Success Stories

[ls99]

Having emigrated to the US at 17, learning American version of English in a hurry, getting drafted in 67, survived to to 62, soon to be 63. I count that as success. Being Early Retirement org member is the pinnacle.

I'm sure there was some other stuff, some not so good, mercifully memory is fading.

 

[cardude]

My "success story" was mostly luck:

I muddled my way through college. During college I worked for spending money at some interesting places, but nothing that was life changing or a future career path. My girlfriend graduated from the same college with a degree in education and immediately got a job, but it was in another city so she moved. I was still a few hours from getting my degree (even though we started at the same time ), so I figured I better get my a** in gear and graduate.

I graduated with a business degree in finance, but due to my other interestes (drinking beer mostly) with with a GPA most potential employers classified as suboptimal. The only job I could talk my way into was a real estate agent with a commercial real estate firm in Houston. My job was cold calling potential investors, trying to sell them foreclosed apartment complexes, most owned by the RTC since the S&L crisis was ongoing. I started in 1989 and had limited success at this job for a coule of years.

Now the lucky part. First, my girlfriend agreed (at gunpoint) to marry me and move to Houston. Then later, my dad, who was a 50/50 partner in a small auto dealership, was getting ready to retire and wanted to know if I would be interested in working in the car business. Since I was not exactly getting rich in commercial real estate, I jumped at the chance. He first wanted me to work in Houston at a few car dealerships to get some "big city sales training" before coming to work for him. That was a great idea because I was able to learn some, um, more advannced sales techniques that we were able to apply at my dad's small store with some good success.

Long story short, my dad retired after 2 years and I was able to buy his 50% of the store. I then worked with his partner for 3 years and was able to buy him out, giving me 100% ownership just when the car business was really taking off. I owned the store for another 18 years, made some money, spent very little, and decided in March of 2009 that it wasn't any fun any more so I got out and retired at 45.

Like I said, lucky..........

 

[Free To Canoe]

Corporate nightmare:
Pray for escape, and invest.
Finally, freedom.

Free to canoe

 

[EllisWyatt]

Went to college on scholarship, got a degree, then got married. Realized we would be perpetually living from pay-check to pay-check working in that particular area of expertise, so I went back to graduate school, paying as we went (lots of gigs playing in bands, lots of work as a technician), and finally graduated without debt.
Landed a great job with an oil company, just in time for the first (of many)layoffs since 1954.
My FIRE epiphany came 6 months after I signed on. I watched others who were more talented and experienced than I was get laid off for being on the wrong project at the wrong time. Some were in their 50's, and were depending on their pensions for their retirement, but were out before they qualified. As a sole-bread-earner with a small child, that scared the pooey out of me.
We began maxing out my 401K (401Ks were a new concept back then) and started saving a total of 25% of our gross income. Every raise for the next 7 years went to savings. And I do mean a savings account.
It accomplished 2 things - 1) started building a nice nest egg and 2) kept us LBOM.
After our saving grew to cover our living expenses for 1 year, I started reading everything I could about investing. Found Andrew Tobias's book and realized that I could let the cash do some of the heavy lifting for me, but it still took a couple of years more before I bought my first MF. Yes, I'm the belts-and-suspenders type. Realized thatreal estate would not be a good investment for me because of frequent transfers, so pretty much stuck with mutual funds. Also learned that any speculative stocks I bought always needed to be sold when I was out in the field or overseas and had no access to a phone. After a couple of those lessons, I stuck to "buy and hold" funds.
After 10 years, I realized we had enought to survive being laid off for an extended period and a lot of the pressure from the perpetual layoffs went away.
We live simply. Alway paid cash for cars (until recently, always used), bought nice houses that were less than we could afford, saved as much as possible, invested in MF and stocks, and have become comfortable.
And.... although I did retire briefly, I am back at work. Turns out that I like poking holes in the ground and seeing what's down there. Also realized that retiring, like anything worthwhile, make take a couple of tries before you get it right. I'm enjoying the job (and salary), but know that I have the option to walk away at any time, and that makes all the difference in the world.

 

[obgyn65]

I do not consider myself as a success story. Always saved money from my first paycheck - so just lucky enough in my professional life to be financially independent in my 40s.

Very bored at work though.

The problem is that I do not talk to anyone about my project of retiring early - those who know me would think I am crazy.... Fortunately I have found this site by chance - it's very nice to meet like minded people.

 

[haha]

I suppose that I am a success. I have been retired for 25 years, divorced for 3, and have two grown, educated sons. I didn't understand many of the things that are taken for granted now, and even now I find books and articles to read that show me things that I could have done better had I known. I would prefer to have a budget like some I read about here, but I don't think I could have done much to avoid the big kahuna, which was divorce.

Basically, we lived fairly cheaply. I was my own mechanic, carpenter, plumber, electrician, gardener, etc., and my wife was fairly frugal and an excellent cook and homemaker also. We did spend a lot of money on our kids which in my opinion has paid big dividends for them.

I am frugal, but I would easily find plenty on which to spend more money if I felt more comfortable about my long term income. I live in a somewhat pricey part of a moderately expensive city, but have no plans to leave here. What counts most to me is my day to day living, and I would not scrimp to take expensive trips or take up expensive hobbies or pastimes. I think in this way I seem to differ quite a bit from many on this board.

In investments, I kept 70-110% exposure to stocks when that mostly paid off. I sold down around 1997, and missed a lot of the dot.com boom, but I really would not have been likely to participate in that anyway. In '99-2000 I loaded up on busted but high quality REITs, and also around that time when the lawsuits against the tobacco industry were gaining some success and a lot of publicity I loaded up on tobacco. Both of these things paid off well, and more recently I have learned a little about concentration risk, etc. So I take fewer risks, at least until something again might seem stupidly cheap. In investing, I believe that cheap compensates for a lot of other issues.

Ha

 

[kumquat]

My story is here. Is it success?

 

[obgyn65]

In my view, yes.

My story is here. Is it success?

 

[Frost]

Early this year FireCalc said I had enough "FU money."

What is and where is FireCalc?

 

[REWahoo]

What is and where is FireCalc?

This should answer both your questions: FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator

Be sure to click on "How It Works" to learn...well, you know.

 

[travelover]

What is and where is FireCalc?

Look for the link at the bottom of the page. It is a retirement financial calculator. When you have enough, you tell your boss "FU"

 

[RonBoyd]

Early this year FireCalc said I had enough "FU money."

FU??

Yeah, well same to you, fella.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I suppose that I am a success.....
Ha

My story is here. Is it success?

If you are ERed, then you are definitely a success.
I really enjoy reading about your paths you have taken to get to and to stay ERed.

Free to canoe

 

[Blackwoodt]

Not a traditional success story, just lucky, being at the right place at the right time and sticking with it.

Graduated high school, worked on commission in cosmetics. Tired of working holidays, weekends, and evenings so I went to work in an office as a lowly accounting clerk. Hated it, clocked in, clocked out, treated like grade-schooler so then I went on to groom dogs and opened my own business. Over the next few years I never made much money so in my later 20's I went back to a business school for IT/Accounting.

That's where I got lucky, after graduation I started working for a company that became employee owned. They gave you a stock gift each year that amounted to 10-15% of your salary. The stock that started out just over a $1.00 per
share is now over $100 a share. Well I've worked for this company now for over 25 years because they constantly challenged me, and since I was in at the beginning I have accumulated a fair amount of stock. Oh, and not to mention
they also pay out dividends, the largest paid out was three years ago @ $25.00 per share!

I pay cash for cars, live in a modest house on acreage, bought a house for my mother on 10 acres, and have 'early retired' my hubby so that he can take care of both places and plan our vacations!

Looking forward to retiring in 22 months, 29 days, and 11 hours… but hey, who's counting?

 

[scrabbler1]

That's where I got lucky, after graduation I started working for a company that became employee owned. They gave you a stock gift each year that amounted to 10-15% of your salary. The stock that started out just over a $1.00 per share is now over $100 a share. Well I've worked for this company now for over 25 years because they constantly challenged me, and since I was in at the beginning I have accumulated a fair amount of stock. Oh, and not to mention
they also pay out dividends, the largest paid out was three years ago @ $25.00 per share!

Glad to hear another success story from an ESOP plan. AS you can see from my signature line, I, too, did well in my company's ESOP. Mine grew by a factor of 30 from 1997 to 2008 and my allocated shares ranged from 6% to 13% of my annual each year, most of them in the early years while the stock price was low and my pay was high (F/T work back then, unlike later on). I did not receive dividends like you did, but the proceeds of the sale when I left 2 years ago was $300k.

Those shares were also subject to more favorable tax rates because the appreciation in the price was NUA and taxed at LT Cap Gains rates instead of as ordinary income. You should enjoy the same thing as long as the tax treatment of this type of sale remains unchanged (but might be at a higher rate than it was for me in 2008).

 

[Blackwoodt]

Those shares were also subject to more favorable tax rates because the appreciation in the price was NUA and taxed at LT Cap Gains rates instead of as ordinary income. You should enjoy the same thing as long as the tax treatment of this type of sale remains unchanged (but might be at a higher rate than it was for me in 2008).

I've checked with the plan administrator at my company, as well as two financial planners, and have been told that because I work for a 'S' Corp company that my ESOP would be taxed as ordinary income, and I would not be able to use the NUA. Guess I shouldn't complain, but I do