Hello Everyone,
I stumbled across this board a couple of days ago and
have spent HOURS reading it. Thank you all for sharing
your lives and dreams. I find them to be very inspiring.
Here is a brief introduction of myself.
I am 37, married for 9 yrs to my wife who's 39. We have
a wonderful 4 1/2 yr old daughter and another baby on
the way in mid 05. Immigrated to this country some 20
years ago and have been working in a computer related
field for 17 yrs. Wife is a CPA. Since I or my family had
nothing to start with, living below our means and saving
has always been natural. It helps too that I have been
fortunate to be employed in a well-paying industry.
Today, we have a networth approaching $2mm. I'd
define ourselves as being value-conscious, not necessarily frugal.
We have absolutely no debt (mortgage paid off 2 yrs
old) except for my zero interest payment on my SUV. We
aspire to be in a position to semi-ER in 8 yrs (when I
turn 45) for the following reasons:
1. We don't suffer the work-consume vicious cycle so
typically inflicted on so many people here. (BTW, this
Americanism is quickly spreading to other parts of the
world)
2. I hate the political aspect of the rat race, although
wife has a better tolerance level. Competition is not
what I am against, after all, it's part of human nature. What I hate is the subjective process by which people
get ahead in the corporate world, i.e., how you make
yourself visible, how you protect your turf, etc. Deep
down, I should have been an entrepreneur, but got
golden-handcuffed early in my career. Every now and
then, I still yearn to be my own boss and answer to
myself wheather it's failure or success.
3. We wish to spend more time with our children especially during their formative teenage years. No amount of money can replace watching your kids grow
and be part of their lives.
4. I wish to be around my parents (who are close to
70 right now and in great health) more later on. They
have devoted their lives to mine and I want to be there
for them during their twilight years (traveling with them etc).
5a. We both have an enormous amount of interests
in life which we would like to pursue, which FT work does
not permit. A partial list: running, cycling, reading (history, arts, science), music...
5b. I am an amature sports car racer and would like to
do more of it.
6. Last but not least, I'd love to move to somewhere
so that I don't have to see snow again!
The biggest issue we have to resolve in the next
year or so is relocating to a better school district.
We plan on putting our kids through good public schools. Around the NYC suburbs, that means paying > $1mm for a semi-decent house with $12-15K annual real estate tax.
Longer term, we'll need to worry about health care
insurance. Also, both of us have no pension to
speak of. We'll need to fully fund everything ourselves
until SS age. Hopefully, there should not be any issues in another 8 years. It will help for sure that both of us
will probably have some income from PT/consulting
work for a couple of years as we ease into ER.
I welcome any feedbacks and look forward to learning
more about your experiences.
Regards,
DX
