The stock market is off to a challenging start this year. This is a bit worrisome as I am now approaching the 1 year mark of my expected early retirement.  

Year to date the S&P500 is down slightly, and the one MegaCorp I hold a disproportionate amount of share in (former employer) is down -3%.  Not huge declines obviously, but the closer I get to my “FIRE by 50” goal, the more I watch the numbers.

Since I’ve been building a cash stockpile, we can afford to weather a market downturn.  We’ve built up about 1.5 years of spending in cash already, but our goal is to get to 3 years cushion before FIRE Day comes on 4/1/16.  I’ve been hoping that the market would continue to rise a bit, but maybe that won’t be the case. 

I’m not sure how much the market would have to fall before I truly doubt retiring early.  How much of a drop would seriously spook you?