Life Changing Events

I cheated by combining one:
1. Marriage/birth of children/birth of 3 (so far) grandchildren
2. Becoming a runner at age 47, after lifetime of being an overweight couch potato.
3. Cancer diagnosis (1st of 2)at age 54, in large part accelerating my ER date.
 
1. Surviving growing up in inner city Chicago and attending Chicago Public Schools. Graduated with all appendages still attached, a deep knowledge of smoking in the boys' room and no jail record!

2. Being taken on by an excellent private liberal arts college (despite being a punk, c+ student from a really crappy school system) as a diversity case.

3. Being at the right place at the right time when the factory I was working in had its product line explode in popularity and I received several promotions during the years of rapid expansion.

4. Getting laid off at 58 when I would have likely done the OMY thing repeatedly.
 
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1. Choosing law enforcement as a career. Retired at age 52 after 29 years with the type of pension that is virtually extinct now. We're not going on any 'round-the-world cruises but we're comfortable and that's all either of us needs or wants.

2. Made the mistake of marrying 1st wife - set me back six or seven years financially. But at least it was early enough that I could recover. Lots of lessons learned but wow the tuition was steep!

3. Marrying DW - this summer it will be 28 years of wedded bliss.
 
1. Thirteen years of Air Force life including saving many lives in search and rescue missions.

2. Birth of my son despite bad first marriage that ended in divorce.

3. Wonderful second marriage! Beating her ovarian cancer!!!!

4. Cervical disc degeneration disease and the chronic pain management to deal with it.

5. Early retirement at age 56.


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1. Nearly dying from acute illness at age 6. Ever since I consider that I am living on borrowed time and act accordingly. That experience was truly a gift.

2. Move from a rural upbringing to a big city research university and finding people like me by the hundreds and hundreds. Only a lot smarter than I. Who knew?

3. Walking away from my PHD dissertation, after completing extensive research and while writing chapter three because I felt if I finished I would have to work the rest of my life as an economist. A truly dismal prospect for me.

4. Finding and later marrying the girl of my dreams less than two months before I was to marry the absolute wrong woman. Saved in the nick of time and remain grateful all these 34 years later. I worried for years that I would run into the jilted woman's mother in NYC and she would slap my face in public.

5. The loss, also 34 years ago, of my great friend and wilderness backpacking companion...my beloved dog. Unable to bring myself to find a replacement because of not wanting to go through that pain again in the future. At least for now. A very special friend.

6. Throwing caution to the wind and moving to Switzerland for my final j*b and now staying here in ER. For both of us it was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. As it should be. Trying not to sound unintelligent in a new language (italian), navigating a different culture, and making new friends from scratch provides daily challenges and rewards.


-BB
 
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1) Choosing a profession /college major that gave me independence. (1980's)
2) Taking a job on the east coast - well out of my west coast comfort zone - where I knew no-one. (1993)
3) Meeting the brother of a former coworker at the job back east... and marrying him - at an advanced age for both of us. (1999)

If I could add a few more...
4) having kids - definitely changed lifestyle. (2000, 2002)
5) Watching 3 family members die of cancer in a short window... that put me on track to value time more than money and led to my acceleration of ER plans. (2002, 2007, 2007)
 
1. Choosing not to follow my passion in electronics, as the college circular provided to prospective students demonstrated poor results for graduates finding jobs in their fields.
2. Learning to do my own research.
3. Graduating from Uni with Business Degree after taking three years part time to finish the final year.
4. Buying into a business that I am selling out of after 30 great but busy and stressful years.
5. Finding future DW at a college bar and having the liquid courage to ask her to dance to ACDC's 'You Shook Me'. Two kids in college and 28 years later, DW and I are anxious but excited as we move from FI to FIRE.
 
1) Working for the city (summer after high school) cutting right-of-ways, patching roads and the clincher, working on a garbage truck. This sealed my fate, an engineering degree was in my future.
2) Rode a greyhound bus 600 miles to college where I knew no one and started a great new life adventure.
3) Knee injury (snapped ACL) in early 30s which has altered my activity level ever since.
 
Deciding at age 26 it would be good to go back to school. The best decision I ever made, other than DW.:)

My brother's death.

Leaving PA with my DW at age 21. If I would have stayed back there with the folks I grew up with best case I'd ended up missing wonderful experiences.
 
1. Joining the Air Force started me on a path of electronics, software, and systems engineering.

2. Marrying DW. It always amazed me that someone as good looking and outgoing as her would like someone as reserved/nerdy as me!

3. Having kids 10 years later.

4. DW passed away after 29+ happy years. That accelerated my FIRE by several years. The Good Lord let me know quite clearly that He needed me to help out at the Kid's Camp as best I could. This is where I intend to spend the rest of my life (with visits to kids from time to time and hopefully grand kids someday.)
 
nash031 said:
Chronologically...

1) Choosing to join NROTC college program... 16.5 years active duty and counting.
2) Marrying my wife (of nearly five years now)
3) Yet to come... but due this September. :)
Click to expand...


In re: #3. Oh? Not the new car, I assume? I guess I must have missed a post or two. 😀💐


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1. Changed my major from accounting to Engineering, it was brave, I was not sure I could hack it.
2. Move to the East Coast for 3 years without knowing a soul.
3. Left major Corp with pension to join a startup, met my husband there. Lol, he replaced my pension.
4. Births of my kids.
5. Death of my mom. Too painful. 20 years later and our family still talk about the impact she had on us.


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1. Marriage and child age 21-22 :LOL:
2. Immigration to US age 30 :cool:
3. Getting offer from competitor, which led to counter offer from current employer , which led to fast advancement in different line of work than I was originally in - age 37
4. Will see what comes next :facepalm:
 
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1. College experience and receiving education degree
2. Living in two foreign countries in my twenties
3. Reading many financial books in my thirties including Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez/Robbins which led to tracking expenses, setting and meeting savings goals, and imagining a life beyond paid employment
 
Not necessarily a life changing event but certainly a memorable one.... driving away from home at age 17 on my own to go to college almost 200 miles away with all my worldly possessions in my car and a map on how to get there.... first time I had driven on a 5 lane interstate highway (Route 128 around Boston, now known as I-95). I figured it out.

Had to move my stuff into my dorm. My first roommate had a killer stereo system... but had it on all night so I moved out a couple weeks later. Second roommate was a jerk... third was from my home state and on the soccer team and we got along ok. Met some guys I liked hanging out with and moved in with them for second semester through end of junior year.

Contrast that with today... DD had already communicated with her roommate throughout the summer.... we drove her down and helped her move in... after freshman year when she had to pack her stuff and come home for the summer she was mad that we had not made the 3-4 hour drive (one way) to help her pack her things.
 
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pb4uski said:
Not necessarily a life changing event but certainly a memorable one.... driving away from home at age 17 on my own to go to college almost 200 miles away with all my worldly possessions in my car and a map on how to get there.... first time I had driven on a 5 lane interstate highway (Route 128 around Boston, now known as I-95). I figured it out.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that reminder of an event. I graduated college in 1958 and my folks drove out to Ohio with me and left me the car. Watching them get on the plane and fly off, then driving into town for my first job was an experience. Some months later I decided I wanted to go to California, so I drove route 66 all the way.
 
Too many life-changing events to pick only three. The only negative ones were the deaths of my parents many years apart. Everything else has been good eventually.

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1 - marriage to 2nd (and current) wife
2 - backing into an I.T. career
3 - midlife crisis which led to FI/RE action
 
Chronological order:

1. Deciding in college to learn about personal finance so I wouldn't suffer through debt and bad jobs the way I saw so many others doing
2. Commissioning into the Air Force
3. The illness and death of an older sibling before age 50. During the illness, I also happened to read YMoYL and started to do some calculations. Realized that I was actually in better shape than I realized, and moved my retirement goal up 10 years. If I'm going to die before age 50, I want at least a few years of retirement before that.
 
The only one I could think of was Hurricane Hugo in September 1989 when I was 18. That storm, at the time one of the largest hurricanes to hit the US in decades, upended a lot of lives here in Charleston. It was because of that storm that I broke up with a boyfriend after meeting this cute older guy at the scuba shop (helping raise a bunch of sunken sailboats). We've been together ever since, and that one event probably changed my whole life trajectory.
 
1) tragic death of my beautiful 18 year old sister (I was 22)
2) needed a change so I quit grad school and got a job with a consulting firm
3) moving out of Houston to the beautiful PNW
 
1) getting a summer internship @ Apple in 1984
2) meeting my wife on a company ski trip to steamboat co
3) NOT jumping from my company to a startup in 1999


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