Hello everyone,
I have been following the discussion here for quite a while (very inspiring and helpful!), so I finally wanted to introduce myself:
I am 32 years old, live in Europe and work in marketing for MegaCorp.
Recently, I inherited a large amount of money (in the high 7-figures). Together with another inheritance I can reasonably expect to make in the next couple of years (hopefully later!), this will bring my total net worth to just about 8-figures.
Fortunately enough, over the last years my parents gradually prepared me for this, because I would otherwise have been clueless about their wealth. My father came from a modest background and over the years accumulated money through a successful career at MegaCorp, smart investing choices and LBYM. As the years passed, my parents selectively chose to spend good money on experiences they considered worthwhile but never on status items such as fancy cars. They did not spoil me as a child and expected me to take up a job for any extras I wanted as a teenager - but they never thought twice about investing into my education.
Given the circumstances, I like to think that I held up pretty well these past few years. Yes, I blew a few thousand just to see how life in the fast lane feels. But I believe this has kept me from making any major mistakes. Meanwhile, I put most of the money into a low-cost equities portfolio with a long-term investment approach.
At some point I started looking into ER and the thought of it has been with me ever since.
Financially, I am assuming I could pull this off: I have tracked my expenses over the past year and am confident that I could live very well on a 2% WR but also get by with 1% if need be. There definitely will not be any kids, so worst case I could still get along just fine as long as my investments at least keep up with inflation. Even though 60 years is a very long time to plan for, I think this should give me quite a bit of safety margin.
During my professional career so far, I have worked at two different large companies and cannot complain: My work in marketing is reasonably interesting, the pay is decent and I like my coworkers. However, it never really felt like a passion or a contribution to the greater good. And when I look at my superiors, I see few exciting things that would make me want to work hard to get there someday. Instead, I see plenty of office politics which, fortunately, I have been able to largely avoid so far.
On the other hand, there is plenty of things I feel I am currently missing out on: I love to travel, but - much to the dismay of my DH - I end up cramming our few holidays with too many destinations because there I so much I still want to see... I would love to do some slow travel someday and really immerse myself in a foreign country. Apart from that, there is the usual bunch of other stuff (exercise, cooking, etc.) that I currently do too little or none of because I lack the energy after a long work day. And there is a bucket list of other things that are hardly compatible with having a full-time job. Having seen how my father died aged 74 with so many things still left undone, I feel I should be grateful and take the opportunity given to me to pursue happiness now.
I have therefore considered to ER in a couple of years, whenever the right situation presents itself. However, it looks like this moment may come sooner than expected: My current employer is about to be sold off to another company. So even if they should offer me to keep my job, this would most likely require moving elsewhere. Since I specifically took up my current job to move to the city I love, going elsewhere is not an option for me and I will thus be without a job in about a year.
Unfortunately, there are no other large employers in my city with the type of well-known brands a marketeer typically would like to work for. Yes, there are a range of start-ups, but they usually engage in online marketing, which is not my field of expertise (nor interest).
Besides, I have a strong urge to enjoy some personal freedom. So far I have always jumped through all the hoops that have been presented to me - every internship, work assignment and so on. Now I would at the very least like to enjoy some time without any obligations and see where this takes me.
So I think after my current job runs out, I will not look for a new one immediately. However, the thought of it is giving me trouble in several ways:
1. As much as I love them and want to be truthful to them, I cannot tell my family. My brother has received the same inheritance but has no plans to stop working. To be fair, he has a 1-year old son, so his motivation may be different. The bigger problem, however, is my mother: She has always been very concerned about competition for jobs. Even if I took just one year off this would certainly worry her very much and at 74 years this is not something I want to put her trough.
2. My mother‘s concerns are actually getting to me and I am myself worried if I could actually return to work after some extended time off. Even though my marketing skills might still be relevant then, to most employers in this field my non-linear CV would probably signal a lack of ambition (and they might actually be right).
3. Ideally, being free from all obligations would uncover a hidden passion/talent of mine which I could turn into a low-maintenance, fulfilling job/business. But I am concerned this will not work as long as I do not actually commit to ER because the thought that I should probably go back to MegaCorp after a year will suppress all fresh thinking from the start.
So, this is where I currently stand - thank you for bearing with me so far. I am not sure what it is I should ask you guys. Writing this down by itself has already been helpful. Nevertheless, I am very much looking forward to any comments you might have!
Happy holidays to everyone and a wonderful time with your loved ones!
I have been following the discussion here for quite a while (very inspiring and helpful!), so I finally wanted to introduce myself:
I am 32 years old, live in Europe and work in marketing for MegaCorp.
Recently, I inherited a large amount of money (in the high 7-figures). Together with another inheritance I can reasonably expect to make in the next couple of years (hopefully later!), this will bring my total net worth to just about 8-figures.
Fortunately enough, over the last years my parents gradually prepared me for this, because I would otherwise have been clueless about their wealth. My father came from a modest background and over the years accumulated money through a successful career at MegaCorp, smart investing choices and LBYM. As the years passed, my parents selectively chose to spend good money on experiences they considered worthwhile but never on status items such as fancy cars. They did not spoil me as a child and expected me to take up a job for any extras I wanted as a teenager - but they never thought twice about investing into my education.
Given the circumstances, I like to think that I held up pretty well these past few years. Yes, I blew a few thousand just to see how life in the fast lane feels. But I believe this has kept me from making any major mistakes. Meanwhile, I put most of the money into a low-cost equities portfolio with a long-term investment approach.
At some point I started looking into ER and the thought of it has been with me ever since.
Financially, I am assuming I could pull this off: I have tracked my expenses over the past year and am confident that I could live very well on a 2% WR but also get by with 1% if need be. There definitely will not be any kids, so worst case I could still get along just fine as long as my investments at least keep up with inflation. Even though 60 years is a very long time to plan for, I think this should give me quite a bit of safety margin.
During my professional career so far, I have worked at two different large companies and cannot complain: My work in marketing is reasonably interesting, the pay is decent and I like my coworkers. However, it never really felt like a passion or a contribution to the greater good. And when I look at my superiors, I see few exciting things that would make me want to work hard to get there someday. Instead, I see plenty of office politics which, fortunately, I have been able to largely avoid so far.
On the other hand, there is plenty of things I feel I am currently missing out on: I love to travel, but - much to the dismay of my DH - I end up cramming our few holidays with too many destinations because there I so much I still want to see... I would love to do some slow travel someday and really immerse myself in a foreign country. Apart from that, there is the usual bunch of other stuff (exercise, cooking, etc.) that I currently do too little or none of because I lack the energy after a long work day. And there is a bucket list of other things that are hardly compatible with having a full-time job. Having seen how my father died aged 74 with so many things still left undone, I feel I should be grateful and take the opportunity given to me to pursue happiness now.
I have therefore considered to ER in a couple of years, whenever the right situation presents itself. However, it looks like this moment may come sooner than expected: My current employer is about to be sold off to another company. So even if they should offer me to keep my job, this would most likely require moving elsewhere. Since I specifically took up my current job to move to the city I love, going elsewhere is not an option for me and I will thus be without a job in about a year.
Unfortunately, there are no other large employers in my city with the type of well-known brands a marketeer typically would like to work for. Yes, there are a range of start-ups, but they usually engage in online marketing, which is not my field of expertise (nor interest).
Besides, I have a strong urge to enjoy some personal freedom. So far I have always jumped through all the hoops that have been presented to me - every internship, work assignment and so on. Now I would at the very least like to enjoy some time without any obligations and see where this takes me.
So I think after my current job runs out, I will not look for a new one immediately. However, the thought of it is giving me trouble in several ways:
1. As much as I love them and want to be truthful to them, I cannot tell my family. My brother has received the same inheritance but has no plans to stop working. To be fair, he has a 1-year old son, so his motivation may be different. The bigger problem, however, is my mother: She has always been very concerned about competition for jobs. Even if I took just one year off this would certainly worry her very much and at 74 years this is not something I want to put her trough.
2. My mother‘s concerns are actually getting to me and I am myself worried if I could actually return to work after some extended time off. Even though my marketing skills might still be relevant then, to most employers in this field my non-linear CV would probably signal a lack of ambition (and they might actually be right).
3. Ideally, being free from all obligations would uncover a hidden passion/talent of mine which I could turn into a low-maintenance, fulfilling job/business. But I am concerned this will not work as long as I do not actually commit to ER because the thought that I should probably go back to MegaCorp after a year will suppress all fresh thinking from the start.
So, this is where I currently stand - thank you for bearing with me so far. I am not sure what it is I should ask you guys. Writing this down by itself has already been helpful. Nevertheless, I am very much looking forward to any comments you might have!
Happy holidays to everyone and a wonderful time with your loved ones!
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As long as you keep your spending under control, and it seems like from your thoughtful post you would. We've known people who made a small fortune in stock options and like the lottery winner stories it is all gone now, when it should have been more than enough money to live very comfortably the rest of their lives.
