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Old 06-19-2015, 10:09 PM   #1
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Really Early Retirement?

Who all is targeting an early retirement before age 40? My goal is to transition to PT work sometime between age 35 and 40 and full retirement around 40.


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Old 06-19-2015, 10:41 PM   #2
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Me. Thirty eight. I didn't go into it targeting retirement at any specific age but I did intend on quitting as early as I could manage it. No way I was working till 65. Or 60. Or 55.
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Old 06-19-2015, 11:07 PM   #3
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I am hoping to go part time and earn less than $10,000 when I am 40. My fiance will be 57 or 58 though, so our average age will be about 49. He never really planned to retire early whereas I was almost forced into thinking about early retirement when I started dating someone who was planning on retiring in less than 15 years, and I was only 27 years old. I started saving as much as I could when I turned 30.
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Old 06-20-2015, 08:26 AM   #4
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I am only 26, but depending on how the next decade of my life unrolls and how I decide to structure my life, I may be able to retire between 40-45.

It mainly will depend on whether or not I have a family. If I decide to not have a family, and I can maintain my spending level, I should be able to retire by 45 at the latest. Ideally, though, I'd like to work part time at that point where I could control my hours and not be chained to a desk, and earn anywhere from $10-30k per year to maintain my portfolio and also to keep me occupied.

We'll see how things go though! M


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Old 06-20-2015, 09:02 AM   #5
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I am only 26, but depending on how the next decade of my life unrolls and how I decide to structure my life, I may be able to retire between 40-45.

It mainly will depend on whether or not I have a family. If I decide to not have a family, and I can maintain my spending level, I should be able to retire by 45 at the latest. Ideally, though, I'd like to work part time at that point where I could control my hours and not be chained to a desk, and earn anywhere from $10-30k per year to maintain my portfolio and also to keep me occupied.

We'll see how things go though! M


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You seem to be following in my footsteps a bit. I retired nearly 7 years ago at 45 after working 16 years full-time and 7 more years part-time, all at the same company. Being childfree, I was never interested in having kids and remain single today (although I have been in a steady relationship for 11 years). For me, this was the biggest reason I was able to ER at 45.

I have been living off the dividends from my portfolio since I ERed and have seen its value nearly double since late 2008, just after the crash.

I hope you can realize your goal to ER at 45.
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Old 06-20-2015, 09:06 AM   #6
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If I have the money, 40 would be nice, at least to go PT.
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Old 06-20-2015, 12:17 PM   #7
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There is a lot of truth in the family thing. I don't think I would have been able to retire @ 40 if we weren't childfree. But, then again, I had to hunker down pretty hard about 10-12 years ago to be fully FIRED @ 40 without kids, so perhaps if they were in the mix, I would have adjusted. I also think a lot of it depends on how much $$ you spend on said kids. I didn't have many "material things" and didn't play 13 sports (as so many kids do today!) and I very much enjoyed my childhood. But...that's not a bridge I crossed, so it's immaterial.


It has become a valid point I use when people query me about retiring so young. As soon as you say, "I don't have kids", they usually respond with something like, "oh, that makes sense". I have even had some clown tell me that if it wasn't for his wife and one child, he would have retired at 27. Really? I guess if you live in a 1978 Econoline van my the river, that *could* be construed as retired.
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Old 06-20-2015, 02:52 PM   #8
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My goal at age 25 was to be able to retire/semi retire at 35-40. I am 35 now with 3 kids (expensive but worth it). I could probably still do it at 40 living a really frugal lifestyle but the wife wouldn't be into that. My goal now is 45. If the oil patch doesn't boom again that could also be out the window. I may at 40 just work 3 month's a year in the busy winter month's up here in Alberta's oilfields until i'm 50 then fully retire but a lot can change in 5-10 years.
Good Luck.
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Old 06-20-2015, 08:31 PM   #9
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37 now, with the goal to not need to save any more at 40. Some PT consulting then and work on other goals. Always meant to get a college degree, but never got around to it.


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Old 06-20-2015, 09:43 PM   #10
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I pulled it off at age 33. With 3 kids. We're pretty frugal and only spend around $33k/yr. That doesn't prevent us from traveling and enjoying life. Currently wrapping up week 2 of a 7 week adventure in Mexico with the kids (at a cost of around $1,000/wk).

Here's a shot from today's hike. ER is pretty awesome.
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Old 06-20-2015, 11:35 PM   #11
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I pulled it off at age 33. With 3 kids.

<SNIP>
Heh, heh, I even took steps to never have kids but got 'em anyway - long story. Definitely delayed ER - but worth it. Turns out God gives you kids to grow YOU up, not so much the other way around. Enjoy!

Of course, YMMV.
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Old 06-20-2015, 11:45 PM   #12
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I quit working at age 36 and life without work has been great.
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Old 06-22-2015, 09:13 AM   #13
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I pulled it off at age 33. With 3 kids. We're pretty frugal and only spend around $33k/yr.
Fuego, have you posted your spending by category anywhere? I could live on $33k/year as a young single guy but no idea how you do it for a family of 5.
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Old 06-22-2015, 09:35 AM   #14
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Fuego, have you posted your spending by category anywhere? I could live on $33k/year as a young single guy but no idea how you do it for a family of 5.
Here's his blog: Root of Good | Retired at 33. Life is Good.
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Old 06-22-2015, 09:44 AM   #15
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I was very close to pulling the trigger at 39. Decided to wait a year to exercise most of my stock options because I was building a house in a state with 2% less income tax. In that year the bubble burst so I had to keep working. Could be that I had bad luck, or was greedy waiting for that extra 2%, or was just stupid. Or maybe lucky, because I might've reinvested right back into tech stocks after putting my money out and retiring, and then I would've been without a job and not enough money to live how I wanted to. 10 years later, some of them part time, I learned about AA and diversification, and built back my stash so that I could FIRE.
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Old 06-22-2015, 11:07 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by FUEGO View Post
I pulled it off at age 33. With 3 kids. We're pretty frugal and only spend around $33k/yr. That doesn't prevent us from traveling and enjoying life. Currently wrapping up week 2 of a 7 week adventure in Mexico with the kids (at a cost of around $1,000/wk).

Here's a shot from today's hike. ER is pretty awesome.

Looks great!

I am 31 with one child and a growing family. Current expenses for the last 12 months were aprox. $40,000 (excluding charitable giving and including $5,000 in travel expenses).

I have great health insurance through work, so I would expect the $40,000 to go up quite a bit once I include that expense. That's also part of the reason I plan on transitioning to part-time before full RE.

We'll add a few more kids to the mix so I'll have to keep those costs down too to pull this off.


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Old 06-22-2015, 11:56 AM   #17
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Looks great!

I am 31 with one child and a growing family. Current expenses for the last 12 months were aprox. $40,000 (excluding charitable giving and including $5,000 in travel expenses).

I have great health insurance through work, so I would expect the $40,000 to go up quite a bit once I include that expense. That's also part of the reason I plan on transitioning to part-time before full RE.

We'll add a few more kids to the mix so I'll have to keep those costs down too to pull this off.


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If you can live on $40k/yr in retirement, you'll probably be in line for some big Affordable Care Act subsidies to cover much of your health insurance expense. Since we have a household size of 5, we qualify for rather large subsidies on with $40k-ish income (some of that income is Roth IRA recharacterization).
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Old 06-22-2015, 12:01 PM   #18
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Fuego, have you posted your spending by category anywhere? I could live on $33k/year as a young single guy but no idea how you do it for a family of 5.
Forum rules prohibit me posting a link to my blog where I go into great detail on my budget, but here's a table showing where we spend our money. It's a couple years old, so add a few percent to each category to account for inflation.



We came in just over budget in 2014 due to a planned major house renovation at $8,700 (new windows, major roof repair, new siding).
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Old 06-22-2015, 12:10 PM   #19
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OK, FUEGO is on an adventure. No wonder I haven't seen him at Aldi's.

Enjoy. Looks great FUEGO. So why am I OMYing?
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Old 06-22-2015, 06:28 PM   #20
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OK, FUEGO is on an adventure. No wonder I haven't seen him at Aldi's.

Enjoy. Looks great FUEGO. So why am I OMYing?
We found an Aldi's equivalent down here in Mexico. Not that things are particularly expensive down here anyway.

So far, after sitting on all these gains from the last few years, I'm glad I didn't OMY. But let's compare notes at the bottom of the next great recession (if I notice it happens ).
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