Greetings everyone:
I joined this forum years ago, then forgot about it. One day, I started getting emails from the website so I have been lurking for some time now. I am "retired" if you want to call it that. I was not ready but, ready or not, retirement arrived!
I have a medical condition that prevents me from working. The details are unimportant, suffice it to say it is not a terminal condition but one that forced me to "retire" before I ready. The numbers just weren't quite there. But I had no choice in the matter.
Thank God for FIRE! I did a lot of number crunching over the years, and had lots of different retirement dreams. When I was knocked out of the workforce, I was terrified.
But I had been saving for years as part of my own FIRE plan. I had no debt, a small home owned free and clear (I'm single with no kids), a "live under your means lifestyle" and savings. I've read many posts here. Compared to some of the numbers I see people report as savings, my savings was modest. But having this made all the difference in the world.
Do not underestimate this aspect of FIRE. One of my biggest complaints about many of the posts I read is that there is an inherent, dangerous, assumption. That assumption is that you get to choose when to retire. Pray that is the case. I didn't have a choice. And you might not either. And sure, there are things like Social Security Disability. But the application process is horrific and the payments, if you can even get them as denials are common, are often not that great.
Having worked towards a FIRE retirement dream saved me from real misery. If I lived the typical lifestyle of debt and overspending, and saved like the average American...
And, once I had the "this is the amount you have saved" number, the number crunching became a lot easier. Instead of figuring out how much I needed to save to retire, I only had to figure out how much I could safely spend. That, to me at least, was easier than saving and retirement projections.
I'd also add these pieces of advice: Everyone in the workforce should at least research private disability insurance. It's a good investment. In addition, everyone still working and saving for retirement should take whatever savings number they have right now and pretend you are retired right now. Ask yourself the question "How can I live on this?" not "Is this enough." And don't assume you'd get disability payments either. You might not.
Thanks to everyone in this forum. I hope my story gives pause for reflection.
I joined this forum years ago, then forgot about it. One day, I started getting emails from the website so I have been lurking for some time now. I am "retired" if you want to call it that. I was not ready but, ready or not, retirement arrived!
I have a medical condition that prevents me from working. The details are unimportant, suffice it to say it is not a terminal condition but one that forced me to "retire" before I ready. The numbers just weren't quite there. But I had no choice in the matter.
Thank God for FIRE! I did a lot of number crunching over the years, and had lots of different retirement dreams. When I was knocked out of the workforce, I was terrified.
But I had been saving for years as part of my own FIRE plan. I had no debt, a small home owned free and clear (I'm single with no kids), a "live under your means lifestyle" and savings. I've read many posts here. Compared to some of the numbers I see people report as savings, my savings was modest. But having this made all the difference in the world.
Do not underestimate this aspect of FIRE. One of my biggest complaints about many of the posts I read is that there is an inherent, dangerous, assumption. That assumption is that you get to choose when to retire. Pray that is the case. I didn't have a choice. And you might not either. And sure, there are things like Social Security Disability. But the application process is horrific and the payments, if you can even get them as denials are common, are often not that great.
Having worked towards a FIRE retirement dream saved me from real misery. If I lived the typical lifestyle of debt and overspending, and saved like the average American...
And, once I had the "this is the amount you have saved" number, the number crunching became a lot easier. Instead of figuring out how much I needed to save to retire, I only had to figure out how much I could safely spend. That, to me at least, was easier than saving and retirement projections.
I'd also add these pieces of advice: Everyone in the workforce should at least research private disability insurance. It's a good investment. In addition, everyone still working and saving for retirement should take whatever savings number they have right now and pretend you are retired right now. Ask yourself the question "How can I live on this?" not "Is this enough." And don't assume you'd get disability payments either. You might not.
Thanks to everyone in this forum. I hope my story gives pause for reflection.