Your yearly average income while pursuing F.I.R.E?

[finnski1]

Its what you keep and invest matters. Nothing more, nothing less.


The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement

This has been my mantra forever as well.
I always say it's not how much you make but how much you keep.
Therefore I think this is a meaningless question.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

I would like to know, are the people that FIRE make there by earning $50k a year or are the majority that make it to FIRE earning $150k and more.
I think it is an interesting question and found that a least a few made it to FIRE with a middle class income. Yes I know those that make $150k think they are middle class, but I think $60k is middle class.

Depends on where the person lives. Having $150k of income around where I live is certainly middle class, while in a smaller metro area it would be considered very upper middle to wealthy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_counties_by_per_capita_income

 

[wmc1000]

Avg. earnings $40,414.33 raising 3 daughters along the way!

 

[Time2]

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/[quote/]

This has been my mantra forever as well.
I always say it's not how much you make but how much you keep.
Therefore I think this is a meaningless question.

The problem with that is, if you make $70k and save 50% for 20 years, do you really want to live on $35k for the next 40 years? I say work another 6 or 7 years and have much better financial cushion and have the ability to BTD.

 

[Surewhitey]

So many ways to look at it...

Basic simple math, non-inflation DW&I, $144k (combined) since starting at $0, 25 years ago.
We took 4 years sabatical, so it bumps up if you reduce by 4. Raised DD & now have 1.5 DGK's (#2 in December).

Been a good run so far. No inheritance or windfalls...

 

[aaronc879]

How many years to F.I.R.E?

It's hard to say. I haven't worked full time(2000+ hours) since 2010 when I was 31. I am now 42 and have been working part time for 11 years. I have saved around 20X expenses for lean FIRE so could retire lean before 50 without ever making $50K in a year and having an average income around $25K/yr for 30 years.

 

[1242Vintage]

Started in 1987 as a junior engineer at $26k/yr and ended my career in 2020 as my organizations principal engr at $238k/yr.

My progression up the technical career ladder and the associated pay raises was pretty much linear over three decades.

 

[street]

In 1980 I started out with take home of $750 a month after taxes. The 35 year career at the same company I moved up in salary really well and the last 5 years over 100K. I got paid OT for anything over 40 hours a week so there were times my OT was as good or better then straight time.
Average I'm not sure on I never looked what a total I had with SS.

Not sure if OT is calculated and used by SS.

 

[ivinsfan]

I would like to know, are the people that FIRE make there by earning $50k a year or are the majority that make it to FIRE earning $150k and more.
I think it is an interesting question and found that a least a few made it to FIRE with a middle class income. Yes I know those that make $150k think they are middle class, but I think $60k is middle class.

I'm not a fan of grouping people by class or income either for that matter.

 

[ivinsfan]

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/[quote/]





The problem with that is, if you make $70k and save 50% for 20 years, do you really want to live on $35k for the next 40 years? I say work another 6 or 7 years and have much better financial cushion and have the ability to BTD.

We don't tell people how long to work here or how much money they should live on....

 

[Surewhitey]

We don't tell people how long to work here or how much money they should live on....

That's what DW's are for.

 

[FIREd_2015]

Average - $75k (during FT working career, not incl. PT years)
Median - $64k (during FT working career, not incl. PT years)
Exceeded FICA limit - 15 times
Total lifetime wages to date ~ $1.8m (still have PT gig)

I should clarify/add that my numbers are strictly from earned income and does not include income from sale of residence, rental income, interest income and income from stock trades. The sum of non-earned income exceeds my lifetime earned income. I would not have been able to FIRE just from my earned income alone.

 

[ponyboy]

If you made a million a year and spent 900K you'd still be working.



This seems like a question without a point to it..

If I said this I would be roasted. Ive questioned other threads before just like this one. What others will say, its a discussion board. People discuss things. Thats the catch all response. YOu'll learn grasshopper.

 

[ivinsfan]

If I said this I would be roasted. Ive questioned other threads before just like this one. What others will say, its a discussion board. People discuss things. Thats the catch all response. YOu'll learn grasshopper.

It's only hot for a little while.....

 

[Dtail]

Started in 1979 at 25 grand. Finished up 2014 at 85 grand. Pretty linear, with a few bumps.

You are a good example for younger readers on how one can get to the promised land without earning huge amounts of income and furthermore you are clearly enjoying your retirement spending.

 

[Dtail]

I reached the magic "35 years of maximum FICA taxes" level, to get the maximum SS benefit.

Didn't hit 35 max years but was close.

 

[stepford]

It's worth noting that one can still receive most of the maximum SS payment without working the full 35 years. Using my own example, through the magic of bend points I will get a bit over 90% of the maximum SS payment even though I only worked 27.5 out of the required 35 years.

I know that slogging it out for 35 years would have been a dispiriting prospect for me and having the option of cutting things off years sooner without a huge penalty really helped me realize my own FIRE at 55.

 

[RobbieB]

You are a good example for younger readers on how one can get to the promised land without earning huge amounts of income and furthermore you are clearly enjoying your retirement spending.

I did have a rather valuable "perk" that is not included in my wages. My career started in sales and finished up a field apps engineer. I did a bit of manufacturing in the middle, but for all except 5 to 6 years I had a company car. A brand new one every 2 to 3 years. I've had over a dozen cars with zero cost. No gas, no insurance, no maintenance.

 

[ivinsfan]

I did have a rather valuable "perk" that is not included in my wages. My career started in sales and finished up a field apps engineer. I did a bit of manufacturing in the middle, but for all except 5 to 6 years I had a company car. A brand new one every 2 to 3 years. I've had over a dozen cars with zero cost. No gas, no insurance, no maintenance.

In our case we farm with a family C corp and have quite a few benefits that are deductible to the company and non taxable to us...all legit.

 

[Time2]

In our case we farm with a family C corp and have quite a few benefits that are deductible to the company and non taxable to us...all legit.

Oh, those so maligned loopholes.
Good for [-]you[/-] us!

 

[aja8888]

Old guy stuff here:

When I got out of engineering school in 1973 after Vietnam service, a friend and I, both with the same I.E. degrees, took jobs as Industrial Engineers in a large manufacturing plant in Connecticut. Our starting salaries were $11,000 annually.

We were discussing our good fortune and came to the conclusion that if we ever made $25,000 per year, we would be set for life.

 

[skyking1]

I don't remember what my sister and brother-in-law paid for their house around the same time but it wasn't much more than a year's salary.

 

[PatrickA5]

I didn't make that much compared to a lot of people on this forum. DW did well a few years. When we got married in 1979, our combined full time income was around $25K. Ten years later we were probably around $60K combined. Things didn't start to pick up until the 2000's when we were in the $150K range combined. My last full time year was 2007 and even with bonuses, didn't hit $100K. Still, we were able to get 3 kids through college and save a decent amount of money.

I attribute what we saved to three things 1) neither of us was ever unemployed (luck) 2) we stayed married 3) we put savings on auto-pilot and rarely pulled any money out.

 

[skyking1]

All of the above is so much more relevant too. We have not saved that much ourselves, but my pension has filled that gap.

 

[MRG]

I did have a rather valuable "perk" that is not included in my wages. My career started in sales and finished up a field apps engineer. I did a bit of manufacturing in the middle, but for all except 5 to 6 years I had a company car. A brand new one every 2 to 3 years. I've had over a dozen cars with zero cost. No gas, no insurance, no maintenance.

No car but I had Profit Sharing. Woo hoo the first dozen years I never contributed a dime for retirement and Megacorp invested 10%+ of my gross, and covered 100% of the fees. Later a 401k was available and the PS contribution was cut by the 401k match, Megacorp continued to pick up all the fees until after I retired.