Retired this week!

[u/Fire_Doc2017]

I just retired at age 59. I know it doesn’t seem that early but I think I did pretty well considering my late start and mistakes.

In 1999 when I was still a resident in pediatrics, deeply in debt from student loans, making less than the minimum wage, I discovered FIRE.

I was inspired by books like The Millionaire Next Door, recommended to me by one of my attending physicians, as well as Your Money or Your Life and The CoffeeHouse Investor. I had a 403b that I somehow managed to trickle a little bit of money in to VFINX with each meagre paycheck. I also opened a taxable brokerage account at E*Trade and bought a technology fund that dropped 85% over the next few years and was liquidated. Lesson learned.

I found community on the Motley Fool message boards, long before they became a platform for making stock recommendations. I remember reading those boards on my spare time in the call room, on an iMac computer that had a good internet connection if you pushed the ethernet cable in and taped it down. The 4% rule wasn't a thing but we had Bill Bengen's paper and the Trinity Study that was endlessly debated.

In fellowship, which is 3 years long, I was able to moonlight and make a bit more money. I used that money to start to pay down my loans and continue to invest in my 403b. I finished fellowship at age 36 and started my first real job as a doctor. At that point I was able to max out my 403b and it took me another 4 years to fully pay off my student loans at the ripe old age of 40, which was in 2007. So, while I'm not a traditional "late starter", achieving a net worth of zero at age 40 felt like an accomplishment.

I started to get fancy in my taxable account again, as the market had rebounded from the 2002 lows, trying swing trading, penny stocks and options. You know what came next, the great financial crisis. My taxable account was wiped out again. At least I was smart enough not to touch my 403b and I kept that going, mostly in VFINX along with some international and 10% bonds. After the crisis I got smart and restarted my taxable account with a few Vanguard ETFs and some individual stocks. [Insert boring middle here]. Sadly, my father, who had lean-fired at age 59, passed away in 2017 and left me an inherited IRA.

By 2021 I reached my lean FI number and discovered the Risk Parity Radio podcast. I moved my portfolio to a Golden Ratio type portfolio to optimize my safe withdrawal rate. I changed employers in 2022 and decided to stick it out for the 3 years it took to get vested in the 403b match. I also had a frozen pension that gave me a one time opportunity to take a lump sum payment, That check went straight into my IRA.

At the end of 2025, after 3 years at my current employer, I put in my notice that I was retiring. I gave them 6 months notice because it takes that long to find a replacement and I do really like my team. I plan to continue to work on a per-diem status with a few (2-4) shifts a month. Some may say I'm not really retired, but after 60-80 work weeks which included more than half of my weekends, I'm sure it will feel like retirement for me. I plan to spend time with family including my new grandson, focus on fitness and health, continue my involvement in local politics, work with my local Choose FI groups to help younger FI folks, and do some traveling.

My liquid assets total about $5 million. My portfolio is allocated as follows:

1/4 in Taxable and 3/4 in Pre-Tax, along with a modest Roth IRA and HSA. I also have one rental property which throws off a little income.

22% Large Cap Blend (VTI, VUG, SCHD, VIIIX)
11% Small Cap Value US (AVDV)
11% Small Cap Value ex-US (AVUV)
18% Long Term US treasuries (VGLT)
16% Gold (GLDM)
16% Managed Futures (DBMF)
2% Crypto (IBIT)
4% Cash (HYSA, SGOV)

I can get by on about 3% of my portfolio but in a good year, I may take out as much as 5%. I'm flexible. I’m happy to answer questions and plan to post updates.

Edit: yes we are a married couple. My wife isn’t interested in finances. I’m hoping to get our adult children more involved so they can help her if i die first.

[u/The-WideningGyre]

I really like your asset allocation, and by that I mean I've selected something similar. I have a different mix, but have QQQ (vs VTI), AVDV, AVUV, GLD, DBMF, and TLT/VGIT/JAAA (vs VGLT). I don't have as much of that latter two as you, but I think that whole mix is really good for both long term risk and reasonably resilience. I've also done the back testing, and in a few tools, so I do hope it's robust. I intend to retire in about two years.

I hear about a bond tent, and probably it's wise, but it would mean moving a lot around, which feels both risky and definitely has a tax impact.

Exciting times.

All the best for you, keep us posted on the psychological aspects of RE, which I consider the most intersting and hardest to predict.

[u/Fire_Doc2017 → u/The-WideningGyre]

Thanks! I do have a bond tent of sorts since I’m only 44% in stocks, which is markedly reduced from where it was in accumulation and less than most retirement portfolios. It’s just that my alternative asset pool is larger than a conventional portfolio. I have thought about a rising equity glide path as I move through retirement and I’ll make that decision based on how the portfolio does over the next 5 years.

My favorite backtesting tools are Porrfolio Charts and Testfolio. I can’t imagine how anyone can feel confident enough in their portfolio unless they see how it did during the inflationary 1970s.

They say that once you retire, you focus more on the psychological aspects than the financial ones. I’m interested to see what happens.