Impetus for FIRE?

[SlowTwitcher]

Just curious what has lead others to FIRE.
It was a indeed a braying jack#!* of a boss that started me down the path.
-What if I am terminated? What if I can't find another job soon? What if I lose
the house? I better pay my house off! Maybe I wouldn't need to work so much
then? I should find a book about this to learn? Man that's a lot of books? This
one looks good (LMWL by Bob Clyatt)! I'll check out this website ........
3 years 9months to go!!

 

[Khan]

Rapidly declining health.

 

[crazy connie]

Mental health concerns brought on by ignorant idiots. Idiots who felt compelled to micro manage all of the old timers post merger with tiny techno controlling large developed corporation. Thousands displaced so they could hire their own clones.

Oh, most important was LBYM for years and the knowledge that I had the finances pretty well nailed!

 

[Goonie]

I'm FIREing because I'm tired of working for the "man".....but most importantly, the driving force behind my impending FIRE, is the simple fact that I CAN FIRE!!!

I was able to enjoy the free & easy lifestyle for 5 1/2 years before I was forced to go to school for most of my youth. After all those years of keeping teachers employed, I was coerced into going to w*rk for the last 32 years. Now I'm finally getting my chance to revert back a free & easy lifestyle!!! Now I get to go back to those never ending days of play!!!

 

[peggy]

I have an ... odd ... personality. I get bored very easily once I learn a job's tasks, which I usually do in about a week. A month, tops.

Rather than spend most of my life bored to death, I'd rather have the freedom to pursue anything and everything that catches my interest, whenever that happens.

 

[Empty Pockets]

In July of 1987 I went on a week long fishing trip to Canada. When I got back I thought to myself "Man, it would be great to do that whenever I want".

By coincidence there was a complimentary issue of Money Magazine in my mail when I got back. There was a basic article on planning an early retirement and I got out a notebook and made a plan right there to retire at age 50. With some minor updates, the plan is still in place and I'm still on track.

 

[uncledrz]

We like to travel in the way that allows us to stay for an extended period of time in a different place, to learn about it, the people, the places, the ebb and flow of the place. To travel in this way, we need extended periods of time (month or two) and that's what FIRE gives us.

 

[bruce1]

I have an ... odd ... personality. I get bored very easily once I learn a job's tasks, which I usually do in about a week. A month, tops.

Rather than spend most of my life bored to death, I'd rather have the freedom to pursue anything and everything that catches my interest, whenever that happens.

Me too but it takes me a little longer to get bored. Once I figure something out it is no longer interesting. Not sure that it is odd though.

I can watch the bird feeder at home an hour every day though.

Bruce

 

[dumpster56]

Hummm

Teaching in an Inner city high school for almost 30 years.

Getting 300K in profit from selling the house in NJ before the market cooled, in 1 day.

The state saying hey leave and we will give you a pension with a cola and medical bennies for life in the area of 36K per year.

The 120 mile round trip commute.

Being 50. Only 50.

Moving to a warmer part of the country, NC from NJ.

Taxes on the new house 2900 a year instead of 9000.

Mortgage 300 a month on the new house instead of 1400 a month.

Nuff said.

 

[Khan]

Me too but it takes me a little longer to get bored. Once I figure something out it is no longer interesting. Not sure that it is odd though.

I can watch the bird feeder at home an hour every day though.

Bruce

Sometimes I stand at the front door and watch the bird feeders and go into a sort of trance.

Most relaxing.

 

[Meadbh]

Working WAAAY too hard.

Receving an inheritance that makes the FI math work.

 

[donheff]

I started with the Federal government with the expectation that I would retire at 56 and did. I had a rewarding and successful career but I always felt that I would prefer to have an unstructured life. Two years in and that anticipation has proved correct. I once had an executive coach evaluate my style. He gave me a fitting mental image of myself - imagine that I have a light-house style beam on top of my head very slowly swiveling 360 degrees pointing at on one thing after another; I intensely focus on what it is pointing at and then move on to the next thing. Also known as ADHD - but I compensate pretty well

 

[rs0460a]

For me, retirement can only be considered if you have the two "basics"; that being that you can (being FI), and the second being "mentally ready".

Luckily, me/DW crossed the first threshold a few years ago, but certainly were not ready for RE. It took a few "things" (health concerns, as noted earlier) and the sudden realization that we will not liver forever. That was made clear when we looked at the "statistic" that 3 of 4 of our parents were "in the ground" (e.g. "batter up" ).

Anyway, as I do with all major decisions, I made up a pro/con list of why I/we should, or should not retire.

Think of it as a child's playground teeter-totter. The idea is to live life "in balance". On one side, you have the "pros" of being FI, the "desire" to "move on" (from the work world), the ability to "take your time back".

On the other side, you have the "bad stuff"; knowing every day (or minute) is one less that you have on this earth, the "erosion" of your health (no matter how hard you exercise!) and the realization that my j*b is not who/what I am (as it was in my "younger years").

That being the case, I'm going May 1st. My wife was to go at the end of May, but over the holidays she realized that she is just not "mentally ready". That being the case, I'll join the ranks of those that are retired but have a wor*ing wife!

- Ron

 

[Cattusbabe]

Really did not expect to FIRE at 50. JUST KNEW I would be in harness until the age of 70. As a registerd nurse I made decent money but was not good at managing it. Did lots of dumb things, bought crap I did not need, was in debt and was going to slogg along until I was too old to work.

Met DH about 10 years ago and his program was as raggedy as mine. Misery loves company I guess so we fell in love and got married. A very happy marriage except for the debt. I knew there had to be a better way.

Saw a show on PBS on bankruptcy. A Dr.Warren ( The Two Income Trap) was interviewed and what she said about debt, credit cards and the like spoke to our situation. I started to read, started to learn and then I got mad. We could do better. We started to LBYM, developed a budget, worked over time, got out of debt and started to build up savings.

Now I planned to retire at the regular retirement age. Whoopeee. :

Then we inherited a lot of money, we knew it was coming down the road but not this soon. It was enough to maintain our current lifestyle with out having to work. 32 years as a care giver is quite enough so I bailed out, DH had been forced to RE due to his health about two years before.

That said if we had not cleaned up our acts the income from the inheritance would not have been enough to live on and service our debt so I would have had to continue to work. Further had we not learn to manage our finances better we would have pi**ed the money away when it came.

I learned and continue to learn a lot from this board and tell everyone who will listen about you guys.

It is about having a good life. Having the good sence to know it and the good sence to live it. That about sums it up for me.

 

[Tracy42]

In the first year of our marriage, I picked up the Paul Terhorst book, Cashing in on the American Dream, How to Retire at 35 and I was hooked. Fortunately the FIRE bug got me before we started making any real money, and when we were ready to buy a house at the end of our rental lease, we bought a duplex and let the other side pay our mortgage.

Fast forward 18 years and we find ourselves very close to FIRE, but we've strayed off the path somewhat (big house, mercedes, bmw, corvette, you get the picture). I started reading current authors who were advocating FIRE, found this website and find myself refocusing on the goal rather than the stuff.

I don't have anything in particular that I want to do in ER, I just know I don't want to have to show up at my desk at the assigned time every day and deal with other peoples' priorities.

 

[Moemg]

I was going to retire at 55 but I wasn't mentally ready.Then last November some of the younger nurses were complaining at how long they had worked (5,7,8 years) and I piped in that I had worked 29 years,except when I thought about it I had really worked 39 years .Resigned that day and have never looked back.

 

[Martha]

I didn't really think about it at all and didn't plan for it. I pretty much was consumed by my work. The nice thing about law is boredom is rarely an issue and if you tire of a type of work, move on to something else.

Then I was elected president of our firm. I think I did a good job but it burned me out bad. I started to pay attention to what we had for money and found this website and various retirement calculators. The good thing was that DH was much more of a planner so I didn't spend all our money.

Sell the cabin and pay off the mortgage! Who needs five motorcyles, two ATVs and two homes! Let me out of this job! I resigned as president, went part time for two years and now am done.

 

[Rollie]

I picked up the book "Your Money or Your Life" at the local library 13 years ago. Ever since I have been working towards ER.

 

[ERD50]

I mentioned this before in a similar thread, but my 'see the light' moment came in my early thirties.

The mega-corp I worked for held a job fair, and I was assigned to screen applicants for the positions we had in our department. There was a long line of guys in their fifties that had been recently laid off from a very old-school mega-corp. Their job skills were totally out of date for what we needed. I will never forget the looks on their faces as I told them we would not be contacting them. They obviously were totally unprepared to start over in their 50's. I could almost see their mortgage bills and their kid's college costs written in the furrows of their brows. They thought they had a job for life.

So, everyone should be prepared for early retirement, whether it is a personal goal or not. You might not have a choice. Once you are FI, RE can be your decision, do it when you choose.

-ERD50

 

[Alan]

First let me say that I have read both books mentioned earlier in this thread and they are very good reads. For me, "Live More, Work Less" by Bob Clyatt was better and even DW read it from cover to cover.

My reasons to FIRE are no different from many:

Wish to enjoy life and do lots of travel while still healthy. (My family is scattered across England, Scotland and Australia and we all are in regular contact and get together when we can)

Have prgressed at work to a point where I don't enjoy it - too much to do with too few resources and globalization has meant I have lots of travel overseas, which may sound glamorous but very soon gets pretty old - in 2006 I traveled to 7 different countries in Europe several times.

I can FIRE at anytime now, but I do very much like my boss and the vast majority of the folks I work with so I plan to work for 3 more years and get the DB pension and heallth insurance through age 70. (I am 52 now).

A study done a few years ago on why people leave companies had the number 1 reason as being their boss or management team. I can personally vouch for that. In 1987 my manager, who was awful, blocked an assignment to the USA from England I wanted to take, so I wrote a letter of resignation to HR and to his boss. I got the transfer and it was a great move for me, and I have had several excellent managers since then.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i never cared much for working but also i had never considered early retirement. didn't think of it so much as retirement at the time, rather simply as quitting. i had never quit even a half decent job before, but quitting was much better than working. too bad it's called quitting. makes a victory sound like defeat.

contrarian to the core, my impetus for victory was depression. perhaps a questionable reason to quit, maybe a bad time to make such a decision, but it seemed to work for me. the fortune 5 where i used to be proud to work was re-engineered into crap. the good boss i had was replaced by the son of a bitch. i'd already been dealing with the loss of my partner. i was care-giver for mom with alzheimer's for about 10 years, then my best friend died and then even my dog died. i needed to shed some misery out of my life. and that misery was my job.

i'm feeling much better now.

 

[Charlie_Boy]

First post and I have not even introduced myself yet, but I wanted to respond to this subject. I should add that I am not retired yet either (plan on doing that this year). I apologize for entering the forum without a first introduction but I thought this study and its influence on me was important for this subject.

Anyway, what got me to think seriously about retiring was the Boeing study on longevity versus retirement age. If you google that you will find links with information on it. Once such link, http://home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/longevityvsretirementage.html, contains information on it and other issues. Basically, the study says that for every year you work past 55 you lose 2 years off your life. That got me to thinking.

 

[wabmester]

My tolerance for BS went down as my net worth went up. I have finally reached equilibrium and my BS tolerance is zero, so FIRE was my only option.

 

[Nords]

Welcome to the board, Charlie!

Anyway, what got me to think seriously about retiring was the Boeing study on longevity versus retirement age. If you google that you will find links with information on it. Once such link, http://home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/longevityvsretirementage.html, contains information on it and other issues. Basically, the study says that for every year you work past 55 you lose 2 years off your life. That got me to thinking.

I think you made the correct decision, but just to set the record straight for the other new posters-- I'm afraid that the data may be flawed. The study you cite has generally been discredited:
http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=2758.0
http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=554.0

 

[Alan]

Nords is correct, and I while I was looking for the links to the earlier threads, he has posted them - thanks for pointing us to the previous discussion.

For me, it is not so much about total life expectancy but the ability to do the things we both like doing such as sport, biking, hiking etc.

So far I have had foot, knee, back and both shoulders operated on due to damaged joints. 18 months ago DW had a series of knee injections of synthetic joint fluid which have worked great.

We recognize that the days when we can't hike the Yorkshire Dales all day long or play tennis etc are limited. Although we both know friends and relatives that have dropped dead in their early 60's, we plan for long lives ourselves, just can't be sure of fitness levels.