I have a question for you success story folks...Did you feel like you had to really be an investor smarty pants to pull this off? I'm certainly not and kinda knocks the wind out of my sails when I think "can we really do this?" Or were you more of the "max 401, max IRA, put everything else into stocks and viola, in 5 yrs your ready..." (grossly oversimplified I know)
I knew zero, zilch, nada about investing and the concept of retiring early was not even something I'd ever heard of. Three things turned me from scared, ignorant and unsure of the future to 100% confident and currently FIREd:
1. This forum. Not so much MMM's main blog/site, not that it wasn't both entertaining and informative, but the folks in this forum are the ones that answered countless questions, directed me to sites and research on things like investing, tax avoidance, stepped up cost, the benefits and pitfalls of specific types of accounts and their confusing inner workings and how to untangle them, and just in general were (and are) all around great people.
2. Jim Collins'
stock series. He turned his website into a book, and it is fantastic. While I got lots of help from the forum, Mr. Collins' site is the thing that absolutely, 100% explained investing, the market, and money management. And the amazing part is he did it in plain English, and made it a fun read to boot. If you also struggle with the whole "investing is scary and complicated and I will never feel confident doing all this stuff" like I did, you should try reading it.
3. The
Bogleheads Wiki. Index investing for the win. All the stuff you need to know in one beautifully organized place.