How Are Members Earning Money to Fund Early Retirement?

[GaryInCO]

Everything I've heard says that's not true. They can raise the rates for the whole pool, but not for an individual.

Now, if enough people in your pool get sick, they can jack rates up enough that the healthy people leave, and those who are less insurable are forced to stay. Then with fewer healthy people in the pool, rates continue to spiral up as the pool has turned into a high-cost, high-risk pool, which it wasn't when you joined.

Bingo. That is precisely how they do it. We had to jump insurance companies several times because they'd jacked up the rates in our pool. We were healthy so we could jump to a cheaper policy. If you aren't healthy, you're stuck.

I do have weakness for video games (got a PS3 AND a DS), delivery pizza (deep dish once or twice a month), beer (maybe a case a month) and weights (around 2000lbs of equipment).

PMR, I share your passion for pizza and beer. If you like to cook, I can share with you the recipe for the Pizza Of The Gods. It is deep-dish pizza to give deep-dish lovers wet dreams. It costs about $30-35 to make a 16" pizza, but you can easily feed 10 people with it. It is to die for.

 

[Nords]

The same as being married and having kids?

Throw in comparisons to COs and XOs, plus a few ship's alarms, and I could get an entire [-]three-minute standup[/-] blog post out of that...

 

[Sarah in SC]

I did the standard stuff - saved prodigiously, LBYM'ed, didn't increase my lifestyle with my salary, did pretty well off and on in the market. But I would say the single most important thing was that I never owned a boat.

Ouch! No harbor cruises for you, Harley!

 

[harley]

Just a little pushback against the "no kids" comments. lol!

 

[arebelspy]

Jack, if you liked Jacob's ERE book, you might like this fellow. I've enjoyed reading his blog for a bit. Mr. Money Mustache | Putting the Cash in your Stash

This has been one of my favorite blogs over the last few months. I'd recommend going back to post 1 (the blog is only a few months old) and starting from the beginning, it's worth it.

 

[arebelspy]

Rents.

+1

+2

Rents + LBYM is the bulk of our ER through RE plan.

 

[FreeAtLast]

I had a profitable IT consulting business for years, giving me some interesting and profitable opportunities back in the early computer days before the PC's existed. Wife passed away years ago leaving sizable insurance proceeds which I invested. I received SS survivor benefits for my son for 8 years which I save for his college. My daughter got some good scholarships. I have been in the same house for 25 years w/mortgage paid off about 5 years ago. Everything just kind of added up.

I still work part time as a programmer to get my health benefits and earn a decent salary. I just turned 59 and will be eligible to collect Social Security widow survivor benefits at age 60 which is a charge against my late wife's work record. I can then defer collecting my own SS to a later date.

 

[martyb]

I'm not quite retired yet (18+ months to go) but when I do, it will be after working almost 36 years for the federal govt., of which 33 of those I also spent as an Air Force reservist, so I'll retire at 55 on a federal civil service pension with COLA, and then at age 60, the military pension will kick in as well. Wife's employer only has a 401k, and her balance isn't real big, but is growing. She'll work maybe 3 yrs after I retire, during which time we intend to max her 401k, and continue to fund our ROTHS. I will get a very small SS payment at 62 due to being in a public pension system that does not pay into SS, although I did earn the minimum quarters years ago. It will be around $300 or less. Wife's SS will be more but not huge...currently estimated at around $700 per month. I have some money in a TSP/401k.

 

[FUEGO]

Jack, if you liked Jacob's ERE book, you might like this fellow. I've enjoyed reading his blog for a bit. Mr. Money Mustache | Putting the Cash in your Stash

I just read a few posts on his blog and enjoyed it too. Good to see another family with kids that spends around $25000 a year (excluding the mortgage) and still seems to live a good lifestyle (including a vacation on a cruise ship).

 

[Midpack]

High income, low spending. Simple, not easy (judging by most people I know who are busy chasing happiness buying bigger houses, nicer cars and the latest gadgets/possessions - and they still haven't figured out why that doesn't work, so they buy even more...). Now that I'm retiring early long before they expected me to, they're mystified!