ER life evaluation.

Viet Nam era combat vet, went to college on the G.I. bill, poor family upbringing, marriage after college fell apart after 17 years and left me broke @ 50. Raised two daughters on my own, remarried and saved like crazy to be FI @ ~$1MM and with a nice start @70 and retiring late.
 
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I'm as happy as I've ever been. But that has always been true.
 
Married my college girlfriend, 30+ year careers in Engineering and Teaching, all with the same organizations. 1 son grown and independent, daughter finishing 1st year in college. Both will RE this year w/ pension, $2.3 million invested, no debt---can't wait.
 
LoneAspen said:
I'm not ER'd just yet, so here's my pre-ER sentences...

Lost everything I had accumulated at the age of 40 from a failed real estate venture and had to start all over again. But got lucky and joined a startup that IPO'd.

Hope to ER in about a year at the age of 48, never work again (or at least not for other people), and pursue hiking, backpacking, skiing, snowboarding, traveling, and getting my pilot's license.
Click to expand...


Nice comeback!
 
CAVEAT: Still in harness.
Great parents, great (brilliant!) wife, great in-laws, 2 good kids (unfinished work). Born to be an engineer, but dumb as a brick. Earned a lot, spent too much. Grew old too soon, too late smart. Have managed to stave off disaster for now. Lived and worked many places. Have avoided management on principle. Never aspired to greatness, just wanted to see the world and do interesting work. Basically rude and offensive by nature, but I work on it every day. By great fortune, there are not many people I cannot look in the eye.
 
This thread is very interesting to read. Anyway:

Spent my early adult life married to my job, then married at 37 and had my first child at 40. Wife, mom of 3 (the youngest just started college), and it is hard to look back on my life before I married since it was so different from how it has all ended up (so far).
 
robnplunder said:
Nice comeback!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I definitely consider myself fortunate. When I had to move back to Silicon Valley, I had about $500 total to my name, and moved from Colorado with everything of value to me in the back of my Jeep. Everything else I sold or gave away because I couldn't afford a moving van.

I tell people it's both liberating and depressing at the same time to be able to move with everything you have in the back of a Jeep. And I still have the Jeep, it's my daily driver :)
 
Valen said:
In my 30's I thought I had all my ducks in a row for "us" to retire in 20 years or so but was thrown off course when my husband decided he didn't want to be married to me any more. Fifteen years later we reconnected, fell back in love, remarried and enjoying our retirement together.

I have to admit, I never saw that one coming.....
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You're braver than me!

About a year after my divorce was final I'd just moved into my house (after living at Mom's for 18 months and saving every nickel I could) when the ex calls up and wants to come over and talk. Uh, okay, but I'm thinking "We're done. What for?" Turns out she wanted to ask my for my approval to marry her then-boyfriend who she's been living with for the last year. Huh:confused::confused: The question just floored me and I didn't know what to say. I just said "We're divorced, do whatever you want".

At the time I had every intention of remaining hard-core bachelor and remarrying, especially to the ex, simply didn't occur to me.

Later on it dawned on me that since I then owned a house by myself maybe she was figuring her entire paycheck would be available for fun stuff. Naw, that's too cynical.:LOL:
 
Walt34 said:
You're braver than me!

About a year after my divorce was final I'd just moved into my house (after living at Mom's for 18 months and saving every nickel I could) when the ex calls up and wants to come over and talk. Uh, okay, but I'm thinking "We're done. What for?" Turns out she wanted to ask my for my approval to marry her then-boyfriend who she's been living with for the last year. Huh:confused::confused: The question just floored me and I didn't know what to say. I just said "We're divorced, do whatever you want".

At the time I had every intention of remaining hard-core bachelor and remarrying, especially to the ex, simply didn't occur to me.

Later on it dawned on me that since I then owned a house by myself maybe she was figuring her entire paycheck would be available for fun stuff. Naw, that's too cynical.:LOL:
Click to expand...

Exs can be weird. Mine was weird in a good way, at least for me.. While we were married her lack of financial planning skills or any thought for money frustrated me. It was charming to date someone who just didn't care about money at all, but that can be difficult when you are married and have a mortgage and college loans to repay etc. She stayed true to her nature though as in the divorce she didn't want any of our retirement accounts. We split our other assets 50/50 but I remember a bizarre discussion with me and her lawyer trying to persuade her to take 50% of the 401k as well, but she was firm that she didn't want any of it. So I have her as the beneficiary on the IRA that I rolled it into....it seems fitting.
 
Sorry, tried to delete after I posted it. Please disregard this bad joke.
 
Looking4Ward said:
Made a really bad decision at the age of 17 and spent ten years in prison because of it but used the time to teach myself as much as I could. Spent the next 26 years applying what I learned and today my net worth is over $1M and I am retiring in 57 days at the age of 53.

That's my rags to riches story in two sentences.
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Wow. Write a few more sentences and you have a book and a screenplay. You deserve to be proud of yourself.
 
Originally Posted by RetireAge50
Sorry, tried to delete after I posted it. Please disregard this bad joke.
====================

Well...I also got a kick out of it, too. We need a little humor around here sometimes, especially when it's about werk.
 
RetireAge50 said:
Sorry, tried to delete after I posted it. Please disregard this bad joke.
Click to expand...
Most would realize that prisons don't function this way, at least in USA, and that you were referring to your job.

Ha
 
Met a cute boy in high school and decided that hanging out with him was the best thing ever. 20 years later we're still hanging out, with only 7 more years until we go on a very permanent summer vacation. :)
 
Ed_The_Gypsy said:
By great fortune, there are not many people I cannot look in the eye.
Click to expand...

Making the sacrifices/commitments required that enable us to RE are indeed rewarding. But being able to make a statement like that is worth a king’s ransom too.
 
Looking4Ward said:
Made a really bad decision at the age of 17 and spent ten years in prison because of it but used the time to teach myself as much as I could. Spent the next 26 years applying what I learned and today my net worth is over $1M and I am retiring in 57 days at the age of 53.

That's my rags to riches story in two sentences.
Click to expand...

Chapeau!!
 
I have had a life more varied and interesting than some, but less than others.

Now in ER, I end up with more money than some, but less than others.

And that's all I can say about that. The above are 2 sentences too.
 
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