If there's one thing I have to say straight off the bat it's this: I can't believe all this stuff actually works! Why isn't everyone doing it???
I've been living with the FIRE-philosophy for 6 years. Saving, investing and learning, with what I think is a common but relentless obsession for checking then rechecking the numbers (and MMM... come on we need a new post already!). I'm now at a situation where I'm happy to give up full time employment at the start of 2019 and spend my days at the beach, travelling with the missus, mountain biking and learning.
For background: I've been employed in a high paying (Australian) air force job since I was 18 (2008). I missed out on the being able to do the job I signed up for because of an injury in 2009, and decided - "well, why don't I just become rich?". Luckily I stumbled on the Early Retirement Extreme from the get go and then MMM, so I didn't fall for any get-rich-quick BS!
Right now I have a portfolio that isn't huge, but I have a property that has rapidly appreciated (to be sold soon), index funds that are leveraged and paying terrific dividends (Australian companies pay awesome, tax effective dividends), and I'll have continual assistance from my job for accommodation. It's all about dat passive income.
What it all means is that, from the start of 2019, I will quit full time service, take long service leave, then join the Reserves and work 3 months per year! I'll be 28 and my dividends will cover my cost of living in total, and the Reserve work will cover beer money/transport/travel/lift tickets etc. Woo hoooo!!! Is it a safe plan for >40 years? Maybe. But to me the greater risk is not seizing the opportunity to be young, free, and alive!
Thank you MMM, Jacob from ERE, all other retirement bloggers I read, and to everyone on the boards. The lives we are all living are a reliable path to happiness, satisfaction, health, and low-impact living: but it's more than that. Frugality hurts no one. It takes advantage of no one. You don't need to be a genius (I'm a case in point) or manipulative in business. You just need to display self-control and make deliberate actions. In the words of Neil geGrasse Tyson, "That makes me want to grab people in the street, and say- Have you heard this?!?"