What Is The Youngest FIREing You Know Of?

[John Galt incarnate!]

Melvin, a retired military man, is one of my acquaintances.


Melvin's relative enlisted in the Navy when he was ~20 and was medically retired by ~25 @ 70% of his pay.

~25 is the youngest FIREing I know of.

[arebelspy]

Oh boy. This thread is sure to see some FI definition arguments discussions.

Taking what seems like the OP's definition, I'm sure there are some 18 year olds who went on SSI disability for life.

Possibly before that, if their parents got payments for them that covered all the kids' expenses?

As far as people FIRE'd via saving 25x their expenses, there's more than a few in their early to mid-20s. Sustainability is a question if their expenses are very (unsustainably?) low.

I'm sure there's plenty of tech entrepreneurs or cryptocoin holders who hit FI very young too, though again, sustainability is a question if they aren't purposefully looking at FI, as they may spend more than would be safe, or be invested in too risky of assets.

Age doesn't matter so much. For getting to FIRE, it's about how old you are when you find it, and your baggage when you do.

If you find the concept at 20 with very little debt, late 20s to mid-30s is totally feasible. If you find it at 45 with tons of consumer debt, you might be happy with an early retirement at 62.

We're all on our own journey. Looking to others doesn't help, unless it's for inspiration and ideas.

:)

[obstinate]

I'm sure there are people who have an FI-sufficient trust fund created for them the day they are born.

[chasesfish]

I was going to say @arebelspy - Then I saw he already commented on the tread!

The math says 7-15 years working depending on your savings rate in a *normal* market.   There are a number of people out there that invested in real estate in their early 20s and it also happened to be 2008-2011, when there was a once in a generation sale on residential real estate and the investors who did what it took to buy/hold/rent in this time period earned some out sized returns and accelerated their FI much earlier.

I lived in one of those markets and didn't have the courage to buy at the time, so I'm the 12 years working to FI and 15 to retirement

[EnjoyIt]

I was going to say @arebelspy - Then I saw he already commented on the tread!

The math says 7-15 years working depending on your savings rate in a *normal* market.   There are a number of people out there that invested in real estate in their early 20s and it also happened to be 2008-2011, when there was a once in a generation sale on residential real estate and the investors who did what it took to buy/hold/rent in this time period earned some out sized returns and accelerated their FI much earlier.

I lived in one of those markets and didn't have the courage to buy at the time, so I'm the 12 years working to FI and 15 to retirement

After college, med school, and then residency it took us 9 years to make enough to pay down debt and be almost FI with some of our dumbass baggage.  Removing the baggage would make us FI today.  We will be going part time at the end of this year and see how that affects our lifestyle, our baggage, and our desires.

Personally I do not think going on disability is FIRE.  I doubt anyone would choose real disability with a paycheck over being healthy and a job.  There are some who fabricate disability but that is another topic.

[Happily Irrelevant]

Melvin, a retired military man, is one of my acquaintances.


Melvin's relative enlisted in the Navy when he was ~20 and was medically retired by ~25 @ 70% of his pay.

~25 is the youngest FIREing I know of.

70% VA disability is only about $1500 a month.  I would label him as scraping by vs "retired". 

[Much Fishing to Do]

Does the 20 year old who hit the $400M Mega millions in January count?  Seems like a decent guy so hope it goes well....