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View Poll Results: For retirees - How many years did it take you to gather your nest egg?
0-5 yrs (Whaddya do - win the lottery??) 3 3.06%
6-10 7 7.14%
11-20 49 50.00%
21-30 22 22.45%
30+ (what's ER??) 17 17.35%
Voters: 98. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 09-10-2007, 08:29 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveR View Post
The correct answer is you are never done.
I couldn't agree more. I've noticed that most people don't realize they're investing for the rest of thier lives. Some think that once the goal of retirement is reached, they're done. Which clearly isn't the case. We need to keep investing and saving and investing until we die.
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Old 09-10-2007, 10:21 PM   #22
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When is the start and when is the end of the period that you want to measure?
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Old 09-10-2007, 10:23 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by Eyerishgold View Post
We need to keep investing and saving and investing until we die.
I think most of us need to continue even after we die. I'm not being funny, I'm being serious...we should have post-mortem plans in place for our not so financially savvy family to follow.
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Old 09-11-2007, 08:13 AM   #24
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I started when I was a teen but my first corporate job started 20 years ago. I have been with the same company - high tech and high stress the entire time. It took me an honest 20 years because of the tech. bubble bursting. I needed to build up the $ and once I diversified properly, re-invested earnings and max'ed out my company savings plans I can now retire and be FI. One thing to consider is that I support a family of 4, if I did not I would have been able to do it 5 years earlier. I have not ER'd yet as I am waiting for a round of layoff's to take a package and get un-employment. Free $ in my mind.

I can't stress enough how important it is to diversify and pay yourself first. After the bubble burst I loaded all my assests into the STAR fund @ Vanguard. After it grew significantly I moved it to Wellington Admiral shares/Healthcare/Blend of Index funds and now have a 40/40/20 split. This helps preserve my capital, gives me 4 years of living expenses and I can take the 4%/yr when needed.

Good luck - start small, stay frugal and only spend what you need to.

Cheers
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Old 09-11-2007, 12:32 PM   #25
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"I voted 30+ years, what is ER?" because I’ve stopped along the way to smell the flowers, taking about four months a year off from age 28-48.

I put $$ into my first Mutual Fund at age 26, started an IRA as soon has they were available, and rolled over and never touched four benefit pay-outs. Serious investing only goes back about 13 years which shows the miracle of a bull market, even without extreme LBYM, I got to FI at age 60. Some folks call retirement at 62 "early," I do not.
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Old 09-11-2007, 12:47 PM   #26
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ER is early retirement - I should have wrote RE - Hit FI @ 44.
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Old 09-11-2007, 01:45 PM   #27
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First started while in the Navy, 1968. Got talked into investing in commodities on margin with all I'd saved up until then, with predictable results.

Started over in earnest after graduate school, marriage and new corporate job in 1975. Got into the 401K when it was available a little after that. Big promotion in 1980 led me to start saving 15% plus the 3% match. Wasn't very aggressive in my choice of investments, not being a big risk taker, until about 1983. Got into more equities, including company stock.

Got into the landlord business on the side around 1981, which for me took a real leap of faith at the time. I was encouraged by a close friend who was a Finance Professor and was purchasing every piece of real estate he could afford in his college town.

Never really had a time goal for FIRE'ing, but I was always pretty tight, uh frugal. That's probably partly the reason I'm still w*rking, that and a younger wife and a child in college. You'd think I'd have taken my cue from Grandparents (retired in their 40's) or parents (retired at 55), but I didn't. But the time is close, probably January.

Anyway, adding up the years since 1975, comes to ... 32 1/2 years. Who started this thread?? No wonder I'm ready to quit.
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Old 09-11-2007, 04:34 PM   #28
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"Can't you see yourself in the nursing home saying, " Darn! Wish I'd spent more time at the office instead of wasting time with family and friends."

Those that think this way don't GO to the nursing home.
They die at their desks, w*rk clutched in their hands, frantically trying to do more and more before the Reeper comes a' knocking and they go to that Great Corporation in th Sky. Or wherever.
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