Are there other folks here who didn't discover FIRE until after 40?

[DeskJockey2028]

Should we form a club or something?

I love reading about everyone's FIRE experiences - what they're doing to achieve their goals, how they'll reach FI and what they'll do once they've RE'd. But I and the few folks here who are over 40 that I've already chatted with don't always fall into those same camps.

On my 40th birthday, I had a negative net worth. Now that I'm closing in on 45, I've got a decently positive net worth but I'm still a good 11-12 years from FIRE. I've got a family, already have kids and am married. I don't plan on slow-traveling or retiring to a LCOL country because everyone I know is here, including my family. By the time I do retire, my kids will be in their early 20s and I want to be around (assuming they stick nearby too) so that I can remain a part of their lives and the lives of any kids they may have.

I think some of us 40 and 50 and 60-somethings will share similarities with those who are able to retire much earlier, and others won't.

Who else is out there that's in this boat with me?

[Dicey]

Well, I'm now 59, so the concept didn't really exist when I was 40. Financial blogs hadn't been invented yet, lol.

I knew from an early age retiring early was for me, I just didn't have anyone to talk about it with, or much of a map to follow.  Berkeley and Birkenstocks are not my cup of chai. YMOYL was mighty interesting but too extreme, and IMO, untenable, given what's happened to interest rates since. Sadly, mighty Joe D. did not live long enough to run out of money.

I hang around here to offer support to those still finding their way to FIRE, especially those who are older, women, singletons* or some combination thereof.

*I am no longer single, but the fact that I finally married at 54 is nothing short of an amazing daily miracle. I always assumed I'd be single forever, because, 54 so I planned accordingly.

[SwordGuy]

I was 55 and wife was 65 when we learned about this.

[pachnik]

I was 49 when I discovered FIRE.  I still feel funny typing 'FIRE' because i won't be retiring early - simply too old.  I am closing in on 53 pretty fast and believe I will retire at 60.   :0   I don't really have a hard and fast plan.   Ideally, I would like to stay at the company I am at until the owners retire in about 3-4 years and then work part-time until I am 60.   I don't want to draw on my retirement savings until my late 50's.  This is just a rough plan and much depends on my health. 

I remember the Freedom 55 thing which I guess was mainly advertising a while back.  When I investigated it, it seemed too difficult.  Too hard to give stuff up and be so focused on money.  However, I am doing that now and don't feel at all like I am missing out on anything.  In fact, I have gained the ability to travel. 

I hang around the forum because it keeps me moving in the right direction: saving and keeping an eye on my investments.  Having a place to discuss this stuff gives me focus to keep going ahead.

[DeskJockey2028]

Yay! Two new journals to read! ;)

Also, is there a specific form or thread here for those of us who are clearly well past the "retire in your 30s' club? Or, perhaps, a working time machine?

[nouveauRiche]

Discovered MMM & the FIRE idea 2 years ago, mid-40s. 

However, we had been maxing out 401ks & Roth IRAs and generally living frugally long before that - we just didn't have a plan.  Since MMM, we've managed to cut a ton of fat (and get some nice raises).

I read "The Wealthy Barber" at 25 & YMOYL before I was 30 (but also found it too extreme).

We'll be FI in 2-3 years.  I will probably continue to work part time after that, mainly for medical benefits.  DH may quit outright, take a sabbatical, or do OMY.  I wouldn't mind working more to save up for some home improvements that are not necessary but would be nice.

[thunderball]

Guilty!  Discovered last year....  I'm 48 now.  I made most every mistake in my youth, but I don't think I would be on this better path had I not learned from those mistakes.  Hope to be FI in 5 years. 

[pachnik]

Also, is there a specific form or thread here for those of us who are clearly well past the "retire in your 30s' club? Or, perhaps, a working time machine?

I think you've just created the thread.  Now if you could get to work on the time machine?  :) 

[Spiffy]

I am in the boat with you! I am 45 married to husband (46) with three young kids. We were always frugal but never made enough money to save much. Moved for graduate school and first jobs seven times in our first 11 years of marriage and so had kids late. We are now settled and paying off our very modest house early. We don't really plan to retire that early, I just like hanging out with like minded folks! Some of my real life friends make way more then we do, but also spend beyond their means and it drives me nuts.

[scantee]

I'm not 40 yet but I will be soon and I feel like I have much more in common with the "older" early retirees than those who are shooting for retirement in their 30's. Unlike many of you, I have known about early retirement for quite some time. I started following personal finance blogs around 10 years ago and through that I ended up at Early Retirement Extreme which is where I first learned and got excited about early retirement.

Well, here I am, some seven years later, not retired, and not as close as I'd like to be either. There are three main factors that have made my path to early retirement a slow one, 1) I worked part-time while my kids were young so I could spend more time with them, 2) I work in a do-goodery field where I make a decent salary but I'll never be highly paid and 3) I have a partner who is a bit of a spendthrift who has zero interest in retiring early.

I am still in a pretty good financial place compared to most people (a household NW of around $600k, in our late 30's) but the progress has been much slower than I'd originally hoped. And yet, I don't have any regrets. One thing I learned is that I really like working part-time. Working gives me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, plus much-needed adult interaction, but I'm really not too keen on working full-time. My current plan is to pad my retirement accounts to the max this year and next and then go down to part-time again and save at a slower pace. Even with that slow down in my savings rate, I expect I'll be able to fully FIRE at 50, although I might get to that age and not want to.

[DeskJockey2028]

And yet, I don't have any regrets.

That, right there is the important part! I do wish I'd found these principles earlier in my life - but I didn't. There's plenty in the past 45 years that I wouldn't trade for anything as well.

I'd still love to stop working a lot earlier than I'll financially be able to (barring unforeseen windfalls) but I'm doing what I can, as fast as I can! Meanwhile I'll try my best to enjoy the ride.

[FireHiker]

Well, I'm 38, but my husband is 49, so we average out to over 40...and are pretty new to the FIRE concept. I've been reading MMM for a couple years, but it's only in about the last six months that my husband is all in on the concept. We likely won't retire especially early; I expect it will be close to 50 and 61, but we are actively working to bring those dates in. Still early enough to have to worry about health insurance I guess! We have a lot of the standard suburban trappings and are trying to slowly divest ourselves of those without too much upheaval (three kids: 16, 7, and 5). We absolutely cannot retire while still living in our over-the-top house, so if we retire before the kids graduate from high school we will have to downsize. Hopefully when the 5 year old goes to 6th grade we can take a big downsizing step (there is a small zone for our elementary school and I'm unwilling to move from it; the middle school zone has a lot more options).

[DeskJockey2028]

I get that. We're in a fantastic school district - if we somehow managed to retire before our kids are both out of public school, we'd never leave our town to do so.

[Slee_stack]

I mostly relate to nouveauRiche above.

I was not intimate with the term 'FIRE' but have always held a 'Retire Earlier than typical SS Age' goal.

After discovering MMM a few years ago (age 43), we've become even more efficient in our savings and spending.  Our personal financial comfort level has also significantly grown since coming here.

Even so, we continue to be in OMY mode (although its really Eight MY) due to chasing a fat pension carrot, and Healthcare Insurance concerns.

[DeskJockey2028]

Even someone who learned about MMM/FI/Early retirement in their 40s... could be considered insanely lucky.  I personally would have preferred to learn about it in the womb, but oh well... :)

Heck yeah! I'm still going to be out of the workforce by 55/56 if everything goes well. Maybe... maybe even a smidge sooner. 16 months ago I was pretty sure I'd be working to 65 or 67. Buying myself an extra 10+ years is fantastic.

[pachnik]

Even someone who learned about MMM/FI/Early retirement in their 40s... could be considered insanely lucky.  I personally would have preferred to learn about it in the womb, but oh well... :)

+1   My financial life has improved vastly due to finding this website.  :)

[DeskJockey2028]

Even so, we continue to be in OMY mode (although its really Eight MY) due to chasing a fat pension carrot, and Healthcare Insurance concerns.

That's a big one for us too. Depending on what the next decade brings in standard healthcare for the US - if I stay at work until 55, I continue to pay the employee medical/copay/prescription costs. That's huge. The benefit stands until medicare/Medicaid takes over too. If something were to change and the US were to move to a more... advantageous health care system, I may be able to go slightly earlier.

[FI4good]

I'm in ,

I discovered MMM at 40 .

I'm about 20 months into my accumulation, it's taken a while to get myself sorted , new relationship , changing jobs , having 2003-07 retired in France, coming back to the crazy UK then spending , drinking, having an SL500, buying expensive man toys, doing financial spread trading to get rich quicker and blowing enough to FIRE over the course of the years. Always trying to find the buzz, always frantic, always flying high and crashing and burning .

Life was always a roller coaster, i roll with the punches better now and am paying it forwards to the future me like never before.

I think i had to be comfortable and content with life before something like FIR seemed a reasonable course of action, committing myself to 10 or 12 years of a consistent plan of action is still daunting but i'm ok with it .

I always knew it was possible, always fascinated with the markets and shares but i never really had the upbringing, stability or temperament ? i'm not sure what, to be able to make good use of the knowledge and interest i had. 

[DeskJockey2028]

Hey FI4Good! Welcome to the party!

[itchyfeet]

At 40 I was still spending with abandon. We took on a $1 million mortgage for a new home that year. EEK :-/

I woke up to myself maybe 2 years later tired of my job and burdened by debt, and then found MMM maybe a year after that. I am now 45 and DW just turned 40.

Prior to 42 I had in mind that early retirement was 55-58 and my financial planning was geared around saving to retire at that age. I was earning good money and saving maybe 20-25%, and spending the rest, particularly on servicing our monster mortgage. Beyond the mortgage, travel was and continues to be the only other area where we spend insane amounts - but that wont change, we love seeing the world. We were always sensible with cars, clothes and other consumer trappings.

Thankfully, I had been quite lucky with real estate and some other investments in my 30s (I didn't get burnt from being over leveraged) and had an epiphany at 42 that maybe I could retire earlier than 55 if I stopped spending so much on housing. From that point forward everything changed. I started researching, and my research ultimately led me here.

Today we are saving about 60% of our wages, and we are progressing toward FIRE rapidly. Hopefully somewhere around December 2018 - June 2019 we will throw in our jobs. I will be 47 and DW 42.

[FI4good]

Hey DJ ,
 you've started something here :)

Itchy a one million dollar mortgage! WoW, i'm going to have to go and have a sit down in a dark and quiet room to contemplate that. EEK you say, i'm flabbergasted just to think of the monthly payment . 

[BFGirl]

I always planned to work until early to mid-50s for my pension, but didn't really have a plan as when I was married, there was plenty of money coming in from my spouse's job.  When it became apparent that divorce was imminent, I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably need to work longer than I had planned.  At 46, I discovered MMM and realized that my original goal might still be within reach.

[DeskJockey2028]

I always planned to work until early to mid-50s for my pension, but didn't really have a plan as when I was married, there was plenty of money coming in from my spouse's job.  When it became apparent that divorce was imminent, I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably need to work longer than I had planned.  At 46, I discovered MMM and realized that my original goal might still be within reach.

That initial feeling I got when I ran (and re-ran, and re-re-ran) the numbers to see that I could (originally) retire at 60 rather than 65 or 67 was great. Then when I saw that 57 was actually within my grasp - wow! Such a weight off my shoulders.

I guess my focus is 3-fold.

1) Be able to securely retire.
2) Never be a burden to my children (have enough money to support us even in assisted living/if in very ill health)
3) Leave a legacy for my kids - both in the form of knowledge and money.

[itchyfeet]

Hey DJ ,
 you've started something here :)

Itchy a one million dollar mortgage! WoW, i'm going to have to go and have a sit down in a dark and quiet room to contemplate that. EEK you say, i'm flabbergasted just to think of the monthly payment .

Yeah, pretty silly in hindsight. In my late 30s I still believed I was highly employable and my salary would keep climbing..... and that I would work 20+ more years.

Alls well that ends well. I woke up to myself before it was too late.

[Moustachienne]

DH and I will retire this summer at 59 and 60 - which is referred to as "early" by both our workplaces.  A few of my friends are retired, mostly those with defined pensions and/or spouses who had high earning careers.  None of DH's peers are retired.

I discovered MMM a few years ago and the Forums a bit after.  We were already doing a lot of good things, such as saving 70% of our income, driving older cars, biking/transit to work, etc.  This is how we like to live anyway but I also thought we HAD to do it to have a prayer of retiring at 65. Every retirement planning session I'd seen at work was scaremongering, as is the media.

MoneySense articles had already helped me see that we would be just fine, especially the benchmarks that a middle class retirement in Canada requires $50K, $60K, or $70K per year income after taxes for basic, medium, luxury levels. (I think Australian numbers are similar.) Since we currently spend about $45K for what feels luxurious to us, that was good to know.  These "magic numbers" articles also used the 4% rule to give an idea of the total assets plus paid off house that would be necessary - and included CPP/OAS without scaremongering that these would disappear.

So far so good.  What MMM added for me was not just that we would be able to retire but that we could dial down a lot more consumer stuff (cable being #1) in order to dial up more meaningful expenses, if we choose.  And the biggest thing?  That we were ALLOWED to retire and that retirement could look like anything WE wanted.

I do wish I'd found MM a bit earlier.  I would have got over being a big baby about stock market investing sooner and would maybe have downshifted my career in my 50's.  I probably would have worked to 60 anyway but would have exercised more choices, as would have DH.  We've been FI for longer than we thought.

Retirement at any age is a big step and there are so many nay-sayers but here's the thing; we have 1.3 million invested, a paid off house in the city we want to live in; no kids; pro-rated CPP at 60; OAS plus another very small but fun pension at 65; and Canadian health care.  We've enjoyed our jobs/careers but I'd face punch myself if we felt OMY was necessary. 

Thanks MMM and Forum!

[OurTown]

I, too, got a late start.  Better late than never.  I finished law school at age 39, so I didn't start making any real money until recent years.  We are plugging away now, hope to reach FI in around six more years.

[Bateaux]

Listened to Bob Brinker back in the 90s and into 2000s.  It was just investing not as much lifestyle change.  Now a bit later than I'd liked we're investing more and buying less.  I'm 48 and still hope to FIRE at 50.

[Laserjet3051]

I discovered FIRE and MMM only a little over a year ago at 47 years old. Up until that point I had assumed I would live my entire life in debt and had no hope of ever retiring. Despite a reasonable salary, my expenses have always been high (single income household with 2 kids in a HCOL area). Yes, these were all my choices and I fully accept them. I was raised by parents with zero financial sensibilities, and until a few years ago, completely distrusted equity markets.

At 47, all that changed, And while FIRE is likely off the table for me, implementing mustachian values and boglehead methodologies has rapidly propelled me in the right direction. The slope of improvement is steep, but starting in the red, my journey to FIRE will take some time.

I do find that some of the advice and comments posted here on MMM, by younger users, just have little applicability to my situation. For example, holing up in a van in the Walmart parking lot to save on rent is just not practical for me for a multitude of reasons. And i agree with one of the posters upthread, that even discovering FIRE at this later stage in life is of tremendous value. I am happier, less anxious, more determined, understand better what I value in life, and have modified my behaviors to be in line with my values.

I've read an insane number of books on FIRE over the past 1.5 years and feel tremendously empowered (YMOYL, The Milliionaire Next Door, The Four Pillars of Investing, etc.). Engaging this community on a regular basis keeps my moving in the right direction.

[Ben Hogan]

Found out about MM at 41. Now just waiting...

[teen persuasion]

DH and I just crossed 50.

I've always been frugal, by necessity - SAHM to 5 kids so we were working with one relatively low income to begin with.  I've been working my way around to FIRE sideways, unventing things as I go (unventing is a term coined by knitter Elizabeth Zimmerman - concepts that multiple individuals  come up with independently).  MMM was just the final lightbulb/paradigm shift - he explained the concept more elegantly and laid out formulas - what's more elegant than simple formulas?  He put a name to what I'd just vaguely grasped at - how my favorite Regency novel characters lived w/o working for income.  IOW, how much is Mr Darcy worth in current $, and how do *I* get there?

We've kind of done things a bit backwards, but the basic concept of "figuring out what is important to you and pursuing that" still applies.  I had my "retirement" early - nearly 20 years home while the kids were young.  Now I'm working, but only part-time.  DH is winding things down.  He never saw himself retiring, just assumed he'd work forever I guess (or die young), so he didn't push to save.  That's why I began researching and learning, because my family longevity meant I needed a plan for at least me, but really both of us.  I started getting DH to save small amounts in his 401k, and kept doubling them as I found more savings and efficiencies.  More retirement savings meant less taxes and larger credits/refunds, that I rolled back into retirement savings.  When DH was having a bad time with an employer, he suddenly asked me if this early retirement stuff was real.  Real enough that we had FU money, and he could quit to find a different job months later.  He's been a convert since.

I'd like to downsize out of our big house, but we've got one more still at home that we'd like to allow to finish out school in the same district.  We're considering where we'd like to go once we aren't bound to the school district, so it doesn't really make sense to move now and move again.  Probably 5 more years for DH, have him retire to coincide with FAFSA filing for DS5 and college.  Health insurance is the big unknown.  Watch and wait and plan.

[nouveauRiche]

IOW, how much is Mr Darcy worth in current $, and how do *I* get there?

Let us know if you figure that one out.  ;)

[My favorite book]

[Frugal Lizard]

I am 50 and my partner is 48.  It had never occurred to me that I could ever retire before finding MMM.  We would joke about freedom 85. Now I am seeing that we will be able to retire and am working on bringing that date forward.    We still have a long way to go trimming our spending and increasing our earnings and savings, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel that I didn't see before.

I am so grateful that I found the Forum even if I don't really fit in completely.  It has helped me get over a lot of FOMO (fear of missing out) with our spendy friends. I am slowly tackling my ostrich inclinations (to stick my head in the sand).  And I have found many people who while may be younger, better at saving and earning more, share values that I don't see in my real life.  It is nice to have a tribe.

I still have a nagging sense of regret about a lot of the spending we did before having kids.  But what is past is past. I am super motivated by this forum. I have learned so much already and am enjoying the process of learning more. 

[ozmickey]

I have just discovered FIRE in the last 6 months. I am 52 and DH is 58. I have always been frugal with my money from earlier times of reading "Your Money or Your Life". A divorce, remarriage, emigration to Australia and a retrenchment had slowed my savings rate way down. I am now trying to maximize our savings for an earlier retirement.

[Duchess of Stratosphear]

I found YMOYL quite early, and that helped me a lot. Learned about investing, etc, only a few years ago, around age 42. As long as I can continue to avoid purchasing a home in one of Canada's most expensive areas, I should be good to go now :)

I envy the advantages some other people have had (higher income, earlier knowledge, etc) but I know I've had some huge advantages others haven't, so I think I land about in the middle in terms of that kind of luckiness.

Same here. I (47 yo) read YMOYL 20-ish years ago or so, and I loved it but somehow didn't DO it, although I wasn't a TOTAL dumbass spendthrift either. I have never made and never will make a lot of $$ but at least I didn't have student loan debt, so I'm not really trying to complain. Still, I feel way behind and have many regrets. Can we please start a club? Sometimes I feel so lonely :(

[Bicycle_B]

Yes.  Arrived at MMM late 40s, now early 50s. 

Near or at a minimal FIRE now after losing a job and not getting another one, except for bits of part-time work referred by friends.  Was thrifty by middle class standards before; made some further tweaks, am still processing the fact that I can choose between "find some more work and achieve desired comfort level of retirement" vs "keep tweaking my skills and continue living a little cheaper than I'd like to commit to".  Struggling with the emotional aspects - am neither facing the job search nor fully inhabiting my thrifty freedom.  Keep thinking "I need to get off my ass", but instead play bad chess, read news for fun because I'm like that, talk to friends, etc.

[Rosy]

We are 56 and 68 and finding MMM about two years ago has helped us a great deal. It was indeed a bit of an epiphany, but mostly it simply clarified the path and made me feel better about the future. I know I made better decisions thanks to all the information and support on this board. I am far removed from the person I was when I started my journal - I get it now, financially speaking.

I was already retired when I found MMM, but we are making strides toward securing retirement for Mr. R., hopefully at 60/62 - not the 70-75 he imagined.
Things deteriorated slightly at work for Mr. R. since then, but regardless, things are moving in the right direction. He really likes his job and would prefer to work until 65 - we'll see. I'd rather he would retire and travel with me while we are still fit.

No one knows what the future holds..., but I am sure glad we found this forum.

[dreaming]

I am 43 and DH is 50.  I started reading MMM earlier this year when I searched ways to retire early because I am very tired of working.  While I have been fairly frugal my whole life, there are areas I still need to work on.  (One of them is getting DH to be a bit more frugal)  Luckily, I have never carried CC debt.  Retiring early for me is my late 50's. For now, that is good enough, but as time goes on and more knowledge is gained, that number could easily change to be earlier.  I am looking forward to "freedom"!

[SingleMomDebt]

Found MMM 3 years ago. I will be 45 this year with teen :-O  Paying off yucky debt. No ER for me. But I will be in a much better financial position when I decide to retire because of this forum and discovering the topic of FIRE.

[pachnik]

Just had to mention that finding this website inspired me to ride a bike again.  So I bought one two years ago and got back on after 30 years of not riding.  It is lots of fun and I do short trips with it - to the library.

[moonpalace]

LOVE this thread!

Discovered MMM a few years ago but didn't start implementing anything until this January, at age 41, after a crisis got both DW and I to fully commit. Since then (5 months) I've gone from thinking we'd have to work until 75, to being pretty sure we can easily FIRE in 13-15 years.

Savings rate has gone from ~6% of joint income to pretty close to 50% and stress level around financial issues has dropped nearly to zero. So thankful!

[sisto]

I'm in the boat with you too. I'm 48 and found MMM almost exactly 2 years ago. I have always been pretty frugal with money, but never really had any good role models on how to manage it. I've also always said I would retire at 55, but never really had a plan to do it. I used to say things like I'd find a way to pay off my house and bank some money and then flip burgers at McDonalds to get by. People just gave me weird looks etc. I somewhat just plugged along putting money in my 401K, but still didn't max it or manage things like I should have. I finally realized I needed to not carry debt and better plan for things I wanted or might need. I used to help other people consolidate debt, even made some loans to friends and family for that purpose. When I found MMM is when thing really became clear and I saw a path to what I wanted. Since then I've made a plan and will retire at 52 or 53. Not early by MMM standards, but it is what it is and I've come to terms with it. I could do it sooner, but I will get some perks by staying longer. In exchange I will try to loosen up the reigns and enjoy the last few years of working a little bit more.

[albireo13]

I'm 61 now, wife 57.  I discovered this site about a year ago and wish I had known of it a lot sooner.
I guess we are doing ok with retirement savings but, have missed out on a lot of opportunities over the years.
My plan is to tone down clownish behavior over the next few years before retiring.

[Etihwdivadnai]

We were at "zero net worth" (apart from pension contribution accumulation started since age 25) at age 37.
(I.e. had savings outside pension equivalent to remaining mortgage and no other debts).

We began to realize that we were accumulating at a reasonable rate at age 42
and that children were just not now going to happen.

We realized that FIRE was a possibility at age 46. Therefore aiming at FIRE, with a relatively late target age 55.

We discovered MM at age 48.

We hit our initial "target amount" at around age 50 + a bit.
But revised our target amount upwards so did not actually RE.
(I.e. one (or more) year syndrome).

We actually RE at age 52 due to work circumstances, about 6 months earlier than planned.

Now just over 2 years into FIRE and thus about 1 year from original target age 55.

Perhaps I should report on our progress?

[Dicey]

Hey, people! Nice to see this thread taking off. Now, will y'all be brave and post your age in your profile, pretty please? Some of you have, but a swelling of the ranks would be, well, swell!

[wenchsenior]

Wow, there are a lot of us!

I didn't discover the site until I was in my early 40s and husband was in early 50s.  We got far too late a start to have DH retire early; he didn't even get a career track job until he was 39.  At our current rate, we MIGHT be able to offer him an out at 60. Almost certainly at 62.  However,  he likes his job, so mostly this site keeps us focused and on track, and reminds me to focus on value-for-dollar spent. Hypothetically, I will be able to retire somewhere between 50-55,

[sonjak]

Me too!

My parents were VERY frugal and had good money habits.  But I grew up poor and when I hit my 20s and got a "real" job, I spent my money.  I felt so rich buying things.  I got in some debt.  (I don't have expensive tastes so, thankfully, it wasn't a ton of debt.)  I thought I would make more money someday and would save then.  My ex had debt when we got married and then he didn't work but he liked to spend too.  We hit bottom and declared bankruptcy.  That was eye-opening for me.  Never wanted to be there again.  I nosedived into reading Suze Orman, Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar, Dave Ramsey.  We started an emergency fund and avoided debt but didn't save really either.

Ended up getting a divorce and it took a couple years to recover from that.  Took a year off to visit family.  Then got my current job.  Based on all of that advice and Ramsey's "baby steps" I thought I was doing well being debt free and saving to the company match, maxing my IRA, etc.  Then I discovered this website and started really doing the math and hearing about actually MAXING your 401k AND starting a taxed account AND paying off your house and I realized how behind I was (am).

I am almost 42.  I make decent money now (for me) and this year is the first year I will be maxing my 401(k) contributions, IRA, full emergency fund plus a growing house/car fund.  Things are a bit uncertain with my work right now but if they stabilize, I will move a chunk of my savings into a taxable account with VTSAX.  I think I will be able to retire in about 11 years (which is obviously not EARLY) but based on life so far, I know that things change and that may not happen either. 

I continue to increase my savings rate and re-evaluate and I am so grateful to be on this path and making solid steps in the right direction.  I'm very aware that without this site, I could be like most people and still living full-time in wishful thinking land.

Sonja

[Riff]

I found this site 2.5 years ago at age 44 while I was searching for what to do next after getting out of debt.  Never heard of FIRE before, and most of my searches kept bringing me back to MMM.  Read a blog post, then another, and another, and then voraciously read the entire blog.

My mom raised me to be pretty frugal, so I was never in too bad of shape (debt and mortgage free now), though I was never taught how to properly invest.  I feel so much better now after discovering MMM and reading a handful of personal finance books.  Our retirement accounts (wife's and mine) are all in low cost index funds now, and we started Roth IRAs.  We've been able to max the IRAs, but don't earn enough to max out 401ks.  We have cut expenses and upped our contributions significantly though.

So when I "woke up" to personal finance and MMM, we found ourselves in a pretty good spot.  The advantage of being in our 40's was that our 4% contribution and 4% match in the 401k had lots of time to compound, even with the higher fees that we've been paying over the years. 

I'd say we've got another 7-8 years to go for FIRE.  Health care, of course, being the big wild card.

[ZiziPB]

Found MMM 4 years ago at 45. Getting ready to FIRE in about 10 months.  I'll be 50, so I think it's early by normal standards 🙂 I've always been a decent saver but finding this blog and forum changed my focus from just saving to coming up with a FIRE plan and executing on it.

[travelbug]

I am 41 and DH is 45. I have been reading MMM for a few years but have had some huge financial hiccups that have slowed us down.

We lost 500k+ in an investment that did not work out. (to put it mildly...)

Otherwise we would have been FIREd this year.

So we have our 5 more year plan and DH wants to be out before 50. I will be 46.

We live in Australia, but in FIRE that may be subject to change as we will be moving from our current location, regardless. We have two children currently 10 and 7yo.

[rpr]

Found MMM a few years ago in our early/mid 40s. Now approaching our high 40s. Had seriously started saving in 2008 and 2009 was the first year we maxed our retirement accounts. Well on our way. Lucky to have a frugal spouse on board. While spouse would want to work forever, I'd love to cut back some if even possible. Travel while still young. The goal is to at least be FI not later than age 55, hopefully sooner if things go as planned and life does not throw any curveballs :)