athena53
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- May 11, 2014
- Messages
- 7,403
I was not the classic LBYM like many people on this site, but did save monies from my first job on until retirement.
I was in a high pressure upper mgmt job where the day started at 6:30am and indirectly ended at 11pm.
Thus, I feel no guilt in retiring early, but am always conscious (now) of not saying anything controversial to those who appear less fortunate.
Same here; I know I was blessed with marketable skills and good health, but I spent 99% of my spare time the first 8 years of my career getting through actuarial exams, and started saving as soon as I got my first real job the day after I graduated.
Some of it is under our control; one thing that occurred to me in reading through this is that, with the same salary history I could easily be in the group complaining about the 9.9%. I never made more than $150K/year. spent 25 years in a HCOL area (Bergen County, NJ) and survived a messy divorce to a financial basket case. A few more bucks spent on big, shiny new cars every few years, a bigger house, hired help to clean it and mow the lawn, a few cruises every year, more jewelry.... yeah, I could have made that money disappear easily and be trying to live off SS alone right now.