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Additional Posts in FIRE Financial Independence Retire Early
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I don’t understand posts like this being made in the FIRE bowl. If you can’t imagine a fulfilling life without working, FIRE is not for you and I’m not sure why you would be in this bowl.
My primary aim with FIRE is the FI, but have wanted to RE since college. I am now 30 and plan on retiring no later than 45. Perhaps I will keep a fun part time job if I find one, but I don’t want to be forced to work (hence my emphasis on FI). There are so many things to do in life that i cannot imagine being bored. Simply reading all the books on my backlog would probably take a lifetime.
Can I send you a text??
I retired at 45. My wife has never worked and I have 3 kids between the ages of 8 to 18. One of the biggest concerns I had when retiring was that I felt that much of my adult identity was wrapped up in terms of my career. I thought I would miss the validation I got from work. The ego boost you get for being recognised as being the best in your field.
Two years into retirement and I am absolutely loving it. I do some volunteer work and very limited consulting work just for fun. Yes I miss my team but I still see them every 3 months or so, and the best part is that my team still want to hang out with me even when there is no career or financial incentive for them to do so. I get to go to the gym 3 times a week without it feeling rushed. Most importantly I get to spend time with my kids and do stuff with them while they still want me around and I am physically fit enough to do so.
What I do not miss is the performative aspects of work and office politics.
I guess the point of my response is just to say that there can be a rewarding life after your career and the fear of missing work might be your own ego getting in the way of that life.
Well said and the best reason for retiring early. When my father’s generation was working they didn’t even THINK about retiring before they had to… generally 65 years old. (My dad RIP was born in 1932).
He loved his work and he was hands down the BEST at what he did).
I'm late 20s and it seems the best plan is to enjoy each year while you're young and healthy because you never know how long your health will last. I travel every year that I can but also save for retirement. It's a balance.
Accountants know the best way to prepare for the future and retire early
I wonder if it's an age and maturity thing as well. A lot of people in their 20s and 30s have this great idea that they'll be able to spend their retired lives following their passions. But the older you get, you start to appreciate the comfort and security of a stable routine.
That's probably true. That's more reason to get your freedom while you're young and can still enjoy a little unpredictability and spontaneity. Why work a rigid schedule while you're young just so that you can get old and not feel like doing anything anyway? Figure out how to get out of the grind while you're still young enough to want to do things.
I assume most people here who are retiring in their 40s and have kids are making $500K or something? It's not realistic for the vast majority obviously...
I should be able to retire by 48 or 49. I did 21 years in the military so that set me back a little but the retirement and disability for life is also a pretty big help. I have a wife and 4 kids. I am currently 41 and my net worth is only $300K right now. That being said, I do make $290K gross right now and I live on a whole lot less than that.
I drive a frugal car (no payments), We as a family do not eat out all the time and we do not waste money. I shop at Ross, Burlington, and Goodwill for clothes.
The reason I know my plan will work is that my net worth went up $245K in the last 18 months once I decided to get serious and retire early. I had basically nothing coming out of the military.
All this to say, it can be done, you just have to figure out what works best for you and your family.
I know someone who retired in early 40s. His idea of retirement was to focus on his hobbies and work as an independent consultant on his terms. He’d take 3-6 month assignments and would work 9-5 and old say no if asked to work any longer. He generally was happiest guy on the team.
Thats what I aspire to. I don’t expect to stop working at 45 or 50 but I do want to stop working on someone else’s terms.
The concept of FINE (financial independence, next endeavor) resonates with me and I think is what many people truly want. It’s about having the autonomy to choose how you spend your time and being able to work a job you enjoy, consult part time, etc.
I am a millennial and I truly believe that if you are not acquiring as many assets as possible in the next 10-15 years by then you may not have the chance of ever retiring or being financially independent as we think of it nowadays. So I want to get there as soon as possible and then have the option.
I think also in 20s/30s you don’t appreciate how expensive it is to have kids/family not are they likely stretched from a sandwich generation perspective. Again this is a generalization. What seems possible at 25 is suddenly less feasible at 40.
Not everyone wants kids and a house, or to slave away for someone else who is making billions yet does not share the wealth with the folks who generate it for them.
Mentor
I think people in their late 20’s or early 30’s are from a totally different era / mindset where they don’t really want to work. I think those of us in our 40’s knew we had to work to survive. Social media / influencers have changed the perception of work to the point where you get generations just want to travel the world and make money “passively”, and that is actually a realistic career for some.
Do you get nosebleeds up there on your ivory tower? Most millennials and Zoomers know nothing will be left for them when it IS time to retire (certainly no SSI, if we're including that). People in privileged positions lose sight of that frequently. I entered the job market when I turned 18 in 2008 and retirement is a pipe dream even though I have a solid 401K going.
I'm a couple years from target retirement in my mid 40s. I have two elementary school aged children, and they'll still be elementary school aged at my target retirement age.
Barring another 2008 coming up between now and ~2028, I have no conceptual problems retiring then.
The mortgage will be paid off, the kids' 529 plans will be either fully funded or nearly fully funded, and our projected income post-retirement (post-retirement for me, my spouse will most likely continue working for another 10-15 years out of career enjoyment) is on track to be >3.5x our projected expenses.
I currently swim coach on the side and will continue doing that in retirement, and also have some passion projects I'll spend a good chunk of time working on.
I didn't learn about the concept of FIRE at all until my mid 30s. Ever since I entered the workforce, I've always wanted to retire as early as feasible, but didn't grasp the FI part of it until about a decade ago, give or take.
What's considered fully funded for a 529?
As I poured over this radically silly and frustrating thread, one thing occurred to me....we can certainly call it what it is: a definitive and defiant “generational mindshift.” Full stop.
The millennial and Zoomer hive mind has contributed remarkably so little to the working class, to art, or to serious scholarship, yet somehow feels entitled to declare the traditional GenX/Boomer model of work and retirement obsolete. In the same breath, they insist that life on the far side of the daily grind will be nothing short of euphoric. One is left to wonder what, exactly, is supposed to fund this miraculous Financial Independence they endlessly invoke on thread such as this.
Many in this thread casually claim to have achieved FI, yet offer only crumbs of honesty about how they actually sustain this supposed Life of Riley(a reference the Zoomers may need to Google). There is a curious reliance on vibes and abstractions paired with a complete allergy to concrete explanations such as income streams, capital accumulation, trade-offs, or SACRIFICE.
Richard Branson(Virgin Records Founder) once told me, “You have to put in the time to make the dime.” Back then it sounded trite, but sitting in a recording studio casually discussing retirement with him and my entire band, it became clear he was dispensing uncomfortable truths. Wealth, freedom, and longevity are purchased with time, discipline, and delayed gratification, not vision boards, crystals you bought on Etsy or what you read in the book, "The Secret".
Today’s younger aspirants seem to prefer fantasy. They imagine Financial Independence as an aesthetic: living in the woods in tiny designer cabins, sipping warm matcha, self-congratulating themselves on various SM platforms of having opted out of a "conventional" way of living, while spending their days doom scrolling, asset-poor, skill-light, and quietly dependent on the very systems they claim to have transcended.
Good luck out there all you milquetoasters, you're gonna need it.
Wow...
I think your post is FULL of self-projection...
The fact of the matter is, with the right math, the right drive, and a plan. FIRE is absolutely obtainable for some...
It requires a STRICT living standard where you put as much as possible (50% or more) into retirement planning.
Most people don't have the drive or the means to do this, but for those that do it is 100% a real thing.
The idea that one needs to work to find fulfillment in life is asinine. If one can save enough, plan far enough ahead, and do what is necessary, early retirement is very possible.
I feel like your post is full of jealously, self-projection, and otherwise just plain close minded.
For me it’s mostly about having the option to do so and the peace of mind associated with it. Probably would never retire but would potentially do more fulfilling work (helping people).
Mentor
It depends on what your goals are in RE and when you’re financially able to reach it plus what the trade offs are.
Our aim for RE was to spend more quality time with our kids, parents and loved ones and not be constrained by work, which typically takes up a large chunk of your daily life / routine. Plus also travel and do things which would be a lot harder to do when you’re 1-2 decades older.
We retired in our late 30s because we’d already exceeded our FI target and didn’t see the point of grinding it out at work for another 1-2 decades at the expense of time with our loved ones and health when we didn’t need to.
That said, what we have now is sufficient to allow us to have very comfortable lives and still enable NW to continue to grow (albeit at a slower pace). Now we have the freedom to pursue our actual passions and time with loved ones while we’re all still relatively young and healthy.
I think Covid screwed up a lot of young people's heads. They saw what retirement looked like (sans being sequestered) and decided not going to work and retiring in their 40's was a good idea. I was VP in three companies when I quit and started my own business when I was 42. I ran it for 23 years and loved going to work every day. I sold the business to private equity for enough that I will never have to worry about money again. Retiring at 40 is a crap shoot that you will have the funds to live for another 40 to 60 years. IMO, 40 is about the age where you have developed skills that you can finally apply for great wealth and happiness.
My goal was to be able to retire by the time I was 45 and I was able to do so but I realized that I wasn't ready to retire at 45. Now, I'm 62 and I think I will retire when I die.
Coach
This is the sentiment I was pointing to in the original post. Retire Early sounds very appealing from a distance, and many people are drawn to the idea. In reality, though, only a small fraction actually choose to pursue it, even after achieving financial independence.
The idea is simply not wanting to work your entire life away. I'm currently 35, on track to have the ability to retire by 45, More likely to retire around 50, since I may as well continue to work while my kids are still home and in school. Once my youngest is out the door, that's that. Done working. Our home will be paid off in the next 2 years, and we will keep it as "home base" not only for us but for our kids as well. But we will be spending most of our time traveling and enjoying life. All the money in the world isn't going to buy me any extra time or any better health. I think that's the goal of FIRE in a nutshell.
What's your target FIRE number and the projected expenses at the time of retirement?
Wow...ya'll made some great decisions and I'm assuming a sort of you had some really good examples and influence. I'm very aware some of you may not have had any good influence but somehow made great decisions and figured it out... Well I'm 63 and didn't make the best choices in regards to preparing for a handful of reasons, although some of the preparation I involved myself with did not work out. I'm glad we now live in a digital world and there are so many potential "opportunities" to accumulate a nice Chunk by the time I'm 72. If any of you are willing to connect with me with some real ways to make it happen, please connect with me. I work 12 hour night shifts and it's not fun at this point. I don't do drugs or alcohol. My credit is over 700 and I make about $75000 a year gross. I'm $42000 in debt. Please comment beyond the obvious, I'm determined to find a way to retire by 72 or sooner with a home(which I do not have) and nice chunk in the bank or investments. I have no pension. I do have SS which I don't draw but plan to max it out which might be near $2400 when I reach max age. I plan to buy a home/property in Oklahoma and would love to be a farmer, Watermelons and Asparagus.......Thanks. Tom D. ps. I'm hoping the monitor won't kick me out too soon.
After reading several of these posts, I doubt that they had "really good examples and influence", or "made great decisions and figured it out". Pardon my skepticism, but it's more likely they had a lot of family money behind them. Take note that they aren't divulging very many details.
I’m your age, still plugging away, too, (and enjoying it) and I only know of one person who retired at 50. He was management at a good, nationwide company, his wife worked full time, and they had one child. He bought a lot of company stock over the years, and cashed out when it split, and made a little over $1 million. His wife kept working. Unfortunately, I’ve never had that stock option.
I wish I had some better advice for you; good luck with the property and farming!
Well, I am older, but I wanted to continue working at a Biotech company. However, after George Floyd death, my previous employer pushed DEI with a focus of white privilege. Well, I decided to retire sooner, and not fight or feel pressured from the hostile work place.
Subject Expert
It’s great to have the choices that FI allows
Subject Expert
I’m my 30’s I also aspired to retire in my 40’s!
Subject Expert
Many of us here want that.
Silver lining is that 50 doesn’t actually seem very old once you get close
I’m in my early 40s and would love to retire before 50. So that’s where my mind is. And yes. I’m married and have a family. I think it boils down to whether or not you want to have your money work for you (so you can actually enjoy life) or if you’re content with someone else telling you what to do for the rest of your life. I know quite a few people who are in their 30s and 40s and are multimillionaires. It’s possible. It’s realistic. It just takes work.