Fear or Love; What motovated you to RE?

[MJ]

Originally Posted by Completely Fulla BS

Thats way funnier when a woman says it.

Well......

MJ (Mary Jane)

[kowski]

In 2002 Wifes doctor pulled me aside and said that if you want to enjoy your life with your wife retire now. She might only have 5 years of good health due to osteoperosis. That said at 49 I jumped and wife 52 also quit work. Do not regret that decision. God has worked many things out. Didn't need any fancy books just good old fasioned common sense. Also always lived on 40 hours base pay and figuring in one of us could be layed off at any time meaning at that time 272 per week. Life in retirement is wounderful, Just bought season passes to Silver Springs, 21 Concert Series, for $50 each which includes parking.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Originally Posted by MJ

Well......

MJ (Mary Jane)

Thats what I thought when you first started posting..."hmmm...peter parkers girlfriend..."

You were pretty hot until you became a dude.

[Martha]

Originally Posted by kowski

In 2002 Wifes doctor pulled me aside and said that if you want to enjoy your life with your wife retire now. She might only have 5 years of good health due to osteoperosis. That said at 49 I jumped and wife 52 also quit work. Do not regret that decision. God has worked many things out. Didn't need any fancy books just good old fasioned common sense. Also always lived on 40 hours base pay and figuring in one of us could be layed off at any time meaning at that time 272 per week. Life in retirement is wounderful, Just bought season passes to Silver Springs, 21 Concert Series, for $50 each which includes parking.

So how is your wife doing 4 years later?

[JPatrick]

Originally Posted by MJ

Well......*

MJ (Mary Jane)

[tryan]

What motivated you most to RE?

The motivator for me was financial security. Watched too many people get screwed by mega corp. Knew that would be me if I didn't cover my butt.

Then it happened .... had my ducks in line (via rental real estate) and the layoffs happened (I was 43). No looking back now !

Did lunch with my old group ... many looked like they aged 10 years in the last 6 months (they still don't have the ducks in line ... there are no ducks).

[MJ]

Originally Posted by JPatrick

Put your eyes back in your head.......

[Eagle43]

It was the lights.

At Mega-Corp they have these sickening fluorescent lites above the cubicle farm. *Lots of times on a Monday morning, when I was driving in, I noticed an ambulance up by the corporate medical office. *I didn't want the last thing I ever saw to be those overhead lights, as they rolled me out to the ambulance.

I saw the light.

[BUM]

I KNEW it was time to RE. The business climate was changing, I didnt enjoy work like I used to and the company needed to re-equip for the next five years. I said "no way". Five weeks would have been too much for me!

Now the trick becomes to have your significant others buy into your decision. I wasen't that hard.

So not really Fear or Love...but Common Sense.

[brewer12345]

Not FIREd yet, but my motivation is pretty simple. When I was about 25 I realized that working all day and coming home tired enough to eat something and flop down in front of the TV for a couple of hours before bed was not a life that I wanted. I also decided that having more time for what I want to do is a lot more attractive than spending money on consumer crap. So DW and I started saving money. Half a dozen years later, she is now firmly on board, especially since the choices we have made allowed her to quit and stay home with our daughter.

As I progressed in my career, I have also had to confront the ugly reality that my profession is dominated by jobs that extract 60 to 80 hours a week from employees. No way I can keep that up for long, so I have to plan for an early out.

[Outtahere]

I'm not retired yet but my life long dream has been to be debt free and then have enough money to live off the interest. I'm debt free and now working on the rest of the dream to become FI. My husband is 12 years older than me and will be 65 in two years, my plan is to retire then (if not sooner) and enjoy some time together before he can't do the things we've always wanted to. Life is too short as we all know.

[SteveR]

My first ER was at age 50 after 24 glorious years of service slavery working under managers that were all about politics and very little about what was good for the company and the department. I was on the fast track for many of those years and had high hopes of being a top level director in the company.

This required 12-14 hour work days followed by another 3-4 hours a night reading or doing reports etc. That does not leave much time for family and other activities. Vacations were few and far between. Some years I took no vacation or only a few days. Needless to say this had a negative outcome on my personal life. We moved several times to some not so great places for varying periods of time.

The divorce was a wake up call for me; in many ways. Becoming a financial broke single parent with no assets and court mandated debts to repay provides one with only a few choices. I decided to no longer be a slave to the company and to get off the corperate ladder so I could dedicate my time to raising my son and getting my financial life in order.

The final straw in my first ER was management promoting for all the wrong reasons, goals that were counter to what was good for the company, upper management that could not be trusted, and the need to get out of a toxic environment before it killed me. My DW and I retired at the end of 2002.

I took a new job for benefits to carry us over for a year or two. They paid for our move and assisted with the sale and purchase of our houses, they moved our stuff and the paid me to work few hours with no "home work" and appreciated my experience and skills. We planned on me working a year or two at the most. However, things do not always go as planned. DW and I were looking forward to a long and happy retirement. She died suddenly after 7 months of retirement so I kept working to have something to keep me sane.

I remarried and my wife has 18 months to her pension and medical benefits. We are too close to not take those benefits. I continue to work because she still has to and because I still feel like I am valued where I am now. My manager knows I can leave anytime I want; on my own terms and risk losing nothing since there is no retirement program here. That knowledge keeps many things in perspective for both of us. He treats me less like an employee and more like a consultant because of it because finding someone in this area with 30+ years of experience in this field that will work for this company at this pay level would be very very hard to do.

We have 18 months before we will FIRE. My motivation this time is the same as last time. I love my wife and I want to spend as much time as I can with her, doing things together and just being able to share time and space with each other when we want to. So we continue to become less debt burdened while at the same time increasing our stash so we can fund the kind of retirement we want while we wait out the months to capture the benefits that will help us coast along very nicely into our living years while we leave our working years behind.

[Dawg54]

Days like today motivates me to ER. Auditors driving me crazy and working with software people at the same time to get w-2 data transmitted to the state and government.

Have I ever told you how much I hate this job? :P The older I get the harder it is to deal with the stress. Just a few more months to go.........

[SteveR]

Originally Posted by DOG51

..Have I ever told you how much I hate this job? :P The older I get the harder it is to deal with the stress. Just a few more months to go.........

Hang it here man. It will all pass over soon enough. DW and I both have pretty high stress jobs and I am still teaching DW to deal with the stress while looking to the future. A little stress keeps the heart pumping.........too much will stop it. Life is about balance.

Think of the rewards that lie ahead of you and keep the faith. There is life after FIRE.

[HFWR]

I don't know if I can fake it that long... :P

[Martha]

Today I love my job. I won a case. Na na na. Happy dance.

Tomorrow I'll go back to wanting to quit.

[AV8]

Both, but perhaps more correctly it is opportunity cost.

I'm not retired yet either, but....

Today was only a half day of w#^k, so I spent the afternoon putting a few miles on the running shoes and then playing with the kids (kicking a soccer ball around, teaching the 3 year old how to throw/catch, climb trees, etc).* There will be a time when our kids are still at home when I will be able to FIRE at some level of comfort (including any college expense we agree to).* Do I want to still need to work, or is there a chance that I want to exit the rat race and enjoy time with my family on my own terms?* To me it is fear of not being able to make that choice that drives me to LBYM and FIRE.

I distinctly remember when Dad retired while I was in high school.* He sold his small buisiness, and then had time to make it to all my sports events and my siblings stuff too.* Night and day from when he was involved in the business.* What if he never sold?* What would we have missed as a family?* As I reflect on those years I realize it has a direct impact/influence on my plans.

He (Dad) knows I plan to pull the plug and FIRE at some point, but warns me not to do it too early and give up peak earning years.* I think he thinks he went too early (late 40s) and it is impacting their current lifestyle.* I do note that he never went back to work though.*

AV8

[dex]

Second glass of wine warning!

After looking back at my working career I can not say I experienced some of the horror stories mentioned here. If I had I think it would have motivated me to move on, up or out.

Here is a short summary

15 - 19 - supermarket 30+ hrs per week - started at 1.25/hr. worked hard and had fun
19 - 40 a major TV network - worked on interesting news, entertainment, and sports shows (across the USA) 1 failed marriage in my 20's I regret. Lived in London & HK. Usually I didn't have a boss over me.

40 - Now another TV network - good money and easy work; little stress.

So I guess my RE goal is a romantic one; as I mentioned when I started this thread.

To those who hate there job and the long hours you may benefit from my experiences with senior management.

Communication is EVERYTHING. Hone your speaking, writing and interpersonal skills. You can be the most knowlegeable person in your field but it will be the person who can explain what you say and do who will be your boss.

Presentation is EVERYTHING. How you look and dress is important. Dress for your next level - see communication.

Who you know and who knows you is EVERYTHING - get out there and get to know and be known.

Getting as close to the revenue stream is EVERYTHING. Those people get paid more and so will you.

Don't take work too seriously.

When you get to a certain level you are telling people what to do and deciding among ideas others bring you.

As you can see I have not put very much emphasis on actual job knowlege - it isn't as important as you think.

I hope this helps.