When Did You Know

[W2R]

I first knew I would retire early back in early 2000 at age 51. I am a scientist with an engineering background and never had the slightest interest in money or personal finance until that time. I was looking at my job benefits one day, and (*click!*) the pension looked really, really small for me no matter when I might retire.

To repeat a story I have posted many times (long time members can skip the rest of this paragraph), my net worth was negative after my 1998 divorce and by early 2000 it was about zero or a little less and I was renting. After looking at the size of pension I might get eventually, I wrote my dear brother a "poor me" e-mail about how I would never be able to retire and how I would still be working at 95. He wrote me a "tough love" e-mail back, telling me that I could certainly retire and to stop talking like that. He also said he knows me and my strength in mathematics, and that i was perfectly capable of figuring out how to do that and he wasn't going to help. I decided to put everything into figuring this out just to prove to him that he was wrong. And before too long I had a rudimentary plan that I worked on every day.

Anyway, I figured that people retire at 65-66 so I planned to retire at 62 to give me a cushion in case things got delayed. When I considered what a turkey my supervisor was, I decided my earliest date of retirement eligibility (at age 61.5) would be an even better goal and tentatively revised my plan.

My early decisions I would now categorize as Really Stupid, but I learned as time went on. For example, by the summer of 2000 my car was awful and causing enough delays to endanger my job, and my credit was worse than terrible so I bought a new car using money from the retirement account that I had had at my prior job. I got better at these things as I read and learned more.

There were obstacles along the way such as Hurricane Katrina but by that time I wasn't about to give up.

 

[travelover]

I was 14 and peddling my newspaper bike through 6" of snow.

It took me another 40 years, but I did it.

 

[GoodSense]

I worked for the local government, and a lot of people there were retiring at 55 or 60. When I realized those bennies were no longer offered to younger people like me, I decided to figure out a way to do it on my own.

It helped hugely when DH joined the workforce, so we started to have some money to invest. Before then we weren't living paycheck to paycheck, but we didn't have too much left over either on my meager salary. Serious saving started when I was 27.

I am still not sure when we will actually reach FIRE. Still a long way to go and many things could change. But I know it will be in our 50s at the latest, and that is OK with me. Just knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel alone is a source of strength.

It really does feel like a big secret. I think it's because it's such a taboo to talk about money. People are working 10+ more years than they need to -- if they only learned to save and envision FIRE.

 

[brewer12345]

I was 26. DW and I had just bought a condo, were putting away excess money every month and I sort of thought "is this it?". Work all day, watch TV at night after dinner, and get a taste of freedom on weekends and vacations did not seem that fulfilling. I knew no examples of anything better, since dad worked until 70 (self employed) and my FIL remains firmly wedded to the Protestant work ethic. But then I ran across John Greaney's site one day and fireworks went off. I consider myself forever indebted to him for the inspiration.

It reamins unclear when I will get there, courtesy of two market collapses in my relatively short working life. If I do not go postal, I could retire for sure from my current job at age 50. Very much hoping it is sooner, but I am the breadwinner and we have two kids.

 

[jimnjana]

In 1975 my dad retired from the Navy... One of things he said that I remember was "why would I want to stay in and work for half pay?" I was 12 at the time. My Dad left the service and was accepted into one of the early Physician Assistant programs and became a PA and retired for the second time about 10 years ago.

 

[JacqJolie]

I knew I wanted to retire early back around 2002 (I was 37) when I read Cashing in on the American Dream, YMOYL and others, like many here. I was also dealing with a crappy boss at the time and wanted not to ever again have to put up with the b.s. and not have f*** you money. So I decided to forget about my silly ideas of what work I thought would make me happy and go for what paid the most - which oddly enough, gave the most freedom and fun work too. At the same time, I kept my expenses at or lower where they were when I was just breaking even. I job hopped around for the last 7 years, not consciously looking, but having opportunities come my way - which brought a bigger paycheque every time.

I knew I could do it after I hit an amount saved that I knew would give me a SWR of around 3-4%. And I had a strong desire to be fully retired before 45, which I will be. Another factor that lessens my worry a bit, although I'm not counting on it in my projections at all (and it's kind of embarrassing), is that, like Meadhb, I'll likely be the beneficiary of an inheritance at some point in the next 10 years. Hopefully longer, but there aren't a whole lot of centenarians out there. Very fortunate to be Canadian in that respect and therefore not subject to inheritance taxes.

 

[deserat]

Hmm - understanding savings came to me when I was about to leave the service for graduate school - I wanted to be able to pay cash the first year's tuition at a top school. Amazed me and my then husband at how much we'd been wasting even on our meager 2Lt salaries in southern CA (very expensive place to live). Flash forward, knew to pre-pay the mortgage on my first house, so had a pretty good profit for next house - also read You can Retire at 35 by Terhorst - also, Tightwad Gazette, Your Money or Your Life.....still am not there, but wow, amazing how financial security in general can help you and your attitude. Issue is mental one with current husband and I - need to get over the "what will you do between 1300-1600 everyday?" Yes, I know it will eventually fall into place (hopefully I don't get sucked up into trying to combat the local rock crusher from crushing rocks next door and 'jarring' my life!) I see us retired in 5-6 years.

All in all it's actually been an great ride - doing things frugally is an intellectual and creative challenge - or just doing without as a mental and 'willpower' challenge. We truly need very little - it's managing the wants that makes early retirement possible.

 

[ksr]

I was 32 and had just changed jobs, thinking it would improve my career and overall happiness. When I realized that the job wasn't so much the problem, but being in megacorp in general was making me miserable, I started planning for ER. I thought it would take about 10-12 years; it actually took about 15 years. I left megacorp at age 47. Some would say I'm not really retired, since I teach a few classes every week now, but I'm out of megacorp and working less than 10 hours a week so I've gotten where I wanted to be (for now).

It was after this turning point in my life that I started reading a lot of books like Your Money or Your Life, which helped me along the way.

 

[Nords]

Which brings me to my question, when/how did you find out/know you could retire early?

Maybe I phrased my question wrong.
What I meant to say was, when did you start thinking (or planning) about early retirement. Did something "click" in your head (like it did for me with a colleague living it), or was it something else?

In college I affirmed many times that I was wasting money, so I got better at cutting expenses and discovered that I enjoyed the frugality game. The submarine lifestyle is perhaps a degree of [-]deprivation[/-] frugality that would cause prison riots, but once you're accustomed to that standard of living then it's very easy to pile up the savings. The Navy also makes it easy for you to spend so much time at work that you don't have a lot of free time to spend money.

My (also working) spouse and I kept saving a large percentage of our combined income (usually over 50%, as high as 80% during deployments) until we bought a house. Even after that we kept trying to bank one income or at least save all of our pay raises. Retirement planning was pretty primitive in the 1980s but the world's biggest bull market helped paper over the cracks.

In my later 30s, about five years before retirement, I became aware of the military's transition-planning materials and software. Extensive use of these resources showed that all of my mid-level nuclear-engineering skills and training-command experience would be extremely useful to me as... a mid-level nuclear engineering manager or a teacher. Maybe both!

At that point I heard a loud "CLICK", and that's when I knew I needed a better plan. I read Dominguez' "Your Money Or Your Life". From there I moved on to the Terhorst's book. A year or so later I was kvetching to my Dad about the Navy's transition process, he said "Why would you want to work after you retire? Didn't you save enough money?" and I knew that ER was my new avocation.

Around 2000, a couple years before my Navy retirement, we were pretty sure that we had it all lined up. We kept checking the math as the markets declined. When the markets re-opened after 9/11, we ran the calculations again with our "new" ER portfolio and figured that we'd just survived the worst case. That's when we knew we could ER.

Everyone has their own indicator. Dory36, founder of this board, used to say that you went through your working days with a bucket in each hand-- one for collecting the assets you'd need to achieve FI and the other for collecting the BS you had to deal with on the job. When your FI bucket finally filled up then your BS bucket tended to overflow much more quickly.

 

[Ronstar]

I knew about 10 years ago - when I was around 45. I knew I had to put together a financial plan - which I did. I didn't put together a rock solid work exit strategy. As part owner of a company, I found that it is not as simple as announcing your retirement and walking out the door. Part time work seems to have temporarily fixed this problem.

Books, online research (this forum), friends and relatives have been a great info source for the transition to full retirement. After 2 years of working part time, I'm ready to work less part time and devote all my time to just goofing around.

 

[Sea Kayaker]

Boy, was I late to this party.

The very concept of ER didn't enter my brain until this past July. I had just married a wonderful woman, and we had decided to blend our financial assets together. Separately, our individual finances were solid if unspectacular - I brought more liquid cash to the table and some nice recreational property, while she owned some Vancouver real estate which had doubled in value in 5 years. When we looked at our combined resources, it was a revelation to us... if we pay off our mortgage before we hit 40 (two years from now), save at the pace we are now, at age 45 we should have some ER possibilities open to us. We have decent shot at hitting 1 mill in networth at 40 years old - something absolutely inconceivable to me just a few years ago.

I would say I am more obsessed with this than she is, but then again, she likes her job much more than I like mine.

 

[Onward]

I read Dominguez' "Your Money Or Your Life". From there I moved on to the Terhorst's book.

It was the same two books that caused my transformation. I wonder how much they've shaved from the US GDP since they came out?

 

[vicente solano]

Suddenly I found myself -like all workers older than 52- forcefully early retired with a nice compensation and compensation..... I really only had a month or so to assimilate what was going to happen when got laid off....

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

26 or 27 or about 1 year into my first job. I was re-orged out of a job after about 6 month into my first job in California, and I spent the next 6 months knocking on doors both inside and outside the company for the next job. Right there and then, I knew that I wanted to steer my own ship instead of being blown around by the vagary of some big bosse's political moves. My second job in Colorado saw me work with with an insane woman who happened to be a Michigan alumna. Yeah, so much for the theory that your fellow alumni are your best network! Those two events pretty much solidified my goal for FI. Besides, I always have been a hard worker and good saver, so saving money was never a problem.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

In 2000, age 30, I stumbled across Greaney's site and forum while trying to fix my finances after realizing that the more money I made, the less I had left over. It had simply never occurred to me before.

Almost 10 years later I am headed in the right direction, but think I'll be lucky to retire by 55. Then again, that's about 15 years away. A lot can happen.

 

[Fireup2020]

Escaped marriage # 2 with about $20K in unsecured debt at age 30. Following year, discovered he has lost the house and we did not refi the thing in his name only. So, with a 500-something credit score, my focus was to get my score back to excellent ASAP. Determination and hard work heavily influenced my luck and opportunities with regard to working for two government entities with COLA'd pensions. Now I just max my deferred comp/TSP, and double dip like a mad dog - the rest goes into my fun fund Just waiting for age 50 where I can take off my fuzzy handcuffs!

 

[DayDreaming]

Tgotch, I was sort of like you in that I diligently worked, saved money in my 401k, and never really thought about retirement much, it always seemed so far away, after all. Somewhere in the back of mind I always assumed that I could retire early, but never sat down to figure out the details, and honestly, I never managed my savings very well, I just contributed to my 401k and figured that would be ok somehow.

Around age 45 I was becoming very unhappy in my job, which I had liked up until then. So being a total idiot about my finances, I signed up with a financial advisor to help me see if I could retire at age 50. I paid them quite a bit in fees before I wised up. Actually, finding this forum was a major step in my financial education and I eventually realized I could manage my own finances and didn't need to pay someone the rest of my life to do it for me.

So with all those pieces in place, around the age of 48 I had a pretty good sense that I was on my way to retiring early - probably at 50 or soon after. Then still at age 48, I was laid off from my job and after a bit of thought, decided to call it early retirement. If I had not gotten a handle on my finances recently, I'd probably be freaking out about being laid off - for no good reason, I just wouldn't have realized what a good position I was actually in. But lucky for me, the lay off turned out to be the best thing that's happened to me in a long time and I now consider myself retired. It feels nice.

Best of luck with your FIRE plans!

 

[Helen]

I stumbled onto the retire early board at the Motley Fool and the light bulbs went off. I've been saving for retirement for about 15 years and have 3 years and 3 months to go. I'm hanging in there for the health care.

 

[W2R]

Escaped marriage # 2 with about $20K in unsecured debt at age 30. Following year, discovered he has lost the house and we did not refi the thing in his name only. So, with a 500-something credit score, my focus was to get my score back to excellent ASAP.

Ouch!! That sounds almost exactly like what happened in my divorce (except I was 50). He got the house, almost all the contents, and more. I got.... out. Well, that and debt, and my credit score was awful.

Determination and hard work heavily influenced my luck and opportunities with regard to working for two government entities with COLA'd pensions. Now I just max my deferred comp/TSP, and double dip like a mad dog - the rest goes into my fun fund Just waiting for age 50 where I can take off my fuzzy handcuffs!

Congratulations! I can appreciate the determination and hard work that it took to turn your situation around but you did it. That's very admirable.

 

[Mill]

It was all about LBYM for me. A few years ago I moved back into my parents place, and realized how much I was saving in rent. But I didnt blow my excess funds. Then I got a decent job. Still kept my same standard of living. Then I took a job traveling across the country, got a nice raise, and per diems. Still kept my same frugal lifestyle. I started calculating nw somewhere in the middle of all that, and I could see the snowball forming. As the net worth rose month after month it became gratifying and I realized I had a leg up on my spendthrift peers. Because of LBYM, dont want to own fancy cars or go on expensive vacations. Ive always valued my free time, so ER sort of naturally became a goal. Still a long way to go, but Im enjoying the ride.

 

[clifp]

I told me mom at 16 that I was gong to retire before I was 40, of course it was one of the annoyingly cocky things teenagers say. But I really seriously started considering it at 35, when it looked likely that my stock options were going to be worth enough for me to retire early.

I think Step 1 is achieving critical mass to steal a phrase from Bob Brinker. Although achieving financial independence is very much a good thing, it does have a downside. In particular once you've got FI your tolerance for all of the hassles associated with a j*b drop significantly.

 

[simple girl]

About 8 years ago, when I was 34. I had been working full-time, but the stress of high patient volume was really getting to me. My physical and mental health was suffering. DH and I decided it was worth it for me to change to part-time. Suddenly, I had time to look at our finances in depth. I decided if I wasn't going to work full-time, then my mission would be to learn to manage our personal finances.

I started reading financial books, and the biggie for changing our mind set was of course, YMOYL. We had always been frugal, but this book opened our eyes to the possibility of maybe, just maybe not having to work forever. I started tracking our net worth, and it is all history from there. Joined this board and expanded my knowledge base significantly further. Still on our mission to FIRE, but it is gradually getting closer and closer.

 

[cardude]

The goal I set when I was 25 was to save $X,000,000. I didn't know anything about SWRs or any of that stuff, but $X,000,000 seemed like a good number. The catalyst happened when I started working at our small (now defunct) family car dealership and got to take a look at the profits it did. Thinking I could someday worm my way into buying the dealership and use the profits as savings, I did a simple FV projection and if I lived cheaply it looked like I could end up with my goal in a reasonable amount of time.

My widowed grandmother was very frugal and a great lover of stocks, so watching her helped as well.