Did you retire in your 30s?

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natureexplorer
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Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by natureexplorer »

Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?

What would you do differently?
What would you definitely do again?

What did you tell people when asked what you do?
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Raybo
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Raybo »

No. I retired in my late-40s. I don't know if my answers fit your requirements, but here goes:

When I first retired, I told people who asked what I did that I was retired. It virtually always killed the conversation as the other person usually started ruminating on how they wouldn't be able to retire anytime soon or at all. I eventually switched to "I'm not working." I was never asked "Why?" I wasn't working and that usually kept the interaction moving.

Later, I started saying that I didn't work, but when I did I was an X. This helped the people I was talking with to learn something about me, which was likely their reason for asking about my job in the first place.

As an exercise, try to meet someone new and find out about them without asking about what they do. I usually ask people what they do in their free time.

Would I do it again? Yes, it was my main goal when working.

What did I learn? You better have one or more ways to fill your time or have a high tolerance for boredom. When I first retired, I made it a goal to read Will and Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization, a set of books, maybe 10,000 pages in total, that covers all of known history up to Napoleon. A great way to ease into idleness. Riding a bicycle long distances is a great way to stay in shape and see some beautiful places.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Videogames »

32 my in laws can't stand it. They think work is some how good for you and getting up everyday at 6 am sitting in traffic is the way to go.

People also ask me what I do. I'll say from now on I'm not working. That'll kill that conversation and lead to something more stimulating.

Favorite seen in office space when they said if you had a million dollars what would you do? Nothing. Lol
Nothing = whatever I feel like that day.
livesoft
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by livesoft »

natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?
One lesson was to have a spouse that is not retired and is still working.
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Videogames
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Videogames »

livesoft wrote:
natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?
One lesson was to have a spouse that is not retired and is still working.
Agreed
Stonebr
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Stonebr »

This thread is making me sick to my stomach.

I think it should be locked.
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Stonebr
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Stonebr »

Videogames wrote: Favorite seen in office space when they said if you had a million dollars what would you do? Nothing. Lol
Nothing = whatever I feel like that day.
[OT comment removed by admin LadyGeek]
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HomerJ
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by HomerJ »

Videogames wrote:
livesoft wrote:
natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?
One lesson was to have a spouse that is not retired and is still working.
Agreed
That doesn't really count... That means every stay-at-home parent can claim they "retired" in their 20s or 30s.
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JonnyDVM
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by JonnyDVM »

That's a long time to be doing nothing. I can't imagine not working at least part time at such a young age.
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sunnyday
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by sunnyday »

Videogames wrote:32 my in laws can't stand it. They think work is some how good for you and getting up everyday at 6 am sitting in traffic is the way to go.

People also ask me what I do. I'll say from now on I'm not working. That'll kill that conversation and lead to something more stimulating.

Favorite seen in office space when they said if you had a million dollars what would you do? Nothing. Lol
Nothing = whatever I feel like that day.
Videogames wrote:
livesoft wrote:
natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?
One lesson was to have a spouse that is not retired and is still working.
Agreed
Videogames, is your wife still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your wife is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
Jerrybaby
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Jerrybaby »

sunnyday wrote:
Videogames wrote:32 my in laws can't stand it. They think work is some how good for you and getting up everyday at 6 am sitting in traffic is the way to go.

People also ask me what I do. I'll say from now on I'm not working. That'll kill that conversation and lead to something more stimulating.

Favorite seen in office space when they said if you had a million dollars what would you do? Nothing. Lol
Nothing = whatever I feel like that day.
Videogames wrote:
livesoft wrote:
natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?
One lesson was to have a spouse that is not retired and is still working.
Agreed
Videogames, is your wife still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your wife is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
Don't you just love good comedy?
General Disarray
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by General Disarray »

Stonebr wrote:This thread is making me sick to my stomach.

I think it should be locked.
:D

I think it should be kept unlocked only because of the thread's possible entertainment value.

One lesson that I think a 30-something-year-old retiree might learn, but not until decades later, is the lesson of humility--i.e., no one likes a smug a-hole. Another lesson might be: Keep working, because it's always good to be a productive citizen.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by hicabob »

I don't think there's anything wrong with a person stopping paid employment at any age if they wish to and can afford it. It opens up the job(s) to those who want it among other benefits to multiple parties.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by thebogledude »

I can't imagine retiring in my 30s. I was laid off in my 30s and I did the things that retired people do like reading the paper, hanging out at McDonalds all day, watching Golden Girls reruns. Even if I had a million dollars, doing nothing would get old.
Last edited by thebogledude on Thu Mar 13, 2014 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Professor Emeritus
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Professor Emeritus »

As with so many things I think its a question of definition. If you earned and saved enough to retire in your 30s it can be very interesting to know how and why.
If you simply inherited, married or otherwise obtained support without working and saving, it is frankly of no interest except to fans of The Great Gatsby.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Jerrybaby »

I think to work when you don't have to would be an amazing experience, as long as thats what you wanted to do.
freddie
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by freddie »

Yeah with only a million it would get old. With 100 million though you probably could find ways of entertaining yourself.

thebogledude wrote:I can't imagine retiring in my 30s. I was laid off in my 30s and I did the things that retired people do like reading the paper, hanging out at McDonalds all day, watching Golden Girls reruns. Even if I had a million dollars, doing nothing would get old.
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Scott S
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Scott S »

Raybo wrote:...This helped the people I was talking with to learn something about me, which was likely their reason for asking about my job in the first place.

As an exercise, try to meet someone new and find out about them without asking about what they do. I usually ask people what they do in their free time.
I'm not retired yet, but a couple years ago, it began to irk me that the default first thing people do when they meet each other is to ask where they work. Granted, it's just a very common icebreaker, but the implication that comes across is that what one does for money is the most important thing about them... ack.

So I started doing something similar to you -- deliberately avoiding that question, and finding other things to ask. It's refreshing to see that confused look in the other person's eyes when they ask "So what do you do?" and I respond with, "I like to ride and fix bikes, I co-organize a local social group, I just read _____, have you?" :twisted:
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porcupine
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by porcupine »

sunnyday wrote:
Videogames wrote:32 my in laws can't stand it. They think work is some how good for you and getting up everyday at 6 am sitting in traffic is the way to go.

People also ask me what I do. I'll say from now on I'm not working. That'll kill that conversation and lead to something more stimulating.

Favorite seen in office space when they said if you had a million dollars what would you do? Nothing. Lol
Nothing = whatever I feel like that day.
Videogames wrote:
livesoft wrote:
natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?
One lesson was to have a spouse that is not retired and is still working.
Agreed
Videogames, is your wife still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your wife is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
Let me see here. We are in the 21st century now. Let me rephrase that ...
Videogames, is your husband still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your husband is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
Now, is that better? ;-)

- Porcupine
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by porcupine »

Stonebr wrote:
Videogames wrote: Favorite seen in office space when they said if you had a million dollars what would you do? Nothing. Lol
Nothing = whatever I feel like that day.
[OT comment removed by admin LadyGeek]
[Reply to OT comment removed by admin LadyGeek]

- Porcupine
thebogledude
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by thebogledude »

freddie wrote:Yeah with only a million it would get old. With 100 million though you probably could find ways of entertaining yourself.

thebogledude wrote:I can't imagine retiring in my 30s. I was laid off in my 30s and I did the things that retired people do like reading the paper, hanging out at McDonalds all day, watching Golden Girls reruns. Even if I had a million dollars, doing nothing would get old.
I don't think a million or 100 million would change my lifestyle at all. Otherwise why would you retire in the first place? Knowing myself and what I take comfort in, I would probably do the same thing.
tj
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by tj »

I basically did not work between October 2012 and February 2014. The first two months were spent traveling. The remainder was spent looking for jobs. It's possible that if I had an infinite nest egg that I would rather not work and find plenty of other things to do with my time, but all that free time got incredibly boring for me, and I'm happy to be working again and contributing to society, a productive business, etc.
Last edited by tj on Thu Mar 13, 2014 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Videogames
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Videogames »

sunnyday wrote:
Videogames wrote:32 my in laws can't stand it. They think work is some how good for you and getting up everyday at 6 am sitting in traffic is the way to go.

People also ask me what I do. I'll say from now on I'm not working. That'll kill that conversation and lead to something more stimulating.

Favorite seen in office space when they said if you had a million dollars what would you do? Nothing. Lol
Nothing = whatever I feel like that day.
Videogames wrote:
livesoft wrote:
natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?
One lesson was to have a spouse that is not retired and is still working.
Agreed
Videogames, is your wife still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your wife is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
I really don't want to get in to a pissing contest. I was retired before I married her last year. She quit her dead end job last year and immigrated to the US. She now is fulfilling her life long dream to become a nurse. She's a nursing student and works part time at the campus book store. As for the tuition I am paying for.

If she decides to work at a hospital after she graduates that's her decision.

My in laws are working full time in their 60's because their financial advisor had them double mortgage the house so they could lose it all in the stock market.
scrabbler1
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by scrabbler1 »

natureexplorer wrote:Did you retire in your 30s? If yes, what lessons did you learn?

What would you do differently?
What would you definitely do again?

What did you tell people when asked what you do?
I retired 5 years ago at age 45. I had been working part-time for the last 7 years so it wasn't a big change to not work at all. I already had several volunteer activities and hobbies I could continue or expand with my additional days and evenings freed up.

I would not do anything differently and would do it again. When asked, I tell them about my hobbies and volunteer work AND the fact that I don't have to deal with the commute I could not stand doing, even 2 days a week.

You might want to venture to http://www.early-retirement.org to chat with my fellow early retirees about this topic.
Professor Emeritus
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Professor Emeritus »

Videogames wrote:
I really don't want to get in to a pissing contest. I was retired before I married her last year. She quit her dead end job last year and immigrated to the US. She now is fulfilling her life long dream to become a nurse. She's a nursing student and works part time at the campus book store. As for the tuition I am paying for.

If she decides to work at a hospital after she graduates that's her decision.

My in laws are working full time in their 60's because their financial advisor had them double mortgage the house so they could lose it all in the stock market.
Did you retire based on your own earnings? e.g. (nifty patent, best selling author,brilliant investor, professional athlete etc?
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by The Wizard »

Professor Emeritus wrote:
Videogames wrote:
I really don't want to get in to a pissing contest. I was retired before I married her last year. She quit her dead end job last year and immigrated to the US. She now is fulfilling her life long dream to become a nurse. She's a nursing student and works part time at the campus book store. As for the tuition I am paying for.

If she decides to work at a hospital after she graduates that's her decision.

My in laws are working full time in their 60's because their financial advisor had them double mortgage the house so they could lose it all in the stock market.
Did you retire based on your own earnings? e.g. (nifty patent, best selling author,brilliant investor, professional athlete etc?
Yes, we'd like to get a glimpse at the methodology involved, since with 20 years or less in the workforce by age 39, 90% of Americans aren't wealthy enough to pull the plug.
I just hope this isn't another psuedo-retirement like that Mister Money guy...
Attempted new signature...
Valuethinker
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Valuethinker »

We need to distinguish here between 'retirement' and 'retiring from work that is a career as such'.

In the latter we often:

- make big compromises in terms of where we live, commuting, hours etc
- day to day engage in politics and irrational activities to keep our employers and our clients happy. Self employment is no escape because then you have clients who can be just as irrational and wasteful as bosses
- do work of marginal or sometimes negative social value. Fund managers are well paid, for example, and work very hard. But we hold it as axiomatic here than 90% if not 99% of active fund management is essentially wasteful. On Larry Swedroe's latest, even Warren Buffett merely chanced on a statistical formula before everyone else (cue intense debate, but I think both sides would agree that Buffett is utterly unique in his public record of investment success). Similarly we could name people working in the mortgage finance industry in the 2000s as, in aggregate, having nearly brought down the world economy. Many medical procedures are wasteful. Drug companies have been indicted for overselling pharmaceuticals. etc. etc. (I am not excluding myself in any of this comment)
- work in large bureaucracies that exist to feed and extend themselves, rather than for their stated purpose
- engage in brutal competitive zero sum games with people in our organization: colleagues, other departments and also outside our organization-- our profit is their loss, hurrah!
- do good, important work that sometimes requires grey area moral judgements or very bureaucratic ones - anything regarding law, justice, law enforcement, social services for example


By contrast, in 'retirement' we could:

- work for low or no pay for a not-for-profit or community organizations
- pursue educational goals or personal hobbies and interests - travel, fitness, reading etc.
- help other people - family friends. Pick up the kids from school and make sure they are properly parented

When I grew up, much of this work was done by middle aged women who had given up careers to have children. Nowadays of course those women work, are often the main breadwinner (I have this statistic, probably made up, that 25% of households now have a female partner who makes more than their spouse).

We didn't call being housewives 'retired'.

If you want to retire to do nothing, I think you'll go mad. If you retire to do *something* that doesn't happen to be remunerative, then the world is your oyster.

A caution. A friend of mine left the financial services industry a very rich man in his early 40s (say c. USD15m-- guessing)-- having worked more or less 80-100 hour weeks for much of the previous 20 years. Moved to a retirement cottage area. Found that everyone who wasn't a 'local' (who make their money in the summer repairing boats and cottages, and in the winter snowploughing etc.) was 20 years older than he was and tended to have a significant drinking problem- bored professional retirees. Then moved cities a couple of times. But is still basically underemployed.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Caduceus »

Great points, Valuethinker.
Last edited by Caduceus on Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
J295
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by J295 »

A bit random here, but some of the dialogue reminds me of a time I met a young sports personality who was between jobs (subsequently became a tv/radio commentator). I though he had a very witty reply when someone in our group said hey Joe what are you doing now he replied -- "living in Chicago with my wife, I'm a stay at home dad with no kids." :--)
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by sunnyday »

sunnyday wrote: Videogames, is your wife still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your wife is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
porcupine wrote: Let me see here. We are in the 21st century now. Let me rephrase that ...
Videogames, is your husband still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your husband is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
Now, is that better? ;-)

- Porcupine
Good point, I jumped to the conclusion that the OP was a male. However, I think that assumption is more "21st century" than how you rephrased it. It just depends on how you look at it. I could read your phrase as thinking that the male is the worker, the female is the trophy wife and hangs out by the pool all day, or cleans the house, or takes the kids to soccer practice (seems very 50's-ish to me).

I, along with many of my friends, have wives that are breadwinners. One of my friends is a stay-at-home dad with 3 kids. No complaints here :)
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by sunnyday »

Videogames wrote:
sunnyday wrote:
Videogames, is your wife still working?
If so, you retired at 32 but your wife is still working and you're wondering why your in laws can't stand it?
I really don't want to get in to a pissing contest. I was retired before I married her last year. She quit her dead end job last year and immigrated to the US. She now is fulfilling her life long dream to become a nurse. She's a nursing student and works part time at the campus book store. As for the tuition I am paying for.

If she decides to work at a hospital after she graduates that's her decision.

My in laws are working full time in their 60's because their financial advisor had them double mortgage the house so they could lose it all in the stock market.
I'm not trying to stir anything up, just curious as to why your in-laws may have some animosity. Maybe it's because they're having to work into their 60's because of a bad break/bad advice and expect some help from their son-in-law who has millions and millions of dollars. I personally feel that it's your money and you can do what you want with it. But some cultures, feel differently about helping out parents. I believe it's even part of the law in one Asian country (Singapore maybe?).
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Index Fan »

Did you retire in your 30s?
Heck, I started investing in my 30s!
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HomerJ
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by HomerJ »

Index Fan wrote:
Did you retire in your 30s?
Heck, I started investing in my 30s!
Yeah I didn't even have a positive net worth until I was in my 30s...

There was at least one year I probably could have called myself "retired" in my 20s though... There's a fine line between being "retired" and being a "bum". :)
mayday23
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by mayday23 »

Why are people that are retired young offended when someone asks what they do? “I used to do xxxx, but I retired and now I do xyz. How was your commute today?“
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Imperabo
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Imperabo »

I'll never understand the concept of being bored due to not working. I could live happily for 1000 lifetimes. Have you learned to play every instrument? Speak every language? Ski powder? Surf big waves? Have you reached all your fitness goals? Did you get that economically worthless but intellectually fascinating degree you always wanted?

I can understand the desired to be a productive member of society, and being unfulfilled without that, but bored? I haven't been bored since I got Commodore 64 in 1985.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by OAG »

I retired at 38 years & 8 m0nths. DW was SAHP (stay at home parent). After kids all finished school (2 BS in Nursing) 1 - Military AD Enlisted and 1 - Service Academy Commissioned Officer we 2 just decided to enjoy life - 35 years later we are still doing just that.
OAG=Old Army Guy. Retired CW4 USA (US Army) in 1979 21 years of service @ 38.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Mingus »

Imperabo wrote:I'll never understand the concept of being bored due to not working.

I can understand the desired to be a productive member of society, and being unfulfilled without that, but bored? I haven't been bored since I got Commodore 64 in 1985.
I think there is a confusion among people not being able to differentiate the difference between being unemployed (looking for work) and being in a position where work is optional. There must be some sort of paralysis, or stress response to being out of work that makes being unemployed (in need of money) so exceedingly boring and horrific.

When I was laid off in early 2009, I picked up two contracting gigs for two previous employers. It was enough work to feel productive, and maintain a positive cash flow. But for the first time in my life probably since High School I had a tremendous amount of free time. Was learning Italian. Was able to go the gym more often. Went for bike rides in the middle of the day. Could stay up late watching TV if I liked. I went jogging a lot. Took lots of naps. My mood improved immensely. My health was far better.

Four months later, I got a full time job. Began commuting. Enough said. But a lot greater cash flow.
Random Poster
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Random Poster »

Valuethinker wrote:By contrast, in 'retirement' we could:

- work for low or no pay for a not-for-profit or community organizations
- pursue educational goals or personal hobbies and interests - travel, fitness, reading etc.
- help other people - family friends. Pick up the kids from school and make sure they are properly parented
I am striving and hoping to be able to do this sort of "retirement" by the time that I hit 40.

I figure that with a paid-off house in a reasonable cost-of-living location and 1.25 to 1.5 million in a taxable investment account, it is plenty do-able.
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market timer
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by market timer »

Random Poster wrote:I am striving and hoping to be able to do this sort of "retirement" by the time that I hit 40.

I figure that with a paid-off house in a reasonable cost-of-living location and 1.25 to 1.5 million in a taxable investment account, it is plenty do-able.
Similar plans here, aided by my wife's stable career. Not concerned in the slightest with boredom. Looking forward to being a more involved parent than I could possibly be with a 60-hour work week.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Valuethinker »

Put it another way 'retirement' does not mean ceasing to do meaningful and valuable work.

It just may mean getting paid less (or nothing) to do that work.

We don't call housewives 'retired'.

Conversely a lot of what we do in our 'real' careers is quite frankly idiotic and valueless, and that's even true if you have a good and purposeful job. Doctors for example get to fill out insurance forms. Most of us get to deliver performance appraisals which are not necessarily going to help the person nor the organization in which they work.
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by ThatGuy »

Imperabo wrote:I'll never understand the concept of being bored due to not working.

I can understand the desired to be a productive member of society, and being unfulfilled without that, but bored? I haven't been bored since I got Commodore 64 in 1985.
+1,000,000

I don't live to work, I work so I can enjoy my life. If I had enough cash to enjoy a moderate lifestyle without working, I would not be bored. I always have more projects I want to accomplish, things to learn about, things to build, than I have time. And my interests change with time.

Not to mention I feel guilty with the assumption of being at the office for only 8 hours, plus commute time, means I'm leaving my child in daycare for 9+ hours. Couple that with the recommended hours of sleep for young children, now fix dinner and take care of other life things, and well, I spend more time working than interacting with him.

It really makes me feel like a scab when I compare the hours spent versus what I actually find to be important...
Work is the curse of the drinking class - Oscar Wilde
tj
Posts: 9368
Joined: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:10 pm

Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by tj »

Imperabo wrote:I'll never understand the concept of being bored due to not working. I could live happily for 1000 lifetimes. Have you learned to play every instrument? Speak every language? Ski powder? Surf big waves? Have you reached all your fitness goals? Did you get that economically worthless but intellectually fascinating degree you always wanted?

I can understand the desired to be a productive member of society, and being unfulfilled without that, but bored? I haven't been bored since I got Commodore 64 in 1985.
For me it was because that period of lower income, I was not able to save much $$ so I felt guilty about spending on anything fun...because I couldn't find a job, my expenses were the only thing I really felt in control of, so I sat around a lot.

I imagine it would be a much different experience with 7 figures invested and no debt.
ajcp
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by ajcp »

tj wrote:
Imperabo wrote:I'll never understand the concept of being bored due to not working. I could live happily for 1000 lifetimes. Have you learned to play every instrument? Speak every language? Ski powder? Surf big waves? Have you reached all your fitness goals? Did you get that economically worthless but intellectually fascinating degree you always wanted?

I can understand the desired to be a productive member of society, and being unfulfilled without that, but bored? I haven't been bored since I got Commodore 64 in 1985.
For me it was because that period of lower income, I was not able to save much $$ so I felt guilty about spending on anything fun...because I couldn't find a job, my expenses were the only thing I really felt in control of, so I sat around a lot.

I imagine it would be a much different experience with 7 figures invested and no debt.
Right, but in this case, you were unemployed, not retired. I would not enjoy being unemployed in my 30s, but I would love to retire if it were possible for me.
scouter
Posts: 659
Joined: Fri May 28, 2010 11:24 pm

Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by scouter »

I understand retiring young and never being bored, but I personally wouldn't enjoy only consuming and not contributing to the betterment of the world in some way, whether through volunteering, art, music, teaching, etc. I heard of an old man who when introduced to young people would start the conversation with, "So, what's YOUR excuse for taking up space?" Always loved that and try to ask myself that question every so often.
Videogames
Posts: 11
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Videogames »

Professor Emeritus wrote:
Videogames wrote:

Did you retire based on your own earnings? e.g. (nifty patent, best selling author,brilliant investor, professional athlete etc?

In 5th grade I become intrigued that a teacher said that if you invest $1,000,000 in a savings account you can live off of $50,000 a year in interest from savings accounts. I thought that was very cool as that was a years salary for doing nothing. At that time banks were paying that. So I started to collect bottles and cans for the nickle deposits and bought baseball cards. I also heard these things go up in value so I could sell them to reach my 1 million goal (ebay killed that idea.)

In the 11th grade a teacher talked about investing in the stock market. He spent the entire day talking about how your investments grow through a life time. I was 17 at the time and that also got my interest. So my Senior year I opened up an Ameritrade account (now TDameritrade). I enrolled in college and worked two part time jobs, 1 for school tuition and 1 for my stock market account. Which by the way I was buying and tading my last 6 months of high school. It was very cool to me to make $50 in a day for doing nothing while I'm sitting in class.

So the concept stuck with me. In college a professor taught a class and asked if we are all here to make money with a college degree? We all said yes. He spent the rest of the week explaining that a college degree in most cases is worthless and you will graduate with a mountain of debt when you could have been working the same job all along (yes there are many degrees out there that will pay you a fortune, but most don't). This class encouraged me to drop out of school.

I worked 2 full time jobs so I could put everything in to my Ameritrade account and invest. I lost money for 5 about years. But I was learning. With $100 I opened a cell phone business and I sold cell phones on a dirt road from a tent. I then reinvested that money by buying more inventory and eventually opened 4 kiosks inside 4 grocery stores.

I took the profits from the stores and started investing in the stock market. I became familiar with shorts and longs and patterns from bonds at this point. The company grew and in 2009 after shorting stocks all of 2008 stock market melt down, I started buying rental properties in nice neighborhoods. All foreclosures, or short sales. A $70,000 house would rent for $1200 a month. What a great concept, cash flow. So I focused on reinvesting all of my money in those properties.

By 2012 my business started to dry up and I closed it down. I now only have rentals that pay me and I plan on buying one rental a year for the rest of my life increasing my monthly cash flow by about $900.

The concept of constantly reinvesting was born in the 5th grade and I will continue to honor that for the rest of my life. I am also frugal and live in a 1 bedroom condo (paid cash) and drive a Sebring (cash). I do not have credit cards and I hardly ever dine out. I clip coupons, and I make sure I look at all of the ads. When I see things like chicken for $0.79 a lb, I will buy 50 lbs and put it in my freezer. I have an iPhone but I don't have a plan. Since most places I go to have wifi, I can still text and make free calls with different apps. I live in an area where I have everything within a 5 minute walk. I do not drive much.

There in a nut shell you have it.
Jerrybaby
Posts: 172
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Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Jerrybaby »

That's a great story. Surely with your ambition, you can't be happy doing nothing for long?
General Disarray
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Location: Body in the east coast, but heart in the west coast

Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by General Disarray »

Videogames wrote: When I see things like chicken for $0.79 a lb, I will buy 50 lbs and put it in my freezer.
That's a lot of chicken.
herbie
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2014 5:06 pm

Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by herbie »

So do you still have a stock account? Do you day trade or are you now in indexes? :)

Thanks for sharing your story. I am a cog in the corporate machine and I enjoy living vicariously through those who take the road less traveled.
livesoft
Posts: 86079
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:00 pm

Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by livesoft »

Videogames wrote: I am also frugal and live in a 1 bedroom condo (paid cash) and ….
I met someone this week who also lives in a 1 bedroom, but in that bedroom is a bunk bed and she rents out the other bed. :shock:

Her boyfriend does not seem to mind that her roommate is another guy.
Wiki This signature message sponsored by sscritic: Learn to fish.
Videogames
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 4:28 am

Re: Did you retire in your 30s?

Post by Videogames »

Jerrybaby wrote:That's a great story. Surely with your ambition, you can't be happy doing nothing for long?
I define nothing as not having to be somewhere doing something I don't want to. I usually spend my day doing other activities. I go for a run daily and eat healthy now. I meet with neighbors at the pool.

It's not like I sit in a dark room watching tv eating pizza all day getting fat :)
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