I've read MMM. I get it but not into selling my car and riding my bike everywhere. Lol. I agree it wasn't retirement it was more about starting a blog on living below your means.
And monetizing it so that your means increase. ;-)
I've read MMM. I get it but not into selling my car and riding my bike everywhere. Lol. I agree it wasn't retirement it was more about starting a blog on living below your means.
+1 This is my goal, well, except the Mom part!He dissed sitting on the couch and watching tv. I like sitting in my comfy chair and watching tv. I also haven't found anything I'm passionate about enough to make monetizing it worth it. I'll stick with my version of retirement which involves exercise, cooking, reading, watching tv, being a better mom.... No desire to blog, build houses, etc. for money.
No, you have to love working for pay in early retirement too, because that is the only way a retired person can ever find sufficient "intellectual stimulation". Or so some people think, although I just don't get it myself.
Sorry FUEGO - the retirement police object to SAHD/SAHMs calling themselves retired. So you and I don't qualify. LOL.
+1 My End Goal!!It could be worse - - you could enjoy sitting on the couch playing video games. .
What an extremely odd thing to say.Yeah. Not one postive comment about the article. Proud of you guys.
Why on earth would we care if you are "proud" of us? Do you spend a lot of time worrying about whether we are "proud" of you?
Nice story on motivation,
It's amazing if you go to the forums associated with his blog, the number of under 30-somethings that are planning to RE in the US with investments <$750k. To me, that is a very long time frame and not very much money. People who would not consider at least +$1m to RE are often derided.
Not sure if there is a reality check coming their way or I am just out of touch.
Elbata - you could go first then. Well, actually second (see post #2)
Anyone find any irony in the negativity of complaining of no positive comments?
-ERD50
Wow, thank you MMM, I just realized that I have been retired for some 35 years now. I retired early at 32, not 66 like I had previously and erroneously thought. Because 1980 was the last year I received a W-2, and it was for only 20% of the year. The rest of the time I spent doing things that I liked doing, and had been doing anyway for free before then. But people did start giving me money for doing that stuff. I thought I had started a microprocessor consulting business, but now I realized that really I was retired!!!
I got paid for things (I was about to say worked) I did from my home office, so I could still be around my kids when they were young, and take off when I wanted. Gee.
I should have started a blog about it too, but they hadn't been invented yet.
I would be terrible at online promoting. Instead of writing, "What you see at 3:47 will astonish you and completely turn your life around", I'd probably write something like, "This video is quite amusing. I think you'll get a chuckle out of it."Click-bait? Oh, my! I thought that never happens!
+1The one glaring inaccuracy in that article is the title, "I retired at 30". As DrRoy, REW, and a few others have pointed out, he didn't retire - he switched careers. This is really my main issue with MMM - he portrays himself as retired when he so obviously isn't. In that sense, it turns his blog, in my mind, into a sophisticated form of click-bait. There's definitely much good information on his site, and he's obviously an intelligent guy with writing skills, but I find his brand of overly-confident cockiness off-putting.
I'm just not fond of the use of hyperbole and misrepresentation to generate internet traffic. It doesn't speak much to his personal integrity, IMO.
Well, I do "work" a few hours per week for some very lucrative pay. The work is essentially the same thing as posting on the ER forum (which I've done for free for 10+ years) or discussing finances with a friend (also done for free for 10+ years).
It is intellectually stimulating, entertaining, and feels good to do it (like volunteering, with a fat paycheck, and not annoying like a regular 40 hr/wk job).
But I've set things up so I'm not doing more than a few hours work per week. Everything else gets turned down. Maybe that changes when the kids are all in school or they leave for college. Maybe not - there are a lot of games I want to play.
My wife is working on quitting. Strike that, your Honor. My wife is trying to quit. And not just to legitimize my early retired status.
You are upfront about your situation and freely admit that you do some work. I don't feel pressure when I read your blog. I feel "I'm not worthy" when I read MMM.
I read that article and wondered about the construction company, boutique carpentry and other ventures that have come and gone. The only one that still survives at the time of the article is the "boutique carpenter operation"(can anyone tell me what that is). Those of you that are familiar with this man, were these bankruptcies? I'm trying to understand putting up the money to start a construction company and then realize it was too much for him. Does he have that much money from his 10 years of working (is that how long he worked at a full time job?) to keep starting ventures that come and go. It sounds like a lot of wasted money on business ventures. It says he retired in 2005 so it doesn't sound like these ventures/businesses were long term.
Quote from article "So in my own case I started just with the goal of being a parent, but then ended up starting a house-building company to pursue my lifelong love of building things. Then I learned that the daily stress and schedule of big, multi-person projects was still too much for me at the time, so it evolved into a boutique carpentry operation that still does local projects to this day. Other ventures have come and gone, but none of them were done because we needed the money. That is my definition of a modern retirement: the activities you pursue once you are done searching for money."
financial independence isn't so much about freedom from work. It is more about freedom to do your best work, without money getting in the way.
......An example: MMM decided it was reasonable behavior to knock on the windows of people sitting in idling vehicles, because he didn't approve of their vehicle choice, and he didn't think they should be polluting and wasting more energy than he would. He is going from someone recommending alternative values and lifestyles, to someone who believes he is on the side of all things good, and he is doing a good deed enforcing his beliefs onto others. It almost has the feel of a crazy cult.
Take care,
JP
I read the article and liked it. I think that issue of whether or not he is "retired" is a distraction from the points he is making. I liked this quote in particular:
And I think that is really the key to a lot of what he is says. I note by the way that the description of him at the bottom described him as retiring "from the field" of software engineering, which I think he certainly did.
I used to read his blog a great deal (and his forums a fair amount). I quit reading it mostly because (1) I got busy writing my own blog and (2) he annoyed me. He didn't annoy me because he called himself retired (I don't care how he describes himself) or because he earns money or even that he doesn't spend a lot of money or includes living expenses as part of blog expenses and so on. What annoyed me was how he made fun of choices other people made when he spends a lot of money on things that he values. For example, he made fun of people eating restaurant meals basically taking the view it was ridiculous to do that. Yet, he spends way more money on travel than I do and he thinks that is totally fine. It annoyed me that he totally discounted people's enjoyment in things he doesn't like, without realizing that maybe some people think some of his preferences are a waste of money.
But, anyway, I actually kinda understand his view on retirement and working. I know that some feel that as soon as you do anything other than passive investment that brings in any money during retirement then you are working. But, put in one Adsense ad on your blog and then it is a job. I don't actually see it that way.
To me, there is a big difference between someone working for money who needs that money and someone who earns income from something that they do for pleasure but they don't really need the money.
I don't make any money from my blog but I am not sure that putting some ads on it would mean that was my job. I have toyed with the idea of being a Weight Watchers leader which I would do simply out of desiring to help others. Yes, it pays money (not much). The money would be immaterial to me, but I wouldn't turn it down.
I also have a master's degree and license in a field that is not the one I worked in for 30+ years. This other field is one that is not well paying at all. I never actually got a job in that field because I could make so much more money in the field I did work in. But, there are times, when I have thought about getting a part-time job in that field. To me, it would be just for the fun of it. Yes, I would get a paycheck. But, frankly, it would pay me less than SS benefits would pay me. The money wouldn't be my motivation for doing it. It is just that I could never afford to do it before and now I can. It isn't the money I would want, but just the opportunity to do the tasks that come with that job. (I am not likely to actually do it because I don't want the other stuff that comes with a job ...I think I would like the work but hate the job).
To me, there is a big difference between doing work that you are doing because it is fun for you, but they happen to pay you for it, and you don't need the money and doing work that you need to do in order to make ends meet or work that you do because you are primarily motivated by the money.