"Early Retirement Extreme" forum

[Lienlord]

When I was 32, I also had 2 young boys (a toddler and a newborn). Then my wife & I attended a "get out of debt" seminar at church and learned about emergency funds, snowballs, LBYM, etc. We set a goal to pay off our mortgage early and invest for early retirement "someday".
Now 22 years later, our sons are grown and out of college, and we've been FI for many years.
I'm planning to RE from my W2 j*b in 6 months. I give it up to anyone that already has $800K at the age we really got the (snow)ball rolling!
Not sure I would feel comfortable pulling the trigger with that many years left, but everyone is different. Fortunately, at 32 there's always time to return!

Like some once said, "Good decisions come from experience, which comes from Bad decisions!"

[Mountain skier]

I have always enjoyed MMM. Not sure why some folks here do not care for him much? Perhaps a few examples will help me understand.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountain skier I have always enjoyed MMM. Not sure why some folks here do not care for him much? Perhaps a few examples will help me understand.

Reading through these threads will shed some light on why some like him and some don't.

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...che-66459.html

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ost-95534.html

[aaronc879]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountain skier I have always enjoyed MMM. Not sure why some folks here do not care for him much? Perhaps a few examples will help me understand.

I think many of the people on here are high spenders and don't want to accept that you don't NEED $60K+/yr to retire. You can retire on <$30K/yr like many, many people have. Not everyone wants to travel the world or eat out 10+ times a week.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronc879 I think many of the people on here are high spenders and don't want to accept that you don't NEED $60K+/yr to retire. You can retire on <$30K/yr like many, many people have. Not everyone wants to travel the world or eat out 10+ times a week.

Both MMM and the ERE guys were promoting the low cost lifestyle before the ACA, which wasn't realistic for many families without group health insurance. Without the ACA subsidies our premiums alone would be $25K this year. MMM does seem to travel the world and eat out - he just used to leave those expenses out of his posted budgets, like he did with other categories like taxes and home maintenance. If I left out travel, income taxes, home maintenance and healthcare my expenses would look pretty good, too. As for the extreme retirement guy, most posters here on Medicare seem to spend at least $5K per person annually, so pretty hard for a person to live on $10K when half that goes to healthcare, not including any big bills like hearing aids or dental work.

I grew up in an under $30K kind of household so I know it can be done without going hungry, but we did have employer health insurance and we went camping for vacations, not jetting off to Hawaii and Ecuador.

[LarryMelman]

The FIRE bloggers all suffer from a cult of personality to various degrees. MMM perhaps being the most extreme, but others have the problem too. Being blogs, they control the platform, the content and its tone. And more importantly, they can censor comments that aren't appropriately rah-rah or deferential.


That's why an open forum like this, will always be much more worthwhile.

[NW-Bound]

+1

Groupthink is usually (always?) not good. Dissenting views should be heard.

[Jerry1]

If the guy in the original post is debt free with $800K at 32, he’s doing quite well. I never loved my job, but I would take that at 32 and project what I’d have at 40 and dream about a nicer retirement than just getting by. At 32, I’d also consider finding my passion instead of retiring. He’s built a great cushion and could do gig work and have lots of time for family, etc. To work as hard as he (they, I’m sure his spouse was in the game too) just to scrap by for the next several decades does seem like a very rewarding life to me.

[unclemick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I haven't read that forum since Jacob took that high dollar full time job as a quant, in Chicago. The amazing level of frugality that is reported on that site is unrealistic for the kinds of lifestyles that many of us live. Despite that, I do think that reading there could be valuable for motivational purposes when saving for retirement. For example, a person might think, "Jacob made a rake rather than buying one. Oh well, I suppose that is insane but I guess I could at least check the Dollar Store or yard sales, to see if I can find a cheaper rake than those at Home Depot."

Sans the kids, (ER'd 1993 - to present) early on on I took great great pleasure being really really cheap and could/have in the past regaled this forum with embellished tales of 'Swamp' living. And with a little temp work, taking in boarders, onset of pension at 55, early SS and time in the market plus romance and marriage living expenses have drifted up 10x from my all time never to be repeated one year low.

Bragging is fun BUT do I wish to go back and live that lifestyle - er NO!

heh heh heh - Now having past SS and RMD ages knowing people for whom it is not a choice - I am extremely grateful for this forum clear back to Dory36 days.

P.S. No longer re use dryer sheets and neither does my wife. In joke.

[GenXguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarryMelman The FIRE bloggers all suffer from a cult of personality to various degrees. MMM perhaps being the most extreme, but others have the problem too. Being blogs, they control the platform, the content and its tone. And more importantly, they can censor comments that aren't appropriately rah-rah or deferential. That's why an open forum like this, will always be much more worthwhile.

For certain, regarding the MMM forum, the members tend to attack anyone posting anything politically conservative in nature. It definitely feels very cult-like.