Financial Freedom Blog Post #13

Dear Readers, It's me, Into the FIRE. How have you been? Well, I hope. Long time no see! We're going to revisit a little recalculation today to see if our numbers are still accurate! So, if we revisit the Financial Freedom book, let's go back to question #2! 2) What are your current annual expenses? 3) What is "your number"? (This is 25 times or 30 times your annual expenses.) 4) What is your annual, monthly, weekly and daily savings goal? Let's review the data for #2 and #3 for 2022! I am going to input the average for all 12 months for 2022: Average for 2022: $5,197.03 Here it is month by month: Month and Year Total Spent Jan 2022 $4,849.19 Feb 2022 $4,848.53 Mar 2022 $6,184.22 Apr 2022 $4,878.08 May 2022 $3,401.07 Jun 2022 $4,680.68 Jul 2022 $5,823.13 Aug 2022 $4,536.90 Sep 2022 $5,198.48 Oct 2022 $4,708.46 Nov 2022 $5,402.67 Dec 2022 $7,852.89 Average for 2022: $5,197.03 This number had increased significantly from 2018 and 2019. In 2022, our health insurance (medical premiums) cost $703 per month. I also increased the amount I spent on groceries every month. Other categories that were high were fast food, restraurants, entertainment, gifts and travel. So... the new number without further ado: Average Spending per month (for Jan 2022 to Dec 2022): $5,197.03 Average Spending extrapolated to a Year (Average): $62,364.36 My 'Number' (25x Average Yearly Expenses): $1,559,109 So now you can see due to the higher averages, my new number is $1,559,109, which is an increase of $554,154. Honestly, I am not exactly sure how to calculate my expenses going forward. This is because our medical premium has reduced from $703 monthly to $102.08 bi-weekly. If we multiply this out, it comes out to $8436 yearly versus $2654.08. Previously, our dental had been $75 per month. It has now increased to $148.27 per month. This means it's gone from $900 per year to $1779.24 per year. All things considered, it's an improvement from 2022. Another thing is that I have a new job, which I will be vested in a pension for in five years. However, I was advised to work for 10 years. After 10 years, I'll have discounted health insurance for life. The other item I saw is that I will only be allowed to access my retirement funds early as well as continue access to discounted health insurance is if I retire at 55. This throws a huge wrench in my plans to retire in 10 years. However, I am hopeful that they may offer an early retirement package in an effort to lower costs. So, my plan is to keep my head down and hope for a buyout (with amenable provisions for healthcare, of course). As it is currently, if I retire at 55 I will have to work 18 more years. I guess we'll see what happens. If Medicare for all is approved, that could be a total gamechanger. Thank you for reading, Into the FIRE