FIRE Financial Independence Retire Early

[gzoom]

or it might be sitting on a beach. The key is the freedom of choice..

Sitting on a beach sounds like the worst possible thing to waste time with for us, if we didn't work traveling is what we would do. But travelling isn't cheap, so the illusion of 'freedom of choice' with FIRE is just that an illusion.

For me life is about experiencing new things, having money makes that easy, without money your opportunity for new experiences is vastly reduced.

Luckily I love me job, even more luckily I get paid a more than decent wage. There is so much work to be done, opportunities to be realised retirement is the last thing on my mind.

 

[Noodle Legs]

I don’t profess to know anything about finance/early retirement or anything like that, but I don’t know if I’d want to spend the majority of my life saving and saving and maybe not living a fulfilled life for the sake of retiring early then potentially snuffing it a week later. Seems a big gamble to me. No points for being the richest man in the graveyard.

Nor would I advocate the “seen it, had it, spent it” mentality, where your money is out of your hands as quick as it falls into them. Guess I’d be somewhere inbetween. Just a personal opinion.

 

[cyberknight]

i will probably be taking 25 % of my lump sum next year as we need a new roof , even if i took my full amount i would still need to carry on working full time

 

[kynikos]

Looks like I'll be working a bit longer...

For our purposes, failure means the portfolio was depleted before the end of the 15 years. FIRECalc found that 136 cycles failed, for a success rate of 0.0%.

 

[byegad]

I'm always a little wary of the financial sector's estimates of how much a person needs. I had a thorough review of my finances back in the late 1980s after a divorce and house move. Wishing to retire at some point, afford to go to work in the meantime, and live a little, as well as finance my two sons' further education, the advisor proved conclusively that I needed twice the salary that I had at that time. Strangely without significant promotion I did all of that as well as save for an early retirement (I retired at 55).
OH! Plus I had a breakdown and downsized jobs in the late 1990s.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

My overriding principle is not to be a net payer of interest to anyone else, so that even my modest spending habits benefits me rather than enriching another individual or corporate entity.
To that end I have paid for my house as soon as I possibly could, and I avoid using any form of interest-payable credit. For most people, their rent or mortgage is the most significant outgoing they have to budget for. Since I pay neither of those, I have a lot more freedom to use my regular income in ways that are beneficial to me.
That doesn't mean not socialising, not drinking, and only living on tins of value baked beans. All I have to do is not be extravagant, and always seek out good value for money when I spend.