Young Dreamers, how early do you want to retire?

[laurence]

How early is early? Also, with what sized nest egg do you plan on making that work? I know we've asked this all before, but there are alot of new members in the past few months. Early for some is 55, others 29! Some need 2 mil to feel comfortable, some 100k (stealing turnips from old man Johnson's farm?).

 

[BigMoneyJim]

Want? Probably at 30; retroactively I'd go for before 25. But I'm 36 and don't have that 900k-1.5Mil I want, sooo....

51-55, 900k-1.5Mil. It's not a firm target, but it seems moderately realistic. I may yet try some semi-ER along the way and/or start a business to muck up the plans, or I may get married and/or have a kid.... Really with years and years to go and single with an open mind I don't see nailing the number or time down to a reasonable prediction. I just spend less than I earn and keep investing.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Gonna be pullin dese oars for 'while yet, cher. Doan' let me slow ya down any, do'. (Jes' doan' run obber me, do'.)

 

[jphripjah]

I'm 34 now. Shooting for ER at 38. My projections show that in January, 2010 I should hit the $1 million mark. Then I move to Thailand or Cambodia and marry a beautiful 19 year old woman.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Then I move to Thailand or Cambodia and marry a beautiful 19 year old woman.

Who will proceed to take you to the cleaners? Be aware, mon ami.

 

[Outtahere]

There was a point in time I figured 65 would be it for me but life has a way of throwing curve balls at you and I was lucky enough to catch one. If all the sun, stars and all the planets align it could be sooner but right now I'm shooting for 55, just 3 short years away.

 

[azanon]

Its going to be somewhere between 50-58 for me.  50 is the earliest i'm eligible for early retirement in the federal system, 58 is my full retirement eligiblity.   I just wouldnt want to earlier than this anyway, because I believe the real power of compouned growth simply needs time to do its magic, and there's no way around it.   Because of this and because of IRA contribution limits, it can be statistically shown you have to work exponentially harder (meaning save exponentially more) to shave more and more years off of retirement.   At some point, I believe the tradeoff (of breaking your neck to get into the lower 40s and 30s) becomes not worth it.*

* Also, I define my ER point, the point at which my wife and I could both completely get by without either of us working.   If my knew for certain my wife would work and i wanted to rely on that, then i'm just "not the breadwinner", not really an ER.    Now she may just want to work to give her something to do or to get away from me, hee.  But I personally wouldnt quit until that was just an option for her, not a necessity.

I grew up in a family where my mother never worked.  For her to have claimed she was an ER (cause she taught school one year) would have been a silly, and misleading claim. 

 

[laurence]

For the record, I thought I was going to pull it off at 45, will about 2 mil in the bank (both DW and I were maxing the 401k and IRA limits, plus company match). But now things have changed. DW will be staying home, as I've said, and it looks like 55 will be the year. Earliest I can get a pension from my work, and compounding should leave me with about a mil in today's dollars (I think 1.75 mil in nominal dollars) and a paid off house.

 

[fire2018]

my goal is to retire by 41. i don't have a real plan yet, just accumulating as much as i can right now. turning 29 this year.

 

[saluki9]

If I had my choice I would probably say 40, but that was before we started house shopping

This last two weeks of looking for a home have made me realize that my ER plans are going to be delayed. Even with the market getting a little softer here, the prices of homes is still out of hand. At least we got an unsolicited offer on our condo, but seeing a $400K mortgage on the horizon is making me a little sick

I'd say 50 is a good bet for me now

 

[Andre1969]

My goal right now is 45, and I want to have around $1M saved up. Plus have the house paid for. Shouldn't be TOO hard to do, I guess. I just turned 36 on Sunday. Got around $360K amassed. And I'm trying to put in around 35K per year, although I might have to cut back on that. At the very least though, I plan to always max out my 401k and do the Roth thing every year.

I'm not gonna cry if I can't go out as early as 45, though. But by the same token, I'm not gonna cry if I manage to go out earlier. Hell, I'd go out today if I could!

 

[brewer12345]

I am hoping to bail between 40 and 45, but it might take longer.

I actually don't know how long I will last at the full time career thing. The money is good and the work is interesting, but it is tough doing long hours, then going home and being daddy and helping out DW (Laurence knows what I mean). Ideally, I would like to go out at 40 with $2MM and a paid-off house, but I don't know how likely that is. I might settle for $1MM and a paid off house plus setting up a part time business. I have been helping some family and friends with financial planning and portfolio allocation and I have really enjoyed it. I think I could pretty easily get a CFP designation (would only have to take the test since I already have a CFA charter) and set up shop. But that is years in the future.

I'm in a bad place right now, just feeling burnt out and sick of not having the slightest bit of leisure/down time, so that is undoubtedly coloring my perceptons.

 

[Cool Dood]

Just so you know, I am the outlier at the low end of the age spectrum

 

[thefed]

I'm 22 and WILL retire at 45!

I think I'll have a rather small portfolio of 700k or so, a paid off home, two paid off rentals throwing off 1200/month, and a small business that I might do clerical work for at home.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Lots of good thoughts here folks. Sounds like life priorities are the dispositive factor in when people ER, and with how much.

 

[justin]

I'm shooting for financial independence (and probably ER too) around age 33. Maybe a little sooner, maybe a little later. Shooting for somewhere in the "$900k-$1.5 million" range.

Then there's semi-retirement. Me and DW may cut back earlier to part time or do a part-time half-day or two of work per month for ~$5000/yr income (and free travel/hotel/meals occasionally as part of the job). Or hang out my engineer's shingle for a lot more money and do the occasional bit of consulting work.

 

[Lusitan]

I'm 31, married with no kids but hopefully a couple kids in the near future

Plan is to ER sometime between 37-45 with around 700-900K in today's dollars. And probably a downshift around 37 to a lower-paying but less intensive job whether I'm ready for ER or not.

I may retire sooner with less depending on how things go. Seeing how life changes when we have kids is the big open question for me right now ...

I grew up in a family with 4 kids and one middle class income, and my wife and I live pretty simply. So our planned numbers are probably on the lower end of the spectrum for a family.

 

[eridanus]

My "dream" age was 35, if the dotcom options worked out. They didn't, or at least not as well as I had hoped, so 35 is unlikely. Age 40 is the goal but I'm comfortable with pushing it out to 45 or 50. As someone above wrote, it's difficult to get an exact date when so much can change with re: to children, career, etc.

I am working less and less, though, and may go to a permanent 20-hour/week job later this year. Semi-retirement is very low stress and will let my savings compound.

 

[laurence]

I'd like to hear from those planning on getting it done on less than 600k, at what age do you plan on relying on that? Or are you semi-retiring at that point?

 

[Sam]

I'd like to hear from those planning on getting it done on less than 600k, at what age do you plan on relying on that? Or are you semi-retiring at that point?

Lawrence,

I plan on getting it done on more than 600k.  But I know I can easily do it with 500k.  At the uswr (ultra safe withdrawal rate) of 4% or $20,000, I can lead a comfortable life in South-East Asia (Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand) or in Central America.

Time to learn Spanish 

Sam

 

[HFWR]

Too many variables to set a firm date/amount...

51, $325k port, $95k mort, no pension, possible health bennies, yearly expenses around $30k...

SS @ 62 (current number) is ~$15k/yr, 4% SWR at current port value is ~$13k/yr.

Who knows what the market/economy will do, whether nanny-corp mega-corp will cancel my health ins, etc....

 

[kaudrey]

I'm 37, and hope to FIRE at 52 with about $1.5 million.

But, I work for the federal gov't, so my pension will kick in at 57.

 

[wildcat]

41-45, I would like to teach business and it may keep me in the game a few more years.  I consider teaching to be a pseudo semi-ER for me but it still is work.

 

[Canadian FIRE]

Well I'm 27 and planning for around 45. The exact date will depend on how the nest egg is looking like. The date is out that far because it took until this year to pay off the DW and mine student loans, car, etc. (About 80K combined)

As the nest egg itself. I'm thinking about doing the first 20 years on about 250 to 300K and then using the second nest egg (RRSP) during 65 onwards. I would estimate the total nest egg would be about 600K plus house.

I'm actually planning on a semi-retire phase at the start. Not sure exactly how much work I'll do, but I would like to ease into the full time retire phase. Also my withdraw rate will be really high (~9%), since I don't want to preserve the first part of the nest egg (250K) at all. It should be almost or gone by 65.

CF

 

[Helen]

My partner and I are planning on bailing in 7 years at age 55/56. We should have $1 million plus pensions and health coverage. We have no debt, so we are really socking it away.