Inspired by the How old are you? thread, I would like to know when you declared yourself to be an Early Retiree.
As soon as I could!I would like to know when you declared yourself to be an Early Retiree.
I'm betting it will end up looking a lot like this poll from January of 2012: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/poll-what-age-did-you-fire-59525.htmlAt 40 responses, it's shaping up to be a normal curve with a slight skew to the right, with the modal x value being "55-59". It will be interesting to see if this continues as the number of responses increases.
I'm betting it will end up looking a lot like this poll from January of 2012: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/poll-what-age-did-you-fire-59525.html
I agree with some of the other posters that beyond a certain point, you don't get much out of your job and it can be a constriction on other life possibilities in the long run. I had a romanticized view of work and even had read a book or two on the value (beyond money) of working and truly believed it. A few years on the job quickly dispelled me of this notion.
Even though I had a nice career (engineer), it was very demanding. What I realized is that I would like to work 2 days per week on my job . . . spend an additional half day or so on general research in my field during the week and have the rest of the time off. And then to have 5 months vacation per year. That was more than enough work to keep me intellectually satisfied and to achieve a work-life balance.
The idea of working 49 weeks per year at a full-time pace doing one thing . . . it is difficult for me to understand how that can be enjoyable. I did it, and I did it well and enthusiastically, because I don't expect anything in life for nothing. I was very happy to be born in the USA and be a productive citizen and appreciative for the opportunity and I excelled at my career. But I got out as soon as I could get out. Maybe it was an easier decision for me because I never had to sacrifice my lifestyle to achieve early retirement (age 41).
By the way, looking back on my career and writing this post, I was trying to think what I really got out of my career (age 47 now). I don't really value the technical skills that I learned (I learned enough about those in college). I do value my better understanding of business and marketing, the fact that I became a good public speaker, the fact that I truly became better at working with people, and validated my skills in the workplace. But that is about it. I would say that I had achieved just about all of that after about 6 or 7 years in my career.