Hi,
My first posting - and here's our financial story.
I'm 42, my wife's 47. We've been thinking about FIRE since being married 14 years ago, as we both enjoy many outdoor activities and traveling, and working simply gets in the way of those pleasures.
I have done some fairly neat work and have travelled to many unique places (Aleutian Islands, Japan, Mexico, Antarctica, etc.) during my engineering career, but have always bristled at being under the scrutiny and whim of the "Company" (I've been at several now). At this point I've about had it with full-time work, but still like getting paid for my skills. Am thinking about doing short-term engineering contracts with companies of my chosing. My wife is a bit more able to deal with the Big Brother thing with her long-term employer. She's thinking about going part-time in 2-3 years so we can both have more free time to pursue/develop other interests that we simply lack time for now.
In my first year of work after college, I decided that NOT working is the way to go (though the reality of paying the bills kept me going). Thus, my relatively frugal habits and lifestyle quickly became established as I began to save as much of my paycheck as possible.
I've never made more than $60K/yr (started at $25K in 1985, inched upward from there), and have managed to save anywhere from 20%-50% of it each year - and never missed it! My wife happens to also be of the same ilk and pay scale, and has saved similarly. I think financial compatibility and similar long-term goals have proven to be very powerful components in our strong marriage.
We have no children (by design), live in a small log home in the country (mortgage paid off 5 years ago), have no debt (by being thoughtful and frugal about purchases (i.e. used cars, sale prices, no excess/frivolous stuff), and generally try to avoid the "consumeritis" disease that seems to afflict so many in the US. We sometimes have lapses in purchasing judgement or willpower, but usually (luckily) it's on inexpensive things.
Despite the stock market burp of the past 3 years or so, we've managed to accumulate about $700K in our combined retirement portfolio (qualified and unqualified accounts, savings, checking, ect.). As a very conservative financial approach, we don't count on S.S., inheritance, or any other windfalls, and we don't count life insurance or her (small) pension in our possible future income streams. What we have is what we've got! The only other assets are our house (now worth ~ $250K), 2 used cars (~$15K total), and all the usual household stuff and sports equipment (biking, skiing, backpacking, etc.) that we don't even count because we probably wouldn't sell them anyways.
We've never made a ton of money working (though our middle-class salaries are nothing to sneeze at, I guess), but certainly found sage advice in the concept of saving and investing early and regularly - it's been our saving grace on getting ahead. For me, saving 20-50% of my income (and the same for my wife) for the past 18 years really hasn't been a burden at all. We've found we've never missed that set-aside money - we just make things work with what's left.
My first posting - and here's our financial story.
I'm 42, my wife's 47. We've been thinking about FIRE since being married 14 years ago, as we both enjoy many outdoor activities and traveling, and working simply gets in the way of those pleasures.
I have done some fairly neat work and have travelled to many unique places (Aleutian Islands, Japan, Mexico, Antarctica, etc.) during my engineering career, but have always bristled at being under the scrutiny and whim of the "Company" (I've been at several now). At this point I've about had it with full-time work, but still like getting paid for my skills. Am thinking about doing short-term engineering contracts with companies of my chosing. My wife is a bit more able to deal with the Big Brother thing with her long-term employer. She's thinking about going part-time in 2-3 years so we can both have more free time to pursue/develop other interests that we simply lack time for now.
In my first year of work after college, I decided that NOT working is the way to go (though the reality of paying the bills kept me going). Thus, my relatively frugal habits and lifestyle quickly became established as I began to save as much of my paycheck as possible.
I've never made more than $60K/yr (started at $25K in 1985, inched upward from there), and have managed to save anywhere from 20%-50% of it each year - and never missed it! My wife happens to also be of the same ilk and pay scale, and has saved similarly. I think financial compatibility and similar long-term goals have proven to be very powerful components in our strong marriage.
We have no children (by design), live in a small log home in the country (mortgage paid off 5 years ago), have no debt (by being thoughtful and frugal about purchases (i.e. used cars, sale prices, no excess/frivolous stuff), and generally try to avoid the "consumeritis" disease that seems to afflict so many in the US. We sometimes have lapses in purchasing judgement or willpower, but usually (luckily) it's on inexpensive things.
Despite the stock market burp of the past 3 years or so, we've managed to accumulate about $700K in our combined retirement portfolio (qualified and unqualified accounts, savings, checking, ect.). As a very conservative financial approach, we don't count on S.S., inheritance, or any other windfalls, and we don't count life insurance or her (small) pension in our possible future income streams. What we have is what we've got! The only other assets are our house (now worth ~ $250K), 2 used cars (~$15K total), and all the usual household stuff and sports equipment (biking, skiing, backpacking, etc.) that we don't even count because we probably wouldn't sell them anyways.
We've never made a ton of money working (though our middle-class salaries are nothing to sneeze at, I guess), but certainly found sage advice in the concept of saving and investing early and regularly - it's been our saving grace on getting ahead. For me, saving 20-50% of my income (and the same for my wife) for the past 18 years really hasn't been a burden at all. We've found we've never missed that set-aside money - we just make things work with what's left.
.
