… if I had anticipated my success in “minimizing the skim”, I would have retired 5 years earlier.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/retirees-spending-462e2b78
intercst
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These types of reports are fairly common in the FIRE community. People following the 4% keep their same frugal spending habits that got them to FIRE. In the meantime, the power of compounding takes over and they wind up with a giant pile of money.
My HSA alone is large enough it should take care of my health care spending for the rest of my life.
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I got an unexpected pension from Exxon when I left the company in 1986 after a bit more than 5 years of service. You needed 10 years of service to vest at the time, but company management decided to raid the overfunded pension fund and use the “excess” for other corporate purposes (like excessive Executive Compensation.) US Labor Dept rules required Exxon to vest everyone with 5 or more years of service as a condition of withdrawing the “excess” funds. So corporate greed got me an “undeserved pension”
Of course, I joked, "What will that monthly pension benefit buy after 30 or 40 years worth of inflation’? Maybe a greens fee at a public golf course, or the tip on a lunch check?
How about my Medicare Part B & D premiums, the IRMMA penalty, plus my Medigap premium with money left over. That’s the result of very mild inflation over the past 30 years.
intercst
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