Where to Really Learn How to Retire Early

[aim-high]

Something more than financial porn found on Yahoo finance linking to Morningstar?

Tips for an Early Retirement

Live well below your means, both while you're working and while you're retired. Maintain a simple, low-cost, diversified investment portfolio with ample exposure to stocks. Find an employer who offers a strong company retirement plan or pension, as well as in-retirement health care coverage. Take advantage of company retirement plans and IRAs. Find a partner who shares your values. And if you're lucky, you'll also encounter a few breaks along the way.

Those were the key takeaways from a recent Morningstar.com discussion forum in which we asked our readers who had retired early how they had managed to do it. The early retirees were eager to comply: As of Friday afternoon, the thread was five pages long and featured 127 posts.

This forum and Bogleheads are the best places to learn about early retirement. 95% of the articles and blog posts elsewhere are an inch deep and a mile wide and serve only as fodder to gain advertising hits or sales for financial services and products.

::: yes, I pulled 95% out of the air, but it seems that way anecdotally :::

 

[38Chevy454]

Agree with you, this forum has great advice. If a young person reads up here and educates themselves on the tools and skills, they would be able to set themselves up for early retirement.

That specific M* article is a summary of varying advice and it seems pretty good in total. What it does not provide is the specifics on what to do with invested assets. that is where I see a lot of people make big mistakes that cost them in long run.

 

[Animorph]

I think you want LBYM before retirement. That allows you to save the rest.

Within retirement it's more like live within your means. You aren't saving any more, though your portfolio should still be growing to beat inflation. You just aren't spending more than you should.

 

[walkinwood]

LBYM is essential, but not sufficient. Ditto for a good paying job and continuous employment. Financial education is vital & everyone here (on this forum) knows its value.

I know smart people who save a lot of money and then let some high paid financial advisor get them sub-par returns year after year by investing in expensive investment vehicles. They just cannot get themselves to read even simple books like those by Bogle & do it themselves. Nor can they get themselves to believe that low-cost mutual funds & index funds are the best way to a great long term result for most people.

 

[Koolau]

I think you want LBYM before retirement. That allows you to save the rest.

Within retirement it's more like live within your means. You aren't saving any more, though your portfolio should still be growing to beat inflation. You just aren't spending more than you should.

Our plan was to spend more in retirement than before. So far, we have been able to work the plan to our satisfaction. As far as the portfolio still growing - eventually that will not be true for most. Realistically, the portfolio balance going down has to happen at some point or else one leaves a lot on the table. I struggle with that concept. I always think "I'm okay as long as the year's ending balance is greater than the starting balance." But WHEN is it okay for the balance to be less than last year? I don't want to leave too much on the table, but I hate to see the port. value go down. YMMV

 

[eta2020]

Our plan was to spend more in retirement than before. So far, we have been able to work the plan to our satisfaction. As far as the portfolio still growing - eventually that will not be true for most. Realistically, the portfolio balance going down has to happen at some point or else one leaves a lot on the table. I struggle with that concept. I always think "I'm okay as long as the year's ending balance is greater than the starting balance." But WHEN is it okay for the balance to be less than last year? I don't want to leave too much on the table, but I hate to see the port. value go down. YMMV

When you cross NW $ 5.34 Million.

 

[aim-high]

Our plan was to spend more in retirement than before. So far, we have been able to work the plan to our satisfaction. As far as the portfolio still growing - eventually that will not be true for most. Realistically, the portfolio balance going down has to happen at some point or else one leaves a lot on the table. I struggle with that concept. I always think "I'm okay as long as the year's ending balance is greater than the starting balance." But WHEN is it okay for the balance to be less than last year? I don't want to leave too much on the table, but I hate to see the port. value go down. YMMV

When you say your are spending more post than pre, I take it that you are comparing expenses only.

When you total up your expenses and savings pre-retirement against your expenses post retirement, which is larger?

 

[ProspectiveBum]

When you cross NW $ 5.34 Million.

Good to know! If I work until I'm 72, I should get there.

 

[Koolau]

When you cross NW $ 5.34 Million.

Thanks a lot. Oh, hey, is that to be inflation adjusted? Just asking.

 

[eta2020]

Good to know! If I work until I'm 72, I should get there.

I was trying to say don't leave Estate Taxes on the table which kick in at 5.34 million.

 

[Koolau]

When you say your are spending more post than pre, I take it that you are comparing expenses only.

When you total up your expenses and savings pre-retirement against your expenses post retirement, which is larger?

Yes. Way more than "old expenses." In the old days, we spent and saved. Now, we spend (although, the stash is still increasing... so far.) But, we are also spending more than we used to make, in nominal terms. So not sure I've answered your question. Full disclosure, I do have a modest pension and her SS in addition to our stash. So YMMV.

 

[eta2020]

Thanks a lot. Oh, hey, is that to be inflation adjusted? Just asking.

Yes it is. For some people this is useful. Look at "Hi I am" section "Wife needs some reassuring". This guy when you add in house is there....

What is a point for him to accumulate more money?

 

[friar1610]

This forum and Bogleheads are the best places to learn about early retirement. 95% of the articles and blog posts elsewhere are an inch deep and a mile wide and serve only as fodder to gain advertising hits or sales for financial services and products.

Years ago there was an Early Retirement Home Page on The Motley Fool that was an excellent source of information on ER. But it eventually got co-opted by (mostly) conservative political posters and I gave up on it. The guy who started this site and developed FireCalc was an early poster on that site.

 

[panhead]

Years ago there was an Early Retirement Home Page on The Motley Fool that was an excellent source of information on ER. But it eventually got co-opted by (mostly) conservative political posters and I gave up on it. The guy who started this site and developed FireCalc was an early poster on that site.

Yup, that's the first blog I found along with John Greaney's "retireearlyhomepage.com" which is still up and operating, but I don't check it as often as I used to as it seems to rarely have new content.

 

[Jager]

Aye, I spent many hours back in the day on the Motley Fool Early Retirement board. First in 1999-2000 when my stock options in the tech firm I worked for gave hope of an early reprieve from the work world. Later, in 2000-2001 after the dot-com crash led to an inversion of all those hopes.

In the first instance it was hope. In the second, yearning - a fantastical escape for an hour or so every day from the horrors of a company embarked upon dissolution.

And, indeed, it was the proliferation of political posts that led to that board's unfortunate demise. Kudos to the moderators here for maintaining the very high standard of discourse!

If someone genuinely wants to learn about retirement, I agree that here and Bogleheads are the places to be.

 

[robnplunder]

I'd really prefer (or have a chance) to live "on par" with my mean at RE. I am not LBYM'ng only to continue live that way in my golden years (kids gone, money in the bank, health in tact to enjoy life). If I can't spend fast enough, that's ok. I just don't want to continue worrying about saving after retiring.