Wondering if there is anyone on here that has retired early (FIRE Movement)

[Tl15]

My wife and I are extremely fortunate that we will inherit enough to not worry about anything in our golden years. We won’t be rich, but we’ll be well past secure. We both have good jobs and my career has picked up speed significantly in the last couple of years. The only debt we carry is the mortgage on our house and the ranch and we contribute heavily into our retirement accounts. Our portfolio has us looking very healthy when we finally hit drawdown. We COULD hang it up early, but to tell you the truth, I like having an 8-5. Every day gives me new problems to solve, opportunities to learn under some very smart people, and social interaction with my work friends. I get to go to work in a t-shirt, jeans, and a ball cap and I’ve got a 12 minute commute. My wife works from home and gets to live life in her pajamas, playing with our cats between meetings. Our self actualization need is being met in a pretty painless way right now all things considered. We started late, but are expecting our first child in January, I’ll just have turned 39 and she’ll be 40. I plan to work until our girl graduates high school, then slow it down. My wife will probably slow it down a few years before me. Lord knows she will have earned that privilege. My last CFO asked me why we haven’t started our own business yet, since we really don’t have any reason to slave away and honestly, I wouldn’t enjoy it. I want to be present for my daughter instead of constantly checking my phone, emails, income sheet, and daily bank balance and I dang sure don’t want to deal with employees. I appreciate entrepreneurs, but let’s be real, an overwhelming majority fail miserably and I refuse to put my family in that position.

So yeah, I’ll follow the “normal” trajectory even though we don’t have to, and I’m cool with that but only because I don’t hate my job. I just don’t think early retirement would keep me stimulated enough. I hate golf and Texas is too hot to leave the air conditioner for 8 months of the year. Travel isn’t realistic since we’ll have a girl in school, and there’s be nobody my age to hang out with because everyone else would be at work. Nah, no appeal there…

 

[Less]

I raised my kids in a 675 sq ft log home. I enlarged it so they could bring their families to visit. I don't buy any of the climate crap. Our temps and climate are well within the normal swing of the last 150 years. It has been warmer (12 million years ago) and colder (300,000 - 500,000 years ago). If it concerns you - move out of the city and be more self sufficient. Learn to survive with less. We have been for generations. I have seen hundreds of cabins in the back coutry that only had room enough for a bed and a stove and people lived there well through the 30s.

I don’t actually live in the city now. 20 years ago only had one neighbor that lived about a mile away. The City’s has come to me. They are expanding. So it’s only a matter of time before where I live will be inside of the city limits. To get away from the crowds I would have to leave my wife and family. They aren’t going to move with me to another State like Montana, Alaska, Idaho or Wyoming. I would love it and move in a heart beat but can’t leave my family with no longer than I have left to live.

Noticed you are in Montana ? You don’t know how lucky you are to still live somewhere that isn’t so crowded that you can’t find a little solitude and get away from the crowds. It use to be that way here 50 years ago. Not anymore or ever again.

Have a friend who is a farmer. Went on an Alaskan cruise year before last. Went again this year to find a place to live. Is moving to Alaska as soon as his farm sells.

I have tried to convince my wife into moving to a state like Montana, Idaho or Wyoming. She won’t even consider it for various reasons, our kids, friends, family are all here. Personally I would be happy just coming back to visit occasionally.

I was born and raised very poor. I don’t know off hand how big the house was I was brought up in. Know it was too small for a family of 9 . Mom & Dad + 7 kids. The house had 3 small bed rooms, small living room, kitchen, bathroom ( around 1000 sq foot maybe ? ) You mention climate control ? Guess maybe you are talking about central heat and air ? Well the house I grew up in from the time I was born until I got out on my own at 18 only had a small gas stove in the living room. House had a tin roof. Walls/ceiling weren’t insulated. Had a tin sheet metal roof. Did not have indoor plumbing until I was 12 years old. Drew water from one of the 3 dug wells for cooking, bathing, drinking water. Had an out house. Did have a bath tub that had to be filled with water pail. Water heated on a stove. Mom done our washing with a ringer washing machine. Clothes lines to dry our clothes. Sewed and made our clothes, quilted our bed quilts. Canned most of our can goods. Remember more times than I care to remember of her breaking down crying and would say she wasn’t nothing more than a slave. And she was right. If I was her I would have walked out on all of us. Nobody should have had to live and work like she did. Before she married Dad she was the oldest of 15 kids. She only got to go to the third grade in school before she was made to stay home and clean cook and raise her younger siblings while he mom and Dad the kids that was big enough to work in row crops could work. We were poor people. That’s what I mean in my previous post that I was introduced to hunting and fishing to help put food on the table. I hunted more for necessity than sport.

When I mentioned people living in these tiny houses I am not talking down the way they are living. I know what it is like living that way first hand myself and I didn’t see a whole lot enjoyable about it. But even as hard as it was living that way I do have some good memories of it. Learned alot from it. Grew up mentally faster than most kids my age did. Made me tougher in a lot of ways. The house I grew up in was bad cold in the winter and bad hot in the summer. We grew gardens, mom canned most of our food. We had chickens, raised and butchered hogs. But it was a necessity that we made things work and the gardens provided enough food to feed us. Not like most gardens today that people till up a little ground. Plant a few plants and when the grass starts growing they give it up. Let the weeds take it over. We didn’t have the money to live on store bought goods.

You’re right about the past climate being a lot hotter and cooler. As a matter of a fact I saw a documentary recently where this well respected highly educated scientist said that the would is going through a cooling off period now ? If he is right about that. I sure hate to see what it is going to be like when the world gets hot.

But one thing that the world has never experienced before now is a population of 8 billion people, and in 27 years from now is predicted to reach 10 billion. Am not sure exactly how old the world is. Seems like 500 million years old or something like that ? How ever old it is it has never had a population as big as it is now. Biblical times when Jesus was walking the earth wasn’t no where near what it was when I was born 62 years ago. It was 3 1/2 billion people when I was born. 3000 years ago during biblical times the population was probably around 1 million people.

As far as me having to worry about the problem of overpopulation in what years I have left to live. I am not concerned for myself. I am at the jumping off point. It’s my kids and grandkids and the rest of the world that I know is going to see the bad times a head. I am not a religious man. Can’t say there is a heaven, can’t say there isn’t. I just don’t know and it doesn’t bother me one way or the other.

Right now there are a few places here in the U.S. that people can escape the over crowding like Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska. Arkansas was sort of one of those places but not no more. The only reason the a fore mentioned States aren’t full
yet was there climate, cold harsh winters. But I promise you 50 years from now those states will be like my home state of Arkansas. Crowed.

And only when that starts happening in those states will the people who has lived in the tranquility they have been accustomed to understand what I am saying. Because that tranquility is gone here now.

 

[Fowl Play]

I don’t actually live in the city now. 20 years ago only had one neighbor that lived about a mile away. The City’s has come to me. They are expanding. So it’s only a matter of time before where I live will be inside of the city limits. To get away from the crowds I would have to leave my wife and family. They aren’t going to move with me to another State like Montana, Alaska, Idaho or Wyoming. I would love it and move in a heart beat but can’t leave my family with no longer than I have left to live.

Noticed you are in Montana ? You don’t know how lucky you are to still live somewhere that isn’t so crowded that you can’t find a little solitude and get away from the crowds. It use to be that way here 50 years ago. Not anymore or ever again.

Have a friend who is a farmer. Went on an Alaskan cruise year before last. Went again this year to find a place to live. Is moving to Alaska as soon as his farm sells.

I have tried to convince my wife into moving to a state like Montana, Idaho or Wyoming. She won’t even consider it for various reasons, our kids, friends, family are all here. Personally I would be happy just coming back to visit occasionally.

I was born and raised very poor. I don’t know off hand how big the house was I was brought up in. Know it was too small for a family of 9 . Mom & Dad + 7 kids. The house had 3 small bed rooms, small living room, kitchen, bathroom ( around 1000 sq foot maybe ? ) You mention climate control ? Guess maybe you are talking about central heat and air ? Well the house I grew up in from the time I was born until I got out on my own at 18 only had a small gas stove in the living room. House had a tin roof. Walls/ceiling weren’t insulated. Had a tin sheet metal roof. Did not have indoor plumbing until I was 12 years old. Drew water from one of the 3 dug wells for cooking, bathing, drinking water. Had an out house. Did have a bath tub that had to be filled with water pail. Water heated on a stove. Mom done our washing with a ringer washing machine. Clothes lines to dry our clothes. Sewed and made our clothes, quilted our bed quilts. Canned most of our can goods. Remember more times than I care to remember of her breaking down crying and would say she wasn’t nothing more than a slave. And she was right. If I was her I would have walked out on all of us. Nobody should have had to live and work like she did. Before she married Dad she was the oldest of 15 kids. She only got to go to the third grade in school before she was made to stay home and clean cook and raise her younger siblings while he mom and Dad the kids that was big enough to work in row crops could work. We were poor people. That’s what I mean in my previous post that I was introduced to hunting and fishing to help put food on the table. I hunted more for necessity than sport.

When I mentioned people living in these tiny houses I am not talking down the way they are living. I know what it is like living that way first hand myself and I didn’t see a whole lot enjoyable about it. But even as hard as it was living that way I do have some good memories of it. Learned alot from it. Grew up mentally faster than most kids my age did. Made me tougher in a lot of ways. The house I grew up in was bad cold in the winter and bad hot in the summer. We grew gardens, mom canned most of our food. We had chickens, raised and butchered hogs. But it was a necessity that we made things work and the gardens provided enough food to feed us. Not like most gardens today that people till up a little ground. Plant a few plants and when the grass starts growing they give it up. Let the weeds take it over. We didn’t have the money to live on store bought goods.

You’re right about the past climate being a lot hotter and cooler. As a matter of a fact I saw a documentary recently where this well respected highly educated scientist said that the would is going through a cooling off period now ? If he is right about that. I sure hate to see what it is going to be like when the world gets hot.

But one thing that the world has never experienced before now is a population of 8 billion people, and in 27 years from now is predicted to reach 10 billion. Am not sure exactly how old the world is. Seems like 500 million years old or something like that ? How ever old it is it has never had a population as big as it is now. Biblical times when Jesus was walking the earth wasn’t no where near what it was when I was born 62 years ago. It was 3 1/2 billion people when I was born. 3000 years ago during biblical times the population was probably around 1 million people.

As far as me having to worry about the problem of overpopulation in what years I have left to live. I am not concerned for myself. I am at the jumping off point. It’s my kids and grandkids and the rest of the world that I know is going to see the bad times a head. I am not a religious man. Can’t say there is a heaven, can’t say there isn’t. I just don’t know and it doesn’t bother me one way or the other.

Right now there are a few places here in the U.S. that people can escape the over crowding like Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska. Arkansas was sort of one of those places but not no more. The only reason the a fore mentioned States aren’t full
yet was there climate, cold harsh winters. But I promise you 50 years from now those states will be like my home state of Arkansas. Crowed.

And only when that starts happening in those states will the people who has lived in the tranquility they have been accustomed to understand what I am saying. Because that tranquility is gone here now.

Seems like you have a pretty pessimistic outlook on life my man. I hope you do not let that prevent you from enjoying your "golden years". You can find tranquility in every single state if you drive or walk a little further than anyone else. Or wake up a little sooner than most.

Your grandkids will still be able to find solitude even if the worlds population doubles. Cost of living for sure will increase, but beats the heck out of being born in a 3rd world country OR some war torn section of the globe.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I feel for you Less. I worked for the fed government for 10 years. That included a number of assignments to Wash DC. Many of those people are perfectly happy in what I would class as a death trap waiting to happen.

Growing up in a small town in Montana sounds quite similar to you. We hunted for food. In fact the first big bull elk I killed, I was sure my father was going to kill me. We raised a garden and canned everything. The house I grew up in had a lightbulb in the kitchen and one in the dining room. We got in house plumbing when I was about 6. My mother washed on wednesdays with a wringer maytag until about 1968. She hung the laundry on a clothes line and in the winter they freeze dried. I remember when it was snowing we had expanding wooden racks in the dining room for drying the clothes in front of the wood stove.

Wood cutting started when the roads opened. We usually had enough by August ( nothing has changed) Most of this summer we have averaged 1 night a week that we needed a fire.

Most southern sourced neighbors don't last past 1-2 winters. Most hot days are around 80 but the cold days are about the same number at about -50.

I grew up in a small town but lived in a bigger city (Spokane) and learned to hate it. No freedom. I lived briefly in a lot of University towns. I worked my way through college (12 years) and paid for all of it. A number of the years were paid by trapping at night and going to school during the day. The rest ranged from truck driver, tail sawyer in a mill, trail maintenance for the USFS, and sampler for the US Bureau of Mines.

I came from railroad roots where work was 7 days a week and pushing 24 hrs a day.

Retirement is not the end of work but you get to pick the hours and the priviledge of properly advising jerks of what they can do with their time and opinions.

I'm sure there are a number of us that don't fit well in society and certainly not in the confinement of a city and their rules.

I don't know if it helps but there are still a lot of places out there that take 3-4 days on horseback to get there and they aren't just in Alaska.

 

[Greenbelt]

I retired at 41 after 20 years in my chosen career. Took 2 eviscerated discs in neck, torn labrum, and 2 future hip replacements but I did it lol. I could have had those surgeries and went back. But when looking at time vs income it made no sense. Time being something you can't buy.

I had a very wealthy friend tell me a long time ago "if you wake up to go to work in the morning you already lost". Truth

 

[Less]

I feel for you Less. I worked for the fed government for 10 years. That included a number of assignments to Wash DC. Many of those people are perfectly happy in what I would class as a death trap waiting to happen.

Growing up in a small town in Montana sounds quite similar to you. We hunted for food. In fact the first big bull elk I killed, I was sure my father was going to kill me. We raised a garden and canned everything. The house I grew up in had a lightbulb in the kitchen and one in the dining room. We got in house plumbing when I was about 6. My mother washed on wednesdays with a wringer maytag until about 1968. She hung the laundry on a clothes line and in the winter they freeze dried. I remember when it was snowing we had expanding wooden racks in the dining room for drying the clothes in front of the wood stove.

Wood cutting started when the roads opened. We usually had enough by August ( nothing has changed) Most of this summer we have averaged 1 night a week that we needed a fire.

Most southern sourced neighbors don't last past 1-2 winters. Most hot days are around 80 but the cold days are about the same number at about -50.

I grew up in a small town but lived in a bigger city (Spokane) and learned to hate it. No freedom. I lived briefly in a lot of University towns. I worked my way through college (12 years) and paid for all of it. A number of the years were paid by trapping at night and going to school during the day. The rest ranged from truck driver, tail sawyer in a mill, trail maintenance for the USFS, and sampler for the US Bureau of Mines.

I came from railroad roots where work was 7 days a week and pushing 24 hrs a day.

Retirement is not the end of work but you get to pick the hours and the priviledge of properly advising jerks of what they can do with their time and opinions.

I'm sure there are a number of us that don't fit well in society and certainly not in the confinement of a city and their rules.

I don't know if it helps but there are still a lot of places out there that take 3-4 days on horseback to get there and they aren't just in Alaska.

Yes sir ! Sounds like our up bringing was a lot a like. I had forgotten about clothes freezing on the clothes line. Remember mornings that I would have to get something to wear for school. I could almost stand my britches up they were so frozen.

I guess I am sort of the black sheep of the family when it came to education. My dad was injured in the war. Was able to take care of us up until I was in about the 5 th grade. 4 of my older siblings had moved out on their own by that time. Left me my younger brother and sister at home. Dad ended up in the hospital from his war injuries. That lead to him being put in a nursing home until he died. Because it was caused when he was in the war he was eligible for VA benefits. Part of those benefits allowed for his kids to go to school using the GI bill. I went took welding and electronics at a trade school. Rest of my siblings got college degrees. I have to take my hat off to you for putting your self through college on your own. Know that isn’t easy thing to do. Just having to do school assignments alone is enough. Let alone paying your own way through. It was ruff even with what the GI bill helped pay for which was mostly books and tuition. My Mother was 41 with only a 3 rd grade education when she enrolled in college. She really struggled but in the end graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Just about the time she was able to benefit from her degree and had raised all of us kids not to mention all of her siblings she had raised. She was killed in a car accident at 54 years old.

I tell you what though Pony Soldier as hard a life as it was growing up that way it helped me in ways that are hard to explain. I think you having grew up similar to what I did know what I mean. When you grow up like that you mature both mentally and physically faster than if I had been raised with less of a struggle i guess is the best way to explain it.

I would give anything to see a place that takes 3 to 4 days to get to on horse back. If I remember right seems like you might be who I talked with one time about packing in on horse back and mules ? When we were breaking a pair of mules to the saddle. We would sometimes ride 12 miles in across the mountains and back out the same day. Was some of my favorite memories. Those mules would sure stand still and were well behaved by the time we got back to the trail head though.

I hired a man and his son that were pretty good horsemen. Or anyhow at the time I thought they were. Looking back at what we put those mules through if the mules would agree that we knew what we were doing. But we really had some good times trail riding.

 

[Less]

Seems like you have a pretty pessimistic outlook on life my man. I hope you do not let that prevent you from enjoying your "golden years". You can find tranquility in every single state if you drive or walk a little further than anyone else. Or wake up a little sooner than most.

Your grandkids will still be able to find solitude even if the worlds population doubles. Cost of living for sure will increase, but beats the heck out of being born in a 3rd world country OR some war torn section of the globe.

Well Fowl Play ? I am not saying this to offend you and I hope it doesn’t. I am assuming the picture in the avatar is you ? If so it looks like you are 40 years old or younger ?

You’re probably right about me being pessimistic. But I feel I have reason to feel the way I do. When it comes to solitude your definition and mine are probably a lot different. Because even though I am only around twice your age. I can tell how crowded things were 30 years + or - than they are this day and time. And even going back 30 years the world has gotten a lot more crowded. And there was a lot more room in general for people to enjoy themselves than the way things are this day and time.

Even 25 years ago when I first hunted Elk in Colorado outside of the guy’s I was hunting with we never seen another person the whole 2 weeks we were there. And we weren’t hunting back country. Weren’t packed in off road. Saw and killed some Elk.

It’s not that way now. Went to the same campsite Last September. It was like a small city with motor homes and travel trailers all over the place. Side x sides, 4 wheelers you name it. It was there.

What makes you think the U.S. is much different than some of the third world countries ? Have you ever been to one to know the difference. U.S. border is wide open. Immigrants piling in by the thousands.

So I am going just agree that you and I will have to disagree on how great things are.

 

[Pony Soldier]

This is a little off subject but I worked for gent while in high school. He was about my fathers age which I guess somewhat ancient. He said for money while in their 20s, they gathered up a string of horses near Lewiston, Idaho and drove them to Walla walla, Wahington. To enhance the value, he said they rode a differant one each day to break them and make them saleable. I think he said it took them 3 or 4 weeks to get them there.

After the sale they turned around and rode back to where they started. At some point they encountered a cow elk and thought it would be a good idea to rope her. He shared that as the worst decision he made in his entire life. The concept was bad enough but on a green horse just embellashed the insanity. He said that elk did everything but turn him inside out. He was never so happy as when she got loose. Bad choices are potential terminal.

 

[Fowl Play]

Well Fowl Play ? I am not saying this to offend you and I hope it doesn’t. I am assuming the picture in the avatar is you ? If so it looks like you are 40 years old or younger ?

You’re probably right about me being pessimistic. But I feel I have reason to feel the way I do. When it comes to solitude your definition and mine are probably a lot different. Because even though I am only around twice your age. I can tell how crowded things were 30 years + or - than they are this day and time. And even going back 30 years the world has gotten a lot more crowded. And there was a lot more room in general for people to enjoy themselves than the way things are this day and time.

Even 25 years ago when I first hunted Elk in Colorado outside of the guy’s I was hunting with we never seen another person the whole 2 weeks we were there. And we weren’t hunting back country. Weren’t packed in off road. Saw and killed some Elk.

It’s not that way now. Went to the same campsite Last September. It was like a small city with motor homes and travel trailers all over the place. Side x sides, 4 wheelers you name it. It was there.

What makes you think the U.S. is much different than some of the third world countries ? Have you ever been to one to know the difference. U.S. border is wide open. Immigrants piling in by the thousands.

So I am going just agree that you and I will have to disagree on how great things are.

No offense taken. And I'm sure the hunting was great when you were in your prime. Would love to have seen that. I just believe it is not all doom and gloom for the future. On the US vs third world country discussion, we'll have to agree to disagree. Is it as great as it once was, NO. Is living here, still orders of magnitude better than the third world countries I've been to... 100%. I have personally helped with some of the situations that made the news, and my sister is an immigration attorney for a non-profit that takes on cases for people trying to legally seek asylum. The stories she tells of clients situations around the dinner table makes my skin crawl. I could not do that as a day job.

 

[Less]

No offense taken. And I'm sure the hunting was great when you were in your prime. Would love to have seen that. I just believe it is not all doom and gloom for the future. On the US vs third world country discussion, we'll have to agree to disagree. Is it as great as it once was, NO. Is living here, still orders of magnitude better than the third world countries I've been to... 100%. I have personally helped with some of the situations that made the news, and my sister is an immigration attorney for a non-profit that takes on cases for people trying to legally seek asylum. The stories she tells of clients situations around the dinner table makes my skin crawl. I could not do that as a day job.

I have never been outside of the U.S. and can not compare the U.S. to these third world countries. If they are a lot worse than the U.S. is now. They have to be pretty bad. Myself, my father and two older brothers all served in the military. It sickens me to see what I served to help protect that our government has just opened our borders up to let everybody and anybody into the U.S. My father and one of those brothers is dead now. Have several uncles on both my Mothers and fathers sides of the family that served in the military along with numerous friends. Not to mention all of the other men & women in the U.S. who has served and died in some branch of the military to protect this country and keep it from becoming a third world country for our kids and future generations to come.

All of these immigrants pouring across our borders that has never lifted a finger to do anything except to take a hand out from those of us that has served fought to build this nation should only be allowed citizenship by due process. Instead of them invading our country. They should be fixing the problems in their own countries instead of coming here expecting us to take care of them.

I would think our government would be more than willing to help most any other country that was needing help and ask for it. But I don’t think that is the case with all of these that are crossing our borders now. I think they are looking for more of a hand out than anything.