Last year at age 42, I stumbled across a FIRE article, which led me to MMM. I read "The Shockingly Simple Math...", which was a red pill, head-exploding epiphany, then spent the next week or so devouring every post. This made me realize that, more than anything, I wanted to be free of mandatory work.
Couldn't have come at a better time. Had recently moved to a very LCOL area to start the first 6-figure job of my life, and was ramping up into total consumer sucka lifestyle inflation. Bought a flashy SUV, paid for 3 of my buddies to join me on a Colorado hiking adventure, and was pricing clown lake homes that were at least a 30 minute drive from work. I'd just assumed, because it's all I'd ever heard or been told, that I'd have to work until at least 65, and more likely 70, so I figured I might as well live like everyone else and spend away.
As Mustachian roots took hold in my brain, I slowed the spending train and finally reversed it. I sold the SUV, bought a used hybrid off Craigslist, and bought a reasonable house 3 blocks from work. I got a used bike for $100, then bought a bike trailer for $50. I started bringing lunch to work and making my own coffee every day, and was shocked as the cash started to build up in my account. I then got into JL Collins and read a few Jack Bogle books, and the fire hose of cash has been directed into index funds ever since.
Fast forward to today, where I'm about to buy an even smaller, cheaper house still within biking distance to work, and will sell my house which has gone up 15% in value since I bought it. I'm single with no kids, so it grew progressively more annoying to heat, cool, clean, etc. the 2 empty bedrooms in my 3 BR house. With a cheaper house, my savings rate should bump up to 85%. I'm on track to FIRE in 5 years, but more likely I will downshift before then, as I like my job, and feel I will like it even more if I only have to be there once or twice a week.
Couldn't be happier to find this forum full of helpful humans, most of whom are brimming with wisdom. I learn something useful every day. Of course I wish I would have discovered this earlier, and occasionally I want to face punch myself as I think about where I'd be had I started at even 32 instead of 42. But, acceptance sets in and I realize again how much fun it is to have control of my finances and to feel my position of strength grow. Money weighed heavily on my mind my whole life, and now that it doesn't, I am a happier person.
Thanks to all who share their wisdom here, I deeply appreciate it.