Baby step towards FIRE

Financial Independence/Retire Early -- Learn How!
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karma
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Baby step towards FIRE

Post by karma »

I though I would post some tales from the soft side of FIRE. Sorry, caseynshan - it's over 2 paragraphs, but it's really about FIRE.

While getting to FIRE involves a determined savings plan and an understanding of when to actually retire, I believe that the mindset that gets us started towards FIRE is initiated before the concept of independence or retiring early is even thought about. At least that is what happened with me

I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't start working until my late 30's after finishing up some graduate work and stay at home moming. As with most people starting a new job, I was pretty enthusiastic and put my all into the company. I'm a slow learner, but I finally started to notice that I didn't get rewarded for working extra hours or accomplishing more than someone else. In fact, I once got yelled at for not working more weekends (without pay, of course) while some other guy did work them (he was a contractor and got paid). The real problem, of course, was that the guy running the project couldn't plan ahead at all. So I was getting dinged because the guy running the project couldn't plan. A little glimmer entered my brain - "Does this make sense? What am I getting out of this?"￾

Time went on. I still routinely worked extra hours until we got a new guy that came in at a fairly high position. He flatly refused to work past 5 o'clock - started that on day 1. He maintained that his family and free time were precious to him, and he just wasn't going to do it. I was impressed. Nobody got mad at him, because he started off that way.

After the umpteenth annual review where my boss didn't even know which projects I was working on and I got the average weensy raise, I decided that, I, too, would work my 8 hours - no more, no less. I think this was the turning point because I was starting to consciously take control of my life. Note that I had yet to think about retiring early or independence.

I can't adequately describe how freeing the decision to work just the 8 hours was. When I made that decision, not only was I taking control of my life, but I was also starting to wean myself away from the corporate mindset. I was investing less emotional self into the corporation, and that, I believe, led to further steps on the road to freedom and FIRE.

Would love to hear other tales of first steps to FIRE.

karma
peteyperson
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Re: Baby step towards FIRE

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Mike
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Post by Mike »

When I was 19, I thought to myself that it would probably be easier to earn money while I was young than when I was older. I found the lowest pressure job that I could, and puttered around 40 hours per week at it. I maxed out my IRA and 401k, then saved about half of my take home pay on top of it. After 25 years, the place went bankrupt, and the bankruptcy judge offered us old timers (age 44) a small defined benefit pension. I happily accepted, and use a small part of my savings to supplement it. I had no real master plan, just a sense that I didn't want to be in a position to have to earn a lot of money when my aging body started to slow down. It was a trade off between giving up a lot of my youthful prime play time, in return for a potentially less stressful middle and old age. Who knows if I made the right choice or not. Only time will tell.
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ataloss
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Post by ataloss »

When I was 19, I thought to myself that it would probably be easier to earn money while I was young than when I was older. I found the lowest pressure job that I could, and puttered around 40 hours per week at it...................... It was a trade off between giving up a lot of my youthful prime play time, in return for a potentially less stressful middle and old age. Who knows if I made the right choice or not. Only time will tell.

I think the importance of these trade offs is underappreciated. I have known of people who went very low stress while young had a good time then buckled down to work harder in their mid 30s on. Interesting idea I thought.
Have fun.

Ataloss
Mike
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Post by Mike »

Indeed. After watching so many people I know die at a relatively young age, or develop health problems that seriously affected their ability to enjoy life, I am not at all sure that I made the right choice. No mortal knows how many days he has on this earth, or how long his health will hold out. I would not fault anyone for taking the enjoy life to its fullest while you are young approach.
therealchips
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Location: Henderson, Nevada, USA

Helpers who don't.

Post by therealchips »

The important step for me was recognizing that financial advisors, brokers, managers of actively trading funds and other such people are not my friends and will not help me accumulate money. They have a fundamental conflict of interest with their clients; they need their clients to keep paying for advice and to keep trading to generate commissions. The client does not win in that situation, but the advisers, brokers and tax collectors do. Any adviser who resolves the conflict of interest in the client's favor is in danger of starving the adviser's own family. Let the advisers, traders and brokers starve or find honest work, I said, as I moved my investments to S&P 500 Index funds, with no commissions and minimal management fees and trading. Bernstein's Four Pillars explains all this in detail over several chapters, but I learned it painfully by experience and years before that book was published.
He who has lived obscurely and quietly has lived well. [Latin: Bene qui latuit, bene vixit.]

Chips
caseynshan
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Post by caseynshan »

FWIW I did read all the posts in this thead.....

I too am taking small steps towards 'Prioritized' life and FIRE (sometimes they conflict sometimes they are symbiotic(did I use that right?oh, i really don't care, you know what I meant.))
wanderer
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Post by wanderer »

karma -

congratulations on being our third female poster here!

my switch was flipped by a number of events:

1. i was a school teacher for 6 years and starting to not like that profession so much.
2. we were starting to think about having kids and we wanted the option of wife staying home with kids and teacher salary wasn't cutting it.
3. read the Terhorst book. made a lot of sense.
4. switched careers to CPA/Big 5. Took a tax class and heard abt section 911 (foreign earned income exclusion). stored it in my data bank.
5. saw the money washing around and started to noodle what sorts of opportunities there were using those skills. Also saw unsustainability of the environment - one ptr dropped dead, daughter was growing fast, daughter had seizure, etc.
6. Met a client whose husband was a very entrepreneurial CPA. He had all sorts of interesting ways to make money.
7. Took in a miniscule amount of tax prep work. Wife quit teaching and started a successful tutoring service (10 clients). Didn't really hurt much financially due to high cost of day care avoided and lifestyle improvement. Wife got MA in ESOL.
8. Taught an accounting course for several semesters at a prestigious university. Heard about an overseas option through them
9. Consulted with former clients.
10. Moved overseas, taught and consulted for 4 years. Wife started teaching at university using ESOL background (finally).
11. Just bought a car and hired a full-time maid. we may be here for a while.

so that was our route...
regards,

wanderer

The field has eyes / the wood has ears / I will see / be silent and hear
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