Author Topic: Did you think about early retirement in your 20's? (Read 18994 times)

Kiwi Mustache · « **on:** December 06, 2015, 07:09:50 PM »

Seems like a lot of the people who are posting topics such as "hit FIRE today", "quit my job today" etc are around the early 40's to mid 50's age group.

Question for these people, is...

Did you dream of early retirement and being in that position when you were in your 20's or is it something your developed the desire for later in life?

Because I'm 27 and have had an interest in finance, investing, etc since I was about 16 years old and it's something I think about most days.

AmandaS1989 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 06, 2015, 07:16:00 PM »

I'll be 27 next month and I definitely think about it a lot. I don't want to be a wage slave, having to get up and go to work well into my 60's. I would love to have enough of a stash built up to go to just part-time once I hit 50 (or maybe even earlier) but that goal seems really far away right now. But if we keep plugging away we can get there.

clara2009 · « **Reply #2 on:** December 06, 2015, 07:24:30 PM »

Interesting question!

I'm 29. I don't think about early retirement much yet - mostly because I'm not sure what activity I would be pursuing then that I'm not right now? Do I think about finances a lot, yes. I'm not sure if I see light at the end of the tunnel for "early" retirement yet since I've only just started. This forum has been a helpful way to understand the possible positive implications of saving early and aggressively rather than being content with generic 20%/30%/50% goals.

tj · « **Reply #3 on:** December 06, 2015, 07:41:05 PM »

I very much like what blogger Leigh says about this topic.

https://leightpf.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/saving-60-of-my-income-is-discretionary/

Quote

Money is a tool that you can use to make your life what you want. Early retirement is one way to spend it, just like travel, experiences, and stuff are also ways to spend your money. We all need some balance in our money lives. Don’t overexert yourself trying to save too much too quickly and burn yourself out.

There is this sense in the early retirement community that we should keep working our high paying jobs until we have saved enough to retire completely and then no one seems to be able to pull the plug. And yet there are lower income people quitting their jobs to freelance every month, with $20,000 in the bank and people with hundreds of thousands of dollars saved up can’t seem to quit their jobs they don’t like. If you don’t like your job, find a path to a different job. Don’t just stick it out at your job for the money. Life is too short for that.

use2betrix · « **Reply #4 on:** December 06, 2015, 07:41:40 PM »

I'm 27 and probably spend too much time thinking about it. I guess it's keeping a fire burning to keep it going. I'm not totally unhappy with my life but there are some parts which are hard. Since I travel all over the country for work I live in a 5th wheel and often in places that are less than desirable. I long for a house and to live somewhere that's not in the southern heat. My body simply hates it, yet all the work is down here.

That being said, I make FAR more doing this than I could a non-traveling permanent job. Probably around 60-100k/yr more, just depending. So, I'm doing my best to hold on for as long as I can and maybe FIRE early and be done with it.

For all these reasons, FIRE is on my mind a good chunk of the day :)

thedayisbrave · « **Reply #5 on:** December 06, 2015, 08:40:03 PM »

I'm 25 and while I think of FI every day (and my morning ritual is breakfast, coffee, and the MMM forums), I don't necessarily think of ER. Mostly because I adore my job. I am learning so much and it's a privilege to work under my boss, who is one of the most down-to-earth, yet successful people I know (he even has a Wikipedia page..)

While I'm most certainly on my FI path, I don't know if I'll ever 'retire' in the traditional sense. I'm a working girl, through and through. If I'm not scheming for ways to make money, you might want to check my pulse.

clarkfan1979 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 06, 2015, 08:56:49 PM »

I read rich dad poor dad at the age of 21 and thought about it ever since. Before that I was focused on having a job that I liked, but I always assumed that I would have the job for life without a choice of FIRE.

johnny847 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 06, 2015, 09:00:04 PM »

Yes. I'm 24. I started saving towards FIRE when I was 22. If the markets don't drop significantly this month, I should hit $100k net worth this month.

However only two of my friends seem to care about this. And only one of them actually invests (but the other is currently a student so she gets a pass on this).

syednaeemul · « **Reply #8 on:** December 06, 2015, 09:19:01 PM »

27yr old here, I've been thinking of money since finishing university, but more from a Ramit Sethi "How can I increase my income and also increase my living consumption" standpoint - RE only started coming up around 2 years ago. Thankfully, the high income was accomplished, and though I was by no means MMM-frugal I managed to not have any CC debt.

Cornbread OMalley · « **Reply #9 on:** December 06, 2015, 09:28:33 PM »

Quote from: Kiwi Mustache on December 06, 2015, 07:09:50 PM

Did you dream of early retirement and being in that position when you were in your 20's or is it something your developed the desire for later in life?

Because I'm 27 and have had an interest in finance, investing, etc since I was about 16 years old and it's something I think about most days.

I am 39 and thought about retirement in the traditional sense when I was in my 20s. My definition when I was in my 20s of early retirement was retiring from the military and getting another full-time job. So I started saving money in my 20s to retire in my 60s. I never thought about early retirement until recently. My savings habit and compounding interest did most of the work and I am happy to find my nest egg grew quick. Now I have at least semi-retirement well within grasp and full FIRE not far away at all. It was not until around age 36 that I realized what I had going for me. Now I think about FIRE all the time! But I do more than just think about it. I voraciously read financial literature to find other techniques to increase my nest egg, and I meet with other people in my community with the same aspirations and continue my learning.

KMMK · « **Reply #10 on:** December 06, 2015, 09:29:58 PM »

I started thinking about it when I was 21 - a few months into my first real job.

gooki · « **Reply #11 on:** December 07, 2015, 01:46:47 AM »

When we purchased our first home at 25 I had a plan to retire at age 50-55. The plan now is to hit FI by 40.

arebelspy · « **Reply #12 on:** December 07, 2015, 02:28:36 AM »

I FIRE'd at 29. So yes, I thought of it in my 20s. As did MMM, I'm sure.

Like I've said before, your time to FIRE is merely a product of when you stumble on the idea and how much baggage (debt, lifestyle expenses, etc.) you have when you get do.

You all posting in this thread being in your 20s have a HUGE jump on most people. If you do it right, you can FIRE extremely early. Even if you do an okay job, you'll still FIRE by 50 or so, over a decade before the "normal" age.

It's best not to think about FIRE all the time though, IMO. Get yourself set up, save excess, and then live the life you want. Thinking about FIRE, past the point of optimization and motivation, doesn't help.

Good luck! :)

shanghaiMMM · « **Reply #13 on:** December 07, 2015, 04:47:58 AM »

I'm 29 and I like my job a lot (teaching) but it definitely takes a lot out of me. The thought of even going part-time sounds outrageously wonderful. The fact that if we keep up our current stashing (dependent on the markets), part-time work could be possible in only 3 or 4 years is incredible to me. Then I would need to decide to work part-time and relax my way towards full FIRE several years later or keep going full time and fully FIRE in, say, 6 or 7 years.

So yes, I think about it quite a lot but so far in a healthy, motivating way, rather than a 'AHHH I NEED TO FIRE NOW!' kind of way.

JLee · « **Reply #14 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:38:08 AM »

Nope. The concept of early retirement had never really crossed my mind.

It would've been nice to start at 20 instead of 30, but...what can ya do? :)

andy85 · « **Reply #15 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:41:42 AM »

Since probably high school, I always swore "20 years in the workforce and I'm out".

So yea, i guess i've always thought about it. I just didnt know it was a real thing until i found this forum at the age of 29. Might be more like 25 years...hopefully before I'm 50.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp · « **Reply #16 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:42:20 AM »

I'm 26. So, yes.

I'm a red panda · « **Reply #17 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:42:57 AM »

Absolutely I did. I started saving for retirement as I was out of college. (And before then I had always just been a pretty frugal person anyway.) I have always planned to retire when I was about 50.

PARedbeard · « **Reply #18 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:48:04 AM »

I'm 27 and I'd say that I think about FI more so than ER. Right now, it is hard to see my life without work (I get glimpses, though, from time to time, and I love it!). Being financially independent, like people have said above, is all about having the freedom to do what I want, when I want and to impact others by offering time instead of cash.

MandyM · « **Reply #19 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:49:19 AM »

I started reading and planning for ER when I was about 27, so I'm ~10 years in. Getting pretty close...

Cookie78 · « **Reply #20 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:51:20 AM »

It didn't occur to me that it was actually possible until I was 36.

However when I told my mother of my plans she wasn't surprised at all. She reminded me of how I used to talk about it jokingly as a teenager and she recalled that I save up money and take 3-6 month vacations from work occasionally. It wasn't much of a leap from that to saving up and quitting permanently.

Fortunately for me even though I only discovered the possibility of FIRE a year ago, I only have 86 weeks, 3 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes to go.

AmandaS1989 · « **Reply #21 on:** December 07, 2015, 09:02:46 AM »

I'm the same as PARedbeard. I can't quite conceive a life without working, but it would be nice to have the option to just go down to part-time or seasonal tax work.

maco · « **Reply #22 on:** December 07, 2015, 09:06:03 AM »

I'm 27. I found the "debt is an emergency" post a year or two ago, but I didn't mention MMM to my husband until earlier this year. He's onboard. However, I expect to be 40 when we do pull the plug. We're paying the mortgage down far enough to knock off the PMI, and my husband is currently finishing his degree (went back to school earlier this year), so between the extra principal payments and the tuition, savings are slower than preferable through mid 2017. Then things'll really kick up.

astvilla · « **Reply #23 on:** December 07, 2015, 09:07:40 AM »

Quote from: arebelspy on December 07, 2015, 02:28:36 AM

I FIRE'd at 29. So yes, I thought of it in my 20s. As did MMM, I'm sure.

Like I've said before, your time to FIRE is merely a product of when you stumble on the idea and how much baggage (debt, lifestyle expenses, etc.) you have when you get do.

You all posting in this thread being in your 20s have a HUGE jump on most people. If you do it right, you can FIRE extremely early. Even if you do an okay job, you'll still FIRE by 50 or so, over a decade before the "normal" age.

It's best not to think about FIRE all the time though, IMO. Get yourself set up, save excess, and then live the life you want. Thinking about FIRE, past the point of optimization and motivation, doesn't help.

Good luck! :)

Wow that's impressive. 29?! Nice!

Yeah I imagined a lot of 20 somethings would chime in. I'm 25, stumbled here by accident when I was 24 and made some a little actual money. Listened to Rich Dad Poor Dad in HS and had a vague idea of stocks back then. But I didn't really have a background to understand the details of what was going on.

I'm more focused on FI at the moment than RE. If RE comes w/it great! But FI is more important to me, security and FI to weather any storms is my priority. I think part of it is because we're so young, RE still is a decade away minimum for most. So it's not the main concern for us.

I'm still a full-time student but managed to save and invest (but invested at such a bad time and too short a time I'm barely positive) 92K, reaching 100K by next February I hope. I did realize that one's success w/FIRE really also depends on pure luck sometimes, when you were born and what generation you're part of, when you graduated, opportunities handed to you, resources like MMM you stumble upon, parental support (BIG). Some things you just can't control. And I wouldn't have made it this far w/out my parents. So big Thank you there.

I've been maybe a bit obsessive about money and I have to change that. I want to FI now but of course, it aint that easy. Despite saving >90% sometimes I still don't think I'll make it cause my salary is currently pretty low.

tj · « **Reply #24 on:** December 07, 2015, 10:19:12 AM »

Quote from: shanghaiMMM on December 07, 2015, 04:47:58 AM

I'm 29 and I like my job a lot (teaching) but it definitely takes a lot out of me. The thought of even going part-time sounds outrageously wonderful. The fact that if we keep up our current stashing (dependent on the markets), part-time work could be possible in only 3 or 4 years is incredible to me. Then I would need to decide to work part-time and relax my way towards full FIRE several years later or keep going full time and fully FIRE in, say, 6 or 7 years.

So yes, I think about it quite a lot but so far in a healthy, motivating way, rather than a 'AHHH I NEED TO FIRE NOW!' kind of way.

As a teacher, you already have what many would consider an ideal set up - entire summers off! :)

arebelspy · « **Reply #25 on:** December 07, 2015, 10:32:15 AM »

Quote from: tj on December 07, 2015, 10:19:12 AM

Quote from: shanghaiMMM on December 07, 2015, 04:47:58 AM
I'm 29 and I like my job a lot (teaching) but it definitely takes a lot out of me. The thought of even going part-time sounds outrageously wonderful. The fact that if we keep up our current stashing (dependent on the markets), part-time work could be possible in only 3 or 4 years is incredible to me. Then I would need to decide to work part-time and relax my way towards full FIRE several years later or keep going full time and fully FIRE in, say, 6 or 7 years.

So yes, I think about it quite a lot but so far in a healthy, motivating way, rather than a 'AHHH I NEED TO FIRE NOW!' kind of way.

As a teacher, you already have what many would consider an ideal set up - entire summers off! :)

Most teachers work during the summer.

The wife and I, teachers for 8 years, took one summer off to backpack Europe. The rest of the summers we worked.

Daisy · « **Reply #26 on:** December 07, 2015, 10:32:29 AM »

I find most of the people who state they are just focused on FI and not RE usually have an age in their 20s. They can't imagine life without work. Work is so wonderful!

Trust me, someday you will hit your 40s and the reversal will happen. You look forward to the RE more than the FI.

If you found this FIRE concept in your 20s, great job! Keep at it and your 40 year old self will thank your former 20 year old self.

Or it could just be that I'm the lone 40ish year old on this board that is jaded by work. Not just the work, but the amount of time and energy it takes out of your life.

Cookie78 · « **Reply #27 on:** December 07, 2015, 10:38:00 AM »

Quote from: Daisy on December 07, 2015, 10:32:29 AM

I find most of the people who state they are just focused on FI and not RE usually have an age in their 20s. They can't imagine life without work. Work is so wonderful!

Trust me, someday you will hit your 40s and the reversal will happen. You look forward to the RE more than the FI.

If you found this FIRE concept in your 20s, great job! Keep at it and your 40 year old self will thank your former 20 year old self.

Or it could just be that I'm the lone 40ish year old on this board that is jaded by work. Not just the work, but the amount of time and energy it takes out of your life.

I don't know if it's universal, but you aren't the only one!! I'm right there with you.

boarder42 · « **Reply #28 on:** December 07, 2015, 10:45:18 AM »

Quote from: Daisy on December 07, 2015, 10:32:29 AM

I find most of the people who state they are just focused on FI and not RE usually have an age in their 20s. They can't imagine life without work. Work is so wonderful!

Trust me, someday you will hit your 40s and the reversal will happen. You look forward to the RE more than the FI.

If you found this FIRE concept in your 20s, great job! Keep at it and your 40 year old self will thank your former 20 year old self.

Or it could just be that I'm the lone 40ish year old on this board that is jaded by work. Not just the work, but the amount of time and energy it takes out of your life.

i would strongly disagree based on the current generation, maybe when you were 20 you thought that. but the millenial generation more so that most others doesnt idenitify themselves with their jobs like others did.

Easye418 · « **Reply #29 on:** December 07, 2015, 11:06:15 AM »

Married, both of us are 26.

I don't think about retirement, but I think about savings and money far more than what is healthy. Major cause of this is the $63k in Student Loans and children in the near future.

I have been meticulously planning for this with current salaries, but my best case scenario has happened (I got a promotion and my wife got a higher paying job) so we should have +20-28% increase in Salaries.

This is going to allow me to (1) max my 401k or get pretty close (2) pay off Student Loans at a much faster clip (3) save for bigger downpayment on new house (4) be comfortable having a child (5) wife matches company 401k.

This has always been "the light at the end of the tunnel" for me personally. When we pay off Student Loans, I will have 1 outstanding debt....the Mortgage. Pretty good for a 28 year old (take me around 18 months to pay off $63k). I should be over $200k in retirement account by 30 as well. I enjoy working, but wouldn't mind having everything wrapped up by 50 (unless I am a cash cow, salary wise).

cawiau · « **Reply #30 on:** December 07, 2015, 11:18:03 AM »

We do not see it as "retirement" but more so "wealth building" or being "financially independent".

Give us options....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

mozar · « **Reply #31 on:** December 07, 2015, 11:23:31 AM »

I didn't think about it in my 20's but I've hated working since I was 16. I found out about FIRE at 31. I'm now 33. Even after 2 years I still feel grateful everyday that I found this website.

Zikoris · « **Reply #32 on:** December 07, 2015, 12:10:18 PM »

I started working towards it right before I turned 25. I'd heard of it a few years before then, but wasn't really in much of a position to do anything about it. I'm 29 now and so glad I started early.

Koreth · « **Reply #33 on:** December 07, 2015, 12:37:10 PM »

No, I didn't really. When I did, I held the idea in disdain, as something for Old People that I presently couldn't afford. Here I was, unable to afford all the candy, computers, and videogames I could possibly ever want after my credit card (and later, student loan) payments. Why on earth would I deliberately reduce my take home pay now for the sake of something I wouldn't need to care about for another 40-50 years? There would be plenty of time to save for retirement in the future.

Gah, just typing that out, I want to facepunch my younger self so hard that I would be saving up for face replacement surgery today. Seriously. younger me was a damned idiot in many ways with regard to money. Oh well. Sometimes a person has to crash and learn a lesson the hard way before he understands.

PoutineLover · « **Reply #34 on:** December 07, 2015, 01:51:29 PM »

I'm 24 and just started thinking about early retirement last year. MMM was the first blog that made me aware of the idea, and I've since found many more to inspire me. When I graduated I had 33,000 in loans and didn't like the idea of paying them off for years and years and working until I was too old to enjoy things. Happy to say that now I have no more student loans and although I have very little money in the bank I'm getting my savings rate as high as I can and plan to retire early.

Jesstache · « **Reply #35 on:** December 07, 2015, 02:11:36 PM »

I started putting $ in my 401k (max I could contribute was 16% with a 4% match, so that's what I did) as soon as I started my engineering job at 21. It was mostly out of fear that there would be NO social security. I also didn't think I'd retire early, but that I'd just have lost of $ when I retired (at the usual age!) and could have all sorts of awesome vacations and toys :)

I had a lot of student loan debt and a car loan (at least it was for a Scion Xa?)! I didn't like the debt weighing over me so I paid off all $80k in student loans and the $16k for the car by the time I was 25. At age 23 I had changed jobs and made a lot more $ so that is also the age when I started maxing my 401k (IRS limits) while paying off the loans. I worked with lots of engineers that encouraged saving as early and as much as possible in the 401k, which I'm grateful for their guidance. Never carried cc balances ever.

After I paid off all of my debt I wanted to keep my financial ball rolling, so I Googled, "High salary what to do with my money." That is when I found Ramit Sethi's, "I will teach you to be rich" blog and read all that info. It was really good information for getting me started on cutting some expenses and to continue to grow my career/salary. Someone mentioned MMM in a comment of an IWTYTBR article (it was not long after he had taken the reigns from ERE) and I checked it out. I read EVERYTHING from MMM in like a week and was hooked. This was probably around age 27 or 28.

At age 32, I'm still not sure I want to COMPLETELY retire any time soon (though my husband and I could) but I do plan to stop working some time next year to be a SAHM for a little while before the kids go off to elementary school. My kids are 2 and 4. I can see myself working or volunteering at their school(s) part time or something in the future.

AZDude · « **Reply #36 on:** December 07, 2015, 02:12:44 PM »

I told everyone when I was in college that I was going to retire at 30. Problem is I did not have a realistic plan and sort of forgot about the whole thing after my career started out poorly. By the time I was back on track, the early retirement dream had been forgotten... Until the internet revealed others who had done it.

Schaefer Light · « **Reply #37 on:** December 07, 2015, 02:21:30 PM »

20s? Hell, I started thinking about it when I was 12. One of my teachers wanted us to write about what we wanted to be when we grew up. I said I wanted to win the lottery and never work a day in my life ;).

catccc · « **Reply #38 on:** December 07, 2015, 02:28:41 PM »

I've been thinking about it since I got out of college, so in my early 20s. I graduated in December and right away maxed out my Roth for that year, and then in January maxed it for the new year. And at that point I was going to be all set to retire in my 30s. But life happens (and marriage and kids and all that kind of stuff), and here I am at 36, still working on it. NW is around $625K, and we are getting closer as time passes. It is still possible for me to retire in my 30s, but a bit of a long shot at this point. 40 or 41 would be a lot more comfortable. I also married for love and not money, and DH is not a big earner. The plus side is that having a SAHP is an easy decision when one partner has a low salary.

My mom was interested in personal finance when I was in h.s. college and we'd talk about it. So she is the one that planted the seed. I have thanked her for this but she insists that I am just a good saver and she didn't do anything. She didn't start saving for retirement until her mid 30s, I think. She and my Dad will not be retiring early, but they will be retiring without worry, and for that I am very grateful.

Tester · « **Reply #39 on:** December 08, 2015, 01:14:38 AM »

I started thinking bout FI when I was around 28.
Then I started thinking on finding alternatives for when I won't be able to perform in my job at around 30.
At around 35 I decided to not take more debt :).
Then I found MMM.
Now I am 37 and this is the first year I saved money except the pension in my native country.
And although I saved money I have a lot to improve, but at least I started.

But, as arebelspy said: after you decide what to do and you start doing at least parts of it, take a break from "obsessing" over FIRE.
Because it won't do you good.
Just improve something, see how it goes, try to also have fun.
Then after some time revisit your situation, see if you can/have to improve something else.

And keep at it, this is not a sprint - or it could be for someone making 500,000 per year while he only spends 20... :).

Verdandi · « **Reply #40 on:** December 08, 2015, 02:51:21 AM »

I'm 29. Yes I do think about it all the time.
I love my Job, but unfortunately many aspects of my job can change quickly depending on the political climate. I'm witnessing older colleagues who are fed up with recent changes, but are unable to quit although they are clearly suffering emotionally and healthwise. I don't want to be in this situation in 30 years, I want to be writing and renovating properties, do some Music and develop businesses and spend a lot of time with my family. So I'm saving and investing like it's going out of style. MY FI date for my current frugal lifestyle is in 4 years, and comfortably in 8 years. Maybe it will take a little longer if there are Little ones in between, but it's definitely on the horizon :)

Monocle Money Mouth · « **Reply #41 on:** December 08, 2015, 03:25:55 AM »

I didn't really consider financial independence or early retirement in my 20's. I was pretty skeptical I would even be able to retire so I didn't get involved with my old employers 401k plans. I wish I had. I'm way behind on my retirement savings and I flushed a lot of money down the toilet on mortgage interest too.

I've corrected course by getting in on my current job's 401k and am aggressively paying down my mortgage to free up more money to invest in the near future. If only I knew what I know now when I was 22 :) You guys that figure this out at a young age are set to life. I figured it out at 33 and still have a long slog ahead of me.

Nancy · « **Reply #42 on:** December 08, 2015, 04:50:43 AM »

I started thinking about FIRE after reading a Jane Austen novel in high school. I figured if Darcy could live off his investments, then so could I. I then read a bunch of personal finance books and started a Roth IRA with my sixteen pennies. I forgot about FIRE during college until a friend told me about a party she went to where you were supposed to dress up as what you wanted to be when you grew up. She dressed as a retiree.

I thought about FIRE a lot more when I was further away from it. As my stash grew, I became less concerned and started focusing on other things like hobbies and enjoying my life in the now. Thinking about FIRE won't bring it closer.

Mr. Green · « **Reply #43 on:** December 08, 2015, 06:05:39 AM »

I was thinking about early retirement in my teens, before I was even out of college. Then somewhere along the way I got off track a little with the huge dollar figures that appeared in my paychecks and the ignorance of thinking I didn't want to put too much money into my 401k since I couldn't get to it until 59.5. I didn't know about the Roth IRA conversion pipeline. Oh how I wish there had been just one class, somewhere along the line, that explained all this to me.

smalllife · « **Reply #44 on:** December 08, 2015, 07:17:38 AM »

Quote from: Nancy on December 08, 2015, 04:50:43 AM

I started thinking about FIRE after reading a Jane Austen novel in high school. I figured if Darcy could live off his investments, then so could I. I then read a bunch of personal finance books and started a Roth IRA with my sixteen pennies. I forgot about FIRE during college until a friend told me about a party she went to where you were supposed to dress up as what you wanted to be when you grew up. She dressed as a retiree.

I thought about FIRE a lot more when I was further away from it. As my stash grew, I became less concerned and started focusing on other things like hobbies and enjoying my life in the now. Thinking about FIRE won't bring it closer.

That's a good point - I was a historical fiction nut as a kid and thus my literary idols lived the FIRE life where they managed investments/rental properties but were otherwise involved in philanthropic and "leisure" pursuits. I never was interested in any of the traditional careers and thus tried to learn how to live off of less, then how to live off of savings entirely, hence FIRE. Still in my 20s so definitely thinking about it ;-)

tomorrowsomewherenew · « **Reply #45 on:** December 08, 2015, 08:17:34 AM »

I didn't really think of it. I knew we could retire for sure in our late 50s, which seemed like a good deal to me. The concept of early retirement just wasn't there. Both my husband and I were maxing our IRAs at 21, but didn't do more than that even though we EASILY could have. Fortunately, we are still in great shape, and will still be able to retire early.

Red Beard · « **Reply #46 on:** December 08, 2015, 09:20:53 AM »

Just turned 29 and think about it a lot. I like my job, but I do not like having to work.

rubybeth · « **Reply #47 on:** December 08, 2015, 09:35:10 AM »

I didn't think of "early retirement," but I was definitely thinking about retirement in my 20s. I figured out I needed a way better paying job than what I had in order to ever be able to "retire." So I went to grad school at age 25 and got my masters degree, starting my first well-paying job (by my standards) at at 28. I immediately started saving for retirement, and making some plans for paying off student loan debt. After the debt was gone, I kinda felt "lost" and that's when I stumbled upon MMM and got thinking about how DH and I had managed to pay off our debt in around four years, so what if we just kept paying that amount each month... but to ourselves? Thus, the idea of early retirement became possible.

V · « **Reply #48 on:** December 08, 2015, 09:51:07 AM »

I'm 24 and I think about it all the time. My husband isn't fully on board, but I do things to increase our savings without him knowing. I will transfer extra money into our savings account without him knowing because it's such a small amount. He does like to save (we live off of his income and use mine for savings, home improvements, etc.), but I still think we can save more. He contributes 12.5% and gets a match (starting in January) of 7.5%, but I can't convince him to increase it a little more to max it out. A lot of times he just feels like we are saving enough and we shouldn't save more, but that's just not in me. We are doing ok, but I think we can be better. It's just a matter of how convincing I can be.

BlueMR2 · « **Reply #49 on:** December 08, 2015, 10:01:52 AM »

I did not think about it in my 20's. I didn't have many responsibilities in life, so I was able to fully commit to work and enjoy it. Plus, when you're young, IT jobs are stupid easy to find. "Hey, you, ever used a keyboard, under 30, fine, here's a job!" Did not realize that once you have some experience that nobody wants to hire you anymore.

I think more people would plan for ER if they realized how things go as you age. It becomes MUCH harder to find a job. AND, you've got so much other adulting you have to do that working 50-60 hours a week leaves you with zero time to do anything else.

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Author Topic: Did you think about early retirement in your 20's? (Read 18994 times)

Nancy