Any college students out there???

[Berkshire Bull]

I guess that its kinda strange for someone to be thinking retirement before their "career" really gets going, but i don't think its outrageous to be thinking "financial independance" at any age in life, and that includes the option of retirement when you decide. talking investments at keg parties seems like good practice for future cocktail parties 8) ....right guys? : its kinda hard to get someone to listen though. I've got my profile, if you will, in the introduction section. Thanks for making me feel welcome

 

[farmerEd]

Its not that outrageous really; uncommon yes, but if you can set the work/savings/spending habits right this early in life, you shouldn't have a problem with a RER (real early retirement).

I started my planning when I was about 21, just finishing up my college days at UMass Amherst. We (future wife, now current wife) had about a 12 month period of running up the credit cards, buying new cars and even buying a house (bought my first one at 22) once we both became employed FT.

Having all that debt at such a young age really left a bad taste in my mouth and we immediately went about saving more, spending less and banishing debt from the household.

 

[John Galt]

farmerEd is right. In my case, I never gave it
(ER) a thought until I was in my late 40s. Then I had to scramble. The idea had already taken root when I read Paul
Terhorst and YMOYL. These guys kind of confirmed
the concept. Anyway, wish now I'd gotten motivated
when I was much younger.

John Galt

 

[azanon]

I got interested in ER at 24, but it was only by sheer random circumstance. My wife and I were the sole recepients of a 100K dollar life insurance claim, and I was still in graduate school at the time. I didnt know the least thing about money, investing, etc, but I had several people tell me I needed to seek professional help as to what to do with 100K instead of just going on a spending spree.

Not being one to pay others for doing something i could do myself, i bought several finance books. It was in this process that I learned about the power of compounding, the virtues of saving, and using money wisely. Due to this, i now save aggressively, or at least compared to my peers.

Had that life event not happened, its likely I would have taken an earn-and-burn approach till God knows when.

 

[fire5soon]

I started thinking of ER when I was 21 and started full time employment. The major event which started by FIRE goals happened when I was 19yrs old. I was in a serious auto accident (not my fault) which left me with injuries I'll be dealing with for the rest of my life. My heart actually stopped on the operating room table and they had to jump-start me with the padles. I didn't walk for 8 months and had over a year of rehab after that. I have more hardware in my legs than a Home Depot delivery truck.

The combination of the auto accident and also having a "real job" made me realize I didn't want to be forced to work for the rest of my life. It sounds corny but you really never do know when your time will be up and I don't want to spend all of that time locked up in an office.

The real key is to find a profession you enjoy so that the years leading to FIRE will be a pleasurable as possible. I'm 27 now and still looking for that profession :-/ I'll let you know when I find one...

You also need to consider who you marry (considering you want to be married.) Having a spouse which does not value FIRE goals can be one of the largest hurdles between reaching those goals.

Good luck on your quest!

-Jay

 

[Marshac]

 talking investments at keg parties seems like good practice for future cocktail parties  8) ....right guys?  :

Actually... yes... you gotta remember, a lot of girls are pretty shallow, so if you're talking about money/investments like you have a lot of it... well.... it usually equates to a lot of tail, and isn't that the point of drunkin debaucherous college parties? And yes, I couldn't help but think about ER in college.... it was assigned homework in my finance classes

To be fair to the ladies out there, both genders have their share of shallow folks.

 

[fire5soon]

To be fair to the ladies out there, both genders have their share of shallow folks.

I agree. Actually the goal of most men is to find a lady who is at least as shallow as he is.

 

[Jane]

I agree.  Actually the goal of most men is to find a lady who is at least as shallow as he is.  

That's probably a good thing so the shallow people will stick together and avoid annoying the rest of the population.

In defence of college students though, it is hard already to try avoid getting into debt too much, study hard and maybe, living on your own for the first time in your life, to even think of ER. So I understand them not wanting to talk about investing, ER etc. Heck, some of them could barely afford the tuition, let alone have extra money to invest.

When I was in university (graduated in '98), I was supposedly in one hardest subject you can take in school (chemical engineering). My parents couldn't afford to send me to school so I got by through scholarship, some co-op work and living cheaply (I considered myself very lucky indeed). And people know that as engineering students, we probably worked harder than anyone else and had course list longer than anyone else. So no, when we party, we do not want to talk about money, we want to PARTY!!

My 2 cents.

Jane

 

[azanon]

Ahh, a lot of that is relative though isn't it Jane; the level of difficulty of your major? Its probably safe to assume the harder the major, the more brillant the student. Home economics is probably just as challenging, and potentially time consuming, for someone with an IQ of 90.

 

[soupcxan]

I wish I had started thinking about ER back when I was 21 and in college. Unfortunately I put it off and now I'm picking up the pieces...I'm 22 and 6 months out in the "real world."    Seriously, I am amazed at how fast my financial priorities changed once I entered the working world. I've always been fairly frugal and saved a lot of money from working throughout high school and college, but now that I work full time, ER seems like even more of a priority. You don't want to break the bank while you're in college (tuition will do that regardless) but you can't just stay home every night drinking tap water. Moderation (and having a part-time job) is the key.

I'm new here as well, check out my post in the introduction section.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I wish I had started thinking about ER back when I was 21 and in college. Unfortunately I put it off and now I'm picking up the pieces...I'm 22 and 6 months out in the "real world."

Man - you are thinking about  ER as early as anyone I know!

Don't worry - I never thought about retirement until I was 30 (most folks don't until they're 45)  - Then I had the divorce at age 35 and had to take a couple years off for the trauma of it all. - And you're worried about a year and a half.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but life is gonna throw you some curve balls that you cannot possibly hit out of the park!  - But at age 22.5 you've got a great start and can recover the bad stuff (and everybody in this world gets the bad stuff). Just stay the course and when the Sh*t hits the fan - well just stay the course!

 

[Zipper]

Like I said before you guys, get a life! Reminds me of the student political types that joined the party, Liberal or Conservative here in Canada, while in University. Without any real life job experience they kiss ass and get elected at some stupid age in their late 20's. These idealogues are the worst of all politicians. So what I'm saying grads, is get a good job, raise a productive family, be a charitable citizen, take the kids to soccer or baseball tryouts..............and as the learned members here say, put retirement on autopilot and enjoy what life in North America offers us.

 

[bow-tie]

Without any real life job experience they kiss ass and get elected at some stupid age in their late 20's. These idealogues are the worst of all politicians. So what I'm saying grads, is get a good job, raise a productive family, be a charitable citizen, take the kids to soccer or baseball tryouts

Speaking of kissing ass.... the climbers here in corporate America make me want to vomit.  I understand your point, Zipper, but I'm plugging away nonetheless to get the hell out of Dodge.

Can't wait to say - C YA!

 

[soupcxan]

put retirement on autopilot and enjoy what life in North America offers us.

You probably have more life experiance than I do, but I think you have greatly oversimplified things. Certainly, we should enjoy life in the moment and find a good balance between saving and spending...but I know so many people that live only for the moment and blow tons of money on clothes, cars, evenings out on the town, etc. That's not the kind of life I want...and if it were so easy to get on autopilot, I doubt we would be seeing the statistics on personal debt levels and poor (nonexistant) retirement planning in America.

 

[Berkshire Bull]

i suppose i'm pretty lucky as my parents saved me and my sister about $36k to go to school on. well i went through high school, got my 3.5 GPA got my 28 ACT and got into the school about 10 miles from my home, which happens to only be second to madison in admissions requirements for our state, so i'm lucky to have a good school close by. anyway, i took the $18k my parents saved for school for me and my sis and while my friends either moved out, or went to live in the dorms at 8 or 9k a year, my only school expense is the gas to drive down there. i mean its a 15-20 min. commute, gimme a break. my school was 3500 abo. my freshman year, 4000 last year, and will be about 4500 this year. i have enough left for 4 more semesters, where if i take 15 credits each semester i can get my finance major and accounting minor and get out without any loans or bills or anything. now mind you, i had about $30k saved/ invested from my working in highschool so i will make it out without bills either way... anyway, i'm starting to ramble now and i've got calc to study, so anyway, what i'm trying to say is, its not as hard to save for retirement as most young people make it out to be, and kudos to those who can make it through school debt-free, it gives you a big jump on financial independance. OH, and can anyone tell me what FIRE means? all the old people on here use it and if anyone in the know wants to tell me, i can reciprocate and explain to you what a "keg stand" is (my mom asked me the other day what it was after one of her co-worker's kids broke a tooth when he got dropped in the middle of one :

 

[Marshac]

I think FIRE = financial independence early retirement

 

[ats5g]

and if anyone in the know wants to tell me, i can reciprocate and explain to you what a "keg stand" is (my mom asked me the other day what it was after one of her co-worker's kids broke a tooth when he got dropped in the middle of one).

My friend broker his ankle doing "keg laps". Apparantley, the new wife and boss think it's an "old Rugby injury".

- Alec

 

[Hyperborea]

You probably have more life experiance than I do, but I think you have greatly oversimplified things. Certainly, we should enjoy life in the moment and find a good balance between saving and spending...but I know so many people that live only for the moment and blow tons of money on clothes, cars, evenings out on the town, etc. That's not the kind of life I want...and if it were so easy to get on autopilot, I doubt we would be seeing the statistics on personal debt levels and poor (nonexistant) retirement planning in America.

It's not easy to set your finances on autopilot particularly for early retirement but it is a good goal. I'm pretty sure that Zipper wasn't suggesting that you forget about your finances and spend everything. Getting everything in order and getting a "good enough" solution that allows you time to enjoy your days (which doesn't imply any spending) is better than spending all or most of your spare time in a search for the optimal savings and investment strategy.

I'm almost there myself but it has taken some time for me figure out what needs to be done and probably more time has been spent on looking at all the data and crunching the numbers to convince myself that it can be done. It's the difference between being a "satisficer" and an "optimizer". A satisficer looks for a "good enough" or satisfactory solution and then moves on to other tasks. The optimizer goes around and around trying to work the solution to a problem beyond (well beyond) the point of diminishing returns. I lean too much to the optimizer personality so it probably took me longer than some to set on autopilot. Learning to be a satisficer will make you happier than being an optimizer and you just might get more done too.

"The enemy of the good is the best." Voltaire