Hi, I'm Telly

[Telly]

I'm at the mid-century mark. I had hoped to retire when I got to 55. Didn't make it there. The meltdown of the telecom market put me out on the street after a lot of years into it.

Seemed like a disaster at first. But have been learning fast since then, it may be OK after all. Big plusses are my Wife and I are cheap (no no, Frooo-gal ), no debts, and are do-it-yourself kind of people. We live pretty cheap compared to those around us.

When I found this website 2 nights ago, I ran to the kitchen and told my wife "there ARE other people like us out there!"
We don't need to feel like lepers anymore. The heck to conspicous consumption, we choose NOT To!

I have read about every post on this board, a lot of good comments, and questions posed just like many of the questions I have. Great!

[MRGALT2U]

My story is a bit different. I was a workaholic and a big spender right up to the time I made the decision to bail.
After I semiretired at age 49, I had some luck and by 1998 I hung it up for good. If I had had the good sense to begin preparing years earlier, it would have
removed a lot of pressure. On the other hand, I'm not
complaining. If I was a DIY type, that would make a huge difference. Alas, I can barely screw in a lightbulb
without messing it up. BTW, I felt just as you did when
I found this website. "Oh man, look at this!"

[RedOscar]

Quote:

When I found this website 2 nights ago, I ran to the kitchen and told my wife "there ARE other people like us out there!" We don't need to feel like lepers anymore. The heck to conspicous consumption, we choose NOT To!

Yes Telly, there ARE others like you and your wife out here. We are just not as glamorous as the big spenders and hyper-consumers around us.

[1HappyFool]

Quote:

When I found this website 2 nights ago, I ran to the kitchen and told my wife "there ARE other people like us out there!"

Welcome Telly. I wouldn't exactly call Early Retirement a "movement" yet, but you've at least found a peer group.

1HF

[MRGALT2U]

This morning I was musing "gosh it would be nice to have more money". There followed a simply heretical
thought (for us ER types), i.e. maybe I should have worked longer. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! I should
have planned ahead and quit even sooner than I did.

[WRBT]

We're still 13 years away from quitting time. That's seven years to finish paying off my wife's massive student loan anchor from hell (law school = ouch) then six more to finish paying off our mortgage early. That should put us out of the game (into the game?) in our mid 40s with no debt, a paid off pad with a beautiful view, and enough savings to never need to work again.

We've also been throwing around "Operation Thailand" which involved selling everything, paying off everything, then moving to Thailand. We estimate in about four years we'll be in a position to pull this off and live pretty well in Thailand on a 3% draw, possible supplementing our income by teaching English. Right now it's just a lot of talk over beers though.

[arrete]

Quote:

We've also been throwing around "Operation Thailand" which involved selling everything, paying off everything, then moving to Thailand.

You definitely should take a look at Paul and Vicki Terhorst's home page. They've spent quite a lot of time in Thailand.

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/5315/

arrete

[WRBT]

Yes, Terhorst has demigod status in our household.

I lived in Thailand for a while as a boy, in fact we're going there on vacation in May... heading up North mountains to Pai and Mae Hong Son. There are lots of expats in Eastern Thailand right near the border with Laos where they can do the visa shuffle back and forth as needed. It's a lovely country if you're ok with hot weather.

Telly is blessed that his wife shares "frooo-gal" habits, as am I. I could imagine no small amount of friction in a couple with wildy different ideas of lifestyle, especially if one of them developed a taste for frugality later in life.

[MRGALT2U]

Re. "friction .........taste for frugality later in llife",
you are right on. The main reason I have an ex-wife.
I decided frugality was the only way to go and she
wasn't coming along. I understand it though and so
no hard feelings, at least on that issue.

[MRGALT2U]

Re. going "offshore", we considered it seriously.
Finally it just seemed like too much hassle. This may
be because (although I am well traveled), not much was
outside the U.S. Thus, I am really not familiar with
any place outside the country where I would want to
relocate. Starting from scratch, especially with all of
the entanglements we have here seems pretty
overwhelming to me. Guess we will stick will the
problems we know as opposed to tackling new ones.
Could be partly an age thing.