I am 46 and discovered MMM about two years ago, around the same time I took a leap of faith, quit my 180k a year job, and formed my third consulting company. Mrs Axe and I both grew up poor, so we understood how to be frugal. Put ourselves through college, graduated into a recession, and took a year to find a job. I opened an IRA when I got my first professional job at 23. Growing up poor, we had some dumb ideas about what it meant to be successful, and we definitely wasted some years of our lives chasing the wrong things.
I made some bad decisions in 2008 with my investments, got back in way too early, and lost about 60% of what I'd saved in my IRA. That was frustrating, but at this point I've earned it back, and then some (though if I'd just left it alone, I would have done much better).
After finding MMM, we've sold our clown house and cut expenses from about $100k a year to about 60k a year (with a goal to get to 45k). My past bad decisions have been tempered by making a lot; my consulting company did extremely well last year and allowed me to put down 20% on a house, cashflow three years of state college for my daughter, max out all tax deferred space for 2016, as well as 2017 (we capped our 401k's by March). Our goal for the next three years is $120k in savings, which should get us to a ramp-down period in three years at age 49, or full retirement at age 51 in five years.
My business is healthcare reform, so I know enough about the details to be terrified of what could happen. We both have pre-existing conditions that would make insurance unaffordable for my consulting practice. It's the big risk in our plan, and if the worst case scenario happens, then I go back to work for The Man until Medicare kicks in. Otherwise, we plan to retire in three years with a variety of ways to cover expenses until the stache gets to where we need it to be.
