Who would have thought?

[Amethyst]

Not sure why. I have great self-esteem, which served to keep me out of trouble in my teens, but it doesn't translate to thinking I'm better than others. I can make fun of somebody's foibles without thinking I'm superior to the whole person.

That's a funny song, though

Maintaining humility is something that's very difficult for someone that's been moderately successful--or a little better off.

​

 

[joeea]

I made mine and I'm quite content with them........actually I feel blessed.

That sounds like success to me!

 

[FIREmenow]

I don't think that all of these are luck. +1 on the financial environment and potential medical pitfalls. However, being in a frugal household does not mean that you will practice it. You still had to have the discipline yourself. Putting effort and persistence into your job is not luck. Let's give ourselves some credit that we made some of our good luck with our efforts.

+1

I made the conscious CHOICE not to smoke pot or do drugs school when all of the other cool kids were
I made the conscious CHOICE not to get anyone pregnant or other things that could destroy my future
I made the conscious CHOICE to sit in the basement of the engineering building night after night at school while everyone else was out partying
I made the conscious CHOICE to work 3 times harder than anyone else at for the last 35 years when it was very easy to slack off and "get by"

DW and I made a conscious DECISION to save 50 to 60% of our income for 30 years, living WELL below our means.
DW and I made a conscious DECISION to raise our family in a 1200sqft house and not buy a $400,000 house when all of our friends were doing so
DW and I made a conscious DECISION not to fly to Cancun and the Bahamas twice a year, every year, like most of our friends did
DW and I made a conscious DECISION not to buy the latest Lexus or Mercedes like most of our friends, and instead drive Scions and Mazdas

I made the CHOICE to spend hours researching and studying investment and retirement strategies while everyone else said I was wasting my time

Every decision I (and we) have made for 35 years has been strategic and carefully-measured -- to get us to where we are now, an approach that both has protection for a minimal lifestyle in times of crisis, as well as a long-term strategy for retiring early.

Yes, luck IS involved, but it is ALSO what you do with that luck, the choices you make, and your determination.

 

[Newventurer]

I am thinking we need an Early Retirement Lite for those of us that were not such overachievers

 

[Nemo2]

I am thinking we need an Early Retirement Lite for those of us that were not such overachievers

Charter Member here. Sign me up!

 

[Fedup]

Wow, I think I made all the wrong DECISIONS and I'm still here( borrowing from Barbara Streisand).

Do I think it's all luck. No. Do I think it's all good decisions. No.But I think somehow my good decisions overweight my bad decisions. Maybe it was lucky decision. Heh heh, but I need a good coffee right now because I have no clue what I'm going with this.

 

[scrabbler1]

I always want to look ordinary on the outside but be an outlier on the inside. On the outside, I look like everyone else. I'm hardly flashy, sometimes bordering on looking a like a slob. I drive a low-end Corolla (2007). I don't have a Smart Phone, only got my first cell phone (a basic one) in 2015. After my former employer got rid of its dress code in 1998, I no longer had to wear a button-down shirt and tie, something I gladly got rid of.


But on the inside, I am an outlier. I am an atheist. I am childfree. I have had no debt, not even a mortgage, since 1998. And I haven't worked since 2008, when I retired at 45. I don't have expensive interests or hobbies. My portfolio broke the $1M mark about 7 years ago. This things are invisible to those who don't know me.


My parents were of the mindset that they would help us out but only if we were helping ourselves out first, like a matching fund. It served my brother and me well, and gave us incentive to succeed.

 

[bradaz2488]

Hit my the $1M NW mark at age 35. Never thought of myself or been accused of being an "over achiever". I always thought of myself as extremely average in every way and have tried to live the Jimmy Buffet life style. Because I ER'ed at age 49 all my friends and people I meet think I'm rich. Sure , I probably have more money then them, but I do no consider my NW rich. I tell them I'm comfortable. I tell them that they will have to be a millionaire to retire at their expense rate and they just laugh or ignore my comments. I'm not smarter then the average guy, but I do tend to plan for the worse and hope for the best and I'm extremely discipline when in come to financial matters. Time is an ER best friend. Start saving early and time will reward your efforts. Most people do not have the discipline to LBTM and save for 20+ years...

 

[kcowan]

Luck is when preparation, hard work and taking a chance meets opportunity.

(With apologies to Seneca the Younger!)

 

[joeea]

Luck is when preparation, hard work and taking a chance meets opportunity.

I like it!

 

[SecondCor521]

As kcowan alludes to, I think luck is less of a factor for most people than most people think. I used to think that luck could be a significant factor; now I think that in most people's lives, there are X number of unexpected or essentially random events that happen to them where the outcomes are typically bell-curved. If you accumulate a lot of bell-curved events, they tend pretty strongly towards the median <xkcd>[citation needed]</xkcd>. Yes, there are some people who have a super-bad or super-good thing happen to them, but they are not very common. And most people I know who have had regular-bad things happen have also had some regular-good things happen to them as well that balances it out, at least in terms of material success in life.

Personally, I was set on a very good course in life through accident of birth and parents with knowledge and resources and love. After that, it was deliberate choices and many years of solid work. Some good luck, some bad, but overall median in the luck department.

 

[Nemo2]

I think luck is less of a factor for most people than most people think.

Luck, like beauty, is often in the eye of the proverbial beholder.......there have always been those whom others consider lucky, but who feel themselves to be disadvantaged.

 

[Souschef]

I remember how lucky I am:
- I was lucky to be brought up in a frugal household
- I was lucky to be able to fund my college education
- I was lucky to be good at a lucrative job field
- I was lucky to have enjoyed my profession and working hard
- I was lucky to be married to a wonderful spouse with similar values
- I was lucky to live in a country and at a time where I could get ahead financially
- I was lucky to have avoided the kinds of illnesses/accidents that could have debilitated us financially
- I was lucky to have survived the inevitable financial downturns in good shape
- I was lucky that the most recent financial crisis didn't completely melt down the global financial institutions

While I know that I have done some things right, I know that if I weren't so lucky, it might not have mattered.

That keeps me humble. It's not so hard for me.

+1000
I live in a +55 mobile home park, and keep a very low profile. Nobody has any idea of my net worth. We drive old cars, and dress casually.
When I was young and single, i worked overseas for 3 years, and did not have to pay any income tax. I was not doing the drinking and womanizing that I saw some of the others do. That started my nest egg. It survived a divorce, and kept growing.

 

[Nemo2]

When I was young and single, i worked overseas for 3 years, and did not have to pay any income tax. I was not doing the drinking and womanizing that I saw some of the others do. That started my nest egg. It survived a divorce, and kept growing.

+1 Almost ditto here.

From ages 39 to 46 I worked in Riyadh....first three years on single status...save, save, save....... Survived a spouse dying.....always lived below my means.

 

[joeea]

Personally, I was set on a very good course in life through accident of birth and parents with knowledge and resources and love. After that, it was deliberate choices and many years of solid work. Some good luck, some bad, but overall median in the luck department.

You were lucky to be born into a world where you are able to make choices at all.

For much of human history, and in much of the world your choices and hard work wouldn't have yielded anything approaching a "retirement".

The concept mostly didn't even exist 150 years ago. And less than 100 years ago, you would be lucky to live a few years in retirement.

 

[SecondCor521]

You were lucky to be born into a world where you are able to make choices at all.

For much of human history, and in much of the world your choices and hard work wouldn't have yielded anything approaching a "retirement".

The concept mostly didn't even exist 150 years ago. And less than 100 years ago, you would be lucky to live a few years in retirement.

Yup, all of that and more is encapsulated in "accident of birth". I'm also a healthy, cisgender, right-handed American Caucasian male from a married couple with several college degrees, so I happen to have received pretty much every advantage available today. It helps keep my head in the right place as my success is not that extraordinary given my background. It also has me trying to help those who have not been so fortunate. I could do more.

 

[RobbieB]

I'm celebrating my humility with a half pound of Paddlefish caviar this weekend. Hot out here now, over a hundred.

Perfect weather for chilled fish eggs washed down with icy cold vodka.

 

[jollystomper]

How who you reconcile your wealth achievements and keep a humility perspective?

I always thought that if you had to explain to folks why you are humble, that made you not humble at all .

But seriously, for me it is simple: "wealth" is just one aspect of my life. I may have done relatively well in that aspect as compared to others. But their are many other aspects of to life, and in some of them I have failed miserably.

What matters to me is to look at the big picture across all the aspects. Sometimes people focus on achieving wealth as a means to fill some void in their life. I have classmates from college who came from wealth, generated more wealth, but committed suicide... their "wealth" achievements did not make up for other areas in which they struggled.

So while I can look at others and feel grateful at the luck/opportunity/whatever that came my way... If I truly look at myself I realize that I still have a way to go in many areas. Not a depressing thought, just one that keeps me level headed and content. Like saying goes, "don't believe your own press clippings".

 

[foxfirev5]

Good fortune, luck and not doing too many incredibly stupid things certainly played a key role in my ER success. I would not profess any particular brilliance, but rather a long term plodding approach with a few breaks along the way. With financial concerns fading my top priority is maintaining good health. We'll see if my good fortune continues.

 

[LARS]

Sorry, but on a scale of 1 to 10 where one is Mother Theresa humility and 10 is Donald Trump braggadocio, this thread is a self congratulatory 7-8...

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I am lucky that I've always purchased a good mirror, it makes me look slim and tall always.

Can you post a link for that mirror? My mirror must have come from the carnival fun house! It makes me look bald & fat. And Im suing the camera companies too, seems the lenses they put on their devices make me look the same way.,

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I'm celebrating my humility with a half pound of Paddlefish caviar this weekend. Hot out here now, over a hundred.

Perfect weather for chilled fish eggs washed down with icy cold vodka.

One of the few things I carry in my wallet was the owners card. Paramount Caviar | The Choice of Great Chefs Everywhere.... I drive there. I call him and I park in his driveway, otherwise parking is a mad house.

 

[Walt34]

And Im suing the camera companies too, seems the lenses they put on their devices make me look the same way.,

Here's the fix for that:

PortraitPro - Easy Photo Editing Software

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Here's the fix for that:

PortraitPro - Easy Photo Editing Software

OMG, they have a fix for everything now

 

[cashbalancetrouble]

No One Knows

I put in many volunteer hours doing things.

As I looked yesterday at our retirement investment at FIDO start with a 5 in the seventh place, I recalled how I always think there isn't to many multi M's doing these type things over just the last few days.

Changing light bulbs, ballasts, fixing keyboard trays in the school computer lab, upgrading wireless routers,ordering LED replacement fixtures, digging graves for in-urnments in our church cemetery, wheeling out the scrapes from the crew re-upholstering our church pews, coordinating the roofers re-doing our flat roofs, coordinating the state inspection of our new chair lift, directing traffic for the carryall driver dropping off the equipment to finish the edging of our cemetery's new drive, knocking down the rest of the wall/pier at the old driveway cemetery entrance, addressing the ant issue at the summer camp building, requesting a quote from our landscaper to take over care of all of our flower beds, coordinating a headstone with a monument company, attending a very contentious meeting due to our declining school enrollment (3 hrs).

I take care of own yard and fix everything around the house. I am able to play enough golf to regularly shoot in the low 80s and occasionally in the 70's. This year I have won three tournaments and finished second in another on GCAM Tour.

No one knows and I am glad it is that way. I see others true colors when they envy those they perceive to have money and they say "they can and should be giving more" while they want to spend others gifts like drunken sailors.

It is much nicer to be overlooked than envied; it is much easier to know others true motives when you watch how they treat and talk about those they think have money.