questions is when can Katie leave her W-2 employment and will their current portfolio sustain them until Jesus retires at age 50? So I'm going to just run through your numbers really quick. You have a really impressive portfolio. You are doing great. And I think that Scott and I don't do enough cheerleading when we have a really great situation. You guys are fantastic. You have a total net worth of just over$2 million. Most of that in a liquid financial investment portfolio, a little bit in your non-financial portfolio, like primary residence, vehicles, personal random property, etc.
4:30Mindy Jensen:But most of this is invested. Awesome. 1.8 in invested. We have an annual spend of$139 ,000 currently, about$11 ,000 a month, and you're making$300 ,000 a year. So that falls well within the amount that you could spend. Your expenses, if you left, would be reduced a little bit to about$9 ,500. Going over your expenses, I don't see anything really, really crazy. We've got$2 ,600 in mortgage,$700 in extra housing expenses,$450 for vehicles,$800 for other travel, groceries at$1 ,500. I mean, maybe you could trim that down a little bit, but that's not going to change your whole life. Low eating out.
5:12Mindy Jensen:$800 for shopping. That's just like random shopping. I would want to see that like more spelled out. Insurance at$350, medical at$200, fun at$650. I love that you're continuing to keep the fun in. And miscellaneous at$1 ,200. So if we're looking at this$9 ,500, we've got$1 ,200 in miscellaneous,$800 in shopping, and$650 in fun. What is that, Scott? $2 ,600 out of$9 ,500 that could be trimmed a little bit. And that could be the difference between what Jesus makes and what you're spending. Well, I'll also call out that there's currently$3 ,600 in childcare expense, which I can certainly relate to.
5:53And that would go to zero basically with the decision for Katie to step back from work. This is fundamentally a decision, right? We're going to drop Katie's income. That's going to reduce our household income to a point that we can't quite sustain on one salary. But can our investment portfolio give us that option? That's the fundamental question, right? Yes. And then still allow for us to have him retire early as well. Just not quite as early.
6:16Mindy Jensen:So with that$9 ,500 that you're spending and what Jesus is bringing in, does that include continuing to contribute to the retirement accounts or does that stop all retirement account contributions? We would completely stop contributing to retirement accounts moving forward. All that we'd be working on is essentially my pension, which I'd be able to pull when I'm 62. So that's the only kind of retirement we would be contributing to, I guess. But they just pull that from my checks. So whatever my salary shows that we take home, that includes what they're withdrawing for pension and all that good stuff.
6:54Mindy Jensen:Okay. And how much is your pension when you start pulling it at 62? Assuming I retire at 50. With the calculation, I think I came up with$5 ,000 because if I retire at 50, then it's not inflation adjusted for those 12 years that I don't get to pull it. So it would be based off my final salary. So if my final salary is at 50, then at 62, it would be around$5 ,000 in 62 years old dollars, not today's dollars. Per month? Per month, yes. Okay. So that's about half of what you're considering spending. I mean, I don't know what inflation is going to be in 12 years. Right, right. What jumps out to me about this is, yes, this should be achievable.
7:36This is why we pursue financial independence. The high-level rules of thumb suggest that this should work. It's harder than that in practice. And it's your situation in your life. So it's a big deal. And there's real trade-offs with it. But the math of FI should support the situation. But let's walk through it and what's going on here. The big headline issue is, Katie, you're making$200 ,000 a year right now. What do you do to earn that money? I am in medical sales. I won't be too descriptive about which industry, but medical sales has been a great career for me so far. Yeah. Some of that's variable and some of that's fixed, right?
8:12For base salary. Yes. So my base salary right now is$162 ,000. And then if I hit 100 % to goal, I think I actually wrote for you guys, it's$40 ,000 in commission is 100 % to goal. It's actually 46. I had a typo there. Depending on the year, I've gone far over. And sometimes like, you know, beginning of this year, I didn't hit in Q1. So it can change. But the$162 ,000 is the salary that I like to kind of base expenses off of. And the rest is great if it happens.
8:47Mindy Jensen:Yeah, I like that conservative estimation. Is there any opportunity for you to reduce your workload and stay where you're at? Not really, because I've been thinking about this a lot. It is definitely a demanding job, not just with the stress level of being in sales and having quotas and everything like that. It's the travel aspect of it. I manage, you know, like nine states currently. So it's very hard to be home with our, and as I think we mentioned, I have a young son, so he's about to be two. And the travel part used to not affect me as much, but being gone probably a couple nights, at least three weeks out of the month, it's becoming a lot harder, which is why I'm now considering leaving the industry.
9:33Mindy Jensen:So if you were able to get rid of the travel and just go part-time, would you want to consider that? Or are you ready to just be completely done? So to give you a little bit of history, like before I met Jesus, before we had a child, I was very focused on the financial independence journey. For me, it was when I reach, it was my goal was sometime between 40 to 45. I wanted to be done and be able to figure out what I enjoy more, to have more of a routine, travel more. And so when we got married and having a child, like that's obviously changed a bit, but it's really hard for me mentally to go from like going full force, high income, putting in these hours, getting commissioned, that sort of thing to like the idea of a part time job where now I'm going to have to do it longer.
10:24Whereas like, I kind of feel like I still may want to just front load if all it would take is like another year or two for us to get to this point. I'd rather put that work in now with my high income so that then I can have that early retirement that I've been working towards. So it's like I'm in this space where I don't want to give up the early retirement and that flexibility that comes with it. But I also don't want to do it too early that I mess everything up. So that's where I was like, all right, I'm writing in to them to see what they think. And Hazus, what do you think about this situation?
10:55I ran the numbers multiple times and I keep concluding that she can essentially leave now. Her job does come with a lot of stress and my job, I love my job. And, you know, 50 was this number we kind of came up with at some point. And now with my new job, I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to be ready to quit at 50, you know, like I could see myself doing this longer. So with that in mind, I keep telling her again and again that I feel that we're ready and I just feel that she has a case of the one more year syndrome. But at the same time, I tell her, you know, I'm going to support her in whatever she wants to do.
11:35And once again, that's why she kind of reached out and just wanted to get somebody else's perspective, because it's always good to kind of hear it from someone else as well. I keep coming back to my initial hypothesis of like, yes, this should work. That's where both of you guys are as well. And there's the jitters because it's a major life decision. And let's be real, like Katie, giving up$200 ,000 a year in income over 30 years is millions and millions and millions of dollars in opportunity cost. That's also what we pursue FI for. Everybody who achieves FI, almost everybody, is going to step back voluntarily or involuntarily at their peak earnings, right?
12:14That's almost a definitional aspect of the journey with it. And that's why it's, I think, so scary and why one more year syndrome is there. Let's talk about ways to get there. And you guys did a great job with this and you broke my model because my model is supposed to can only pull the taxes from one tab, but you created two tabs for income and expenses, one for free decision and one for post decision, which is awesome. So I went and cheated and plugged some of those things there. But let's say post decision, you're going to need to spend$115 ,000 a year per your projections. Your job, I presume covers healthcare, Jesus?
12:49Correct. Yeah. So currently we're on her healthcare and I get in lieu contribution, but we will be switching over to my job and it's, I have good healthcare coverage. It's not very expensive at all. Okay. But that will, is that factored in here accurately? Yeah, it should actually be less than 200. But yes, that'll cover the three of us. Okay. And does that include out of pockets and those kinds of things for annual estimates? That's what I have there. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, that's what that includes there. Once you move on, next year's income, so 2026 will be different because if you were to stop now, you'd have some income in 2026.
13:27But in 2027, presumably you'd have this number. Does this reflect a raise that you're anticipating? Yeah. So I get a 5 % in a couple of weeks, a 3 % in July. July is our fiscal year, the start of the fiscal year. So then next May, I'll get another 5 % in July, another 3 % and so on. That shows this salary up until next July of 2027. So we have$108 ,000 in top line income from your job before we get to any investment income. And then we've got$114 ,000 in spend. Yes. So we've got seven grand we've got to make up on a$2 million investment portfolio. We can frame it that way at the top line. Now, we also have taxes.
14:08So that's what this computation is showing here, right? So we're going to take, we're going to estimate somewhere in the ballpark at$9 ,000 in federal and state taxes in a year where this is your only source of active income, right? Before we get to portfolio income. Is that about kind of what you guys think is ballpark there as well? Yes. So we actually have$99 ,000 in after-tax take-home pay if we don't contribute to any retirement accounts and those kinds of things. This is not including your FICA. So we're probably going to have about$8 ,000 in FICA. So$92 ,000 is really going to be our net after-tax generation, most likely.
14:39So we've got to make about$20 ,000,$22 ,000 as a difference. Is that right? Should be. I think we came up with a slightly different number. What did you get? I think we were at around$42 ,000 we would need to cover the first year. Because that's not showing like deductions for your health insurance. And the pension as well. Okay. So we have some deductions. We have some deferrals and some paycheck deductions where this is not going to hit. And we haven't put those either. We haven't either taken them out of pay or we haven't put them into the medical expense category. Correct. Okay. So we need to make up about$40 ,000 once we factor in the health care that's going to come out of Jesus's paycheck.
15:17Once we factor in FICA, federal and state taxes. there's a there's$114 ,000 in spending and there's$74 ,000 in income that will come in to your bank account each year. Is that right? Correct. So what is your thoughts on this? Is this about how the how you're going to fund that? Well, currently, we have a large cash position. So the idea behind that is to have that in place to weather the storm. So, you know, if the stock market's doing good, how it has been doing the past few years, we can pull from from our investments. But when those down years come that are going to come someday, we have that cash position there to pull from that.
15:59I think currently we have four years worth of cash or something. And that once again, that's assuming that she just never works again. Let's just try this here. Let's try it. Let's try out some ways. I think that the more ways we can make you comfortable with this, the more ways you can get there, the more helpful this will be. So what's your high yield savings account rate for this cash right now? 280 grand. I think it's a three and a half percent. I haven't checked it in the last few months, but that's about what it was. Okay. 280 ,000 times 0.035 gets us 10 ,000 bucks a year in simple interest from 9 ,800 bucks in simple interest just from that.
16:35So now we only had to make 30 grand from the rest of the portfolio. What's the dividend yield alone on your$991 ,000 in after tax stocks portfolios? Do you have any idea? I do not off the top of my head. No. Okay. Let's see what the dividend yield of VOO is right as of today, May 21st. It's about 1.06%. So let's take that and 991 times 0.01. We got another 10 grand there. So that's 20 grand right there between your interest on your cash and then your dividend there. So we still haven't had to sell any stocks yet. Is this making you feel a little better? Yes. Other than the fact that like it fundamentally inside.
17:16It's like reinvest the dividends. And I'm like, okay, wait, you have to stop doing that when you retire, do the fire thing at some point. But I'm like, wait, no, that's supposed to keep reinvesting, Scott. Another question I have here is about your mortgage here. So how many years we got left on this mortgage? 25, I think. 25. So when the 4%, when we talk about the 4 % rule spending, right, which is a big concern here, that adjusts for inflation up every year. But But that mortgage is going to stay static relative to inflation that entire time. So that's another nice hedge there is that expense will not grow with inflation.
17:51That's literally a quarter of your expenses today. That's another helpful mark on your portfolio here. So your portfolio is only going to inflate on the$7 ,000 in annual spend. From there, let's say that we just do those things. There's a circular reference here, but our$280 ,000 in cash position is generating 10 grand and you have a$10 ,000 in dividend yield. So just that cash, you just redirect that cash to come into your bank account. And we have that. Now you only have to spend down$20 ,000 of this cash position if your expenses are correct each year. Right now we have a circular thing. So next year, this cash position goes to$60 ,000 before you sell any stocks, right?
18:31You haven't liquidated any part of your portfolio yet to cover this spread. Then the next year, it's going to drop to 245. Then the next year it'll drop to 222 or something. You see what I'm saying? I'm simplifying a little bit of circular math because of the lower interest this will yield as time goes on, and interest rates can change and all that. That's a pretty powerful additional filter here in your financial position. I don't know how many years that is, but it's a lot more than four years of savings when you think through that shortfall here in terms of annual income. How does this help, but are these frameworks helping give you more confidence in terms of lowering the risk of the decision to some degree?
19:11Yes. So the whole, you know, our mortgage isn't going to grow with inflation and our cash is going to be earning its own interest. I brought these things up, but I didn't even put them into the numbers I had previously showed her. And once again, it's just kind of that one year syndrome, but these are all things that we've discussed. And yes, so it does all make sense. It's like I get it, but it's so hard for me. I'm obviously a far more anxious person when it comes to finances. And I want to make sure that I think through every scenario, you know, long-term care. If something happens to my health or, you know, we have a young child that I'm like, I don't know how much a teenager costs.
19:58Like there's all these things that I'm I'm not good with unknowns and I feel like the future is unknowns for finances. So it is helping. It is something he's like loving to be like, see, I told you, but it's just, I'm a little nervous about everything. So it does help to hear you kind of have the same take. I think it's also, we don't want to be limited on the life that we live. I think we're frugal people at the end of I mean, we have high grocery bills, but it's because we organic grass fed like we that's one thing we don't shy away from investing in is our health. But other than that, I mean, besides travel and just, you know, normal things that we enjoy, I guess we just don't want to be limited in our day to day life.
20:44And I think that's one of the fears is just currently we're in a position to where we don't really think too much about having fun. Whereas if we all of a sudden lose a$200 ,000 a year income, then we're just worried that that might change how we live our day to day. Mindy, do you have something you want to say?
21:03Mindy Jensen:I was going to ask if they plan to have any more kids or are they one and done? One and done. One and done. One and done. Okay. Do you have health issues in your family history? There is on my father's side a history of Alzheimer's. And I think that's where I get the most fear from is, you know, I'm trying to do things now to avoid that in my future, but it does run in my family. And I know that can be extremely expensive. Okay. Yeah, that that can be. I will call out here. I have more work to do to develop a really strong framework on long-term care because it's often dismissed. There's probabilities of it happening and how we would fund it.
21:40But I think that for now, my working hypothesis is that a paid off home entering retirement is a very good way to think about the insurance need for that. It may or may not be exactly that, but your house is worth like 500 grand. A 500 grand inflated and adjusted pool of money, which you would presumably sell if you didn't need long-term care, could be a good way to think about defense against that particular item as a starting point. I don't know how much you want to buy, but that seems like a pretty good amount, plus a very conservative interpretation of financial independence. Yeah, that's a good point.
22:15Jesus, tell me about this pension that you're building towards with your work, because you're not stopping saving for retirement. you're building a pension. I guess we said we're not contributing more because it's something that I really don't have a saying, but either way, I'd be participating in it. It's, well, I'm part of CalPERS. So, you know, I just started with them. But once again, even that number is pretty conservative. In my position, there's, it's the only position in the county that I work for. So there's unfortunately not room for advancement. But like I said, it's a position I really enjoy.
22:47And I see myself doing this for as long as I want, really. But the pension to answer your question, it's the calculation is based off years of service times 2 percent times your final salary. You know, if I were to retire at 50 years old, I'd have 18 years of service times 2 percent. And then whatever that number gives me times my final salary. So that's how I came up with that$5 ,000 because my current salary, I just added 2 % essentially for 18 years. Right. And CalPERS is adjusted for inflation. So you're going to get a$50 ,000 per year initial calculation, give or take, adjusted for inflation pension starting at age 62.
Read the full transcript
23:30You have to wait until age 62 to claim that. Right. So you really just need to bridge your financial independence position until that point, at which point you'll also get Social Security within a few years of that as well. You at least plan to work the entire time. This is almost by definition a commitment to work to receive this pension if this is the working hypothesis. And that would allow you to then get the pension and Social Security. So that's a serious asset. You need a portfolio of another million plus dollars to produce$50 ,000 in spendable liquidity like this at a 4 % rule inflation adjusted.
24:03So that's a serious additional asset that you're building here on top of what you already got. I can't do the math in my head here and I don't have an engine to do it. But I wonder, based on what we talked about earlier, how long just the cash position works here and whether you don't get remarkably close to points in that bridge just by spending dividends alone and the interest from your checking account here if you don't invest that$280 ,000. So you're thinking if we were to turn off the automatic, like the reinvestment and just build up the dividends, pull that and then use our cash position for a while, that might be a good way to go with it.
24:39I'm saying that's an option. I think it's probably suboptimal. You probably have too much cash and you ought to invest it to some degree. I'm trying to present ways to help you think about the situation and how secure this is relative to your spending right now. Your big risk, or the way I think you ought to be framing your risk, is you're giving up what could be a$5 to$10 million financial position within a few years with this decision. If you want to spend$10 ,000 a month, basically forever, it's really hard to find financial rules of thumb that don't allow that in your position here. What you're giving up and what you should have the jitters about is millions of more additional dollars in wealth and a dramatically different lifestyle that could be taking place in five years.
25:22This is fire, right? This is the tradeoff of financial independence to some degree, right? But that's what I think you ought to be like, hey, we're making a real decision. It's that decision here. It's not we're going to run out of money at our current spend. It's that we could have this different life if we wanted to, but we're giving that up for fire, which is what everybody in the financial independence movement makes this decision at some level. and gives up the next bit if they realize this. Yep. And that's something that goes through my head a lot. And it's hard because you have this idea of, okay, work a few more years and be able to live more extravagantly.
25:57But at the same time, we have a young son. It's the only one we're going to have. And how much of that time with me traveling am I willing to give up as well? So it's very hard. I go back and forth on like work a few more years and have a lot more flexibility in life or spend that time with him now while he's young and he's our only one we're going to have, so.
26:18Mindy Jensen:Well, I don't think these are binary choices. I don't think it's either quit now or work several more years. You could take time off now and then when he goes into kindergarten, you can go back for a shorter amount of time or find a different job that generates some income that you can either use to replenish what you've taken while you're not working for three years or just build up your investable portfolio again. There are other sales jobs that you can do. Just because you've been in medical sales doesn't mean you have to stay in medical sales. Just because you've been in a traveling sales job doesn't mean that you always have to be a traveling sales position.
27:01Mindy Jensen:So why do you want to retire early? So before it was the idea of I had a lot of years where I had very successful years making my income and I've had to work very hard to do that and give up a lot of time when people were traveling or maybe enjoying material things a bit more than I have in my life. And it was kind of like, all right, if I get to this point between 40 to 45, I want to have time to figure out what brings me joy. I don't have as many hobbies as I would like to. I haven't traveled as much as I'd like to. I feel like I've been working so hard that I haven't had that freedom to actually figure out what I want to do in retirement, which I know is like I listen to, you know, all the podcasts.
27:48I know if you don't know what you're retiring to, then it's a problem. But since having my son now, a lot of it is I'm not sure if I'm going to enjoy being a stay at home mom, but I would like the opportunity to figure that out and be able to be there on field trips and be able to pick him up from school. I'll be like, how was your day? Like, that's all stuff that I'm not going to be able to do in my current job. And it's kind of like I had one thing I was going for, one life I pictured before having him in early retirement. And now it's kind of been like, well, maybe just being home and present is like what I want to start with and then figure it out from there.
28:27I think it's almost a different conversation. You know, this is just like I'm going to stay home for six months and try it out and then get another job. Like it sounds like this job is not compatible with your needs right now. And that's really the fundamental problem of what's going on here. And guess what? like that job is the highest paying, best opportunity you can get from an income perspective that's available to you right now, realistically. That's what it sounds like. Once you stop, that income goes to zero. It does not have to stay at zero. There are other ways to generate more income downstream that can get you there.
28:58You are giving up whatever that spread is as part of this decision, which is why it feels high stakes, because it is high stakes. It's millions of dollars in long-term wealth that you're making a decision about, but you've also set yourself up to have this option. That's the option, right? How much more is millions going to do? Maybe a lot. Maybe if your dream is to have something like a beach house or something like that, that's the decision you're giving up on this. But if you're not sure or it's not, then I think there's no way you can't take three to six months here and just kind of see how that goes.
29:28And after three to six months, if you decide, you know what, I want to do some kind of work, then you can go get another job. But really what FIRE has empowered you to do here is not work this job if you don't want to. your financial independence, and you can work something that's right for your stage of life here. There's a real cost to that, but you've paid that price with the years of very disciplined, smart moves you've made to get to this position in the first place. Yeah, it's very hard because it's not just my income. My work allows flexibility when I'm not on the road. They pay for our car, my insurance, my gas.
30:04There's a lot of perks that come, you know, stock options that it's like, oh man, giving all of this up is very hard. But I also traveling and being away from my family is very hard. I think just knowing like having the baseline of, okay, if I were to quit my job now at the end of this year, whenever it might be, we could continue affording what we're doing right now and then still give him the option. Like he loves his job, but like, I don't know if at 50, he's still going to love his job. So to still have him have the opportunity to retire early, like that is important to me. So I'm like, okay, if we're at a point that from what you're seeing, from what we're seeing, where it's like, we could support our current level of spending with what we have, then that provides some comfort to me.
30:53Mindy Jensen:My question goes back to Katie. It doesn't sound to me like you absolutely hate this job and you cannot wait to get out of it at any cost. It sounds like you don't want to travel anymore. It sounds like you want to be able to have some of the perks of like the perks are nice. The income is nice. I would give you a bit of homework to just think about it, not in the context of right now, I need the answer, but just for you, think about what parts of your job do you like and would consider keeping in exchange for it. Like you would do 50 % of your job for 50 % of the pay, then you don't have any issue at all because you're generating more than what you're spending.
31:36Mindy Jensen:You will still be able to save for retirement if you're making half of your income. You'll still be able to spend some time with your son because you're still going to, you'll have like 50 % of your job. Or if like 0%, I don't want any of it at all and I'm just not reading it right. But something to think about because a lot of people will go into their boss and say, hey, is part-time an option? And the boss is thinking, well, it's either full-time or part-time. So no, part-time is not an option. We want you here full-time. When the reality is, no, I'm asking, do you want me to stay part-time or do you want zero time?
32:10Mindy Jensen:Cause I'm going to leave. And sometimes the boss will change his mind when his only option is 50 % or nothing. Yes. The only issue that like comes to my mind with that is childcare right now. So if I were to cut my income in half. Like the amount that I would be bringing in versus what we spend on childcare, I don't know that it would be worth it at that point to even be working. And that's valid. I was a stay-at-home mom for eight years because my income at the time would have been the exact amount that I was paying for childcare. And I wanted to stay home with my kids. So that was an easy choice for me.
32:48Mindy Jensen:If you went part-time at work, could you go part-time in the childcare? I think finding it because because currently we have a nanny and I think, you know, that's what we want to do as far as child care goes until we feel he's ready for daycare. So I think the biggest issue would be finding a nanny who's also willing to only work half the time. Or maybe a nanny share. Yeah. Someone called me out of this recently on a YouTube comment, but it's like, why am I not hanging out with my one year old and three year old all day? Why am I doing this instead of that? that's just not my personality. I love my kids very much, but like I need to be doing something else in addition to not just hanging around my three-year-old and one-year-old who would drive me crazy the way I'm wired.
33:33If I was, if that was all day, every day, seven days a week, you share that concern at all for yourself to some degree as part of this transition. Is that informing things? Yes. We've had this conversation with this morning where I'm like, I'm scared to quit, but I'm also scared not to quit. Again, a lot of it is the travel aspect. If I could do my exact job, be working from home, see him throughout the day like I do when I am home, I would keep going forever. It's this whole leaving for multiple days almost every week. That's the hard part. But that's why they pay me to do this is that travel aspect of it.
34:06So, yes, I share that concern. I love my son. But wow, especially as he's becoming a toddler. It's a lot. I mean, just the sheer exhaustion that hits around seven o 'clock on Saturdays after a whirlwind of activities is unbelievable. I don't know if you guys feel this in your life with just one, you know, to magnify that whole dynamic. And, you know, it's wonderful. And it's just like crazy. People have strong opinions about that. Too bad. You can have strong opinions, whatever. I'm not going to do that every single day of my life. I want to take my kids out of school early and go to the zoo during some weekdays, have daddy daughter days, those kinds of things.
34:41Those are fun, but I'm not going to, that's not my everyday. And I think that's totally fine. But I think that there's a piece of this about what do I honestly want? And maybe kind of articulating what perfection looks like would be helpful for you on that front. Because you can imagine a state where you're not very happy with that overwhelming task now. And you're in this new position and not earning income. That's a risk that's financial and non-financial to some degree for you guys. Maybe there's something to think through there. And maybe, you know, to Mindy's point, which I think is excellent advice, maybe it's let's find out what the best alternative here is for me.
35:16If that's not really what I want, if I want to do some kind of work or cover child care to some degree, maybe there's a place where you can talk to your boss and say, can I cut my pay, take this job that is only for local situations here, have this region or whatever, trade with this person and take a pay doc and get a much better quality of life. Maybe you start taking looks at job offers that pay half or three quarters of this opportunity. And maybe you can take a month off or two weeks or however much PTO you have and try it out and see how you like the full quit version of that. And see, maybe you're like, no, I absolutely love this.
35:51This is wonderful. I'm going to do this with my days indefinitely. Those are all viable things there. But maybe those would de-risk what really you guys are worried about here. Not the, can we bridge this? which like, of course, we knew we knew the answer to that is a technical financial. Yes. Coming into the conversation, I think. What's your reaction to this rambling train of thought? You're not wrong. I think that just depends on the day on if I'm like, yes, I want to be home every single day with him. And then there'll be a day where he's just yelling at me all day. And I'm like, maybe I don't want this all the time.
36:26So it is hard. I think I just want the confidence to know that I could. You know, you're saying we came in and everything looks great. We knew the answer. I think he knew the answer. I think that I logically feel like we're okay. But my money history comes from like my family having money and then all of a sudden we didn't. So there's definitely this fundamental like fear inside me of having money and then it being gone. And I'm like the stock market, most of our investments are in the stock market. I know that it goes up if you give it enough time, but it's like it could be there and then it could be gone.
37:00So appreciate all the work he's done to like look at our numbers. I've done it for years. I track every dollar I've been spending for like 10 years at this point. So I know it's there, but it was like, I need the confidence of just one more set of eyes to look at this and be like, no, you guys are okay. So then I can like breathe and be like, okay, what do I want? Do I actually want to quit? Do I want to figure something else out? That's kind of where I was like, no, I actually do need you to look at this and tell me, even if it seems obvious to you.
37:30Mindy Jensen:Well, having a different set of eyes, having Scott's eyes and talking about the interest on your cash and the dividend payout and all of that is fantastic. That's not something that I have thought of, although I don't have a ton of dividend paying stocks. Just looking at your exact numbers,$1.8 million in your liquid financial portfolio, it generates about$72 ,000 a year if you're going off of the 4 % rule. You needed to cover a$40 ,000 gap-ish. So you could do that without all of Scott's fancy dividends and interest on your cash thing. That would be covered. How to think about when somebody's still working and somebody's not working.
38:13Mindy Jensen:And it's a total amount that you need. You need$115 ,000. You're getting X from Jesus' income. So then you need to bridge that gap. And that gap is easily bridged with the 4 % rule. It's probably easily bridged with the 2 % rule. So looking at these straight numbers, yeah, you're probably going to be fine, again, for entertainment purposes only. However, what would happen if the stock market crashed? It went 50 % drop. What would you do? Considering, hey, SUSE is still working. You have quit your job. The stock market crashes 50%. what happens to your mental state? Would you go back and get another job?
38:56Yes.
38:57Mindy Jensen:Okay. So your worst case scenario, to quote Joel from episode 11, your worst case scenario is everybody else's everyday life. So you could test this out and see, first of all, is that actually what you want to do? Yes, it is. Okay, great. Continue testing. You test it out and the stock market crashes. You're like, oh, I'm just going to go get a job. I'm going to get, you can get a job that bridges the$40 ,000. One thing that's been hard for me to calculate is like, if he retires early at 50, so we know how to have like our fire number, right, of what we need to go. If we both quit and at 50, neither one of us are working.
39:35It's like, okay, you have your fire number for the 4 % rule. I guess it's just been harder for me to be like, okay, well, if we spend this much money between me quitting and then him quitting, is our portfolio going to grow enough to then reach our original fire number that we had. Like, I think it's that calculation there that we try to do. And we've used like different calculators online. We've been using like a Coast Phi calculator to try and be like, okay, well, if we had us dying at what year. I essentially opened it up twice. And on one, I had us dying, you know, the money needed to last until I was 50 essentially.
40:15And then it shoots out what you would have left in your portfolio at that point if we were pulling whatever money we needed to bridge my salary difference. And then from that age, we ran it until 95, including my pension. And, you know, on the so on the second one, I opened I included what we would have essentially died with when I turned 50 and I decide to retire. And that's how I started the next calculation. Let's do this. You're saying in 25 years, am I going to be absolutely broke? That's the question. So in 25 years, we're going to have the house paid off by definition, unless you get foreclosed on or something crazy happens.
40:55But if we go into really fantasy land, you can always construct a scenario where you fail. So there's probabilities in all of these things. Let's take this mortgage payment to zero, which is going to be at that point in time. And you hold your other expenses constant for inflation. Your kid's out of the house and doing their thing at that age. So you have$7 ,000 a month you need to spend, and his pension covers$5 ,000 of that. Inflation adjusted, right? Yes. Once we're 62, not from 50 to 62. Once you're 62, yes. So let's say that you literally had nothing left. You would have to cut your expenses by$2 ,000 in that situation adjusted for inflation to cover this situation at age 62 before we get to Social Security.
41:36Yes. Okay. Right, because the pension is a real asset you're building. That's not what you want, right? And there's also like an intellectual dishonesty in the FIRE community to some degree, I think, for portions of them, which is where, oh, I'm fine with my portfolio going to zero if I can bridge it to Social Security and my pension with that. Nobody wants that as the outcome here. That's not going to happen. And you're going to course correct here. You are a clearly competent person making a significant income in a sales profession. So that's like the best possible FIRE kind of quasi quit my job thing.
42:10Surely that skill set to go and sell is not going to completely erode over the next couple of years. You can do that. It's not like you're an executive or a specialist in a technical field where your skills, there will be a different language or different evolutions of that that will be lost over time. You have a generalist sales toolkit that should be able to give you options downstream. My guess is you're not going to want to stay home all day, every day, doing nothing. Maybe you do that for a while and maybe for some days you do what you need to do during the day while your kid has childcare and you don't earn income.
42:45You can and maybe should do that for portions of this. And then maybe you have some kind of income producing side thing that you do that's fun to supplement this. Maybe you get your real estate license or something like that in there. But there's so many options for this where you go to zero base and only eat what you kill. I don't know what they use in sales. Maybe there's something there. So those are so many different options around all this. And then again, I think you should run this calculation. There's a way to do it, and I just can't think about it for modeling purposes. But you take your 1 % dividend yield, and then you take your simple interest on your cash, and then you circularly pull it down over the next couple of years with a realistic raise schedule for Jesus.
43:28and you say, do I actually ever run out of cash where I have to draw on the portfolio? That's like yet another way to think about the situation with your current spend. I don't know what the answer will be. Maybe, I think the answer is probably yes. At some point, if nothing else happens at all, then you have to finally sell an equity to fund some of your lifestyle. But I think, you know, if Frank Vasquez were on here, he'd be like, you guys got to start spending more. But I think that would be an interesting analysis on this as well, the circularity with your cash position. When spring hits, some people suddenly just want to declutter the garage, clean out the closets, and get everything all organized.
44:05Whether or not that hits you, Monarch will do your financial spring cleaning for you. One dashboard gets your entire financial life organized. No more clutter, no more mess, no more scattered logins, just accounts, investments, property, and more, all in one place. One of my favorite parts is the Sankey diagram. Every month I open it up and literally watch the flow of money. It shows exactly where every dollar is going from income to all of my spending categories. It makes it so much easier to spot what's working and what needs tweaking. Get your first year of Monarch for half off just$50 with the promo code POCKETS.
44:39Use the code POCKETS at Monarch.com to get your first year half off at just$50. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with the code P-O-C-K-E-T-S. I'm skeptical of a lot of financial products, but life insurance isn't one of them. At least not term life. For the vast majority of you listening, term life is simply the right answer. And the smartest way to buy it isn't one big policy, it's a ladder. Your need for coverage isn't flat. It declines over time. You've got a 30-year mortgage, a couple of young kids, maybe a spouse mid-career. In 15 years, the mortgage is going to be smaller and the kids are almost launched.
45:12So instead of buying one giant 30-year policy you'll overpay for, you stack a few. Say a 10-year, a 20-year, and a 30-year layer. So your total coverage steps down as your actual obligations step down. You only pay for what you actually need when you need it. ethos is a platform that helps you find life insurance 100 online you can get a quote in seconds and apply in minutes there's no medical exam you just answer a few health questions online you can get up to 3 million in coverage some policies are as low as 30 a month that makes building a ladder genuinely fast get your free quote at ethos.com bpmoney that's ethos.com bpmoney application times may vary and rates may vary scott i was going to bring up frank
45:52Mindy Jensen:Vasquez, I'm glad you brought him up. Frank and I went through and created one of his risk parity portfolios in an account that I have. I started out with$10 ,000 and I allocated it the way that he told me to. I've got small cap, large cap, mid cap, gold. I can't even remember all the stuff that I have, but my portfolio and with the express purpose, I created this so that I could pull out the equivalent of 5%. I pull it out monthly. So it's like 5 % divided by 12 is$42 because it's a $10 ,000 portfolio. I pull it out. I have now, after pulling out since last July, I have$11 ,691. So I'm spending down my portfolio and it's still growing.
46:37Mindy Jensen:And I would encourage you to look at different portfolio makeups. Frank Vasquez has several that he promotes and believes in, and he's got sample portfolios that show what's going on in each one of those portfolios. But I've been withdrawing from my portfolio and I still have more money than I started with. And it's only a year and, you know, the market's been doing well. But I wonder if a different portfolio makeup might help ease your mind. What if you deployed 200K of this into that portfolio and practiced that as your withdrawal portfolio, for example? That could be one path to doing that as well.
47:12We're not going to recommend a specific portfolio with any of these things. But what like that's an idea for you to consider is taking this cash that's sitting here earning simple interest and putting it into a retirees portfolio and practicing the withdrawal math on that while spending yield from the other parts of the portfolio. For example, these are just tricks to get your mind to feel comfortable with the situation, not really like necessarily best practices in portfolio, because your problem is not do I have enough? It's it's how do I feel comfortable with the situation here? How do I more honestly state my fears around the trade-offs in the situation, which are not, and we're going to run out of money.
47:48It's, it's, am I giving up something that I might want more than this, this situation here? The hypothesis that I am coming to here for you guys, you can do your own hypothesis with this or tell me, is Katie, you're going to want a different job at some point that's more flexible, that are in some, some income. You're going to want to spend many days with your two-year-old and you're going to not, and you're going to want to spend some days or some parts of days doing adult things for your own and maybe earning a little money as part of that. And maybe that's really what I'm hearing you want more close than I wanna stay home all day earning no income with my two-year-old for the next several years until he goes to kindergarten.
48:25Maybe that's just more what you really want. I don't know. Does that sound closer? What do you guys think? I feel like maybe I don't know what I want fully either. It's just that those days when I'm gone are really, really hard. And so maybe I've just been so focused on, can I stop those days now or soon rather than thinking about what other options I could do for work or how else I could make some income. It's just been like for years, I've been so focused on just once I quit work, then I'm done. I'm going to retire early. I'm done. So I have never really thought about the alternatives to what I'm doing now.
49:04So maybe that's just more of what I need to spend time doing.
49:07Mindy Jensen:Yeah, I think that's a great idea. Take some time. It's not a five-minute decision, but take some time. What is it in your life right now that you want to keep? And what is it in your life right now that you want to get rid of or reduce? And have you filled out our goal-setting worksheet? Scott created a worksheet for setting goals and visualizing what it is you want your life to look like. So go to biggerpocketsmoney.com slash resources. It is currently the second item in the resource page. Download for free. We don't even ask you for your email address. Download that and take some time to fill that out.
49:44Mindy Jensen:That could give you some real clarity on what it is that you're looking for as well. I think the specific homework we have here is go through a bunch of ways that your portfolio can generate income and talk about the 4 % rule, withdrawal sequencing, what we can do with the cash that would make us feel good. that would be a portfolio that would maybe bump up the withdrawal sequencing on there. I think that the great advice that Frank Vasquez gave is create a test portfolio. And you guys are textbook for that, for this to try out, even with 10 ,000 bucks or something, to try something else, something out like that, that begins to build that habit.
50:15Katie, for you, I think that I would, one, encourage you to take a week of PTO and just stay home, even if you pay your nanny and just try it out, see how that goes. I think that would be a very, very low, low friction test. And just do that Monday through Friday and the week through the weekend, both weekends. See how those 11 days go for you and what whether that informs the next step. And it could be many, many people have. That's awesome. That's what I want to do every day the next three years. Great. Your situation that de-risks a big part of your decision here. If the answer is no, then what's the next best alternative?
50:50What's the next job? So I would literally begin applying for jobs or thinking about the opportunities out there and just understand what the realistic alternatives are. And then from there, you can then give the ultimatum to your boss about, hey, here's what I'm going to do. I would love to stay. I'm not traveling anymore. That's going to stop. Or it's going to be very infrequent, you know, very rare situations here. And here are the ground rules. I'm willing to take a pay cut. I'm willing to take these lower things if that's okay. And, you know, or my ideal state is two days a week, and I'm just closing deals or whatever, and I can get some percentage of the pay and only do that.
51:26Once you have that power, all they can do is say no, and you can walk away and you actually have a real alternative for it. So I think that would be the piece that would make this there. And if you decide you want to keep working, then the next piece is you got to think, how am I going to spend all this money that I'm going to accumulate? Because we're going to have a bajillion dollars by the time we have retirement. it, anything there. And we should probably update the life vision to spend it and to thrive a little bit more, whatever that means at the next level. Cause that's a real critique of people like us collectively on this, right?
51:54There's more wealth than, than it, there needs to be not enough spending in there. And that's going to be the next problem. If you decide to keep working,
52:00Mindy Jensen:that's good to hear. All right, Katie and Jesus, thank you so much for sharing your numbers with us and your situation. We really appreciate your willingness to be so open. It's very helpful. not only for us to give suggestions of what we would do in that situation, but also for people who are in a similar situation. So we really appreciate your time today and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Thank you, guys. All right, Scott, that was Katie and Jesus with a really interesting question. Can Katie quit her job? I think she can. I think we both came to the conclusion that she can, but I'm not sure that that's really what she wants.
52:40Mindy Jensen:Scott, what did you think of their show? Mindy, I think this is a classic. We're on the cusp of financial independence from a if nobody works situation. And the leap from going from$200 ,000 a year to zero overnight is overwhelming mentally for folks. It's clearly a first world problem. There's a bajillion people out there who would love to trade places with Katie and Jesus in terms of the financial problems that they've got in their situation. But yeah, it's a big, it's a big deal. And it's also a high stakes decision. Like I think that the fear of not of the millions of dollars in additional wealth that you give up by quitting a$200 ,000 a year job is very challenging mental exercise.
53:18The question of, am I going to be happy if I'm staying home from, you know, all day with my young child versus working is a very real conflict that people have, especially if your identity has been built around a career for all that time. And I think that some people are critical of that and that's fine. You could be critical of that, but that's just not how many other people are wired, myself included, in there. And I'm not apologetic for it. I feel like I'm adding value with what I'm really good at doing this during the days in many cases. And that's what I want to be doing while also spending plenty of time with my kids too.
53:49But it's just, that's not, it's not all day, every day for me. And so I think that's a big, a big fear there. And how am I going to fill that? And then there's the, here's my baseline spending. And maybe I wouldn't mind a little extra income to spend a little bit more if it came my way. And I think all those things are going through their minds. And that's a hypothesis about what you want. You got to test it and then refine. And they're in the position to go and test it. And I think that's the big takeaway I have.
54:12Mindy Jensen:Yep. And Scott, I've said many times I was a stay-at-home mom. I didn't leave a career. I just left a job that I didn't particularly even like. So it was a real easy decision for me. And again, no judgment on whatever you decide to do. Just know that that's like, make the decision based on what you want to do, not what you think you want to do. So I think Katie has some interesting homework before she makes this really monumental decision. But also, if she does make this decision and it turns out that's not what she wants, she can always go back to work. I think a lot of people could just consider this to be like, oh, I quit.
54:48Mindy Jensen:That's at the end. And no, you can go back to work. Who cares? One thing that we did not cover is healthcare costs. If Jesus were to quit his job, That would become a very big factor in their situation, which would require one of them to work in this situation or would begin making the math of financial independence a little harder, especially in those later years for financial independence. However, that's also partially offset by the 25 years on their mortgage where that number stays fixed relative to inflation and falls off entirely once paid off. So that's a nuance there that I think people should really think about when they're approaching financial independence.
55:24If you have a mortgage that's five years in, that likely offsets a big chunk of this risk in the health care space. If you don't, then maybe that health care risk is a real big one that you need to plan for and buffer your position, you know, anticipation of.
55:37Mindy Jensen:Yeah. Well, anybody who is considering retiring early needs to really, really look into how much it's going to cost for health care. Because like we've said before, Scott, the ACA subsidies are not designed for millionaire early retirees. So I can see an instance where that goes away. And then if you've planned on having those, that's an issue. If you haven't planned on having them and you do get them and they go away, then your plan is still in place. All right, Scott, this was a super fun episode. And to my dear listeners, if you want even more financial independence information, you need to visit our website.
56:10Mindy Jensen:Go over to biggerpocketsmoney.com. Check out our blog, our resources. You can listen to the podcast there. We've got a lot of stuff that we have been working feverishly on. And I say we, but it's really Scott. We've got a lot of free resources, calculators, templates for you to use to accelerate your financial independence journey. We will see you next Tuesday. And that wraps up this episode of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. He is Scott Trench. I am Indy Jensen saying chop, chop, woodshop. If you've been putting off life insurance, I get it. The old process was miserable. Phone calls with an agent, a nurse coming to your house for a blood draw, then waiting weeks to find out what you'd pay for.
56:47That friction is exactly why so many people who should have coverage don't. Here's what I believe. Most BP money listeners need term life, and the right move is to build a ladder. A few term policies of different lengths stack together so your coverage steps down as your mortgage shrinks and your kids get closer to being financially independent or you get closer to hitting your financial independence number. The thing that makes that practical now is Ethos, a platform that helps you find life insurance all 100 % online. Same day coverage, no medical exam. you just answer a few health questions online, up to$3 million in coverage, some policies as low as$30 a month.
57:22So building a two or three layer ladder that used to take a month of appointments is something you can knock out before your coffee gets cold. Get your free quote at ethos.com slash bpmoney. That is E-T-H-O-S dot com slash bpmoney. Application times may vary and rates may vary.
57:38Mindy Jensen:Need a flat fee or hourly financial advisor who actually understands fire? Scott and I built a list of five friendly professionals to help you on your five journey. And we're constantly vetting and adding new pros to the list. Find yours at biggerpocketsmoney.com slash five pro that's biggerpocketsmoney.com slash F I P R O.
From the publisher
In this Finance Friday episode of the BiggerPockets Money podcast, hosts Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench analyze whether Katie can step back from work while still making sure that her husband, Jesus, can retire early at 50. They break down the FIRE math, withdrawal strategies, healthcare considerations, market risk, pension benefits, and the emotional challenges of leaving a high-income career.
Whether you're planning for early retirement, wondering if your portfolio is large enough, or trying to decide when to leave a stressful job, this episode provides practical insights and actionable retirement planning strategies.
To go beyond the podcast:
- Kick start your financial independence journey with our FREE financial resources - https://biggerpocketsmoney.com/
- Subscribe on YouTube for even more content- www.youtube.com/biggerpocketsmoney
- Connect with us on social media to join the other BiggerPockets Money listeners - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BPMoney
We believe financial independence is attainable for anyone no matter when or where you’re starting. Let’s get your financial house in order!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.


