Author Topic: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!  (Read 2836 times)

HastyTortoise

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We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« on: September 14, 2021, 04:34:39 AM »
My husband and I officially withdrew from the rat race on 9/8/21! We're 33 and have two young kids and are so excited for our family's new adventures!

I'll be volunteering at my kids' elementary school and at a local exotic animal sanctuary, and helping some family members with their fitness goals pro bono (I was a Personal Trainer.) My husband will be trying his hand at carpentry and is helping some of our aunts and uncles with their investing and retirement planning; he also has some amazing creative ideas to merge data science and art!

I'm far from a poet, but I felt inspired by our victory, so here's a little poem to celebrate our journey:

My mind is racing
since I was 4
"Don't I know enough?!"
"Know more!"
Cram. Test. Win. Forget. Repeat.

I just sit.
They fill me up.
"But I'm not empty!"
"Shut up!"

"I'm in here. I'm me!"
"Be quiet and take this trigonometry."
I take it.
I cram. I test. I win. I forget. I repeat. I'm buried.

My 12-year sentence, served.
But wait, here's 4 more.
I cram more. I test more. I win more. I forget more. I repeat again and again.
I'm lost.

"You're winning!"
"At what?!"
"Now get a job! Get paid!"
"Okay..."

Lifeless shells of facts and figures
colliding in drab gray spaces,
running their own little races.
We work. We earn. We spend. We self-medicate. We repeat.
We're ... successful?

"I want out!" I scream.
I'm still buried in here.
Pieces of me scattered amongst the force-fed facts
and the piles of debt
and the project reports
and the massive regrets.

Start digging!
I sift. I shred. I sort. I save
the parts of me that long gave way
to the filling up and wringing out.
To whatever this race was all about.

At last, an image waivers in my mind.
"Is that ... me?"
I'm fragile, but I'm here. I'm me!
I can finally be what I want to be!
But now I need to leave the rest behind.

"But you're winning!" you say.
"At what?" I reply
"Your games are destructive,
you don't own my mind."

Keep your race
it's beaches for me.
An adventurous spirit
wild, far-off places
me, the world, and my family.
We're free!

We explore. We play. We rest. We love. We live!



... Thank you, MMM for sharing your journey and wisdom, and inspiring so many of us to leave the race behind and find our own paths!


Gone Fishing

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2021, 04:39:29 AM »
Hell, yeah!

Dicey

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2021, 07:33:01 AM »
Hooray! Now put down your quill and go join the 2021 cohort. You'll love it!

Watchmaker

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2021, 08:07:13 AM »
Congratulations, that's awesome!

In your earlier posts you were having a little trouble adapting to your LCOL location. I take it that's going better?

Chris @ Saturday Financial

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2021, 08:16:24 AM »
My husband and I officially withdrew from the rat race on 9/8/21! We're 33 and have two young kids and are so excited for our family's new adventures!

I'll be volunteering at my kids' elementary school and at a local exotic animal sanctuary, and helping some family members with their fitness goals pro bono (I was a Personal Trainer.) My husband will be trying his hand at carpentry and is helping some of our aunts and uncles with their investing and retirement planning; he also has some amazing creative ideas to merge data science and art!

I'm far from a poet, but I felt inspired by our victory, so here's a little poem to celebrate our journey:

My mind is racing
since I was 4
"Don't I know enough?!"
"Know more!"
Cram. Test. Win. Forget. Repeat.

I just sit.
They fill me up.
"But I'm not empty!"
"Shut up!"

"I'm in here. I'm me!"
"Be quiet and take this trigonometry."
I take it.
I cram. I test. I win. I forget. I repeat. I'm buried.

My 12-year sentence, served.
But wait, here's 4 more.
I cram more. I test more. I win more. I forget more. I repeat again and again.
I'm lost.

"You're winning!"
"At what?!"
"Now get a job! Get paid!"
"Okay..."

Lifeless shells of facts and figures
colliding in drab gray spaces,
running their own little races.
We work. We earn. We spend. We self-medicate. We repeat.
We're ... successful?

"I want out!" I scream.
I'm still buried in here.
Pieces of me scattered amongst the force-fed facts
and the piles of debt
and the project reports
and the massive regrets.

Start digging!
I sift. I shred. I sort. I save
the parts of me that long gave way
to the filling up and wringing out.
To whatever this race was all about.

At last, an image waivers in my mind.
"Is that ... me?"
I'm fragile, but I'm here. I'm me!
I can finally be what I want to be!
But now I need to leave the rest behind.

"But you're winning!" you say.
"At what?" I reply
"Your games are destructive,
you don't own my mind."

Keep your race
it's beaches for me.
An adventurous spirit
wild, far-off places
me, the world, and my family.
We're free!

We explore. We play. We rest. We love. We live!



... Thank you, MMM for sharing your journey and wisdom, and inspiring so many of us to leave the race behind and find our own paths!

This poem is epic. May we each continue becoming more of ourselves.

HPstache

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2021, 08:42:05 AM »
Would love to hear how you did it and what your planned yearly spend is from here on out.

StarBright

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2021, 09:20:05 AM »
Congrats!

That poem is inspiring :)

Mrs. Sloth

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2021, 09:24:11 AM »
Stopping by to say congratulations! 33 is quite young...enjoy your freedom!

meadow lark

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2021, 11:30:51 AM »
You rock!  Congratulations!

DaMa

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2021, 12:03:03 PM »
Congrats!  Love the poem!

HastyTortoise

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2021, 12:36:32 PM »
Congratulations, that's awesome!

In your earlier posts you were having a little trouble adapting to your LCOL location. I take it that's going better?

Yes, it has certainly been a challenge adapting to rural culture again after fast-paced urban life, but we're trying hard to make it work - and in some ways it's been good for us! We decided to not homeschool this year and lean more on the local school for community; they're very nice and my second grader is adjusting well. We'll also be doing some travel-hacking and using rewards/loyalty points to take some thrifty road trips (over school breaks) and explore small towns around the country a bit... maybe there's somewhere that's still LCOL but fits us a little better? For now, we're trying to reignite ties with our family and a few old classmates, especially now that we have more time and energy to do so! Who knows... maybe in another year or two we'll love it here! We're pretty happy for now though, although still a little lonely.

boarder42

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2021, 12:40:22 PM »
congrats! - no idea how you retired with 2 young kids i'm told daily that its not possible by the avg upper middle class consumers at work! Don't you know kids are expensive?

JoePublic3.14

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #12 on: September 14, 2021, 02:05:00 PM »
I was going to say impressive, but in reality you had a plan and knocked it out. So I’ll say well executed!

Have a great time in this next phase!

HastyTortoise

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2021, 07:56:12 AM »
Thanks for all of the congrats!

We pretty much followed MMM’s simple math. We also bought a few rental properties when we first started out (we still own one because our long-term tenants are amazing!) My husband does value investing instead of index funds (although we've made use of index funds in the past) and he gets great returns; his stellar investing decisions over the past five years have accelerated our retirement. And his ability to get great returns has been all the more incentive for us the live thriftily to get every dollar we can working for us (MMM’s “each dollar is an employee” analogy has been a very valuable framework for us!)

We’ve primarily lived and saved off of his income as a Data Scientist. I’ve been a part-time Personal Trainer off and on around having kids. While he was working and managing investments, my major role has been to manage the kids/household expense side of the equation. I’ve found many ways to reduce the cost of raising kids; like buying, selling, and trading baby stuff on Craigslist and at Once Upon a Child. When the kids were 1 and 4, I traded in their outgrown clothes for nearly all of their Christmas presents at Once Upon a Child; they were thrilled and didn’t know the difference between free toys and expensive toys - haha! 

We’ve also moved a lot (in the pursuit of both better work opportunities and adventure) and always bought fixer-upper houses to live in, which (even while caring for babies/toddlers) I would work on as much as a I could throughout the day while he was at work. Our last move was a year ago, back to the modest rural midwest town where we grew up, so we could take advantage of LCOL and try to reconnect with extended family.

Our kids are 4 and 7 now, and it’s hard for us to imagine that they won’t really remember us working traditional jobs. My parents were only ever at work when I was growing up, so they’ll have a very different family life than I did.

As for specific facts and figures, we really want to write some kind of memoir to tell our FIRE story and how far we’ve come (if not only for our kids to understand our journey.) It’s been an absolute whirlwind since we graduated college 11 years ago! My husband has kept a very detailed financial record and I’ve kept a few journals. I guess writing our story together can be one of our first retirement projects!

boarder42

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2021, 08:23:50 AM »
Thanks for all of the congrats!

We pretty much followed MMM’s simple math. We also bought a few rental properties when we first started out (we still own one because our long-term tenants are amazing!) My husband does value investing instead of index funds (although we've made use of index funds in the past) and he gets great returns; his stellar investing decisions over the past five years have accelerated our retirement. And his ability to get great returns has been all the more incentive for us the live thriftily to get every dollar we can working for us (MMM’s “each dollar is an employee” analogy has been a very valuable framework for us!)

We’ve primarily lived and saved off of his income as a Data Scientist. I’ve been a part-time Personal Trainer off and on around having kids. While he was working and managing investments, my major role has been to manage the kids/household expense side of the equation. I’ve found many ways to reduce the cost of raising kids; like buying, selling, and trading baby stuff on Craigslist and at Once Upon a Child. When the kids were 1 and 4, I traded in their outgrown clothes for nearly all of their Christmas presents at Once Upon a Child; they were thrilled and didn’t know the difference between free toys and expensive toys - haha! 

We’ve also moved a lot (in the pursuit of both better work opportunities and adventure) and always bought fixer-upper houses to live in, which (even while caring for babies/toddlers) I would work on as much as a I could throughout the day while he was at work. Our last move was a year ago, back to the modest rural midwest town where we grew up, so we could take advantage of LCOL and try to reconnect with extended family.

Our kids are 4 and 7 now, and it’s hard for us to imagine that they won’t really remember us working traditional jobs. My parents were only ever at work when I was growing up, so they’ll have a very different family life than I did.

As for specific facts and figures, we really want to write some kind of memoir to tell our FIRE story and how far we’ve come (if not only for our kids to understand our journey.) It’s been an absolute whirlwind since we graduated college 11 years ago! My husband has kept a very detailed financial record and I’ve kept a few journals. I guess writing our story together can be one of our first retirement projects!

this is what i'm most excited about with a 3 year old and a 1 year old when i retire at the end of this year.  My wife is already retired to her hobby photo business.  She wonders the impact it will have not seeing us work, and something i think lots of people question but I don't believe it will have many adverse affects they are going to get to travel and have us at all of their life's acheivements vs if we'd been working full time.

HastyTortoise

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Re: We did it! Retired at 33 with two kids as of 9/8/21!
« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2021, 10:47:25 AM »
Thanks for all of the congrats!

We pretty much followed MMM’s simple math. We also bought a few rental properties when we first started out (we still own one because our long-term tenants are amazing!) My husband does value investing instead of index funds (although we've made use of index funds in the past) and he gets great returns; his stellar investing decisions over the past five years have accelerated our retirement. And his ability to get great returns has been all the more incentive for us the live thriftily to get every dollar we can working for us (MMM’s “each dollar is an employee” analogy has been a very valuable framework for us!)

We’ve primarily lived and saved off of his income as a Data Scientist. I’ve been a part-time Personal Trainer off and on around having kids. While he was working and managing investments, my major role has been to manage the kids/household expense side of the equation. I’ve found many ways to reduce the cost of raising kids; like buying, selling, and trading baby stuff on Craigslist and at Once Upon a Child. When the kids were 1 and 4, I traded in their outgrown clothes for nearly all of their Christmas presents at Once Upon a Child; they were thrilled and didn’t know the difference between free toys and expensive toys - haha! 

We’ve also moved a lot (in the pursuit of both better work opportunities and adventure) and always bought fixer-upper houses to live in, which (even while caring for babies/toddlers) I would work on as much as a I could throughout the day while he was at work. Our last move was a year ago, back to the modest rural midwest town where we grew up, so we could take advantage of LCOL and try to reconnect with extended family.

Our kids are 4 and 7 now, and it’s hard for us to imagine that they won’t really remember us working traditional jobs. My parents were only ever at work when I was growing up, so they’ll have a very different family life than I did.

As for specific facts and figures, we really want to write some kind of memoir to tell our FIRE story and how far we’ve come (if not only for our kids to understand our journey.) It’s been an absolute whirlwind since we graduated college 11 years ago! My husband has kept a very detailed financial record and I’ve kept a few journals. I guess writing our story together can be one of our first retirement projects!

this is what i'm most excited about with a 3 year old and a 1 year old when i retire at the end of this year.  My wife is already retired to her hobby photo business.  She wonders the impact it will have not seeing us work, and something i think lots of people question but I don't believe it will have many adverse affects they are going to get to travel and have us at all of their life's acheivements vs if we'd been working full time.

Yes! And they'll see you work hard on your passions! I'm so excited to have many years to share my hobbies with my kids!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!