Ed_The_Gypsy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Tracy, you seem to have strayed form the One True Path.
Have you considered electroshock?
Impetus for FIRE?
- Thread starter SlowTwitcher
- Start date
Tracy, you seem to have strayed form the One True Path.
Have you considered electroshock?
Ed_The_Gypsy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I ain't there yet, but here are my thoughts on the matter.
Like LG4NB, depression started the ball rolling. Motivated by a toxic work situation, about ten years ago, I looked at my nest egg and realized that I had been using way too optimistic returns for my planning and we were going to starve and have no health insurance.
My brother drew my attention to the possibility of retiring in another country. I read up on it and a great weight was lifted from my shoulders.
I could retire today somewhere else, but work has become a lot more enjoyable (I am now a contractor in a booming industry) and our financial situation--and our options--improve steadily, so no immediate plans to quit. But, having studied it so hard, I have no fear of permanent non-employment and am looking forward to extended stays in other countries when I finally pull the plug. Retirement for us has changed from the prospect of having to scramble for survival to an opportunity to have a lot of fun while our health is good.
After my brother's suggestion, I found John Greaney's web site, the Retire Early Home Page: http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/ , web sites on living in Mexico, Panama and other places, this web site, the Terhorsts's web site and famous book, Billy and Akaisha's web site, and a lot more stuff since. There is a lot of good information on the web, but some of it comes and goes, so I print it out and save copies of the content when I find it.
Cheers,
Gypsy
Like LG4NB, depression started the ball rolling. Motivated by a toxic work situation, about ten years ago, I looked at my nest egg and realized that I had been using way too optimistic returns for my planning and we were going to starve and have no health insurance.
My brother drew my attention to the possibility of retiring in another country. I read up on it and a great weight was lifted from my shoulders.
I could retire today somewhere else, but work has become a lot more enjoyable (I am now a contractor in a booming industry) and our financial situation--and our options--improve steadily, so no immediate plans to quit. But, having studied it so hard, I have no fear of permanent non-employment and am looking forward to extended stays in other countries when I finally pull the plug. Retirement for us has changed from the prospect of having to scramble for survival to an opportunity to have a lot of fun while our health is good.
After my brother's suggestion, I found John Greaney's web site, the Retire Early Home Page: http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/ , web sites on living in Mexico, Panama and other places, this web site, the Terhorsts's web site and famous book, Billy and Akaisha's web site, and a lot more stuff since. There is a lot of good information on the web, but some of it comes and goes, so I print it out and save copies of the content when I find it.
Cheers,
Gypsy
USK Coastie
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My Dad FIRE'd at 58. At a recoginition luncon for him and others for being employed a MAGA CORP for 30 yrs he got up and said " I think 30 yrs is long enough to work for any body you can send my retirement checks to MAUI in two weeks" That was 30 years ago next July. A gerat example for your kids. My brother just FIRE'd Jan 1 2007 at 62 wishes he'd gone 5 years ago. Right now I could go easily at 60 and wil probably go at 58 1/2 if the market holds up.
Oh yea my last boss was a %^$#***#@ so I traded 2.5 million squre feet of space and 30 subordinates for 45K square feet of space and 3 suboridnates for the same $$. Also knocked 30 miles one way off my commute. I guess you could say this is my twilight tour er job.
Oh yea my last boss was a %^$#***#@ so I traded 2.5 million squre feet of space and 30 subordinates for 45K square feet of space and 3 suboridnates for the same $$. Also knocked 30 miles one way off my commute. I guess you could say this is my twilight tour er job.
I was/am a very type-A workaholic. In university, I pursued 18 credits in engineering for 4 years while working 20 hour weeks. In my first job, one project had me at the office from 7 am to 10 pm 5 days a week, and I would usually come in on the weekend. I did this because I was learning something new everyday, and I loved it. I also got paid overtime, which made me love it even more. I couldn't believe I was getting paid for something I would have done voluntarily.
After a while, the rate of learning slowed and instead I became the expert on many things. Expert in this case meant I got to fix the same problem on different projects over and over again.
After a couple project cancellations, I started to become disenchanted. Why should I work so hard on something that will probably be cancelled anyway.... so I went to a new company where I could once again learn new things
3 or 4 years later, I was back to the same mental state and had never taken a real vacation. I spent 3 weeks in the Philippines scuba diving and enjoying the beach. The first week, I just though about work. The 2nd week, I started to think "hey, this is alright." By the end of the 3rd week, I was planning how to do this for the rest of my life. A business plan followed
A 100k profit on the sale of my home, some stock market sucess in international and commodities over the past couple years, and an international assignment that involved a monthly stipend and paid rent, and I was able to pass the FI part of FIRE.
There are still a few really expensive things I want to do (to sail around the world I first need my own sailboat) so I plan to work another couple years to fund those.
The key for me was that once I stopped to smell the roses (temporarily), I realized I wasn't happy with my work / life balance (no life.)
After a while, the rate of learning slowed and instead I became the expert on many things. Expert in this case meant I got to fix the same problem on different projects over and over again.
After a couple project cancellations, I started to become disenchanted. Why should I work so hard on something that will probably be cancelled anyway.... so I went to a new company where I could once again learn new things
3 or 4 years later, I was back to the same mental state and had never taken a real vacation. I spent 3 weeks in the Philippines scuba diving and enjoying the beach. The first week, I just though about work. The 2nd week, I started to think "hey, this is alright." By the end of the 3rd week, I was planning how to do this for the rest of my life. A business plan followed
A 100k profit on the sale of my home, some stock market sucess in international and commodities over the past couple years, and an international assignment that involved a monthly stipend and paid rent, and I was able to pass the FI part of FIRE.
There are still a few really expensive things I want to do (to sail around the world I first need my own sailboat) so I plan to work another couple years to fund those.
The key for me was that once I stopped to smell the roses (temporarily), I realized I wasn't happy with my work / life balance (no life.)
Ed_The_Gypsy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Incidentally, I have found that as I got older and gained job experience, my tolerance for B.S. got lower and lower. As a contractor, I am removed from most office politics.
I suppose at some point, the curves cross (BS vs my BS tolerance) and it is time to go.
I suppose at some point, the curves cross (BS vs my BS tolerance) and it is time to go.
eyeonFI
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I can't really remember ever NOT being intent on FI. I think growing up seeing my mother stress over financial issues, cut coupons, and be careful with every penny, just naturally led me to always LBYM and want to be FI. (Though as a kid I just thought of it as 'rich' rather than 'FI' ).
When I started focusing on RE was when I was about to finish graduate school in 2000. I was living on my grad student stipend, no debt, even managing to save a bit, and then I accepted a job offer that would increase my annual income by about 300%. Out of curiosity (and probably to procrastinate from doing some w*rk), I made my first spreadsheet projecting my income, expenses, and net worth into the future. It predicted I would pass the $1M mark at about 40, and I just instantly started thinking, hey, I'll retire at 40!
Of course my spreadsheet has gotten a lot more complex since then and the projections have changed, but ever since then I've always had some time in my 40's set as my mental RE date. (so far, I'm pretty well on track)
). When I started focusing on RE was when I was about to finish graduate school in 2000. I was living on my grad student stipend, no debt, even managing to save a bit, and then I accepted a job offer that would increase my annual income by about 300%. Out of curiosity (and probably to procrastinate from doing some w*rk), I made my first spreadsheet projecting my income, expenses, and net worth into the future. It predicted I would pass the $1M mark at about 40, and I just instantly started thinking, hey, I'll retire at 40!
Of course my spreadsheet has gotten a lot more complex since then and the projections have changed, but ever since then I've always had some time in my 40's set as my mental RE date. (so far, I'm pretty well on track
)
Cattusbabe
Full time employment: Posting here.
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Moemg said:
Good for you.
KM
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My father was a shoe-cutter for many years. When I was 12 he went back to school and received a "Certificate" in programming, as computers were just becoming big. He was hired by a local company soon thereafter and was thrilled to be out of the shoe shop.
He came home from work one day less than a year later and was very depressed. I had never seen my father like that. I asked him what was wrong. He told me there were 2 other men that worked in his department. One ran the computer, one programmed the computer. Both were his age (mid 40s) and had been with the company for many years. Both had just been laid off (the recession was setting in). He was very upset because they both had families and would have a hard time finding another job. "I can go back to cutting shoes. I don't know what they will do." I asked him why they kept him and not one of them. 'Because I can do both jobs - run the computer and program it".
I decided two things that day. First, I would always try to make sure I could do my job and everyone else's. Second, I would never live my life in such a way that I would lose everything if I lost my job when I was 40.
I could afford to retire today (49) if I wanted to. But it would be financially wiser for us to work until 55. So that's what we will do - unless health issues ever arise. To reward ourselves for that decision we have started taking 1 or 2 nice vacations every year.
Why retire at 55? There's so many places I want to travel to and unless they gave me 26 weeks a year vacation....I am leaving at 55 to see the world.
He came home from work one day less than a year later and was very depressed. I had never seen my father like that. I asked him what was wrong. He told me there were 2 other men that worked in his department. One ran the computer, one programmed the computer. Both were his age (mid 40s) and had been with the company for many years. Both had just been laid off (the recession was setting in). He was very upset because they both had families and would have a hard time finding another job. "I can go back to cutting shoes. I don't know what they will do." I asked him why they kept him and not one of them. 'Because I can do both jobs - run the computer and program it".
I decided two things that day. First, I would always try to make sure I could do my job and everyone else's. Second, I would never live my life in such a way that I would lose everything if I lost my job when I was 40.
I could afford to retire today (49) if I wanted to. But it would be financially wiser for us to work until 55. So that's what we will do - unless health issues ever arise. To reward ourselves for that decision we have started taking 1 or 2 nice vacations every year.
Why retire at 55? There's so many places I want to travel to and unless they gave me 26 weeks a year vacation....I am leaving at 55 to see the world.
I too get bored easily. Five years is max for any real energy in a j*b. I always felt I never figured out what I wanted to to when I grew up. As I have posted elsewhere, I got itchy about 18 months ago, and found this site. Now I kow what I want to be when I grow up - RETIRED!
brewer12345
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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A couple years ago, I would have said the impetus was boredom and frustration with corporate BS. Now that I am in a very engaging job, I can say that I will want to be able to FIRE because burnout will be a big deal over time.
Paul Terhorst - blew me away that you could sell almost anything and then see the world for the rest of your life - after that book I read YMOYL, various investment books - etc. I love traveling and so when had an opportunity to live in Europe for awhile, I took it - I was willing to clean myself out for that one - turns out I made quite a jump on my savings and goal of RE.....also, as before, the 'old' engineer who took me by the ear and dragged me to the HR to invest in the 403B - oooh I was green then.
My life cohort was so crowded in the early 70's (DOB 1950) that it was dog eat dog for any job at all. So I decided to go to law school. I figured I would never starve as a lawyer; I would always have a trade. Met DW in law school and we grinded it out for years. We made some mistakes along the way (urban pioneer ancient home money pit phase--country home phase--private school phase), but got straight by 1990, read YMOYL in the early 90's and started to save, save, save. Now DW is burned out of mega-corp and I am tired of justifying my time and existence to partners and the ever present time charge.
So DW is FIRE'd by mid-March and I plan to start a solo "failure practice" in 2008. I figure 500 hours a year, virtual practice, no employees, all machines and a computer, located nowhere and everywhere. Very low overhead and no one to whom I have to justify anything. Sort of a part time transition to my FIRE.
So DW is FIRE'd by mid-March and I plan to start a solo "failure practice" in 2008. I figure 500 hours a year, virtual practice, no employees, all machines and a computer, located nowhere and everywhere. Very low overhead and no one to whom I have to justify anything. Sort of a part time transition to my FIRE.
Goonie
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Goonie said:I'm FIREing because I'm tired of working for the "man".....but most importantly, the driving force behind my impending FIRE, is the simple fact that I CAN FIRE!!!
I was able to enjoy the free & easy lifestyle for 5 1/2 years before I was forced to go to school for most of my youth. After all those years of keeping teachers employed, I was coerced into going to w*rk for the last 32 years. Now I'm finally getting my chance to revert back a free & easy lifestyle!!! Now I get to go back to those never ending days of play!!!
And another reason.....my Aunt (who turned 65 last April) was planning on retiring on December 29, 2006......after MANY MANY YEARS of putting it off......She died December 11th!!!
In the late 1970's, living on $10K a year, I could see that $100K at the then rate of 10% CDs, was all i needed to FIRE. So FIRE has always been my goal, I just couldn't articulate it well until i wandered in here. At Mega-Corp (should we call it Meager-Corp?), any time i didn't enjoy my job, i tried to save more. 2000-2002 caused me to work 2 extra years, but that boosted my healthcare to 65 and supplement afterwards. That was a blessing in disguise that I didn't know about. Lack of communication about benefits helps reduce costs by lowering participation.
{quote](should we call it Meager-Corp?)[/quote]
I love it!!!
In 1997 I left an utterly toxic job and took a year to decompress. (My expenses were VERY low at that time - no mortgage, economic car, etc.) I had a GREAT time rafting, backpacking, reading, volunteering, and getting back in touch with friends and actually spending TIME with them. In other words, I did whatever took my fancy.
However. In the dim recesses of my brain was a little voice that kept telling me I'd have to go back to work someday. While that little voice didn't exactly ruin the fun time I was having, it did put a damper on it.
I ran into Your Money or Your Life about that time. I decided to go back to work and save like a fiend, so that one day I could go back to doing whatever took my fancy. But this time the little voice wouldn't be there to nag me.
I've got about twice what I projected I'd need for a bare-bones retirement... now if I could just cut the golden handcuffs and take the leap-o-faith...
I love it!!!
In 1997 I left an utterly toxic job and took a year to decompress. (My expenses were VERY low at that time - no mortgage, economic car, etc.) I had a GREAT time rafting, backpacking, reading, volunteering, and getting back in touch with friends and actually spending TIME with them. In other words, I did whatever took my fancy.
However. In the dim recesses of my brain was a little voice that kept telling me I'd have to go back to work someday. While that little voice didn't exactly ruin the fun time I was having, it did put a damper on it.
I ran into Your Money or Your Life about that time. I decided to go back to work and save like a fiend, so that one day I could go back to doing whatever took my fancy. But this time the little voice wouldn't be there to nag me.
I've got about twice what I projected I'd need for a bare-bones retirement... now if I could just cut the golden handcuffs and take the leap-o-faith...
donheff
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
You can go back and fix it. Just click on "modify" on your own post.Caroline said:follow up to my last post, above...
So THAT's what the "Preview" button is for!
ijuba
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About 10 years ago - at the age of 39 - I was concluding a week-long meeting in California with some colleagues and we were heading for the airport together to go our seperate ways. The question was asked as to what we were doing this weekend and after we revealed the normal yard work routines, etc. - the last guy - a gentleman of about 50 at the time, had tears in his eyes when it came time for him to speak. He said that he was attending his daughter's high school graduation and that....."I don't even know her"...... and yes, she was living at home with him.
I vowed then that, if I ever had kids - that would never, under any curcumstances, happen to me....or our child.
To make a long story short, I now have an 8 year old, we live in a community of our choice - interesting people with great schools, have 4 great seasons and....I retired 3 years ago. I did test the waters over the last year and came to the conclusion that yes, I had made the correct decision 3 years ago.
When people ask me what I am up to - Besides the "spending more time with my family, being there for my daughter, etc" that they hear - they always exclaim..."THAT'S what I want to do" - upon which I ask "Which life do you think you'll do it in then?"
Life's short - shorter if you do something unpleasant every day. You only get one chance to be a parent and have a positive impact....I decided not to blow it.
Now, off to coach my daughter's soccer practice......
I vowed then that, if I ever had kids - that would never, under any curcumstances, happen to me....or our child.
To make a long story short, I now have an 8 year old, we live in a community of our choice - interesting people with great schools, have 4 great seasons and....I retired 3 years ago. I did test the waters over the last year and came to the conclusion that yes, I had made the correct decision 3 years ago.
When people ask me what I am up to - Besides the "spending more time with my family, being there for my daughter, etc" that they hear - they always exclaim..."THAT'S what I want to do" - upon which I ask "Which life do you think you'll do it in then?"
Life's short - shorter if you do something unpleasant every day. You only get one chance to be a parent and have a positive impact....I decided not to blow it.
Now, off to coach my daughter's soccer practice......
Gearhead Jim
Full time employment: Posting here.
For me, mandatory "early" retirement at age 60 (airline pilot). After the pension convulsions our annual income is somewhat less, but not enough to be a problem. For 35 years the airline job was fun, last two years I couldn't wait to escape from the combination of moronic management, slimey unions, and humiliating security.
If the retirment age gets raised and I'm offered my job back next month (WON'T happen), I'd tell them to kiss my ass. Life is too much fun today.
If the retirment age gets raised and I'm offered my job back next month (WON'T happen), I'd tell them to kiss my ass. Life is too much fun today.
Software industry. First job I ever had after B-school they gave me a 20% raise the first year and laid me off the second -- along with 1/4 of the rest of the company.
Handwriting was on the wall -- this pays well but is NOT secure -- get what you can while the gettin's good, and then, get out.
LOVE this quote, ijuba. Thanks.
Handwriting was on the wall -- this pays well but is NOT secure -- get what you can while the gettin's good, and then, get out.
LOVE this quote, ijuba. Thanks.
cute fuzzy bunny
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Easy: Alarm clocks suck.
Khan
Gone but not forgotten
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Cute 'n Fuzzy Bunny said:
How did I survive that 5:15 AM BEEP BEEP BEEP... all those years?
cute fuzzy bunny
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Funny, as I was going to bed the other night and looked at my old alarm clock (long since replaced in function by a 2 year old) and wondering if anyone ever made an alarm that was pleasing and not particularly insistent. A nice little bell tone every half minute or so?
I still like the one that, once its sleep bar is pressed, flips itself off the nightstand and rolls away from you.
I still like the one that, once its sleep bar is pressed, flips itself off the nightstand and rolls away from you.
Khan
Gone but not forgotten
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Cute 'n Fuzzy Bunny said:
Something like this?
( I was going to buy such, but took the early retirement.)
http://www.atrendyhome.com/riandshnaalc.html
Come morning, the Rise & Shine light slowly brightens and the high-fi delity speaker increases volume over 5-60 minutes so you wake gently to your favorite AM/FM radio station or birds, harbor, village, brook, ocean, forest, rain, or breeze sounds.
At night, the process reverses to help you sleep.
----------------------------------------
http://tinyurl.com/y29jc9
cute fuzzy bunny
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
i've seen those...except all of them seem to think that a $10 alarm clock with a light bulb in it is worth $120-200.
Seems a $5 24 hour timer and a lamp would do the trick just fine. Maybe i'll try that the next time I dont feel like sleeping until gabe wakes up. Which is probably never.
Seems a $5 24 hour timer and a lamp would do the trick just fine. Maybe i'll try that the next time I dont feel like sleeping until gabe wakes up. Which is probably never.
