Do You Talk With Friends about FIRE?

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by citrine Sorry...should have said people in real life

Okay, I confess. I'm really a 14yo girl, posting from Missoula...

[iam21177]

We don't have many in real life people to talk about this. I think most of our close friends know about our desire to retire early and they are mostly in disbelief. I don't share specifics with my family - I don't want to be the well off childfree-daughter that has to take in mom because mom didn't plan well.

Forums work well as a filler. However, the forum is sometimes over my head. I don't know specifics about withdrawing and long term planning. We're just maxing as many retirement vehicles as we can right now, and then going high risk for now. That's about it!

[Ronstar]

I'm always talking with friends and relatives about FIRE. Almost everyone we socialize with are retired or close to retirement. I talked with some friends a couple of Saturdays ago. I must have left an impression. The husband gave his notice at work the following Monday. I've learned from talking with a lot of retired guys that we do similar things in retirement. Hobbies, travel, yard and house work, spending time with friends and family.

[steelyman]

I stay in touch with a number of friends, but only one asks me about ER. I think the rest don't like to think they are of an age where they can think of it.

[youbet]

I'll talk to like-minded friends about specific, objective investment subjects.

Do you like the options trading platform at Schwab?
Gee, AAPL just got back to $500. Think it has upside from this level?
Did you hear that Bank X is offering a 2%, 2 year CD?
Etc.

We never talk about our net worth, lifestyle choices (to what extent we LBYM), incomes, or that sort of thing.

I especially try to stay away from gossip style discussions about others (real or imagined) who choose to live differently. I have zero interest in bantering with another LBYM person about the sad case of a third party who is a big spender.

[boilerman]

I also have difficulty talking to family or friends about ER for the same reasons others have stated. So few are doing it that the topic is foreign to most. That's why I love this forum

IMO, talking about ER at work is particularly dangerous. Most people at my Megacorp who are within a year or two of retirement start chatting it up with co-workers and before you know it, they're accused of "retiring on the j*b" even when it's not true. I think it's mostly jealously and resentment.

A couple of times it's backfired when the person decides to work for an extra couple of years but by then their reputation is trashed and no one thinks they'll put in the effort.

My plan is to retire around 56 or 57 but no one at work will know that I'm leaving until after I file the paperwork with HR. I look forward to my co-workers's reactions and will be interested in seeing how many are sincere good wishes vs. jealousy or anger.

[denefi]

I've got a long ways to go (28 now) but am fairly open about my desire to retire early. I think that it comes off as whimsical because I'm young and so people take it in with an 'Oh well I want to retire early, too, don't we all?!' I'm single but dating and it's pretty important to me that I can talk about this with whoever I end up with, and that we're on the same page.