Author Topic: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's  (Read 3886 times)

aceyou

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Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« on: September 18, 2016, 08:46:31 PM »
The Millionaire Educator (Ed Mills) gets to 1 million and FIRE's

For those of you who follow The Millionaire Educator blog, he finally passed over the million dollar mark for net worth, and he and his family have decided to FIRE this fall.  He has a great story and his blog is a terrific education for how teachers can amass wealth quickly.  Actually, it's an education for how anyone with a decent salary can amass wealth quickly, but he sprinkles lots of teacher specific advice in there to help understand the education system. 

Here's his most recent blog post:  http://www.millionaireeducator.com/2016/09/net-worth-update-september-of-2016.html#comment-347

Congrats Ed and family!!!!!

clarkfan1979

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2016, 02:40:19 PM »
Does he post anything about revenue from his blog? One million should be plenty if he starts getting a pension at 60. How old is he and his wife?

Ed Mills

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2016, 05:32:47 AM »
Thanks so much Aceyou!  We're enjoying ourselves and planning for a trip to Mexico in October.  As I look back a my financial life, it's amazing how many missteps, mistakes, and blunders I overcame to achieve FIRE.  You can succeed in spite of yourself, I'm proof of that!  Hardcore savings saved my butt for sure.

Clarkfan, you're correct I've written very few details about income and revenue.  (Sorry about that...I really am a crappy blogger.)  Here's the skinny  I'm 52 and my wife's 50.  We take 72t distributions of $18k a year from our IRAs.  We also have about $85k in 457 plans that we can tap as we need.  If needed, we could also get to about $15k of Roth IRA contributions, but I don't plan on tapping those.  Finally, if push came to shove, we could always jump into a teaching job and save another $100k a year in our 457, 403b, IRA, and HSA plans.  Did I ever mention how I love a 100% savings rate?!   

I think you're correct that we have enough with our million bucks.  We live a frugal lifestyle, we sold our home in GA in 2015, we have almost no on-going bills, and we'll be spending most of our time in low-cost parts of Latin America.  At age 60 I'll get a pension of about $24k and my wife will get $18k.  That's if we never work another day in teaching, so I think we're fine.  I know the IRP:  www.InternetRetirementPolice.com disagree, but "can't never could do nothing."  Thanks for the questions.

Yours in FIRE'd Frugality,
Ed 

ender

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2016, 06:48:31 AM »
Huh, I hope if I have that sort of assets at that age I FIRE way earlier.

oldtoyota

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2016, 07:03:36 AM »
Huh, I hope if I have that sort of assets at that age I FIRE way earlier.

^^^What a downer reply.^^^^

Ed--Congrats to your and your family on FIRE after so much hard work. Hope you have the trip of a lifetime!

FireLane

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2016, 07:28:07 PM »
Congrats Ed! Everyone who makes the leap to FIRE gives the rest of us more confidence that it can be done.

arebelspy

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2016, 07:25:49 AM »
I always thought it was weird that The Millionaire Educator wasn't a millionaire (800k NW or whatever it was).  :D

He has tons of great content, and I've enjoyed reading his various articles about stuffing money into 403/457s, as well as some interviews I've heard him do (MadFIentist podcast, IIRC, though maybe Radical Personal Finance podcast too?)

Glad to see he made it.  Too many people say it's impossible to save money, let alone a million bucks, on teacher's salaries.  The wife and I did it, and I love that I can point to Ed, too, as an example.

Congrats Ed!  Enjoy FIRE!  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

Jmoody10

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2016, 08:17:13 AM »
I love how he uses the internetretirementpolice.com redirect!!

Ed Mills

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Re: Millionaire Educator finally FIRE's
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2016, 07:59:32 AM »
Thanks guys!  For the record, I agree that I should have FIRE'd long ago, but life got in the way.  We did take the 2013-14 school year off as a family, and the previous year I only worked 5 months.  When my brother-in-law got sick, we decided to move closer to him and take jobs in the area.  That time allowed us the opportunity to push through the 7-figure mark. 

The obvious benefit of financial independence while working is that it allows for maximum savings.  It's even better for teachers since we have two kinds of "401k" plans.  It's crazy how much money, $238k, we crammed into our various plans over the last two years.  Of course, the consensus in the teachers' lounge is that we don't make enough money and desperately need a raise.  One of the reasons, I wanted to go back work was to set an example for other teachers.  I remember telling my wife that our 7-figure net worth goal was much bigger than just us.  My hope is that more teachers realize that FIRE is a possibility for them; FIRE isn't just for software engineers!

Here are some other redirects you guys might like:
http://www.403bmillionaire.com
http://www.extremeearlyretirement.com  Sorry Jacob, that was me who got it!

Ed
« Last Edit: September 26, 2016, 08:12:53 AM by Ed Mills »