Retire in your 30s, 40s or 50s

You don't have win the lottery or receive a big inheritance. Money magazine interviewed seven people who are getting financial independence on fairly average salaries.

"They are followers of the popular personal finance FIRE movement (financial independence retire early)" who are saving rigorously, investing sensibly and enjoying a modest lifestyle.

The article describes the FIRE movement as "the opposite of working flat-out through-out your life, piling on debt, living beyond your means and consuming voraciously."

"While most Australians rely on drip-feeding their ... retirement account FIREs are aggressively saving much more outside super."

So who are these people doing it so well?

Kate is 22, aiming to retire at 40.

Pat (32) is on track to retire at 35.

Dave retired at 28 having left school in year 11

Leo (34) and Alisha (32) will retire this year on 90k/year

Serina (48) retired at 46 with a family on 60-70k/year

Jason (48) is nearly at his 90k/year goal

Joanna retired at 51 and lives on 18k/year. She can afford more but hasn't needed to - so her savings have even grown 20% in retirement.

What do they all have in common?

Saving. While they each invest differently the common factor is simply that it's very achievable to live on way less than your earn.

By investing the savings these people are getting (or have gotten) to the point where their money is generating more than enough to live on.

Comments

What to do with 128 pens?

I never need buy a pen again. Ever. The pen round-up. I searched the house for pens and gathered them up. We had 128. Woah - that's more than I expected. Then it was test-time. (You can get a lot done watching summer sport ;). Good ones went on the table. Broken ones in the box. Pen operations I saved a few 'broken' pens, by taking working insides and matching them with functional outsides. Particularly much-loved pens, for sentimental reasons, were given a life-extending 'ink transplant'. Final Tally We ended up with 67 broken pens and 61 good ones. And about 10 pencils. What to do with 67 broken pens? In my city Biome recycles pens . It's as easy as taking them into the store and dropping them into the giant collection box. Decluttering and recycling together - I love it. A lifetime of pens An average pen writes 45,000 words. So that dedicated shopping list pen on the fridge could write a 20-word shopping list for 43 years. Our 61 pens repre...

How to never worry about the share market

The Ulysses Contract doesn't sound like a book about investing. The subtitle "How to never worry about the share market again" is what grabbed my attention. The book is mostly about the mindset and strategy of investing in shares. The obscure title refers to Greek mythology, the temptation of the siren songs, and the measures Ulysses took to keep his ship and crew safe - including being tied to the mast of the ship, to hold himself to his own plan. In the book, Michael Kemp outlines the temptations (siren songs) in the share market, gives some solid guiding principles (the mast) that investors can secure themselves to, and outlines his idea of a Ulysses contract for investing. The temptations include spending too much on consumer items (it's hard to invest if we spend all our income) doing what everyone else is doing (when the crowd is selling, it might be the best time to buy) expert predictions (not worth that much, and can be wrong as much as right) market-timing, ...

Four Thousand Weeks - Time and How to Use It

First question. Why 4000 weeks? That's the average human lifespan. If you're reading this you've probably used up 1000 already. If you're a bit older you may have only 2000 left. Maybe just 1000. That can be a startling thought - given how quickly each week goes by. There's so much wisdom in this book, it's hard to summarise it briefly. But I'll give it a go.... Face the Finitude If time was infinite, we could work for 40 years and not miss out on anything. We could spend frivolously as we could always earn more money later. But in the real world there are time limits. Even if we have enough money to escape the nine-to-five, our time (though more plentiful) is finite. Just like money, we will run out if we fritter it away on low-value options. "Face the Finitude" has become one of my internal phrases now. It's my reminder that I don't have infinite time to waste. It may be helpful to think of it like money. eg. I might like something, but d...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog