Cool FIRE article in MSN Money

[papadad111]

Is the penalty really that high though? They'll just have to find a way to earn a little money. They'll still be very young, and their income needs are modest. Is it really terrible if one of them has to get a job in 10 years?

There aren't retirement police that shoot people who run low on money in retirement.

Or we wind up paying for them and their followers by way of higher taxes ... It's a zero sum game.

 

[papadad111]

Except they have a $270k house in a great prime downtown location that has a separate basement apartment. Virtually zero chance they won't make a small mint renting that out (either airbnb like they mention or traditional long term lease).

And while they are traveling they might be able to rent out their whole house and more than cover the cost of their travels.

It's more like they have a $670k* portfolio where the asterisk contains a big footnote.

Sure, they may do something productive that pays at some point. It wouldn't take much effort to make an extra $10-12k per year and get them to $40k per year in spending (plus a paid off house). Whether that means renting their basement apartment and/or their primary residence while away or some extremely part time fun work (=blog?). If they work 3 hours per week and make $6k from the blog and $6k/yr from their rental efforts, did they unretire themselves?

I sent Travis the link to this thread. I hope they are laughing at the banality of the discussion.

Ok. But the point is they say they are retired.

Quote from their blog. "Retired in our 30's, having adventures with Bruno, enjoying our newfound freedom!"

And... They ain't retired ...


It's ok to un-retire but the Bruno's and mainstream USA today Type media needs to be honest and stop selling this as "early retirement". It's disingenuous.
It's untruthful. ..... It's lying.

They took time off / career switched to low income side hustles. Be it air BB or rental income of their primary residence or blogs income or working at Walmart ..

The blog becomes way less interesting ... Coz they aren't retired.

So where is the retirement police when we need them.


Book em, Danno.


Joking aside - I certainly respect the effort and I guess it's less about envy and more about warning them as we would warn anyone who comes aboard and asks am I ready to retire

Few would green light this based on their portfolio position. Most in this audience have well over a million, in fact last net worth survey indicated average was north of 2M. So this group does tend to be more conservative

Many people for one reason or another will retire on less. For sure. But also many of those will ultimately fail too.

Perhaps the approach and intent is that of a big brother rather than someone throwing rocks at their glass house.

I do admire their attempt. Youth can be so optimistic that they don rose colored glasses. That vantage can endanger even the best of plans

 

[daylatedollarshort]

So when is it okay to comment on these blogs? Is it okay to comment when someone writes they retired at 12 with 100K and fifteen kids, is that okay to comment on or would that still be the retirement police? Cause I'm sensing that is the direction these blogs are heading since retire at thirty niche is getting over crowded and passe. Is there a cutoff of when it is okay to point out any unrealistic assumptions, improbabilities or potential pitfalls?

 

[purplesky]

Purplesky, what's your story? You definitely sound very NEGATIVE. I hope you didn't get the link to this ER forum from some ER blog

My perspective and reaction to their situation is like that of a parent or close relative. Basically tough love. Suck it up. Keep working.

I have been called jealous and envious but my reaction to this couple is to be protective.

This couple was so close to having enough money in their portfolio that would have produced very sufficient income while they sleep and play.

This is how the rich get rich. Don't touch that 1st million! Just rich enough to create a small pension and build wealth for your kids or just as a safety net. Not to buy stuff.

So whatever. They will be fine. They say everything happens for a reason.

I have a feeling they might have wealthy parents.

I guess they didn't talk with a Financial advisor. That might have helped them to stay focused on the carrot. Avoid instant gratification.

 

[purplesky]

He isn't really being negative. Just playing the devils advocate to this story...

I would consider it a realist position - pointing out the difference between reality and fantasy land - the flaws in the logic ...

And with a big dose of criticism to MSN for telling this story to the general public without disclosing all the facts - to the public who are too countrified on topics of money to know the difference...and then believe everything they read in a paper or the Internet..

You read my mind.

 

[purplesky]

So when is it okay to comment on these blogs? Is it okay to comment when someone writes they retired at 12 with 100K and fifteen kids, is that okay to comment on or would that still be the retirement police? Cause I'm sensing that is the direction these blogs are heading since retire at thirty niche is getting over crowded and passe. Is there a cutoff of when it is okay to point out any unrealistic assumptions, improbabilities or potential pitfalls?

Watch out for the Retirement Blog police. They will arrest you and make you read their blog.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Financial media articles seem to do so little fact checking these days, I think it is good to have discussions like this. Forbes is now reporting the net worth of the Theranos founder has gone from $4.5B to $0 overnight? It sounds like many of the investigative financial journalists were asleep at the wheel.

From a Fortune article after a WSJ expose

"Holmes has been featured on the cover of Forbes, been profiled in The New Yorker, been interviewed by Charlie Rose, and she has been given a host of awards and honors—including being named to the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. All of that has been called into question by the Wall Street Journal‘s allegations."

 

[UpAnchor]

Hopefully the renters won't be cooking meth or fixing their Harley in the living room.

I experienced the latter. Hearing a rumor that my renter "might" be rebuilding his Harley in the living of a second-floor condo I owned, I decided to sneak a peak while he was out on the road. (He was a recently-graduated civil engineer with the state DOT, doing field work at the other end of the state.) My fears were confirmed. Though interestingly he'd covered the entire living room floor with three layers of polyethylene sheeting, staggering the seams and running the edges about a foot up onto the walls where it was secured with painter's tape. Before I even got the chance to broach the subject, he moved out. When I checked the property I found it absolutely immaculate, which was more than I could say about the previous two renters, both women. So much for stereotypes.

And how he got that Harley into and out of a second-floor condo remains a mystery...

 

[Fedup]

Or we wind up paying for them and their followers by way of higher taxes ... It's a zero sum game.

Exactly. But more importantly, I think they give up on life. Ok fine that they don't like engineering, but do something that they like.

 

[rodi]

Exactly. But more importantly, I think they give up on life. Ok fine that they don't like engineering, but do something that they like.

LOL - It sounds like they are. They like travelling with Bruno.

I am curious - what is the cutoff for "OK" to be retired? 40? 50? What about 39?

I'm asking this as an intellectual exercise.... I assume my retirement age (52) met the approved range for ER. As others have mentioned - this is the **EARLY** retirement forum. I thought we were supportive of people wanting to retire early. But apparently there is some magic age that makes it ok vs too early.

Now the FI side of FIRE.... I agree they cut it closer than I would.... but most people here are saying they aren't retired (vs FI)... and seem to be focusing on their age, saying they haven't worked enough.

So - what is the magic age? I think we should decide and then put it in the FAQ's about ER thread.

 

[FUEGO]

And how he got that Harley into and out of a second-floor condo remains a mystery...

He's a civil engineer. Dude can build roads, bridges, dams, and skyscrapers. Moving half a ton of metal 11' off the ground? Sounds like a freshman engineering project.

 

[FUEGO]

So - what is the magic age? I think we should decide and then put it in the FAQ's about ER thread.

35. Old enough to be President of the US. Plenty of years of life to have stepped in dog poop, wiped it off, and lived to tell the story.

And I'm 35 so I want to make sure I'm over the cut off.

 

[MichaelB]

LOL - It sounds like they are. They like travelling with Bruno.

I am curious - what is the cutoff for "OK" to be retired? 40? 50? What about 39?

I'm asking this as an intellectual exercise.... I assume my retirement age (52) met the approved range for ER. As others have mentioned - this is the **EARLY** retirement forum. I thought we were supportive of people wanting to retire early. But apparently there is some magic age that makes it ok vs too early.

Now the FI side of FIRE.... I agree they cut it closer than I would.... but most people here are saying they aren't retired (vs FI)... and seem to be focusing on their age, saying they haven't worked enough.

So - what is the magic age? I think we should decide and then put it in the FAQ's about ER thread.

We're not talking about re-tirement. No, we're talking about blog-tirement.

Silly answer: Blogtirement

You know, retired, chillin' but with kids, not doing anything but running a blog, etc ..

Now that we have a definition for that, we can add another word to our vocabulary - blogtired, as in tired of all these discussions about retired people and their blogs.

 

[papadad111]

I've been on this forum for about a decade now...

You've been around here several years less than me, Rodi, but long enough to know there is not an age on here that is "too early" to retire early.

There IS a definition of age to retire "on time". Which by contrast is " not early".

I think It would be irresponsible to define RE as an lower bounded age in our forum FAQ...

Retirement is a set of actions including financial independence and other actions that we've debated in other threads.

I do doubt there are many in their 20's... But a few trust fund kids might be there... It goes up exponentially with each decade group.

30's and 40's by today's standard is certainly early.

Even up to mid 50's to me is early.

Now, The massive megacorp layoffs usually hit those at and above 55 and so that to me is starting to NOT be early. That's faulty normal ( based on megacorps schedule and approach).


59.5 is the big cutoff for me -- no longer feeling very "early "- even government allows penalty free access to retirement money. So not early.

being financially independent (the FI) part is probably more reasonable to define.

You're not financially independent when chances of failure as defined by firecalc our defacto tool fall below a certain percentage. 80 percent sounds good ... Personally for me it's more like 100% ... But I'll give some leeway ..
.
Generically John Q Public tosses around retired. It's a word the public knows and doing it early is rare and seen in awe by many.

It would be more correct for the couple at Bruno if they claimed they were "financially independent".

Which means they can but do not have to ever work for money again with high probability of living out life In the lifestyle that they want.

Edit: of course we would critique their plan significantly as it IS cutting it close.

 

[REWahoo]

- blogtired, as in tired of all these discussions about retired people and their blogs.

Bingo

 

[aida2003]

So when is it okay to comment on these blogs? Is it okay to comment when someone writes they retired at 12 with 100K and fifteen kids, is that okay to comment on or would that still be the retirement police?

At 12 y.o. with 15 kids, really??

 

[JoeWras]

Financial media articles seem to do so little fact checking these days, I think it is good to have discussions like this. Forbes is now reporting the net worth of the Theranos founder has gone from $4.5B to $0 overnight? It sounds like many of the investigative financial journalists were asleep at the wheel.

From a Fortune article after a WSJ expose

"Holmes has been featured on the cover of Forbes, been profiled in The New Yorker, been interviewed by Charlie Rose, and she has been given a host of awards and honors—including being named to the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. All of that has been called into question by the Wall Street Journal‘s allegations."

I was going to bring this up during the "hubris of Millennials" beating that occurred earlier in this thread.

In any case, did you ever see her speak? She was on CNBC last year. I have to admit, she has a way of doing Jedi Mind Tricks on you. I was ready to go to my nearest Walgreens and get my blood tested after seeing her speak.

But it was all hubris.

 

[aida2003]

We're not talking about re-tirement. No, we're talking about blog-tirement.
You know, retired, chillin' but with kids, not doing anything but running a blog, etc ..

Now that we have a definition for that, we can add another word to our vocabulary - blogtired, as in tired of all these discussions about retired people and their blogs.

You know, Michael, I think I agree with you. I even appreciate that I'm very busy with my family and FT work so I must be quite efficient how I allocate my time on the internet though I'm positive I could cut down on my time wasted in the virtual world even more.
If you (in general, not you) spend time on FB and like it there, the days can be totally wasted as that place is a real bazaar (I don't even remember my password for the FB anymore), but really early retirees are smart enough to create blogs instead of talking on the FB because they can earn money. There will always be people who read them. I read ER blogs very very sporadically. There are a few of them that interest me out there, but no favorite. If a title or a few sentences I read don't catch my attention, I skip fast. A lot of them are quite 'fluffy' and I wonder if they're just trying to love their blog and write something or just attempting to make money. I don't hang out there. I prefer this ER 'bazaar'

 

[aida2003]

I am curious - what is the cutoff for "OK" to be retired? 40? 50? What about 39?

Rodi, I think the issue is not the age, but money. If that couple had lied and added another million, I bet we wouldn't be on page 15 or 16 of this thread. Plus, like some people are saying it's all fake, false to get traffic to the media's site and the blog, so be it. For all we know, there's another stash somewhere hidden in Canada wherever. What do I care, if there is, I won't get it. I don't know why people got worked up over this couple. What's the point of this thread now anyway?

However, maybe next time we go to the mountains I should contact them for the place to sleep and check out their life to make sure they're not fake themselves . In return, they'd see how fun it is to have tweens around and help them decide if they really would like to reproduce.

 

[aim-high]

We're not talking about re-tirement. No, we're talking about blog-tirement.
You know, retired, chillin' but with kids, not doing anything but running a blog, etc ..

Now that we have a definition for that, we can add another word to our vocabulary - blogtired, as in tired of all these discussions about retired people and their blogs.

There you go! I missed the post about blog-tirement. Nothing wrong at all with blogtirement. There are plenty of professional bloggers out there . . . the only ones some of us get a become out of sorts with is is when they put the cart before the horse. To me it's like push-polling and selling under the guise of market research.

Blogtirement. Nice ReWahoo. Adding it to the lexicon.

 

[FI by 2024]

Man, the lack of recognition of sarcasm in this thread is eye opening. Why don't we have a sarcasm font yet?

 

[2017ish]

Man, the lack of recognition of sarcasm in this thread is eye opening. Why don't we have a sarcasm font yet?

I think it was left in one of the side compartments of the $500k class A diesel motorhome.

 

[aim-high]

Man, the lack of recognition of sarcasm in this thread is eye opening. Why don't we have a sarcasm font yet?

Use of sarcasm is an art -- some of us draw stick figures.

 

[karen1972]

though I find it kind of odd that so many are upset because they say retired but are making money off the blog thus not retired, yet so many on here make money off rental property which to me isn't a very retired thing to do either..since rentals typically also take some amount of work.. each to their own... if your hobby makes you money are you then not allowed to say your retired? If your spouse works and you don't, can you truly say your retired as it implies you don't have enough to live on to fully retire without additional income...

I think this thread has really become is there a definition for "retired" on here that everyone can agree to.. and I've come to the conclusion, not likely.

 

[Fedup]

LOL - It sounds like they are. They like travelling with Bruno.

I am curious - what is the cutoff for "OK" to be retired? 40? 50? What about 39?

I'm asking this as an intellectual exercise.... I assume my retirement age (52) met the approved range for ER. As others have mentioned - this is the **EARLY** retirement forum. I thought we were supportive of people wanting to retire early. But apparently there is some magic age that makes it ok vs too early.

Now the FI side of FIRE.... I agree they cut it closer than I would.... but most people here are saying they aren't retired (vs FI)... and seem to be focusing on their age, saying they haven't worked enough.

So - what is the magic age? I think we should decide and then put it in the FAQ's about ER thread.

Ask your self this question? If both of your boys want to retire at 20 do you agree with their decisions. I don't with my kids. My grandfather FI at 20, in honesty, he was a bump, no way around it. My grandmother worked and supporting 6 kids and retired with a pension. My grandfather was left with nice inheritance, aka lots of land, from his family. He didn't need to work. He was an awfully nice guy and laid back. But when my dad talked about his parents, his mom definitely was somebody he looked up to. Not his dad. My grandfather was smart, just didn't apply himself. Nobody in my family has since married another bump because of this experience.
Of course, I'm not new to this early retirement concept. I was born into one, LOL.