I reached my initial FIRE number today

That’s the right mindset. Just cut your project in small steps and be persistent. If it doesn’t work try the next thing. You always need luck to be successful, but you also need to bring yourself in a position where you can have luck. Just roll the dice all the time and you will win. I’m sure you can do it!

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I would recommend Freienbach SZ – right at the Zurich lake and Sbahn to HBF.

Also even lower taxes than Zug for most folks.

@Alvo congrats on the big step and the tenacity. Most folks will never achieve this.

Maybe I should post my own story eventually (fired from my tech job a few months ago, now effectively fully retired).

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Of course - please share!

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Freienbach SZ / Pfäffikon is known as the “cheapest” place in Switzerland, tax wise. The difference to Zug is small, though. And my subjective opinion about Pfäffikon is that it’s small and not very pretty :slight_smile: although Rapperswil is not far away. And the train to HB takes 30 min, from Zug it’s 20 min.

Short version: fired @ 40 years. I use a SWR of just 2% (basically the dividend yield of VT) since I am a very risk averse person. Retiring at 40 was somehow always a lofty goal that I had in mind but somehow it took the mental stress of Corona and the pain of endless video calls to actually resign.

The main driver for me to FIRE was not so much my tech salary (which increased nicely but still) but the strongly appreciating equity grant. I worked for my last employer nearly 9 years and the company value went nearly vertical ever since.

On the spending side I was always extremely careful with my expenditures (especially recurring ones) and was always staying WAY BELOW a level that I could afford. So fairly old car, small apartment, etc. I actually almost forced myself this month to actually spend a few thousand bucks on “fun” items like a big new OLED tv, etc.

I am currently 80% invested and the rest is held in cash (mostly USD and CHF). I am selling put options (SPY; 20-50% below current prices; expiry 3-12 months out) using my spare cash as a guarantee. That allows me to generate roughly 2-4% interest per year on that portion of money (key is to sell those put options after a few day of market losses like the last two weeks – that ensures that VIX is high / put prices expensive). It will also force me to enter the market whenever there is a major market dip. So indirectly I follow this strategy / allocation: https://www.wertpapier-forum.de/topic/59377-ultrastabilität-nach-andreas-beck/

My biggest worry was that I will be bored with so much free time but reality is that there is always something to do/fix/visit/read/etc. Overall very happy with my decision :slight_smile:

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You mean the grants or the stock? If you kept all this stock for 9 years it’s more of a stock picking bet that went (very) well.

I was forced to hold it for a quite a long time – but yes, picking the right employer was effectively my form of stock picking. So luck played a major role in this outcome. I could have worked just as hard somewhere else and still work for another 10-15 years.

Thanks for sharing. So, finally the FIREd people slowly emerge in this forum. I think we didn’t have many success stories so far. Being able to live off 2% of your portfolio: great stuff. Probably in 10 years this “2%” will be a much bigger 2% than the current 2% :slight_smile:

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Thanks @Bojack. I learned a lot here and from the FatFired Reddit forum – so happy to share back some learnings.

Yes, I told myself to revisit my SWR in 2-3 years or so. If things look well (maybe a major bull run from here?) I might double my SWR, which would probably mean a major life upgrade / donating money / etc.

5 posts were split to a new topic: Life with one partner working and one retired

Great achievement - congratulations! With that numbers and such a low withdrawal rate there’s a big change you will become very wealthy. Still a long way to go for me to reach this and I’m not sure if I’m willing to do that.

Have you been working for an American company in Switzerland?

I always fear that people read this forum and get intimidated by such immense success stories, because let’s face it - that’s nothing you can plan for.
So guys take this as a great outcome that can happen if you are diligent, disciplined and take risks, but even 10% of what IdleThought did would be a great success.

Thanks @Alvo. Everybody has a different risk preference and moving to the right place, etc can also help to get to FI a lot earlier.

Yes, that is exactly right. Equity grants are typical for US tech companies … much less so elsewhere.

I realized that Reddit (given its US focus) has actually many much more extreme outcomes: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/

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8 posts were split to a new topic: Cash Secured Puts

@Alvo , congrats! Enjoy it in great health!

Hi, would it be ok to share a bit more? Are these contracts made or redefined every year?

I’m not really an expert in this topic. From experience I can say, that banks have a certain portion of budget allocated for external resources and they will usually offer a yearly contract with a budget ceiling. In November/December they give you a new offer. But the price never goes up, because why should it? If you don’t like it then they don’t extend your contract. So the price sticks until you’re gone and they notice “hey, we actually need that guy, he was doing a good job”. So when they want you back, you can ask for a new rate.

Smaller assignments (like 20 person-days) come with a higher daily rate and can be negotiated.

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Thanks! Sound quite interesting to be at contract lifestyle!

Hi! Great post.
When you refer to contract lifestyle etc do you mean work as independant ?
I have my employer work but I would like do more… Work and get an extra income.
My Fire number is too long… And I can’t wait

@Alvo, I think you did really really good. I have been working since 2006, and I am just slightly above you in term of net wealth. I didn’t invest until 2016 though as I didn’t knew better. Congratulations!

What? What kind of salary do you have to pay that much? Insane :sweat_smile:

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20k for Staat, 22k for Gemeinde, 16k for Bund.

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