Haha thanks for noticing my post! But here's the thing. Back then when you did all this you probably had a desire to make a lot of money or work up the "ladder" so to speak to get a better job right? Did you stumble across material like ERE or MMM?
I crossed paths with these blogs at work, and I just loathe work now. I have no desire to move up get a better degree or anything. It's kind of like a double edge sword. It's great because now I live hella frugal and I'm still saving 50% of my income, but now I just don't care about getting more degrees or getting a higher paid position. ERE and sticking it to the man and not following the system has jaded me.
So now I'm completely confused with life and have no idea as to what I want to do.
:( Any advice to either get my head out of my ass or to switch gears and go a different direction?
Interesting question. I've never been motivated to move up the corporate ladder or make a lot of money. No, seriously. As laughable as it sounds to me now, I went into banking for the perceived intellectual challenge of it. I hopped sideways from that entry point, building on things I liked (numbers) and leaving behind things I didn't (sales, large corporations and hierarchies). I've considered lower paying jobs in public and nonprofit positions, but ultimately decided I like the discipline the profit motive forces on private companies. At private companies, particularly small ones, my experience is that the truly incompetent are weeded out, although there remain plenty of borderline idiots with incredibly good luck.
To answer your question, I didn't discover MMM until a few years ago and I don't now how I would be different if I had. I remember being pretty miserable with my jobs at points in my twenties and I very well may have simply focused on the prize like you are doing. Nothing wrong with reducing spending and getting to FIRE as quickly as possible. In fact, it's probably the most effective way to go about it, as MMM has pointed out.
However, I'd say one of the positives of NOT discovering ER earlier was that I was free to cast around, making uneconomic decisions as I searched for a j-o-b that could make one or two brain cells light up. In my mid-twenties I turned down a $140K/year sales position to go back and get my MBA (also not a lot of fun - but I didn't know that at the time). I would have absolutely hated that job and myself for doing it, but if ER were on the horizon I probably would have taken it. In retrospect, the numbers were just so compelling. At the time, I didn't care.
So am I better or worse off for not having found MMM and ER earlier? Depends on your perspective, I think. I could be retired already, but what kind of person would I be now if I had had to endure 7-8 years of misery and self-loathing as the price? What kind of person will you be?
I think it would have gotten ugly for me given my personality. So I'm still some years away from ER, and I'm okay with that. To be honest, part of that delay is because I don't do myself any favors on the expense side even now. While a savings rock star in ordinary life, I am what has been termed a "low mustachian" on these here forums. My wife and I work long hours, so we throw great wedges of cash at the daycare where we stash our son for ten hours a day, and we hire someone to clean our house. I also can make other suboptimal financial decisions because my desire for ER isn't as urgent as yours --- the thought of putting it off for a week or month just doesn't faze me that much because I like what I do (although I do look forward to not HAVING to work well before age 65).
Anyway --- long post yet short on wisdom. If I had one piece of advice (you DID ask) it would be that there may be something else out there that will also lead to early retirement, but which won't feel like a little bit of you dies every day while you're doing it. It doesn't have to be the next step on anybody's ladder. Maybe it's out of your town, your industry, your comfort zone, whatever. Just take some time, look around, and maybe you'll see it. And if you don't, you've got that fantabulous savings rate running in your favor. Which brings me to the point I was REALLY trying to make in my original response, which wasn't that you should be doing something different (although I know it came across that way). It was that you shouldn't let what other people were posting make you feel bad. You're kicking ass, saving wads of cash, exercising your middle finger on a daily basis... I think you're pretty badass. And I bet you did too until you started reading this stupid thread.
