Reader Case Research: Stationed in Japan with the US Marine Corps, Hoping to FIRE

Kat and her husband Jay dwell within the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan the place Jay is stationed as a Captain within the U.S. Marine Corps. They’re childfree by selection and have an lovable canine named Sadie. Though they’re simply 29, they’ve been diligently saving, investing and planning for the date when Jay will get out of the army.

Their objective is to achieve monetary independence by that deadline, which is now 5 to eight years away. Kat would really like our assist figuring out if this can be a cheap objective and, if not, recommendation on what they need to do to make it possible.

What’s a Reader Case Research?

Case Research handle monetary and life dilemmas that readers of Frugalwoods ship in requesting recommendation. Then, we (that’d be me and YOU, expensive reader) learn by means of their scenario and supply recommendation, encouragement, perception and suggestions within the feedback part.

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The Objective Of Reader Case Research

Reader Case Research spotlight a various vary of monetary conditions, ages, ethnicities, places, targets, careers, incomes, household compositions and extra!

The Case Research sequence started in 2016 and, so far, there’ve been 102 Case Research. I’ve featured people with annual incomes starting from $17k to $200k+ and internet worths starting from -$300k to $2.9M+.

I’ve featured single, married, partnered, divorced, child-filled and child-free households. I’ve featured homosexual, straight, queer, bisexual and polyamorous individuals. I’ve featured ladies, non-binary people and males. I’ve featured transgender and cisgender individuals. I’ve had cat individuals and canine individuals. I’ve featured people from the US, Australia, Canada, England, South Africa, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and France. I’ve featured individuals with PhDs and other people with highschool diplomas. I’ve featured individuals of their early 20’s and other people of their late 60’s. I’ve featured people who dwell on farms and people who dwell in New York Metropolis.

Reader Case Research Pointers

I in all probability don’t have to say the next since you all are the kindest, most well mannered commenters on the web, however please be aware that Frugalwoods is a judgement-free zone the place we endeavor to assist each other, not condemn.

There’s no room for rudeness right here. The objective is to create a supportive setting the place all of us acknowledge we’re human, we’re flawed, however we select to be right here collectively, workshopping our cash and our lives with optimistic, proactive solutions and concepts.

And a disclaimer that I’m not a skilled monetary skilled and I encourage individuals to not make severe monetary choices primarily based solely on what one individual on the web advises. 

I encourage everybody to do their very own analysis to find out the most effective plan of action for his or her funds. I’m not a monetary advisor and I’m not your monetary advisor.

With that I’ll let Kat, as we speak’s Case Research topic, take it from right here!

Kat’s Story

Hello Frugalwoods! I’m Kat, I’m 29, and my husband Jay is sort of 29. We’re childfree and have one adopted canine named Sadie. We presently dwell in Japan the place Jay works as a US Marine Corps Captain. We met in 2015 on a examine overseas journey, bought married in 2017, and have moved 9 instances since then! We like to journey, hike and camp, snorkel within the ocean, go on lengthy walks with our canine, watch films, and skim.

What feels most urgent proper now? What brings you to submit a Case Research?

After I initially utilized for a Reader Case Research, Jay had a one-hour commute to work on prime of a protracted work day. He was waking up at 4am and getting house between 7 and 10 pm. We’ve since moved and he now has a 20 minute commute! So, that’s one main downside solved.

The opposite principal situation is that I would really like us to be financially impartial by the point Jay will get out of the army in 5 to eight years. I would like us to have choices, somewhat than feeling like we have to soar into new careers the second he leaves the army. As we close to this self-imposed deadline, the objective is feeling an increasing number of daunting.

We need to make the most of our restricted time in Japan – touring, having cultural experiences, and spending time in nature. However this conflicts with our bigger objective of eager to be financially impartial.

Put up-Army Life Plans

Jay would wish to serve for 20 years with a view to get a pension. We’re as a substitute hoping to fund our personal retirement so he doesn’t want to remain in that lengthy. He loves what he does, however it’s draining. After he leaves the army, we might want to buy our personal healthcare. And not using a pension or incapacity discharge, Jay received’t be eligible for VA care. He’s open to serving within the reserves, which might proceed his healthcare.

We aren’t positive the place we need to quiet down. Ideally, we’ll journey full time for a couple of years after Jay will get out of the army. Some states we’re contemplating for our house base are Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont (or one other northeastern state), and Minnesota. We’d like a progressive neighborhood close to mountaineering trails with housing that we are able to afford. We might love solutions! Our households are fairly scattered now, so we possible received’t dwell close to most of them.

What’s the most effective a part of your present way of life/routine?

We love the place we dwell. We’re very privileged to get to dwell in an attractive place and expertise a brand new lifestyle.

I’m additionally having fun with my free time. I’ve primarily labored as a author up to now. I most not too long ago labored as a kitchen assistant at a pal’s restaurant, however resigned on account of our current transfer. So, I’m presently between jobs, as one may say. I’m utilizing this time to deal with the entire home labor and life administration duties, be taught the Japanese language, spend time in nature, and skim. Now that we have now web at our new home, I’ll attempt to decide up some freelance work with a former employer, however I’m not but positive the way it will work out with the time zone distinction between the US and Japan.

What’s the worst a part of your present way of life/routine?

Jay’s troublesome job and lengthy work hours. What little time we have now collectively is generally spent resting and making ready for the subsequent week. We’re on reverse ends of the spectrum proper now – he’s overworked and drained, whereas I’m in want of social time and a problem.

The place Kat Needs to be in Ten Years:

• Funds: Financially impartial, dwelling comfortably off of our investments.
• Life-style: Touring usually with a house base within the states. Plenty of high quality time collectively.
• Profession: Pleasing part-time work, volunteer work, homesteading, and/or a inventive pastime enterprise that we run collectively.

Kat & Jay’s Funds

Revenue

Money owed: $0

Property

Automobiles

Bills

Credit score Card Technique

Kat’s Questions For You:

1. Does it appear possible for us to “retire” between the ages of 34-37? Or a minimum of get out of the army at that age and each work part-time?
2. If not, what do we have to reduce on to attain this objective?
3. What sort of paid work ought to I pursue subsequent? Any solutions for timezone-flexible distant work?
4. How can Jay and I higher join throughout instances after we’re on reverse ends of the work/life steadiness spectrum?

Liz Frugalwoods’ Suggestions

Kat and Jay convey us an fascinating Case Research as we speak and I’m excited to dig in and see what’s doable for these two! They’ve made wonderful frugal selections through the years, as evidenced by their lack of debt and spectacular internet value. Let’s get proper to Kat’s questions!

Kat’s Query #1: Does it appear possible for us to “retire” between the ages of 34-37 (in 5-8 years)? Or a minimum of get out of the army at that age and each work part-time?

This query relies upon how a lot they intend to earn, spend and make investments over the subsequent 5-8 years. Let’s check out the place issues stand now and make some projections for his or her future.

Asset Overview

It’s uncommon that I don’t have suggestions for a Case Research topic to vary one thing about their asset allocation, however Kat and Jay hit a house run right here! I don’t suppose I’ve any edits to counsel! Right here’s why:

Money owed: $0

Crucially, Kat and Jay are fully debt-free, which opens up a variety of choices for them. If you’re not beholden to debt, your fastened month-to-month prices may be very, very low. Fastened prices are stuff you can’t change–like your lease/mortgage, insurance coverage, and so on–and if debt repayments aren’t a part of that image, you’re robotically spending much less and saving extra each single month.

Internet value: $392,517

Since they haven’t any debt to service, all of their belongings depend in the direction of their internet value. Properly performed, you two!

Investments: At Vanguard

It’s apparent Kat and Jay have performed their analysis (and skim a variety of Frugalwoods!) as a result of their funding selections are virtually precisely what I might do. They’ve chosen a brokerage, Vanguard, with a superb popularity for low-fee whole market index funds. That is evident in how low the expense ratios are on all of their investments. Expense ratios are what you pay a brokerage to take a position your cash and, since they’re charges, you need them to be as little as doable.

They’re invested aggressively in virtually 100% shares, which in my view makes a variety of sense since they’re younger and have a lot of years earlier than they’ll be drawing down this cash. Typically, you need to make investments aggressively while you’re younger after which lower your threat publicity as you close to retirement age. The previous adage in investing is high-risk=high-reward and low-risk=low reward.

Their collection of Vanguard’s VTSAX as their major funding can be one thing I might do because it’s a complete market index fund, which implies they’re invested throughout all the inventory market. This reduces threat since they’re well-diversified throughout each sector of the market. It’s the other of stock-picking whereby you restrict your self to only one or two firms and actually hope that they don’t tank. Investing in one thing like VTSAX is the epitome of not placing all your eggs in a single basket. An excellent plan!

Money: In a high-yield financial savings account

Kat and Jay have their money stashed precisely the place I might advise: in a high-yield financial savings account. Their rate of interest of 4.75% on this account is phenomenal! The one teensy be aware I’ve is that they’re overbalanced on money.

Between their checking and financial savings, they’ve $44,880, which is WAY greater than they’d want in an emergency fund. An emergency fund ought to be round three to 6 months’ value of your spending. For Kat and Jay, this $44k is sort of what they spend in a whole 12 months. The downsides of getting a lot money are that: money loses worth (as a result of it doesn’t sustain with inflation) and there’s a possibility value to not having it invested out there. Having nearly all of their money in such a high-yield financial savings account mitigates these dangers considerably, however it’s nonetheless an underutilization of this cash.

Technically, they need to retain simply six months’ value of dwelling bills in money and dump the remaining into their taxable funding account.

Nevertheless, given their stage of funding sophistication, I’ve to think about they’ve a cause for holding this a lot in money, however I did need to level it out. Once they close to the time for Jay to go away the army, they’ll need to have a superb buffer of money available, however since that’s a minimum of 5 years away, I see no cause to sit down on that a lot money within the meantime. However, in the event that they plan to purchase a home in 5 years? This might make sense as their downpayment financial savings.

Let’s refer again to Kat and Jay’s final ten-year objective:

Kat said they need to be “Financially impartial, dwelling comfortably off of our investments.”

→What does that truly imply? 

Once we speak about monetary independence on this context, we imply the power to:

1. Now not have to work for cash;
2. Have sufficient invested to allow a protected charge of withdrawal to cowl all your dwelling bills;
3. Have the power to do that till you die.

The important thing to creating this work is definitely pretty easy:

1. You must earn a adequate amount of cash throughout your early working years;
2. You must save and make investments the overwhelming majority of this cash;
3. You must preserve your bills low sufficient to allow you to do that.

An individual who makes $1M per 12 months but in addition spends $1M per 12 months will be unable to achieve monetary independence. That individual resides paycheck to huge paycheck. They’re fully reliant upon their job to fund their way of life. A lay-off can be a disaster for them as a result of, regardless of having a ridiculously excessive revenue, in the event that they don’t save any of it, they don’t have anything to fall again on.

Then again, an individual who (like Jay & Kat) earns $78,048 per 12 months however solely spends $47,172 yearly, will be capable of make investments the $30,876 distinction annually. That is the amazingly basic math behind FIRE (monetary independence, retire early).

You will have two levers right here: revenue and bills.

You possibly can improve revenue, you may lower bills, you are able to do each.

There’s a bit extra to it because you HAVE to aggressively make investments this distinction–as Jay and Kat have performed.You can’t preserve all of this in money and count on to turn into financially impartial. You want the compounding curiosity of spending many a long time invested within the inventory market.

Over time, historic fashions point out that the market returns a roughly 7% annual common. In fact previous efficiency doesn’t promise future success, however, it’s all we have now to go on. That’s why I query Kat and Jay’s overbalance on money. Whereas the 4.75% rate of interest their money makes in its high-yield financial savings account is nice, historical past signifies that cash will carry out higher for you within the inventory market (once more, a ~7% annual return on common, over many a long time).

Residing Off Your Investments

This implies you could have sufficient invested out there that you simply’re in a position to withdraw a protected proportion yearly to cowl your dwelling bills. So once more, however two variables: how a lot you spend and the way a lot you could have invested. Of us quibble about what proportion constitutes a “protected charge of withdrawal,” however probably the most generally cited is 4%.

How to do that math:

4% of your investments = the quantity you may withdraw to dwell on yearly

If we take a look at Kat and Jay’s present full internet value of $392,517, 4% of that’s $15,700 per 12 months. Based mostly on their present spending stage of $47,172, that’s not sufficient for them to dwell on. We are able to do backwards math to find out how a lot they’d want with a view to spin off $47k a 12 months. That reply is ~$1.2M (4% of $1.2M = $48k).

Whereas that’s the quantity for as we speak, it’s robust to undertaking into the longer term as a result of there are such a lot of unknowns in Kat and Jay’s scenario, together with:

• Jay’s annual wage for the subsequent 5-8 years
• Kat’s annual wage for the subsequent 5-8 years
• What the inventory market will do over the subsequent 5-8 years
• Their post-military stateside annual spending, which may change dramatically relying upon:
  • In the event that they’re paying for their very own medical health insurance
  • The place they resolve to quiet down
  • In the event that they purchase a house
  • How a lot their lease/mortgage is within the US
  • Inflation

In mild of that, we are able to’t exactly mannequin out precisely what their monetary scenario will probably be in 5-8 years, however we are able to completely do some back-of-the-envelope math to offer them a way of course.

To do that, I used my favourite compound curiosity calculator:

I enter the quantity Kat and Jay presently have invested out there ($347,637) in addition to the quantity they’re in a position to make investments every month ($2,573) assuming they make investments their full $30,876 annual distinction between their revenue and bills. I went with a flat 7% market return.

Listed here are the outcomes:

If the market returns 7% annually and Kat and Jay proceed to take a position $30,876 yearly, they’d have ~$665k in 5 years. Let’s flip to our protected charge of withdrawal proportion now to see what they’d have:

4% of $665,138.69 = $26,605.54 accessible to spend annually

This nonetheless wouldn’t be sufficient to cowl their present stage of bills, however, one among Kat’s questions is whether or not or not they’d be capable of work part-time to make up the distinction. Completely! Incomes extra money is all the time going to make this math higher.

Situation #1: Retire from the Army in 5 Years and Enact “Coast FI”

Whereas totally retiring in 5 years isn’t actually doable with their present numbers, they might actually have Jay depart the army and discover part-time jobs that pay sufficient to cowl their dwelling bills.

The concept behind Coast FI is that you simply not want your fully-loaded full-time job with retirement and advantages and as a substitute, simply have to earn sufficient to cowl your bills. Thus, you’re not investing for retirement or in your taxable funding account, however you’re additionally not drawing down something out of your investments. You’re letting your investments “coast” and develop till they’re substantial sufficient to enact a 4% withdrawal.

On this occasion, your spending immediately dictates how a lot you might want to earn at your job.

What Would Occur If They Retired in Eight Years As a substitute?

Kat famous that their objective is 5 to eight years, so let’s bump the timeline out three years and see what the calculator says:

With the entire similar variables as above, and three years longer out there, the image adjustments dramatically:

4% of $914,086.75 = $36,563.47

This brings Kat and Jay rather a lot nearer to their present spending stage. The problem right here, once more, is that we don’t know what their incomes or the market will do throughout this time interval. Nevertheless, they will make the most of this calculator to find out how they’re progressing in the direction of their objective.

Will They Run Out Of Cash Earlier than They Die?

The following query Kat and Jay have to reply is whether or not or not they’d run out of cash earlier than they die. To grapple with that, I flip to the Wealthy, Broke or Lifeless? calculator, which units out to reply simply this question:

As we are able to see, if Jay and Kat retired at age 37 and lived to age 90, they’d have an 89% probability of not operating out of cash earlier than they died. I don’t love that success charge. I personally am extra comfy with one thing like a 98% – 100% probability of success, however once more, all of that is theoretical and we are able to’t know exactly what is going to occur.

Social Safety?

One other main variable right here is Social Safety. Kat and Jay don’t know their anticipated Social Safety payout, which may change the above calculation by fairly a bit. In the event that they’d like to do that math on their very own, they will enter their anticipated SS within the above calculator beneath the part “additional revenue” together with the age at which they count on to begin taking SS.

Kat and Jay can work out their anticipated Social Safety advantages by following these directions on how one can retrieve their earnings tables from ssa.gov (the federal government’s Social Safety web site).

Can Kat & Jay Attain FI in 5-8 Years?

The ultimate reply is that we don’t know. What we do know is that Kat and Jay are completely on the fitting path for attaining Monetary Independence. They’re doing all the fitting issues by:

• Sustaining a superb wage
• Holding their bills low
• Correctly and aggressively investing the distinction between their revenue and bills
• Avoiding debt

→In the event that they proceed on this path, they are going to finally attain Monetary Independence, little question about it.

When precisely that will probably be will depend on a lot of variables we don’t know proper now, which I articulated above:

• Jay’s annual wage for the subsequent 5-8 years
• Kat’s annual wage for the subsequent 5-8 years
• What the inventory market will do over the subsequent 5-8 years
• Their post-military stateside annual spending, which may change dramatically relying upon:
  • In the event that they’re paying for their very own medical health insurance
  • The place they resolve to quiet down
  • In the event that they purchase a house
  • How a lot their lease/mortgage is within the US
  • Inflation
• Their anticipated Social Safety payouts
• In the event that they’d love to do Coast FI or pursue full FIRE

Kat subsequent requested: If we’re not on monitor to achieve FI in 5-8 years, what do we have to reduce on to attain this objective?

I refer Kat again to my oversimplification of FIRE math and the 2 levers she and Jay can affect:

1. Revenue
2. Bills

If Kat finds a job that works with their way of life, that will surely velocity up their progress in the direction of FI. However, because it stands, in the event that they’re prepared to increase their timeline and have Jay work longer, she doesn’t have to get a job. It’s actually all about how aggressive they need to be with these two variables.

If their final precedence is to achieve full FIRE in 5-8 years, then Kat wants to seek out the highest-paying job she will, they each have to work as many hours as they are often paid for and they should reduce their spending to the bone.

That’s the intense model and it’s however one choice. The opposite choices all fall someplace in between. There’s no proper or fallacious right here, it’s only a query of what they need most:

1. Do they need work/life steadiness now and an extended timeline to FI?
2. Or, do they need to work nonstop for the subsequent 5-8 years with a view to totally retire of their 30s?

Kat’s Query #3: What sort of paid work ought to I pursue subsequent? Any solutions for timezone-flexible distant work?

See above: the highest-paying she will discover in the event that they need to FIRE ASAP. By way of distant work, that is actually a growth time for that. By way of which job, I defer to the smart Frugalwoods readers who’ve charted these waters already.

I don’t know precisely what Kat’s work historical past is, however she talked about she’s been a author up to now. In my expertise as a contract author for numerous magazines and on-line publications, this can be a fully timezone-flexible job. The consumer doesn’t care what time of day you’re writing at, they simply desires the piece delivered by deadline.

Freelance writing doesn’t pay very nicely, however it could possibly be one thing for Kat to discover as an add-on to a different job. Since she doesn’t want the advantages of a full-time place, she may cobble collectively a lot of freelance gigs. That being mentioned, if she did discover a US-based employer with an identical 401k/403b retirement plan, that will surely assist with their FIRE math.

At current, Kat just isn’t eligible to contribute to her personal IRA since she doesn’t have earned revenue; however, she may look into opening a spousal IRA.

Kat’s Query #4: How can Jay and I higher join throughout instances after we’re on reverse ends of the work/life steadiness spectrum?

It’s so exhausting to really feel at odds along with your partner’s schedule and power stage. I’m wondering in the event that they’ve thought-about establishing an evenings/weekends schedule that may allow them to each get what they want from their time collectively?

For instance, possibly Saturday mornings are designated for them to hike along with the understanding that Jay wants Saturday afternoons to decompress and watch a film. Maybe by articulating how they need to divide up their time they’ll be capable of come to some settlement on what’ll work greatest for every of them.

Moreover, Kat famous that a variety of their time collectively is used to arrange for the subsequent week. If she’s not working, I’m wondering if she may take into account shifting all of that prep work to throughout the weekdays when Jay is at work? Laundry, home cleansing, errands, meal prep, and so on may all happen whereas Jay’s at work in order that the weekends are reserved completely without cost/leisure time collectively.

Abstract

1. Maintain doing what you’re doing. You’ll attain FIRE finally in the event you proceed on this path.
2. Decide how necessary the 5-8 12 months FIRE timeline is:
   1. If FIRE-ing ASAP is the precedence, Kat must get a well-paying job, you might want to reduce your spending to the bone and shovel cash into your investments.
   2. If Coast FI in a couple of years is interesting, take into account what part-time jobs you may each get pleasure from working to cowl your bills.
   3. There are infinite prospects right here and it’s best to really feel assured that you’ve the idea to assist whichever path you select.
3. Check out how a lot money you could have available and be certain that it is sensible along with your timeline for leaving the army, shopping for a home, and so on.
4. Contemplate shifting all prep/family work to the weekdays to order the weekends without cost/leisure time.
5. Contemplate making a weekend schedule that ensures each of you’re getting what you want out of your downtime collectively.

Okay Frugalwoods nation, what recommendation do you could have for Kat? We’ll each reply to feedback, so please be at liberty to ask questions!

Would you want your individual Case Research to look right here on Frugalwoods? Apply to be an on-the-blog Case Research topic right here. Rent me for a non-public monetary session right here. Schedule an hourlong or 30-minute name with me, refer a pal to me right here, schedule a free 15-minute name to be taught extra or e-mail me with questions (liz@frugalwoods.com).