New York Times article this weekend...

[SAtoUS]

Not sure where to post this, it's a good read.

How to Retire in Your 30s With $1m in the Bank

Apologize if this has been posted here before.

 

[bclover]

So these articles many just make me smile because money aside I'm not sure who they are trying to reach.

I have 3 sons and while they are great kids, I want them to experience many things and yes one of them is a successful career. Now my kids are not "high pressure" wall street or IT execs, so at 30 they are going to be at the beginning of their careers.

When I was 30 I had just been working for 5 years so really hard to say I would have been "burned out".

Next, I hung out on Mr. Mustaches website for a while and sorry that is not the life style I want nor is it the one I want for my kids. I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying that is not enjoyable to me.

Some times the journey is as important as the end game.

 

[scrabbler1]

As soon as I read, "Because his wife still works....." I think "Stay-at-home dad" who is just as retired as a stay-at-home mom raising the kid(s) while the husband, the sole breadwinner, brings in the money. To me, he isn't really retired. Ho hum.

 

[SAtoUS]

The 'burned out' made me LOL too... It's called LIFE and WORK...

A few weeks ago, we had a kid only 8 years old, sitting playing games on his iPad while the adults were having dinner yelling at me... THE WiFi IS SOOO SLOW HERE!!. Few things wrong w that statement from little Mr 8-year-old sitting on the couch, but don't get me started on that...

Anyway, really?? I feel like an old person, but really? Slow WiFi, burned out... aaaa, please!!!

 

[JoeWras]

He forgot to complain about the commute.

My parents were not too strict. My Dad did enforce a few times. After age 18, he only rarely scolded me.

Once, I was 23 and just starting my career. I complained about the commute. I was living in a smaller city with really only one road that got clogged. Dad dealt with Chicago traffic for 45 working years, and he was on the road much of the day between repair jobs (trades). He kind of blew up on me! It gave me perspective. Suddenly, my commute was fine. He called me out and I deserved it. Look, work is hard. They don't call it "play."

I'm still not missing the commute though. Felt bad for commuters yesterday. Traffic reports sounded horrific.

 

[karen1972]

These articles would be much more interesting to me if they all didn't end with and then they wrote a blog or partner still works. So both situations have them continuing to make income the old fashion way (ie. working). So they actually switched careers, they didn't retire. For them, they found a better way to make money because a decent blog will generate $3K/month which if they are looking at a $40K/yr income covers almost everything so they can let their wealth ride.

I could do the same by joining a multi-level marketing gimmick. I could easily pull $2-3K/month just hanging around at meetups/gym and selling the lastest weight loss plan. To me its the same thing, your selling something.

I would honestly like to see how people in their 30s handle not having the extra income, dealing with ups/downs in the markets. How they have to deal with withdrawing income, taxes, buying large ticket items like a new roof/vehicle, etc. That I would read, but I'm not going to read how to make a living by working.

 

[JoeWras]

These articles would be much more interesting to me if they all didn't end with and then they wrote a blog or partner still works.

Right. They are doing what our moms and dads did last generation. Somehow, that's weird now.

 

[Abreutime]

So these articles many just make me smile because money aside I'm not sure who they are trying to reach.

I have 3 sons and while they are great kids, I want them to experience many things and yes one of them is a successful career. Now my kids are not "high pressure" wall street or IT execs, so at 30 they are going to be at the beginning of their careers.

When I was 30 I had just been working for 5 years so really hard to say I would have been "burned out".

Next, I hung out on Mr. Mustaches website for a while and sorry that is not the life style I want nor is it the one I want for my kids. I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying that is not enjoyable to me.

Some times the journey is as important as the end game.

Look around you. What do your neighbors likely have in common? They are probably all working, head-down, with minimal self-reflection on whether that lifestyle choices maximize their lifetime happiness. Few people sit down and redesign their life. Instead, if they get a raise, they buy a more expensive car. This article is highlighting the other option, even outlining the different approaches that people take to consumption (Fat FIRE, Lean FIRE, etc).

It's surprising that someone with 1k posts on an early retirement forum doesn't understand the audience for an article about early retirement. How did you find this website?

 

[gwraigty]

The 'burned out' made me LOL too... It's called LIFE and WORK...

A few weeks ago, we had a kid only 8 years old, sitting playing games on his iPad while the adults were having dinner yelling at me... THE WiFi IS SOOO SLOW HERE!!. Few things wrong w that statement from little Mr 8-year-old sitting on the couch, but don't get me started on that...

Anyway, really?? I feel like an old person, but really? Slow WiFi, burned out... aaaa, please!!!

For a moment, you had me wondering why the adults were yelling at you while having dinner.

 

[LOL!]

I think many journalists want to be FIRE'd and writing blogs. That's one of the audiences for these articles. A journalist was get paid to write an article about their dreams.

Also note that "in Your 30s" is not quite the same as age 30. One has almost 10 years of "in Your 30s" after reaching age 30 in order to get things together.

In the mid 1980s in the pre-internet days, I told folks that I wanted to have my investments give me as much annually as my starting salary back then by age 40. I reached my goal, but I wasn't shooting for a million dollars back then either. That goal didn't address spending, expenses, nor my wife's income. It was only about matching my income.

 

[jazz4cash]

Well that was mostly a waste of time, but this part made me chuckle:
“Followers of FIRE tend to be male and work in the tech industry, left-brained engineer-types who geek out on calculating compound interest over 40 years, or the return on investment (R.O.I.) on low-fee index funds versus real estate rentals.”

Glad they didn’t mention this site and I think the ER age here skews higher than the one profiled in the NYT piece.

 

[Dtail]

Well that was mostly a waste of time, but this part made me chuckle:
“Followers of FIRE tend to be male and work in the tech industry, left-brained engineer-types who geek out on calculating compound interest over 40 years, or the return on investment (R.O.I.) on low-fee index funds versus real estate rentals.”

Glad they didn’t mention this site and I think the ER age here skews higher than the one profiled in the NYT piece.

Not to mention that there are many non engineers on this site including me who are into the math and overall details.

 

[Moemg]

Why are men who stay home with kids while the wife works called "Early Retired " and when women do the same they are stay at home Mom's?

 

[JoeWras]

Why are men who stay home with kids while the wife works called "Early Retired " and when women do the same they are stay at home Mom's?

Exactly! This family is not retired.

 

[bclover]

Look around you. What do your neighbors likely have in common? They are probably all working, head-down, with minimal self-reflection on whether that lifestyle choices maximize their lifetime happiness. Few people sit down and redesign their life. Instead, if they get a raise, they buy a more expensive car. This article is highlighting the other option, even outlining the different approaches that people take to consumption (Fat FIRE, Lean FIRE, etc).

It's surprising that someone with 1k posts on an early retirement forum doesn't understand the audience for an article about early retirement. How did you find this website?

google. lol. plain and simple, I was googling retirement calculators and firecalc came highly recommended. I damn sure did not need a phony article telling me common sense stuff.

Now I don't know about my "neighbors" but no, that is not what the people I know do. maybe it's because I have a very small circle of friends (5 good girlfriends) and we are a bit older. lol no they did not buy fancy cars. In fact my college roommate of 40 years finally purchased her dream car. she's 61 and my childhood friend of 50 years didn't buy her dream house until AFTER she retired and decided to pursue a couple of dreams.

Maybe you are hanging out with the wrong crowd.

My generation lived below our means because we did not grow up on malls or credit card. In fact I remember my mom showing off her first Montgomery ward cc. My dad died at 85 never having one. I grew up in Manhattan and no one I knew had a car, we didn't need one. lol, I got my drivers license because NYC finally got tired of a bunch of folks driving without one they finally offered drivers ed in H.S.

My friends have all suffered life altering events such as cancer, spouses dying, losing children so please skip the lecture on maximizing "life happiness". We;ve got the battle scars to prove that money has absolutely nothing to do with it.

so yeah, I've got a bunch of post and can't figure out why someone would follow dave ramsey or MMM.

Last question? how do you know what your neighbors can and cannot afford. I have absolutely no idea if my neighbors are in debt, what they make or anything else. for all I know they could be eccentric millionaires who like to work?

 

[imoldernu]

I guess I have a different take. As we all rush to the end of the world somewhere around 2050, it's nice to hold out some hope for a slowdown.

Always a respect for for the simple life of a commune. A rollback from the quantum leap of the last century, where what we needed was defined by the basics of social and physical factors and not by an overpowering society pushing the envelope.

When people talked to people, not through smartphones, where moving from one spot to another was not by way of a vehicle. When TV and computers didn't exist, taking up 6 hours a day.

When 700 s.f. could house a family of 4. When 20 changes of clothing and nine pair of shoes weren't an absolute necessity.

A step beyond the $1 million discussion, yes, but a feather that tickles the imagination. I can remember a time before TV, before school busses, and when only five people on my street of 60+ houses had telephones, and my dad and two other fathers had automobiles. Mom and dad walked to work, and we kids ran free... knowing that if we did wrong... my mom would find out. no play dates.

How did we survive?

 

[Chuckanut]

There was a time when the Grey Lady - AKA The New York Times - commanded a great amount of respect and admiration. Alas, not anymore, IMHO.

So the first example of how to retire in one's 30's with a million is a couple who retire in their 40's with 1.2 million. ?!?!?!!? Seems to me they are at least 3 years and $800,000 short. Oh wait, the wife still works. How nice for him.

And if they now have the money "in the bank" as the title suggests, they might be barely keeping up with inflation. This is a retirement strategy? How long will the One Million 'in the bank' last? 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years?

If the money is actually invested in stocks and bonds, are they taking into account that they retired during one of the great bull runs we have seen in the past few decades? What happens when the Bear takes a good 25-50% out of their investments?

I do not criticize the young people seeking a more rational and healthy way of life. Moving to a cheaper part of the country/world can be a very rational thing to do. My beef is with the NY Times for dropping down to the level of a bloggers and low-quality sites where the only goal is use click-bait to get hits on the site - to heck with accuracy, fact checking, reality, etc.

 

[Conundrum]

Pulling $40k / yr on $1.2M for 45 years Is all well and good until until you get a 20% portfolio drawdown and your still pulling out $40k annually. Go from a 3.3% WR to a 4.44%

Is there COLA built in or they stuck at $40k? Oh, wait, the markets always go up. Healthcare for a young family? Will it stay static?

Remember what a gallon of milk cost 5yrs ago? It costs more now.

A applaud their saving / budgeting habits. They have worked so hard. I hope its sustainable.

 

[jazz4cash]

Well put Chuckanut in post 17. Not to mention most folks profiled have very young dependents and they’re looking at very long retirements. A piece in the NYT should at least have a bit more detail vs burying the how to’s in links that are not handy in the print edition. That’s why I’m unclear who the audience is unless it’s just a profile of people doing curious things.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Why are men who stay home with kids while the wife works called "Early Retired " and when women do the same they are stay at home Mom's?

Good question, In my case they just call me "Sir"!

 

[unclemick]

Great article. As for the nit picking that's normal for this day and age.

My first other half worked for a 1 and half before she decided that was silly. I did some temp work before the mental shift to FIRE.

And And ! After 25 yrs of ER, I get paid for watching grass grow (CRP). Does that make me a farmer? I've been know to look at the stock market once in a while and buy/sell a few good stocks. Am I a portfolio manager?

heh heh heh - my favorite was a friend who retired from his tech IT job and recaptured his dream (from age 18). Sailed the world (mostly tankers) for at least ten years merchant marine.

 

[Huston55]

Agree that the NYT article is pretty lame. But, you must admit that the responses on this thread are....well, right on the edge of saying, “I walked to my FIRE every day, through the snow & uphill both ways!”

 

[Chuckanut]

Agree that the NYT article is pretty lame. But, you must admit that the responses on this thread are....well, right on the edge of saying, “I walked to my FIRE every day, through the snow & uphill both ways!” [emoji57]

Through snow on hot humid days!

 

[haha]

Why are men who stay home with kids while the wife works called "Early Retired " and when women do the same they are stay at home Mom's?

My guess is that it is because men typically have more sensitive egos.

 

[SAtoUS]

Agree that the NYT article is pretty lame. But, you must admit that the responses on this thread are....well, right on the edge of saying, “I walked to my FIRE every day, through the snow & uphill both ways!”

If only the snow and uphill both ways.

All those silly long meetings, those 'follow-ups' and 'touch base'... the conference calls... low hanging fruit... business acumen to synergies our team... my old boss... corp traveling... this report that report... staff meetings... cover sheets... 'We're going to take this offline and come back to it later'... 'We will consider your input as we move forward with this initiative'... 'synergistic roadmap'... cube farm... HR...

Let me stop, I'm feeling sick. Ooo wait, I'm done with all of that