USA Today Article: retire before 40? some people say you can

[ESRwannabe]

I think retirement is the wrong goal because its very hard to achieve fast enough for me... fast enough being sometime in my mid 40s.

It takes so much money to offset living expenses that if you are willing to work just part-time it will make things so much easier. Also for me I would feel more at ease knowing that I still had some w-2 income coming in.

My goal is early semi-retirement sometime by 45+ (I'm 38 right now). I'd like to pay for half of my living expenses by working and the other half from investments. Ideally I can get subsidized health insurance through the employment as well.

 

[timo2]

I saw this reference that intrigued me in relation the the original post

".... It's one of the reasons Vile has become something of a patron saint for the Great Recession's legions of accidental bohemians, who work hard while hardly working."

First Listen: Kurt Vile, 'Wakin On A Pretty Daze' : NPR

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

I don't spend much more than 15K so it certainly doable. But I don't have a travel bug like many seem to have.

"If you stay in one place long enough, the world will come to you." - Chinese proverb.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

My goal is early semi-retirement sometime by 45+ (I'm 38 right now). I'd like to pay for half of my living expenses by working and the other half from investments. Ideally I can get subsidized health insurance through the employment as well.

This seems eminently doable. Nobody who ERs is going to sit around and do nothing all day (okay, maybe for a few months). The key to ER is FI - you can choose to work (or at least, choose your work) without the fear of the average person living paycheck-to-paycheck. As for health insurance, there are hundreds of posts on this board pointing out that this is the biggest concern most FIRE-oriented people have. If your spouse/partner works low-stress job that provides health insurance, then FIRE is much easier to handle (assuming you have the assets for it in the first place).

Everyone has their own plan for FIRE. This board offers a unique opportunity to get feedback from people who have had similar plans and succeeded/failed at them before you get too far down the proverbial road.

 

[Milton]

Old news. Dianne Nahirny was writing about this long before the word 'blog' was in common usage.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I have thought about starting a blog, since I like to write, have an overinflated sense of my own importance, and an uncanny ability to poke fun at myself.

Then there is the fact that maintaining a blog would be a little too much like work.

Ah, youth....

And Brewer's right, selling the dream is the fun part.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I think retirement is the wrong goal because its very hard to achieve fast enough for me... fast enough being sometime in my mid 40s.

It takes so much money to offset living expenses that if you are willing to work just part-time it will make things so much easier. Also for me I would feel more at ease knowing that I still had some w-2 income coming in.

My goal is early semi-retirement sometime by 45+ (I'm 38 right now). I'd like to pay for half of my living expenses by working and the other half from investments. Ideally I can get subsidized health insurance through the employment as well.

Working part-time makes a huge difference. Just netting 10K a year for fifty years would mean 500K less needed in a retirement nest egg. The affordable care act is going to make is more realistic for people to try out part-time work and self employment because of the ability to still qualify for health insurance, plus get the premiums subsidized.