I’m sure many of you guys have seen the articles on FIRE (Financial independence, retire early). Has anyone here actually retired early, in their 30’s and 40’s? Not wanting to start a debate, I have noticed that most of the people in the articles about early retirement, retired from very high paying, high powered jobs…maybe this early retirement isn’t realistic for everyone.
I’ve seen a few family members of mine, who want to retire early (they’re in their 20’s), they want more work life balance…
Could it depend on the career? I love my job, it’s not terribly high powered and I’ve still managed to have plenty of time to do other things besides work. Am I missing something?
Why is there such a backlash against a traditional work and then retire in your 50’s? Some of us like our jobs and not everyone is defined by their career!
Things change. I liked my job and never thought at 50 about retirement until 55. It had gotten tremendously harder. Then that’s all I could think about. Retired very ready at 60.
Yeah, I’m hoping to retire in about 6 or so years when S is out of college…I do think when you get in your 50’s and 60’s you have less energy and you’ve been working for so long at that point. I never thought of retiring in my 30’s and 40’s. We probably couldn’t have afforded it. H and I have had and do have good jobs, but they’re not extremely high paying…
Then again, we never had stressful jobs where we worked 60-80 hours a week…
“Has anyone here actually retired early, in their 30’s and 40’s?”
Yes.
“Why is there such a backlash against a traditional work and then retire in your 50’s? Some of us like our jobs and not everyone is defined by their career!”
I think there is room for everyone to do what works for them. My biggest surprise about retiring early is the backlash/judgement I get from others. It really seems to upset some people. I think some are jealous, some probably think I’m not living a fulfilling life. I’m quite happy actually and am involved in various community activities I didn’t have time for when working. I’m not sure why it bothers other people what I choose to do with my life.
As far as being “defined by one’s career” I do know many people who could retire financially who don’t because they very much define their life by their career.
Although there was a dip at the end of 2008, we have had a decade-long record bull market (since recovered). A lot of the FIRE folk wanted to retire early and invested heavily in the stock market. If it holds steady or has a slight dip they may be ok, but over the next several decades it seems improbable there won’t be another drop of 30+% which they may not have enough savings to ride out.
@doschicos that’s too bad that you faced backlash. Everyone is entitled to do what they want and what works for them.
“As far as being “defined by one’s career” I do know many people who could retire financially who don’t because they very much define their life by their career.”
I know people like that to. If I were to retire now, we’d have to make a ton of financial sacrifices. I love my job, but it is not the be all and the end all and it certainly doesn’t define me. That said, I do enjoy the lifestyle that my job affords me…
I’m mostly retired now. I just consult from time to time. Absolutely no regrets. My husband is still working, but it’s our business and he’s been actively training replacements, including our daughter who will some day own the business.
I haven’t actually made an announcement, I just kept pulling back, hired a key person and trained her and kept offloading my key responsibilities. Now I don’t even know some of our employees, where I used to be very involved in the day to day.
It can’t even be explained enough the level of responsibility and stress involved in owning a business in a highly regulated field. I don’t miss it at all, but if I had to I could jump back in.
I know some resent my current situation, but they’re also the same ones who never had this level of responsibility for the livelihood of so many people and their families.
Now I’m young enough and healthy enough to pursue other interests and some days that includes sitting on my back swing staring at the clouds. It has taken some time to truly come down from it all.
I retired from my full time day job at 60…which I think is early. But it’s been great. I’m in a field where I can pick up work if and when I want to for a couple of months. I have done nine of those since retiring. I love having time to volunteer and do things I enjoy.
I’m flying this coming week…Tuesday to Tuesday…something I never could do when working. Saves a bunch of money.
I think folks know when it’s time to retire…and they do. Well…most of them do. If they don’t, it’s because of financial concerns of some type.
We’re close to mostly retiring here in our mid 50s and consider that early. There’s no way we’d have wanted to give up our more leisurely working life to retire earlier though we did think about it. The time we had with our kids when they were growing up was priceless to us. We didn’t want to lose those hours by working a ton.
We’re still not sure about fully retiring. I expect we could get bored. The leisurely working life seems to fit us, but we have a couple years yet to decide. Perhaps just changing what we do will satisfy our mid-life needs.
That said, I can’t imagine dissing someone else for making their choice to do whatever they liked.
I feel for those who have to work a ton and can’t make the choice to retire when they want to, so we definitely keep our plans to ourselves. I can see where jealousy could be a factor. Many have already told us they’re jealous that we can work our leisurely pace from whatever location we choose (as long as there’s Wifi). That, of course, is H. My job doesn’t work remotely, but since I’m mostly part time (by choice), I can still pick what I want, including full time stints if we’re home long enough and I like the job.
I think positioning oneself for early retirement is a great idea. Even if they end up loving their work and don’t want to retire, it is incredibly liberating to have that option.
We are on track to retire somewhat early, but not incredibly early. I don’t think it requires a high powered job, just a decent income, frugality, and 2 incomes from Day 1. I am advising my kids not to forget about finding a mate in college. My parents told me not to get married too early, but glad I did.
Job means different things for different people. Some must earn their living to survive, others work to accumulate wealth, stay occupied or socialized. Some want to do something meaningful. It’s a personal decision (for those of us so lucky to have choices)
I have many reasons to continue working. I am one of those people defining their life by their career: I want to change lives, and I can make the biggest impact by applying professional skills and experience. I studied and worked too hard and too long to get where I am today - it’s time to give back. I want to exercise my brain to prevent mental decline, aging, Alzheimers… None of community/volunteering activities would keep my brain cells occupied even at a fraction of the current level. And I am lazy by nature, so I need some structure and deadlines to stay engaged and high-functioning. I have way too many vacations days to travel as much as I want, and have good work-life balance to exercise and entertain. I am well compensated, and its nice to continue earning (and spending) discretional income. I feel too young to retire. All our friends still work, and we spend lots of time socializing and traveling together. I would feel lonely and awkward without them, and I don’t want to make new friendships. Lastly, I (mostly) like my company culture and the team. I’ll quit the day I stop liking it. Could happen tomorrow or in 20 years. But not today.
I thought I wanted to stop working until a large windfall inheritance meant that I easily could. I then realized that it was the feeling that I “ had” to work that made me think stopping woukd be appealing. When I truly had a choice I decided not to.
“I expect we could get bored.”
I’ve always said if you’re bored, then you lack imagination. There is so much one can do really when you think about it.
@doschicos – I got bored.
Without kids at home I had plenty of time for hobbies – I’m a voracious reader, a binge movie watcher, a hiker/skier, a gardener and I knit. So I thought I’d be OK without working.
But there came a time when tutoring reading, volunteering, political activism just wasn’t enough. In truth, my freedom was limited by my husband, who was (is) still working, so it’s not like we could hop on a plane and travel whenever we had the itch. And I discovered another truth: I do better under some pressure. Working gave me much more structure and more pressing responsibilities, without which I found myself not getting that much done, neither in my outside interests, or at home.
So at 61 I went back to work. It’s nice not to “have to” work. But it turns out I like working when the job can be done on my own terms (something I like, for/with people I like, and with an element of flexibility.)
Why would I want to retire when I love what I do?
H retired “late” at 70, but most of his career, he LOVED what he did and his coworkers. He worked until our children were don’t with college and all those expenses, plus we paid off his mortgage. About the time he retired, I decided to stop chasing grants for my nonprofit and am mostly retired and only do what I enjoy, as much as I want. It has worked well for us, but I couldn’t have done it without the stability from H’s pension and his medical benefits that will cover both of us and our dependents until H and I die.
I don’t talk about being “retired” because my nonprofit which I founded & continue to run is very elastic and easily fills all the time and energy that I’m willing to give it. I also don’t want folks to resent our more leisurely life vs their more frenetic life. My younger brother is schedule to retire on his birthday this year–will see how that plays out. He’s very much a person who enjoys keeping busy and being in charge.
I thought about retiring early at some point, but now I am at a job that I like I think I may want to work at bit longer. My job keeps me current. I like having something to do everyday. It lets me interact with a lot of young people, which keeps me active. I am someone who also like to have something to do everyday, and maybe a bit of pressure in getting something done. I think I will work as long as I continue to enjoy my job.
DW retired after 8 years as a software engineer. I am going to retire after D23 leaves for the college.
I do love my job and enjoy my work. If I can work for 6 months and take the other 6 months off, I will keep working. But no such setup is possible.
Have a close relative, 37 years old NYPD officer 15 years, retired 2 weeks ago, sold his house and belongings and moved himself, wife and 2 kids to Puerto Rico because of the tax laws. Had no plan going down to the island, other then drive around areas and look at schools. Not wealthy by any means, but wanted to follow his dream of leaving near the beach. Not something I would do, but I admire their courage.
I think a lot more people would retire early if they could find a way for affordable health care. Huge impediment to retirement before Medicare starts.
The people I know who retired early all had retiree health benefits from a job.