Who here is over 40 and just recently came here?

[Must Stache]

SO INSPIRING!!! :)
[/quote]

Thank you!  But MMM is the real inspiration!  My only regret is that I didn't find this place at 31, rather than 41.  If I had, I might be FIRE already!

[Lunasol]

SO INSPIRING!!! :)

Thank you!  But MMM is the real inspiration!  My only regret is that I didn't find this place at 31, rather than 41.  If I had, I might be FIRE already!
[/quote]

I'm 27 and I wish I had found it when I was 20, time is relative, good luck!!

[iris lily]

I was in my late 50's before I came here, but I was always about frugality in order to build up FU money long  that.

I read Your Money or Your Life in my early 40's but had known about it for years prior. When I actually satbdown to read it, I admired the expression of the core idea:  we trade our life energy for working for The Man.

The rest of it wasn't new, and while I do like Dominquez' idea of charting expenses and FIRE income to see the actual crossover point, I didnt do it. Now did I ever do his tedious exercise of figurng out how much money I had apent over my life on stuff.

Here is a heresy: when I retired, I didnt even know how much we spent annually. I retired at age 61 which isnt early by  standards here, but it was always a possibility to do it earlier. I didnt hate my job until a few years prior to that, and I hung on at work because things were interesting and even compelling for,a while. But hate won,out! Haha.

[Goldielocks]

I first found MMM site at the age of 42, two years ago.

At the time, I really could not understand why people would put more money into their RRSP (401k) such that withdrawls would result in MORE taxes and higher income than in their working years, and thought we had about finished. 

I had spent my late 20's and early 30's saving a net of 1%-2% (Net of new debt) as we raised small children.

Then I realized that people retire before the age of 55 or 60!   Oh. Boy.   Major mind shift.

Two years later, I am currently trialing FIRE with a LOA...  and loving every second of it.

[mynewchoice]

I am a few weeks away from my 41st birthday and found the MMM site / forums a few months ago.  I do feel somewhat fortunate as when I graduated college and found myself with a good chunk of student loan debt as well as credit card debt, I had found the Motley Fool website.  I was a huge fan of the Living Below Your Means forum and the FIRE forum that they had, and I was able to pay off all of that debt and begin saving.

At that time, I forecast out my saving and had come up with a target of being able to retire at age 52.  However, I generally had my savings on autopilot and we have not worried about money much as we would spend whatever we weren't saving.  What I have learned now is that I can retire earlier than I have planned if we adopt some more mustachian ways, and really I think the key thing is learning more about where we truly want to spend money on things that bring us value in some context and not just spending frivolously.  We have been selling some things on Facebook garage sale groups to declutter our lives, cutting out some monthly expenses that really weren't all that important to us but we had kept around for some reason, and are continuing to work on where we can dial in our spending--groceries and eating out are two categories where I think we can really cut back and save quite a bit.

I do kick myself a little because if we had been better at a younger age, I am sure that I could be FIRE already as I have had a healthy salary for quite some time.  There are days that I regret that when I am fed up with working but then there are also plenty of days where I reflect and have no regrets about spending on some of the things we have spent on over the years.  It truly is a balancing act and overall I will be happy even if I remain on track with my original plan to retire by 52.

[golden1]

I found this site at around age 40.  Like others in this thread, my idea of FIRE is less drastic.  I am thinking going part time at age 50-55 more than sprinting to a full retirement ASAP.  I have kids, a decent job I spent the better part of my life training for etc...  I see this forum as more of an encouragement to be grateful and to keep my lifestyle under control. 

[SEAK]

42 and found MMM last year.

I had always thought I was doing well saving for retirement. But after reading through the blog I realized we needed to reduce our expenses and step up our savings. We are now maxing out both 401ks and ROTH IRAs, max out a state voluntary savings account, contribute monthly to a Vanguard taxable account, and contribute monthly to both kids 529 plans. Our average monthly credit card bill has dropped from last year. We ride our bikes more often, have more stay-cations, sometimes we never leave the neighborhood over a weekend, and I and constantly selling our stuff on Ebay, Craigslist, etc.

Lots to still work on but MMM has done nothing but change our lives for the better.

[oldtoyota]

Thanks OT!  Enjoyed reading up on your expense slashing.  Inspiring!

Glad you found it inspiring! Thanks for letting me know. =-)

[ABK]

Great thread idea!

I'm 44, DH is 50, and we found MMM a little over a year ago. The changes to our lives over the last year have been nothing short of remarkable. I won't list all the good things here, since you have probably all experienced them too.

Long story short: we'll be able to RE (well, E for me, if not for DH) in exactly ten years from now. That makes us hugely happy.

[gggggg]

I'm 41, and just came here a few months ago. Luckily, my best friend  is super frugal, and smart with benefits and investing; he instructed (basically forced) me to put a good amount in my 401k when I was younger. Fast forward, I now have no debt. Paid for house, paid for new car. I didn't come from too deep of a hole, so it was fairly easy for me. I won't be able to retire too early, as I have to wait it out for my pension benefits at 50-55 (at 55 I get significantly more, so I may wait it out). If pension is included, my nw is a tick over 1mil (on a 50k salary). When you pay off your debt, and live well below your means, the money just piles up.

[sisto]

I'm 47 and I found this site about a year ago doing some sort of google search for early retirement. I immediately loved Pete's writing style and sense of humor. I had already been fairly frugal and planned to retire at 55, but I realized fairly quickly that I could pull that date in and retire at 52 which is when I qualify for rule of 75 at work. I had a few moments of wishing I'd found the site early as I could have been retired by now for sure, but life goes on no need to dwell on the past. I hope I've learned from my mistakes and just happy that I have the right mindset of thinking about and planning my retirement. So many people I know just plan to work forever and just don't get it. I feel sad for them. I get so tired of answering the question of what are you going to due if you retire that early. My standard answer is whatever the F*** I want. That's the purpose of retiring isn't it? The biggest thing I learned here is to control monthly expenses. I used to think $10/mo was no big deal and then MMM made me realize a bunch of $10-$20/mo payments really add up. I signed up for Mint and really do a better job tracking expenses and NW.

[Cannot Wait!]

The changes to our lives over the last year have been nothing short of remarkable. I won't list all the good things here, since you have probably all experienced them too.

List away!  I, for one, love to hear details of success stories!

[ABK]

The changes to our lives over the last year have been nothing short of remarkable. I won't list all the good things here, since you have probably all experienced them too.

List away!  I, for one, love to hear details of success stories!

Well, ok :)

In the last 13 months we have:

• Paid off $10K in credit card debt (and will never accumulate more)
• Gotten rid of the lease car and purchased a ten year old Prius with cash (we only have one car)
• Paid off $17K of higher-interest student loans
• Are on schedule to pay off the remaining $15K of a bank loan by December, making us completely debt-free by 2017
• Paid for our son's braces in cash the day he had them put on
• Gotten a major attitude adjustment and are finally feeling balanced and at peace, now that we have a down-budgeted lifestyle
• And most importantly, are able to project forward to 2026, when we will be able to retire with a fully paid-off house and enough in our retirement accounts, pensions, and socsec to live comfortably for a very long time

Life is good. Now that I think about it, feeling at peace with the down-budgeted lifestyle may be more important than the solid early retirement plan. Why didn't we do this sooner? Who knows.

[Cannot Wait!]

Awesome!

[dandypandys]

The changes to our lives over the last year have been nothing short of remarkable. I won't list all the good things here, since you have probably all experienced them too.

List away!  I, for one, love to hear details of success stories!

Well, ok :)

In the last 13 months we have:

• Paid off $10K in credit card debt (and will never accumulate more)
• Gotten rid of the lease car and purchased a ten year old Prius with cash (we only have one car)
• Paid off $17K of higher-interest student loans
• Are on schedule to pay off the remaining $15K of a bank loan by December, making us completely debt-free by 2017
• Paid for our son's braces in cash the day he had them put on
• Gotten a major attitude adjustment and are finally feeling balanced and at peace, now that we have a down-budgeted lifestyle
• And most importantly, are able to project forward to 2026, when we will be able to retire with a fully paid-off house and enough in our retirement accounts, pensions, and socsec to live comfortably for a very long time

Life is good. Now that I think about it, feeling at peace with the down-budgeted lifestyle may be more important than the solid early retirement plan. Why didn't we do this sooner? Who knows.

I love hearing this stuff :)

[Larsg]

I cam late - 48 when I found the m's. Glad I did. Best educational site on ER I have ever ready and sparked a fire to assess, ensure I was maxing out all I could, and consider ER that I had never done before. I thought I would work forever - reasons for another post. But, around your age, I had gotten serious about paying off all debts (accept for house), started to curb the families spending habits, not just for the savings but for the intelligence of it and should have down it much sooner. Sustainability is important to us so whey are we buying anything that will wind up in a landfill or that will take too much of our time to clean and maintain. Mass simplification as enabled us to realize we can fire now if we want. Keep at it...it's well worth it. Imagine if you had not found this site, you would be on the hamster wheel of "what do we do next" to keep it all going. One other eye opener besides the M's is that we moved into a hood with a bunch of retirees in their 60's and 70's that ranged from the Millionaire Widow next door that lives in a small tract house paid for in cash 20 years ago and living it up with complete financial freedom to those who slammed into 65 with no savings, no house equity, no job, poor health, but tons of material possessions. They were shocked when they found out that SS would barely cover medicaid A, B, some gas and some groceries. Watching old ladies with the shakes, who can barely walk have to go get a job bagging groceries to live was heartbreaking. We have saw the future on both sides and adjusted accordingly.