Young Dreamers, how early do you want to retire?

[Cool Dood]

Big drug deal?

[gtmeouttahere]

Just make sure you put the decimal point in the right spot!!! (Office Space)

[MooreBonds]

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin Wow. I'm curious what is producing this $500k one-time income?

Well, I am part Italian, and my father's side is 100% Sicilian )

I work for a family-owned business. Winding down on a major project (hint: http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/NAS...park/index.jsp ), and my involvement was more than critical (basically, was supposed to be just the project manager but also ended up being the jobsite superintendent overseeing 35 construction workers as well, as our superintendent turned out to be a POS but my family members refused to do anything about it).

It's nice to see that the project did so well now that it's in the close-out stage, but believe me - combining my personality type with the sh*t I put up with, there were many times (even with just 1 month until completion) that I honestly didn't think I'd be able to make it to the end of the project without quitting or having a nervous breakdown (which I did have, by the way, thanks to a mentally derranged construction worker going off on me (another story for another thread).

Because of the many bad experiences from the construciton manager/in-house problems in my own company/the construction industry in general/unions, I'm hanging up my hardhat and moving on to a different career in the next 12 months. I just have to play my cards right so I don't get screwed out of my bonus by leaving before I get it.

I had previously posted my thoughts of going for my MBA last June...but I procrastinated and realized that if things went well with the project, then I may not even need to get my MBA to get a good job to reach FIRE status. It's also good I didn't start it because based on how the project was from Dec 2005 to April 2006, there's little chance I would have had a second to even think about grad school work with the committments from my job....let alone get as little sleep as I did get between staying up late and worrying about a multitude of problems that could have gone wrong. There is a chance that I might end up working for the engineer that designed the ballpark, since I skied for the first time earlier this year and loved it (and their office is in Denver), but it's all up in the air for now.

The good news is that my new career can be literally anything I want. I'd prefer to get a 'decent' job that's fun and interesting (making at least $40k/year), work for another 3-5 years, and then goof off with the 'gravy' part time jobs with good bennies (e.g. movie theater ticket windows, etc.) for kicks until I simply don't have time for the pt job.

It's funny how much brighter your day looks, and how much less unpleasant the bs is when you know that you're merely biding your time to get your annual bonus to set you on FIRE. Of course, it hasn't been a bed of roses to get to this point from graduating 5 years ago, and did involve quite a few sacrifices...but the rewards are sweet.

[Matt_24]

I plan on a comfortable retirement at 55 years of age.

My goal is to be sitting on 1.7 million plus an annual military pension of 40K+ (adjusted up annually for cost of living).

[justin]

.

[BunsGettingFirm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jphripjah I'm 34 now. Shooting for ER at 38. My projections show that in January, 2010 I should hit the $1 million mark. Then I move to Thailand or Cambodia and marry a beautiful 19 year old woman.

Make sure she has a sister for me.

[BunsGettingFirm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 I am hoping to bail between 40 and 45, but it might take longer. I actually don't know how long I will last at the full time career thing. The money is good and the work is interesting, but it is tough doing long hours, then going home and being daddy and helping out DW (Laurence knows what I mean). Ideally, I would like to go out at 40 with $2MM and a paid-off house, but I don't know how likely that is. I might settle for $1MM and a paid off house plus setting up a part time business. I have been helping some family and friends with financial planning and portfolio allocation and I have really enjoyed it. I think I could pretty easily get a CFP designation (would only have to take the test since I already have a CFA charter) and set up shop. But that is years in the future. I'm in a bad place right now, just feeling burnt out and sick of not having the slightest bit of leisure/down time, so that is undoubtedly coloring my perceptons.

I think your plan may work. My current accounting teacher is a CFP. He got burned out being the CFO of a small computer reseller at about 40. Now he does some teaching, have a side tax prep. business, does some financial planning, and manages 30 of his rental properties. Seems to be a happy guy.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin .

Justin, I'm checking in late today and I missed the events leading up to your editing of this post. Would you mind restoring it or PM'ing it to me?!

[justin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords Justin, I'm checking in late today and I missed the events leading up to your editing of this post. Would you mind restoring it or PM'ing it to me?!

Some spammer had posted one of those "I'm making $39,000/month from passive residual income from the ABG investment network" kind of statements. My post was making fun of the spammer. The spammer's post got deleted, so my post lacked context, and I edited it to nothing. I couldn't delete it for some reason.

[Nords]

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin I couldn't delete it for some reason.*

Poster deletion permission has been removed.* It was an attempt to avoid creative deletion of the record, mainly by trollers, but there are unintended side effects.* Of course people are attempting to preserve other poster's words for posterity by quoting them...

[justin]

I can delete some of my posts, like this one:

http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...2802#msg132802


Is "Poster deletion permission" selectively set based on topic or something?

I got confused by this, and even tricked into posting a test topic which I mistakenly assumed I could delete.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin I can delete some of my posts, like this one: http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...2802#msg132802 Is "Poster deletion permission" selectively set based on topic or something? I got confused by this, and even tricked into posting a test topic which I mistakenly assumed I could delete.*

You'll have excuse me while I bring in one of the board admins who actually understands how to do this.

Or else you've discovered a bug an undocumented user convenience.

Oh, Jim? Dory?

[Leonardo]

Today: 22. No debts. 175k saved.

Good things happen: Retired at 30.
Normal: Retired at 42.
Bad things happen: Retired at 55.
Very bad things happen: dead before ER.

[Cool Dood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leonardo Today: 22. No debts. 175k saved.

Leonardo, are we in dollars, or in reais?

Either way, congratulations!!

[Leonardo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cool Dood Leonardo, are we in dollars, or in reais? Either way, congratulations!!

In reais. I intend to retire with R$1M.

Thanks. I had a really hard time convincing my girlfriend that this is the way to go.

[azanon]

I have to say there are a lot of amazing people hanging out here, net worths ~ 200K in early 20s, others in their early 30s that have 500K-1Million. Amazing. The only way i could compete with that would be to move in the poor section of my city buying one of those houses worth ~ 40-70K, get a couple of beaters to drive, and then just hoard money like no tomorrow.

I have a net income now around 110K at 34, and both my wife and I have masters degrees, but we're just not anywhere close to those numbers on net worth. All i can say is congradulations guys on a super job well done. The best i can safely hope for is an ER in my early 50s, and I used to think that'd be a great accomplishment until i read through this thread, lol.

Azanon

[brewer12345]

Remember, we generally do NOT represent the general populace. We are a self-selected group with rarified asset levels and mostly fairly educated about personal finance. How many of your friends and neighbors fit that descrition?

[Cool Dood]

Azanon, I think that's still a great accomplishment -- some of the people here are really exceptional, either in their saving or in other respects, and there's really no way to guarantee that you'll achieve some of those really high results, it happens rarely and with a huge number of variables.

Also, if you did a bachelor's and a master's degree, you wouldn't even start earning until a lot later, and while it's a worthwhile pursuit it will make some younger people's numbers seem remarkable, especially for their age.

Also, as brewer just pointed out, you're looking at a very non-representative sample of the population.

[macdaddy]

I want 3 million in assets by the time I am 40, I am in my 20s and currently about 20% of the way there (real estate).* I don't want to retire at 40, I just want the financial security to know that if I had to, I could.* From what I have read on this board, a lot of stress is relieved when you have that safety net there.* And that is what I want too.* I would be happy to retire at 30 with 1 million and move to central america somewhere, but I want to have kids, and I want to give those kids the same opportunities growing up in America that I got. If for some reason I found out that I was unable to have children (shooting blanks), then I would be scouting out the beach shacks tomorrow.

[azanon]

Quote:

We are a self-selected group with rarified asset levels and mostly fairly educated about personal finance. How many of your friends and neighbors fit that descrition?

I suspect around my general peer group of friends, family and workmates, if finances were laid open, we'd be doing really well. I know my and my wife's greatest limitation right now is that we're just not entrepeneurs... meaning we work for other people instead of for ourselves. My dad in contrast, who makes a ton, is a small business owner. I know i don't have either the know-how or the guts to be one myself, so I am going to have to be satisfied with where i'm at.

Yeah we did get a late start out of the gate because of the education. I finished my masters at 25, getting my first "real" job soon after, and my wife was even older before getting her LCSW.