A thread to talk about early retirement. - What is Financial Independence (FI)? What does it mean to you? - Planning for FI - What is Retire Early (RE)? What does the "early" in RE mean to you? Share your questions, personal experiences and thoughts. Let's restrict the discussion to the financial aspects of early retirement. .
@Flyhigher, in one thread started by anika, I read about your early retirement. In another also started by anika, I learned how early that early was. : ) Please do share about your early retirement planning, the journey and the experience. Thank you.
Anyone contemplating early retirement should read the Mr. Money Mustache forums. There is a bit of nonsense and hyperbole there but also a lot of serious advice. He is a leading proponent of the FIRE movement: Financial Independence, Retire Early. One of the mantras that struck me the most was “it’s not about how much you earn, it’s about how much you keep”.
I am happy to share. But sorry right now got stuck in between some renovation project and damn tired by evening. By end of this month I will post.
I second Mr. Money Mustache. On FI Twitter there are many good blogs on FIRE and a lot of conversations, real stories, tips etc. Financial independence for me means ability to do what one loves without the need to hold a job to pay bills. I am only interested in FI part of FIRE. No plans of retiring early. I love what I do and won’t trade it for anything. Living my dream life career and family wise so retirement hasn’t crossed my mind yet. Planning for FI- live below your means! There is no quick rich formula (or there might be but most FI people do what works for them and not compete with the Jonases).
Home renovation? Can you post about that too? : ) j/k ... Please take your time. Also, you don't have to share all in one shot...
The first time I came across early retirement was funnily enough in childhood. VRS - voluntary retirement scheme which was newly offered then by some local employers and undertakings, used to a highly debated topic. Uncles (and aunties) in our neighborhood would have strong opinions about the feasibility of taking VRS. Nice! For me, it means pretty much the same thing, though I look at it in a rather dark way. : ) FI means not having to worry about what will happen if we do not have monthly income any more.
My dad took VRS in 90s when everyone advised him not to. I think it shaped my life in many ways- seeing my dad going back to school (he had double Masters in Physics and History already) to get a Law degree and practice law to help his fellow educators. It made me believe in following my dreams- however wild those are!
+1 to "Mr. Money Mustache forums". I also started following Mad Fientist he does share great approach for the people who are considering retire early. I discovered the terminology FI/RE in 2019 when I was aggressively paying-off our CC Debts/ Car payments. When I first read about it, don't know one can even retire early considering many future events like settling the kids (South Asian background ), have dependent parents back home, health insurance, no investments except primary residence which we took on Mortgage. But when I finally deep-dive into it, I was thrilled to learn many unknown things but definitely implemented by dad (which I found after he passed away). So for us FI mean to be "having freedom to do what we like (instead of 9-5 desk job) and stop worrying about monthly bills". To start this one we took these steps: - Paid off all CC Debts (not paying past any more), we do use CC for variable expenses like food/gas/eat-out/entertainment and so on, but only for reward points (travel hack) and cash back. - Paid-off cars and left with only Mortgage. - Have 6months worth of expenses in HYSA which will be touched in absolute emergency (Job loss/ Medical/unexpected emergency in back home) - Have Sinking funds for planned yearly expenses (HOA/Cars maintenance/family celebrations/Kids summer camps/back-to-school) - As we budget for monthly expenses we know what is coming up and what we are spending on. And the rest will go into saving/investing. - We calculated our FIRE number (how much annual income) we need to retire, there any many FIRE calculators online but I personally like Bankrate calculator. Once you know how much you need, and find which year you want retire from your day job, you can find how much you need to invest on monthly basis in order to achieve that goal. For us RE means when we have our FIRE number in our investments(any sort) and dont have to wait for regular paycheck.
