FIRE Starters (Financial Independence, Retire Early)

I've been looking at these fire blogs and sites, and it's very amusing.

"I collected cans and made $25" lmao Sounds like a great retirement to me...

Most of them seem very naive about money matters even though it's good that they're actually doing something.
And RE.... they are mostly clueless. So many had liquid assets and could've made mutliples in their local RE markets last 10 yrs.

They just seem too busy with penny pinching wars to see real opportunities.

 

These two live a pretty frugal lifestyle and collect bottles & cans whilst on walks

Cheapskate Confessions: A rubbish recycling side hustle

Quarter 4 2020 – Net worth update $2,725,000: Up $291,000 for 2020

How's this gent

Larry saves $80,000 in two years for retirement with recycling scheme, but it's illegal

 

If you like collecting cans great.
Otherwise only an idiot would do such a thing.
At 35 I had multiple RIPs, a business where I turned to work whenever i wanted and decided what to and when to do it.
And they have to get up everymorning to go to work. Both of them.

Again if you like collecting cans, fantabulous.
Anyone wanting to collect cans to make money and retire early, I'd say is an idiot.
I think they call it "penny wise, pound foolish".

I bought it in my mid 30s. I live in my >1m home.
In 2020 I sold more than their total net worth. Still have ppor and more. And the CIP I keep forgetting about.

Not that great.
I do applaude and respect their effort. Good on them for getting their stuff together and planning for FI.
But.
You can be a Zombie investor and just buy and pray (hold) and wait 30yrs or look at timing the market, adding value, buying value by doing research and the time frame becomes 10-15yr.

What makes me smile as I type this is that I am the slow one in my cirlces. I'm the lazy one who is not interested in big incomes or expenses. I just plod along, easy go luck along compared to them. Which is actually true.

 

What makes me smile is people bragging about how good they are and how much better they have done in life and how much richer they are when what they say doesn't matter diddly squat.

Each person has their own dream to aspire to and their own path to make that dream happen.

Your dreams and paths and goals and overall awesomeness has absolutely no correlation to other peoples dreams, desires or motivations, no matter how much money you eat and gold you crap.

 

I don't have a blog posting my "net worth" every month like these Fire people.
I'm just repeating from my post on my strategy and other posts.
And like the last line, I don't have much to brag about when I look at what I would call my peers. I'm pretty sure I'm last amongst them, and even below the 30yos.

Networth is a number. Assets prices are numbers. They can be useful numbers, but that's all they are.
Lifestyle has no number. As being a miserable miser worrying about a few dollars that cost many hours.

 

We save our bottles and cans. Because we are greenies. When they were threatening to take over the garage we filled the boot and took them to the Containers For Change place up the road. $13.80.

 

What an interesting read

The 2021 Early-Retirement Update

 

"lean fire" is almost allways a recipy for disaster.
Add a wife that wants to keep up with the jones (and the majority do) and it's a time bomb waiting to explode.
In the US you need at least 75k pa to have a decent lifestyle and not live like a pauper.
Here it's about 100k.

 

Thanks for sharing! Used to follow his blog years ago - didn't expect he'd be back!

I'm an IT geek aswell and coming onto my 4 year anniversary of quitting. Like the blogger, I haven't missed the office for a second, but there's still alot there for me to pause and reflect on.

 

@dunno’s last post and this blog post have influenced my view about the direction I would like to take. A lot for me to ponder too

 

Brilliant and extremely down to earth read! Some great honesty and sincerity from the author too.Thanks for sharing

 

What rubbish.

This is the sort of diatribe sprouted by wine sipping socialites from their ivory towers.

Get out of the tower and see how the blue collar people are living. Many are living quite easily for less than half of that!

 

Read somewhere a couple been living happily on $25k p.a. for years, not sure how they do it. For us its about $50k - 60k p.a., pay all the bills & unexpected expenses. Probably 1/3 less if we don't have all the insurance policies (especially private health).

 

It adds up. Rates, utilities, rego, car insurance, home and contents insurance, home and car maintenance, electricity, gas, fuel, food, dentistry, other medical, clothes, entertainment. And this is if you’re debt free so no mortgage.

 

Not everyone want to live like they're in a third world country.
Maybe you should get and see the first world.
I grew up on a farm shoveling pigpoo and made my own wine, but that does'nt stop from having a decent place to live, a car, buy good fresh food to cook.

It's called Financial Freedom. I don't care about going down the bar, restaurant, club, beach or wherever and blow a few hundred bucks while you're sowing old socks for the tenth time.
But hey, that's your choice to be financial dependent on every penny you have like it's your last.

 

If You Play With FIRE, Don’t Get Burned

by Nick Maggiulli

Financial independence. Retire early. FIRE. It’s the dream, right? No one to report to. Nowhere you have to be. You live life completely on your own terms. But as much as this movement has been revered by some in the personal finance community, it also has its downsides which are discussed far less often.

The introspection is beautiful and horrific all at the same time. Like watching a car crash in slow motion.

I share these experiences not to rain on the FIRE parade, but to shine some light on the possible downsides. For the record, what John and LivingAFI have experienced are not the norm within the FIRE community. Most people who retire early live enjoyable lives. As LivingAFI stated in his post:

But, as both LivingAFI and John note, FIRE isn’t for everyone.

 

https://www.iretiredyoung.net/
David seems happy with his ER.

I am working on what to ‘retire to’ at the moment and it seems to take time. Taking an extended break would be a good option to try.

Great article. Thanks @Redwing