NYT Article: How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank

Uh-huh. Two adults with two daughters living on $40k/yr. Not going to happen. $1.2 million in the bank at 43...that's great...think that's going to last 2 adults for 40 years of living?

Boo freaking hoo...stressful job...can't take it. We're a nation of pu$$ies now.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the fire community has become extremely popular during the 9 year bull run of the stock market

fire wrote:

I don't think it's a coincidence that the fire community has become extremely popular during the 9 year bull run of the stock market

Exactly. Wait for the next dip, and all these folks will be looking for a job. 100% poor planning and laziness at its finest.

If anyone thinks that $1 million will last if you retire super early, urine idiot.

Suck it up wrote:

Uh-huh. Two adults with two daughters living on $40k/yr. Not going to happen. $1.2 million in the bank at 43...that's great...think that's going to last 2 adults for 40 years of living?

Boo freaking hoo...stressful job...can't take it. We're a nation of pu$$ies now.

40k? jeez. do you both work at Burger King?

“Data point” is a meaningless and grammatically incorrect term. Data is the plural of datum.

Datum wrote:

“Data point” is a meaningless and grammatically incorrect term. Data is the plural of datum.

I walked a dogs.

another data point wrote:

Has anyone here done this? Plan to do it?

Yeah, kind of. I plan on retiring at 40. The difference between me and the guys in the article is that I plan on doing it with about $5 million saved.

I've always been someone who prioritized saving money. Even when I was making $60K + $20K bonus out of college, I was maxing out my 401K and IRA contributions and buying vanguard index funds outside of retirement accounts. That said, I'm now married with kids and my household spends a bit over $100K/yr, which I'm kind of ashamed of. That said, my total household income is close to $700K.

I stumble upon MMM awhile back and the FI subreddit, so I'm familiar with this little internet subculture, but I was already planning on bailing as early as possible before I learned what "FIRE" was.

I took two years off in 2010. I'd be retired right now had I not done that. Whoops.

You will need at least 10 million in bank to retire at that age.

What do you do for a living?

They ignored the elephant of health insurance. With a paid of house, and being reasonably handy with respect to home and car repair, I could easily live off $40-50,000/year, the interest from $1,000,000. The problem is that health insurance alone for a couple would be $1,000/month.

You should probably shoot for 3 million. Two million if you are thrifty and can let the principle grow at the rate of inflation.

3 mil in the bank wrote:

another data point wrote:

Has anyone here done this? Plan to do it?

Yeah, kind of. I plan on retiring at 40. The difference between me and the guys in the article is that I plan on doing it with about $5 million saved.

That's awesome. What do you plan to do with your time? Are you planning to totally stop working or transition to something different?

3 mil in the bank wrote:

I took two years off in 2010. I'd be retired right now had I not done that. Whoops.

The idea of a mid-career break like this appeals to me, but you seem to regret it. What did you do during your two years and do you really wish you hadn't?

The main problem with early retirement is inflation. You may be able to get by on your fixed income for 10-15 years. but after that, inflation is going to eat you alive especially if you are on a tight budget. I have a bunch of retired military in my family. They all thought they were on easy street because they retired in their early 50s and their military pension was very generous. So, they went on cruises and traveled around in an RV and were just fine in their late 50s and early 60s. But then inflation caught up with them in a big way. They couldn't afford rising property taxes and had to downsize into small condos. They could no longer afford to take trips or eat out. Then, in their mid 60s, they were all going back to work to make ends meet.

Stay Healthy wrote:

They ignored the elephant of health insurance. With a paid of house, and being reasonably handy with respect to home and car repair, I could easily live off $40-50,000/year, the interest from $1,000,000. The problem is that health insurance alone for a couple would be $1,000/month.

Some of these folks seem to have one spouse still working (so probably getting insurance through that spouse's employer) , and I'm guessing others are counting on ACA subsidies. Definitely agree that healthcare seems like a big variable -- I wouldn't consider ACA subsidies "safe" in the current political environment with a time horizon of 30+ years until Medicare eligibility.

another data point wrote:

3 mil in the bank wrote:

Yeah, kind of. I plan on retiring at 40. The difference between me and the guys in the article is that I plan on doing it with about $5 million saved.

That's awesome. What do you plan to do with your time? Are you planning to totally stop working or transition to something different?

3 mil in the bank wrote:

I took two years off in 2010. I'd be retired right now had I not done that. Whoops.

The idea of a mid-career break like this appeals to me, but you seem to regret it. What did you do during your two years and do you really wish you hadn't?

I've "retired" twice. First time I took 2 years off after selling my first company. I got bored and went back to work. The company I worked for got acquired and we made a lot of $$. They had their own CTO and I didn't want to take a 1b position, so I left. Retired for 3 more years. Now I've started a new company. Plan is to be acquired by PE or another company in the next 2-4 years. I'll be 39 by then and once it happens, I think I'll be done working for good. :)

If you can do it, take mini breaks from working. It's been tremendous and makes all the long hours worth it.

another data point wrote:

That's awesome. What do you plan to do with your time? Are you planning to totally stop working or transition to something different?

I have so much I want to do or at least try to do. Interests include: app development, 2nd language, running, maybe politics, maybe acting, misc entertainment (movies, games, etc).

3 mil in the bank wrote:

I took two years off in 2010. I'd be retired right now had I not done that. Whoops.

The idea of a mid-career break like this appeals to me, but you seem to regret it. What did you do during your two years and do you really wish you hadn't?

I'm not sure if I regret it or not. The problem is that the opportunity cost was enormous given the then market returns, but you can only know that after the fact, so I guess no big deal. I despised my job at the time and it was leading to some stress related health issues, so it definitely helped with my overall well being. I also bicycled across the country which was one of the best experiences of my life and I tried some pretty gnarly drugs that left me with a long lasting, powerful, and positive outlook on life and outlook in general.

To answer the other dude, I have a degree in CS from a top tier program, but went into finance. The funny thing is, is that many of my peers have done far better than I as a result of being earlyish GOOG, FB, AMZN employees.

Precious Roy wrote:

The main problem with early retirement is inflation. You may be able to get by on your fixed income for 10-15 years. but after that, inflation is going to eat you alive especially if you are on a tight budget. I have a bunch of retired military in my family. They all thought they were on easy street because they retired in their early 50s and their military pension was very generous. So, they went on cruises and traveled around in an RV and were just fine in their late 50s and early 60s. But then inflation caught up with them in a big way. They couldn't afford rising property taxes and had to downsize into small condos. They could no longer afford to take trips or eat out. Then, in their mid 60s, they were all going back to work to make ends meet.

The people who are a part of this community take inflation into account. They figure out a "safe withdrawal rate" which will be the amount you can safely withdraw from a portfolio that lasts, say, 30 years, *inflation adjusted*. For example, 4% has a very high probability of success. So if you have $1 mil saved, and are comfortable living on less than $40K in today's dollars, you can likely retire as long as your inflation adjusted spending doesn't exceed $40K in today's dollars going forward. There are 4 years in the past in which this strategy would fail.

That said, given the current historical bull run, I wouldn't be surprised is 2018 will be one of these years.

More here:

another data point wrote:

Stay Healthy wrote:

They ignored the elephant of health insurance. With a paid of house, and being reasonably handy with respect to home and car repair, I could easily live off $40-50,000/year, the interest from $1,000,000. The problem is that health insurance alone for a couple would be $1,000/month.

Some of these folks seem to have one spouse still working (so probably getting insurance through that spouse's employer) , and I'm guessing others are counting on ACA subsidies. Definitely agree that healthcare seems like a big variable -- I wouldn't consider ACA subsidies "safe" in the current political environment with a time horizon of 30+ years until Medicare eligibility.

Yeah federal level ACA subsidies are not means tested (in terms of net worth), so, at least for the moment, they rely on federal ACA subsidies. This also forces them to make enough money in capital gains to be above the federal poverty line, because if they make less than that, they'll need to rely on state ACA subsidies which typically ARE means tested and they wouldn't qualify. It's kind of funny.