Learned about a friend that stopped work at 40

[street]

Yesterday evening I ran into a single man, I have known for about 4 years now. I learned from another friend that he is into stock markets. So, when we meet up on a bike trail I asked him, if he is in stocks etc.. He told me he retired at 40 years old and is now 75 and hasn't worked since then.

It was a very interesting conversation and he was an active trader for many years. He said now, he uses a brokerage company to manage his holding because his age and didn't want it to take so much of his time. He started work right out of HS for a construction company and learned about investing from his brother, who taught him what to do. He made a very modest wage but shows how investing early is a huge deal. Anyone can do it if you set your mind to it.

He plays the part to a T of "The Millionaire Next Door". More out there then what one thinks!

 

[Koolau]

He should have joined our Early Retirement Forum. He's almost a poster child for early retirement. Few of us have retired at 40! I hadn't even thought of early retirement at age 40! (By 41, I was thinking about it but had no clue how to do it).

 

[audreyh1]

Just before age 40 retiree here, but I got lucky being concentrated in one company stock which I started diversifying out of shortly before retiring. I didn’t purchase or hold individual stocks after retiring.

 

[street]

Just before age 40 retiree here, but I got lucky being concentrated in one company stock which I started diversifying out of shortly before retiring. I didn’t purchase or hold individual stocks after retiring.

Wow!!! I think we found our Poster Child. That is outstanding I wouldn not have had the knowledge or mindset to make a living from the markets at age 40.

Thanks for sharing your story Audreyh1.

 

[Koolau]

Wow!!! I think we found our Poster Child. That is outstanding I wouldn not have had the knowledge or mindset to make a living from the markets at age 40.

Thanks for sharing your story Audreyh1.

Me either. I'm not even sure I had a clue when I retied ad 58 - but I got pretty lucky. I always did say "Better lucky than good!"

Yeah, I'd vote for Audeyh1 as our Poster Child of (very) Early Retirement. She is an example that it CAN be done.

 

[scrabbler1]

I retired nearly 18 years ago at age 45. So I am always impressed when someone has retired at an age younger than mine!

 

[TickTock]

I retired at 56. Could have done it a few years earlier, but I didn't hate what I was doing for paid employment. No way were we even close at age 40!

 

[Koolau]

Yeah, I was Financially Independent at 51 and could have retired but chose to w*rk because (wait for it) I wanted to! I stayed to 58 when they figured out I was enjoying myself and they changed my assignment. Gone in 60 seconds!

 

[TickTock]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Nothing wrong with that!

 

[FIREd]

Just before age 40 retiree here, but I got lucky being concentrated in one company stock which I started diversifying out of shortly before retiring. I didn’t purchase or hold individual stocks after retiring.

Similar story for me. I made the money by being concentrated in a single stock and kept the money by diversifying it after cashing in my chips. It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 15 years already since I last earned a paycheck.

 

[scrabbler1]

Similar story for me. I made the money by being concentrated in a single stock and kept the money by diversifying it after cashing in my chips. It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 15 years already since I last earned a paycheck.

Similar story for me, too. I had shares in my company's ESOP whose value had grown by nearly 3000% in 11 years. I cashed it out using NUA to lessen the tax bite and invested the proceeds in a corporate bond fund whose monthly dividends have basically funded my retirement for the last 18.5 years.

 

[street]

I talked to this induvial last evening again last evening on a bike trail. We stopped and shared experiences on building our portfolios and lessons learned what not to do.
My hats goes off to all you really early FIRE people. Your path is one that isn't a norm but well respected.

 

[Markola]

What were some lessons learned on what NOT to do? I want to see if there’s anything new to add to my personal list of mistakes, heh.

 

[street]

What were some lessons learned on what NOT to do? I want to see if there’s anything new to add to my personal list of mistakes, heh.

Having a financial advisor. Another thing learned when he was a full time trader was trying to time some stocks that always had negative results.

 

[Koolau]

Having a financial advisor. Another thing learned when he was a full time trader was trying to time some stocks that always had negative results.

Right! I learned all this the hard way.

 

[MRG]

Yeah, I was Financially Independent at 51 and could have retired but chose to w*rk because (wait for it) I wanted to! I stayed to 58 when they figured out I was enjoying myself and they changed my assignment. Gone in 60 seconds!

One of my peers always said 59.5. I retired at 56 after Megacorp's nonsense started. I'd told him about the rule of 55 and that I had successfully used it to access my retirement. He was still on the fence.

He had taken some personal time for a family member's death and his new management wanted him working 80 hour weeks to "make the customer happy." He gave notice that day, at 55. The next person who had the skills to do the project gave their notice later that week, "saying I'm not working 80 hour weeks anymore, I'm gone."

 

[Koolau]

One of my peers always said 59.5. I retired at 56 after Megacorp's nonsense started. I'd told him about the rule of 55 and that I had successfully used it to access my retirement. He was still on the fence.

He had taken some personal time for a family member's death and his new management wanted him working 80 hour weeks to "make the customer happy." He gave notice that day, at 55. The next person who had the skills to do the project gave their notice later that week, "saying I'm not working 80 hour weeks anymore, I'm gone."

I got the news on a Friday and I went home and talked to DW. Monday was Labor Day (ironic!). Tuesday I announced that Friday was my last day in the office. In theory, my last day was end of the month but I took the remainder of my vacation until then.

 

[Markola]

Having a financial advisor. Another thing learned when he was a full time trader was trying to time some stocks that always had negative results.

Nope! Nothing new learned, lol. Thanks.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yesterday evening I ran into a single man, I have known for about 4 years now. I learned from another friend that he is into stock markets. So, when we meet up on a bike trail I asked him, if he is in stocks etc.. He told me he retired at 40 years old and is now 75 and hasn't worked since then.

It was a very interesting conversation and he was an active trader for many years. He said now, he uses a brokerage company to manage his holding because his age and didn't want it to take so much of his time. He started work right out of HS for a construction company and learned about investing from his brother, who taught him what to do. He made a very modest wage but shows how investing early is a huge deal. Anyone can do it if you set your mind to it.

He plays the part to a T of "The Millionaire Next Door". More out there then what one thinks!

Whenever I hired a college grad and I sure hired a ton of them I always told them if you wanted the best advice of your life contribute as much as you can to the 401K plan in the s&p 500 index for at least 10% of their pay and then forget about it until they're 40. Whereupon they will look at it and discover they are already well on their way to being able to retire early.

Of course only about 10 or 15% of them actually did that and they always get in touch with me and let me know what great advice it was.

I wrote book reports on this site for The millionaire next door very enlightening I also did one for the four pillars of investing which was a pretty dry book to read but good. So if folks want to know what those books were all about look for Booker for it or the title of the book look for the one that I authored they're going back something like 10 years at this point but I managed to squeeze them both down onto a about a single page.

My insurance agent loves me when I'm talking with him about my umbrella liability and other insurance products he said the thing with you is that you wear cheap shorts and t-shirts and drive around a Honda. You don't look like anybody that someone could sue or that a cop could write a fine for. I got some pretty awesome rates from that guy?

 

[TickTock]

He had taken some personal time for a family member's death and his new management wanted him working 80 hour weeks to "make the customer happy." He gave notice that day, at 55. The next person who had the skills to do the project gave their notice later that week, "saying I'm not working 80 hour weeks anymore, I'm gone."

I'm guessing that these folks were salaried so that the extra 40 hours/week were all upside to the company and downside to the employee. That's employee abuse, IMHO.

My last paid employment - for five years, I had the option of taking 1-for-1 either an extra hour of pay or an hour off for every hour worked over 40. Totally changed my perspective.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

Fi 45. Maybe a bit earlier really looking at our numbers. But dh is still choosing to grind. He's not ready to hang it up. I asked again but he said he's not mentally there yet.

I don't know what he's working for except his own inability to do nothing.

 

[Redbugdave]

I'm guessing that these folks were salaried so that the extra 40 hours/week were all upside to the company and downside to the employee. That's employee abuse, IMHO.

My last paid employment - for five years, I had the option of taking 1-for-1 either an extra hour of pay or an hour off for every hour worked over 40. Totally changed my perspective.

I was an exempt employee for years until a class action lawsuit changed that. Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime pay and are typically paid a salary.

 

[OK EE]

My goal when I started working professionally (age 22 or so) was to retire by 45. 40 was never even a possibility. I missed it by a few years. I was FI at age 52-53 and I'm retiring in less than a year at age 55. My financial goals definitely changed in the last 30 years though. Bigger dreams as opposed to just continuing the same lifestyle as pre-retirement.

I did use a financial advisor. He's the reason I'm in the position I'm in today. My only regret is not terminating his services a couple years earlier. Probably spent 50-60K over the years on his AUM fee, but he probably made me 1/2 million for that and got all my estate planning and investments squared away. Also taught me what I didn't know.

Only other regret is not knowing about Roth IRAs before about 2017. Could have saved more tax free. I started saving for retirement at around 1998, so I didn't clear the 100K hurdle until about 2010. Dead decade was not a great way to start saving.

 

[G-Money]

I'd be curious to know what OP's friend who retired at 40 and who lives like the Millionaire Next Door did with the 25 years following retiring at 40. Those are some very prime years with youthfulness still on tap, and having good financial resources...

 

[oiseux]

I had a number of coworkers who bailed early, in their 40s or even earlier. That gave me a target to leave at 50 and although I achieved FI at 46 I continued to work long afterwards. I have not seen many of them recently, but it makes me wonder too how they have spent their time.