What do you do for a living?

[Brianeboatman]

We all dream of retiring early here on this site. I'm curious, what do you do for a living? What kind of money do you make? And finally, what percentage of your wages are being invested to retire "early"?


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[MichaelB]

I'm retired. All the money I make is "unearned".

 

[Meadbh]

I'm retired. All the money I make is "unearned".

+1

 

[travelover]

Retired.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Old-age pensioner.

 

[soupcxan]

I kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all outta gum...

 

[Ronstar]

1. Retired, except for the 10 hours of consulting I've done since April
2. The kind of money I make is also "unearned"
3. N/A - I'm not investing any $ to retire early, since I retired late - but the pct varied from 10 to 40 while working.

 

[Kaufmanrider]

We all dream of retiring early here on this site. I'm curious, what do you do for a living? What kind of money do you make? And finally, what percentage of your wages are being invested to retire "early"?


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Retired, Jan this year at 49. When I was working, I was a Fed. How much I made? Enough for a comfortable life for myself and my family. Not rich, not poor.

I have a pension which allowed my to retire early. I did invest between 5-15% of pay into a 401K (TSP) which provides icing on the cake.

Invested lower amount when I started, higher amount when I retired.

 

[Senator]

I am a data architect at a major US financial institution as my FT job.

I also have 24 rentals, a small mowing/snow plowing company, work as a property manager for the HOA, and manage another property for another investor.

I spend less than $30K a year. I have saved 100% of my take home net pay from my FT job, maxed out my 401K and HSA, plus saved another $7K a month. And I actually lived a bit.

Next year, 2015 saving projections are to save over $11K a month, plus my 401K and HSA, as I had some one-time expenses that are not going to happen in 2015. I paid off two mortgages and will not be giving/loaning my sister $29K.

 

[Brianeboatman]

Many of you are ,ready retired. If that's the case, what DID YOU DO for a living? How much money DID YOU MAKE AND WHAT % DID YOU SAVE? I put this in the "Dreamers" section thinking that it would be young pre-retirees like me. You retirees love rubbing it in that you're already retired...and I don't blame you! I can't wait to join the ranks in 2024.


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[athena53]

I'm retired. All the money I make is "unearned".

I really hate that term! I prefer "non-wage income".

I worked as an actuary till I retired last May at age 61. I was making about $200K/year in a LCOL area so was able to save a lot since moving here in 2003 (I'd saved continuously since I started working but having a mortgage that was a smaller % of my income really helped).

 

[target2019]

I still work. Sometimes. LOL.
Sometimes I make a lot, and sometimes I don't.

If you find a graph that measures income, wealth, or whatever, we are probably at the bottom of the top quintile last year and this year.

We have saved about 1/3 of our income over the past decade, I am guessing. New savings tailed off this year significantly due to job loss.

 

[Totoro]

Phd researcher, 4 years

Then management consultant, 5 years

Then dual role as in-house strategy advisor & cost cutter, 1 year

Then entrepreneur & procurement consultant, 2.5 years

Now semi-FIRE, might go for another thing to do that makes money, or not. ?? years.

 

[aaronc879]

I take drugs for a living. I take experimental drugs in clinical trials(aka lab rat). I make about $20K/yr and have a lot of time off. I spend less than that so it works out well for me. I worked in a factory for 11 years topping out at about $49K/yr. I saved nearly 50% of my income to amass a low six-figure net worth including a paid off home at age 31. Now(age 35) with my body broken by 12 hour shifts of manual labor, I let my savings build while I "work" part time just enough to cover my expenses. My hope is to stay healthy enough to be able to do this enough to cover all of my expenses at least until age 55 which is the cut off for about 75% of the studies then do whatever studies I can get and cover the rest of my expenses from my savings which should be much higher by then. Not the best road to FIRE but it's my best option and I think it'll be fine.

 

[scrabbler1]

While not an actuary, I worked in the actuarial field for 23 years (1985-2008) before retiring in 2008 at age 45. I worked full-time for the first 16 years (1985-2001) then 7 more years part-time (2001-2008). Although my hourly pay continued to rise after I switched to PT in 2001, my actual annual wages only approached $80k but never actually hit that mark.

As for % of income saved, it was erratic when I was in my 20s because I paid off my student loans, bought a car, and bought my co-op apartment (and refinanced its mortgage). In the years I wasn't doing any of those things, it was about 30%.

In my 30s, my only big expense was paying off the mortgage in 1998 when I turned 35 - and even while I was doing that my % saved was never lower than 12%. Before I paid it off, my % saved was about 35%. After I paid it off, my % saved shot up to about 55% even when my part-time working years had begun.

In my 40s (until I turned 45), my % saved remained in the low 50s (except the year I bought a new car, it fell to 18%) even though I was working part-time the whole time.

Even in retirement, I still calculate a % saved as a function of investment earnings which are about the same as my wages in my part-time working years. It remains at about 50%.

 

[Sue J]

I was an accountant age 23-28, then a stay at home Mom until age 51 when I started working PT as a school crossing guard to get my last 7 Social Security credits and add to the 2 sons college expenses. I'm still doing it because I enjoy it and I put most or all of into a ROTH IRA. I make about $4,200/yr. I also usher at a summer concert venue and make $450-$600 over the summer concert season. So I save 80-100% of my income.

DH was a social worker (children's services) for the county and then worked in social service administration (mental retardation/developmental disabilities) for the same county for almost 27 years. At the end he was making about $69,000. He didn't pay into Social Security, instead he contributed 10% to the pension plan. We use to be able to save $1000/mo when he was still working. He lost his job in 2010 at age 55 and early retired with a reduced pension.

We save about $300/mo of the pension plus my income.

 

[RetiredAndFree]

I worked in upper middle management, insurance industry. DH worked in senior management (executive ranks) also in insurance industry.

Key to our ER was establishing a standard of living way back when, and staying there. That meant our savings rate percentage grew every single year. We started at 10% as young marrieds, and were saving well over 75% of our combined net salaries for the five or so years prior to reaching FIRE in 2011. There was certainly some lifestyle creepage as our salaries increased, but very modest in the grand scheme of things.

We also banked 90% of our combined annual bonuses from day one, giving ourselves permission to 'blow' the other 10% (net, not gross), usually on travel.

 

[brewer12345]

DW did a bunch of stuff, but did career counseling at high end universities for 4 or 5 years and then quit in 2003 to open a part time private practice and have kids. I have done lots of things: Corporate intelligence analyst, conference director, corporate librarian/data monkey, rating agency analyst, high yield/distressed debt analyst, and regulator. I quit in January of 2014 at age 41, spent 8 months recovering and enjoying life, and then fell into a gig [mod edit] (not really, but it sounds far more interesting than my excruciatingly dull contract job doing some work for a megabank).

Can't help you with savings percentage. From about age 25 or 26 I always maxed my 401k. 100% of DW's business earnings have gone into a solo 401k (although some years that was a few grand). For a long time we had a 15 year mortgage and then paid an extra $1k/month on it (wish I had not done that, in retrospect). When I got a bonus, we usually saved the vast majority of it.

 

[MichaelB]

Many of you are ,ready retired. If that's the case, what DID YOU DO for a living? How much money DID YOU MAKE AND WHAT % DID YOU SAVE? I put this in the "Dreamers" section thinking that it would be young pre-retirees like me. You retirees love rubbing it in that you're already retired...and I don't blame you! I can't wait to join the ranks in 2024.

No need to yell, we can hear you just fine

Like many here, I did lots of different jobs. At megacorp over 25 years I had 18 different positions, so I guess you could say I did whatever they told me to. Most years I was underpaid, a few years seriously overpaid, enough to offset all those other years and still retire early.

Before that, as a yute, during high school and college I had more than a dozen different jobs, just counting those I worked at more than a year or made $1K in a year. First (age 9, for 5 or 6 years) was paper boy. Mostly tips, but I saved it all. At college I made $2.10 per hour all 4 years, mostly in the kitchen and as a TA, but I made good money during the summers as a fork life operator and then as a machine operator in a foundry.

 

[steelyman]

No need to yell, we can hear you just fine

That's right. I worked at a university. I'm not going to tell you what I earned, that's my business.

 

[Brianeboatman]

I appreciate the responses

Moderator,
I wasn't yelling! lol.
Anyway, I appreciate the responses. I find inspiration in the stories of others. At times it's difficult to stay motivated. Hearing your stories keeps the fire lit. My story is the following, for your inspiration...
I'm 38 now. My wife works part-time at the High School as a secretary. I work full time as a Justice of the Peace/Muni Court Judge. I was a police officer for 10 years prior to that. I currently have 12 years under my belt total (10 years cop, 2 years judge). My term lasts 4 more years. I plan on running again for another 6 year term. This year I purchased four years of Nevada State Pension. So, now I have 16 pension years built. At the conclusion of this term I will have 21. I will buy my final year (5th) in 2015. Because I worked as a police officer for 10 years, I can retire at 55 with no reduction in pension. I'm currently saving about 30% of my income total and praying that it pays off in the end. I want to retire at 50, 55 max. I have no debt at this time other than one car and our house. THat's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[REWahoo]

I'm 38 now. My wife works part-time at the High School as a secretary. I work full time as a Justice of the Peace/Muni Court Judge. I was a police officer for 10 years prior to that. I currently have 12 years under my belt total (10 years cop, 2 years judge). My term lasts 4 more years. I plan on running again for another 6 year term. This year I purchased four years of Nevada State Pension. So, now I have 16 pension years built. At the conclusion of this term I will have 21. I will buy my final year (5th) in 2015. Because I worked as a police officer for 10 years, I can retire at 55 with no reduction in pension. I'm currently saving about 30% of my income total and praying that it pays off in the end. I want to retire at 50, 55 max. I have no debt at this time other than one car and our house. THat's my story and I'm sticking to it.

You left out this part:

What kind of money do you make?

 

[Mulligan]

DW did a bunch of stuff, but did career counseling at high end universities for 4 or 5 years and then quit in 2003 to open a part time private practice and have kids. I have done lots of things: Corporate intelligence analyst, conference director, corporate librarian/data monkey, rating agency analyst, high yield/distressed debt analyst, and regulator. I quit in January of 2014 at age 41, spent 8 months recovering and enjoying life, and then fell into a gig [mod edit] (not really, but it sounds far more interesting than my excruciatingly dull contract job doing some work for a megabank).

Can't help you with savings percentage. From about age 25 or 26 I always maxed my 401k. 100% of DW's business earnings have gone into a solo 401k (although some years that was a few grand). For a long time we had a 15 year mortgage and then paid an extra $1k/month on it (wish I had not done that, in retrospect). When I got a bonus, we usually saved the vast majority of it.

Just like concrete work and roofing, that "web cam" gig would best be reserved for young people. At age 41, the stamina required to make a decent living behind the cam would be too much.


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[W2R]

I am retired now, but when I first came to the Early Retirement Forum I was an oceanographer. That is not a notably high paying occupation, but we do what we can so I was living on about 25% of my gross salary and putting the rest towards my future (mainly retirement savings and paying off the house). I have no dependents so that was more easily possible for me than it is for some people. Now, my income is from pension, social security, and investments and I no longer need to save for retirement - - I'm living it! .

 

[robnplunder]

Nothing I am proud of. I am in middle management in a tech gigacorp whose sole mission in life is to make profit for stock holders. The company is a major contributor to the internet madness, a real Cyberdine.