Build your church upon the rock

[ESRBob]

On the first day of my first office job at age 22, my dad coincidentally retired. I think that set something in motion in my brain that made me always want to 'graduate'.

8 years later, I ran into Terhorst's book. I guess I was looking for something to help me 'graduate', and might have figure out something eventually, but I'll always be grateful to Terhorst for showing me the map and giving the encouragement.

Starting a company and selling it was the way I got the capital to make it happen, but it was very conscious and planned by that point. If that hadn't worked I already had Plan B in place, and I would have kept going until something hit. (So I can't attribute it to luck)

The one thing that allowed me to retire at 51 was meeting my wife. She is smart, thrifty, attractive, well paid (until ER). Once child support ended for me, we were able to save enough to retire on in six years.

[SDY888]

Did the usual stuff: saved pretty well, lived generally below means and socked the money into stocks, funds and property.

No inheritance, no employee stock option windfalls, no giant bonuses, no sale of business - just regular savings from income and succesfull investing.

As singles and then as a married couple, the wife and I had and continue to have good salaries, so financially we were always doing pretty well.

However, the major "accelerator" in our wealth accumulation has been moving to live and work in some "No Tax" locations and currently in a "Low Tax" location. Makes a huge difference and was a serious engine of growth for us.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to everyone.

Simon888

I began participating in my at-that-time company's tax-deferred savings plan (precursor to 401k's, I think) as soon as I could, in 1976. Later continued to contribute to my 401ks. I could never get the wife to agree to max it out for long. Even so, this is going to keep us out of the poorhouse. If I had known about the 4% SWR, 10-year slumps and what reasonable ROIs actually were, I would have been a more aggressive saver. Lesson: Start early, save a lot.

Ed