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Originally Posted by NobodyHere
Even though I don't earn much, I'm trying to subscribe to the FIRE movement and I'm saving a very a good portion of my income. I'm hoping to make work optional in about 5-10 years.
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Wish you all the best here. Definitely worthwhile goal, wish I had that mindset early on. I have started talking to my college age son about this goal.
I've read blogs and reddit posts about FIRE. I get folks retiring early when they are 55-60 but some of those posts about folks in 30-40's retiring don't apply to me.
1) Many say think about your retirement first before kids college. I'm of the mindset that I have an obligation to send my kids through college and not have them graduate with crushing debt. I will help out as much as I can (but if they want a graduate degree, its on them)
2) Even if you can retire at age 40, should you? You are missing out on an additional 10-20 years of making money, adding to the kitty, having a much easier retirement, and possibly leaving a larger legacy for your kids
3) I find myself relatively cash poor. The majority of my $ is in 401k/IRAs which I can't/won't touch before 59.5. Ideally I will also wait another 6-7 years for full retirement age to give an opportunity for the $ to near-double assuming historical averages. So even if I have saved up enough total $ to supposedly retire early, I don't actually have enough cash on hand to do early retirement (unless I go live in Asia, Mexico etc.)
Its to the point where I've seriously thought about stopping 401k contributions and just putting the $ into a eTrade account to grow available cash. But the tax benefits of 401k can't be beat.
4) Definitely worried about recessions and stock market crashes. We had 2 big recessions in the oughts. They stunted my savings contribution and also saving growth. I feel "behind" from where I need to be, its like a lost decade and feel the need to "catch-up". Having a recession/crash early into FIRE would not be good unless you really had reliable multiple sources of income
FWIW, this is what I read and motivated me before the recent FIRE craze. It really changed my perspective and would encourage you to read it if you haven't already.
Millionaire Next Door
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