many paths to ER (or, in the retirement house there are many rooms)

[Martha]

I spend some time on occasion on a message board for motorhome owners. The moderator of the site is Andy Baird. He owns an older motorhome he calls Gertie. Andy has his own website, www.andybaird.com, where he talks about his motorhome travels.

He recently ER'ed at 55. From his web site (Andy, I hope you won't mind me quoting a few paragraphs):

The "Die at your desk" plan

About ten years ago my company put on a retirement seminar that convinced me there was no way I'd ever be able to retire. It was a very good, comprehensive presentation: they had a woman from the HR department, a pension plan representative and a spokesperson for the Social Security Administration. I took copious notes and brought away a sheaf of handouts. What I learned was that I should plan on using a combination of savings, Social Security and pension to replace at least 80-90% of my current salary...and to that end, I should not even think about retiring unless I had at least $800,000 in the bank.

Now, at this point in my life I had $2,000 in the bank and owed $16,000 in credit card debt. It was obvious that I could no more contemplate retirement than I could plan a trip to the moon. I was going to work until I dropped. So I stopped thinking about retirement, because it was obviously just not going to happen.

And that's how things were for the next five years or so...until I got Gertie. Oh, I paid off the credit cards and started putting more money in the bank, but that $800,000 figure was always there, looming like a high stone wall between me and any thought of retirement. When friends asked whether I had a retirement plan, I joked that I was on the "die at your desk" plan.

But one friend—Gertie's former owner, Judie—suggested that I look closely at what I really needed in order to live, and think creatively about ways to reduce my living expenses. When I did, it began to dawn on me that if I took a few simple steps (mainly getting out of expensive central New Jersey), I didn't need anywhere near 80% of my salary; in fact, I figured I could get by on about 30%. The key assumptions were that I'd sell my condo, get out from under the mortgage, taxes and condo fees, and live fulltime in my motorhome.

That still isn't going to be easy, since my pension—a laughable $964 a month, or just under $12,000 a year—will only be about 15% of what I was earning at ETS. I'll have to bring in another $12,000 or more in order to make ends meet. My freelance businesses—graphics and technical writing—will be the keys to survival...at least until Social Security kicks in, seven years down the road. Actually, I'm not doing badly on that score: I'm already making about $10,000 a year freelancing in my spare time, and once my time is my own, I can increase that.

This, then, is what retirement means to me. It's not going to be a "sit around fishing and playing cards" affair. But I wouldn't want that anyway—I always have more projects in my head than I have time to work on! No, I'll still be working (though not as hard!)—but on my own terms. I'll be creating graphics or writing user manuals at my dinette table, while the panorama of mountains or forest or desert fills Gertie's big windows. I'll watch the sun rise and set and the clouds blow across the sky. I'll stop and go for a walk, take pictures of a chipmunk or a collared lizard by the trail, and post them on this website.

Financial planners and the popular press can easily scare people away from thinking about retirement by pushing the necessity of having 70-80% of preretirement income to retire. Many might give up saving, believing that there is no point to try.

I really like Andy's williness to give it a shot, despite not having a lot of resources. And who cares if he works a little on the side to make ends meet. There are no rules.


Read his journal about going fulltime at http://www.andybaird.com/travels/ful...fulltime01.htm.