24 year old with a dream

[plex]

Hey all,

I am 24 years old and my goal/dream is to FIRE or at least be FI in my early 40s. This is a difficult goal, but one that I believe it achievable, based on a very useful spreadsheet that maps out income/taxes/inflation/CoL/whole other range of things and then tells you how much you will be living on at a particular retirement age.

The important numbers are, I want to have about 4M when I retire, and plan to do it with a very generous income, save 40% of my gross income, only increase spending based on inflation and of course maximize tax-free and tax-deferred accounts when I have them available to me.

I have a general idea of a proper investment plan (low expense, moderately aggressive passive indexing). Currently maximizing Roth space, I won't have access to Roths in a few years and I need as much tax-free space as I can get. Still working on information on how to build passive income through real estate, slowly picking up good information as I go, but this project has yet to begin, I don't have a steady flow of income yet since I am still a student, so a 20% down-payment would be tough for getting started and then maintaining costs.

It is good to be here!

[WM]

Welcome! Congrats on starting to plan so early - that can definitely put you way ahead.

Many here have found that passive income from investments is a lot less work than real estate. Proceed with skepticism - there's no shortage of books on how to make a ton of money in real estate but most of them should be in the "get rich quick" category and read for entertainment value only

Also, if you're willing to share, what career path are you on that you expect such a high salary? 4M in 20 years is definitely ambitious.

[Milton]

Originally Posted by WM

Also, if you're willing to share, what career path are you on that you expect such a high salary? 4M in 20 years is definitely ambitious.

Especially if you mean $4 million in 2008 dollars (?).

[plex]

Probably not 4M in 2008 dollars, that would require something in the 7-8M actual dollar range in my early 40s. If I wanted 4M in 2008 dollars, I would probably have to work a bit longer, probably up to my late 40s. It would be about the equivalent of retiring on 2.5M in 2008 dollars. It would be comfortable, and likely pay for health insurance, but not much more than that. I will either work very part-time after that or build some other form of passive income for a bit of a cushion. My career is a combination of electrical engineering/law and possibly could have a bit of a financial/business bent as well depending on what I do in the future. It requires being adept with numbers/technology (especially technology)/reading/writing/communication skills/business...pretty much everything.