Retired in their early 30's and now travelling the world

Off topic, but i was raised by a single mum who rented and moved around a lot. Biased and self diagnosing but some kids may require stability, some may not. Moving around is not the end of the world.

 

Kids require structure and stability, this doesn't translate to staying in one location. Many of the most balanced and successful people I know moved around a lot and there are interesting reads about the benefits of introducing children to different environments and cultures and even living in them for a year or two.

 

Yeah fair enough, I guess I'm speaking from my own personal experience and a few others who I have spoken with and were effected by a lot of moving.

There may be other causes for the problems they experienced though outside of the moving around and needing to make new friends a lot.

Apologies if my comments came across wrong.

 

No need to apologise, the purpose of this forum is meaningful discussion (mainly about property).

Moving can be stressful if not managed correctly so there is certainly the chance moving or other circumstances around it could have a negative impact on a child. Like many things it can be a double edged sword, I believe the benefits are far greater than a risks as long as managed correctly. You certainly raised a fair point that people should be aware of if moving a lot.

 

This is not dissimilar in approach to what Mr Money Mustache says.
To retire, you only need to save 25x your annual expenditure. If you keep your expenditure low, that tipping point where you no longer need to contribute to your bankroll is easier to achieve. Additionally, having low expenditure doesn't have to mean you are a miser or don't have rich and broad experiences.

My expenditure is (much!) higher than MMM, and it will take me longer to get to the passive-income stage of my life (especially considering I came to this about 20 years later than I should have!) but there are definitely lessons to be learned from MMM that I can apply to my own life. And probably more importantly, realize that it is completely within my own power - my expenditure is my responsibility, and if I decide to buy a big screen TV, I need to own that decision and not complain about having to go to work. For the record, my tv is 32" and 10 years old... I do want a new one, but can wait

Cheers,
Inertia

 

Firstly, big congratulations to the couple who have managed to get out of the rat race.

I think to achieve retirement at a young age few things needs to happen apart from cutting down expenses to the bare minimum and investing all the savings.

1) Being single is most advantageous. You can control lot of your spending.
2) If not single then having your partner on board with same goals as you and prepared to make same sacrifices as you is really important.
3) If not single then delaying having kids while you are working hard to achieve your goals can really help.
4) Lastly, avoid buying PPOR and renting can also make a big difference.

The above points I make are mostly true. I am sure some of you will disagree based on your experiences.

At the end of the day the choice is yours. Everybody's circumstances are different based on the choices they made in the past. I still think achieving moderate financial independence is definitely possible for anybody who is prepared to saving and investing a large portion ( > 50%) of their income for around 12-15 years.

Cheers,
Oracle.

 

Yeah second the no need to apologise. I'm just offering another viewpoint

 

There was a 60min eqisode last year about a family with about 7 kids travelling around Australia on a bus. They have no fixed address and have been travelling like this for years now. the kids do home schooling and they seem to be going well.

 

I didnt see the show - but Im pretty sure I know the guy (if not I know someone very similar).
They sold their house after about kid number 3 or 4 and got the bus. He trades (or used to) on ebay, the mrs home schools and looks after the kids. She was a teacher.
The kids are all really well balanced and respectful. Though in talking to them it was hard to not to notice they didnt have any real friends outside the family.

We went diving fairly often together. He always saw fish/seafood as a free meal.
From what I know they lived fairly comfortably, though had few 'luxuries'. Their lifestyle in my opinion was pretty good. I think a year or two of it would be very benificial to most families and kids. But Im not sure about living like that on a permanent basis. I think the kids could get a bit lost.

Blacky

 

I just picked my cousin and her family up from the airport to do exactly that. Her partner is a musician and has plenty of gigs lined up and in between he's going to busk wherever they stay. Should be an interesting year for them.

 

I've read all of MMM's posts too (I recommend it!) and read some of the forum but that forum gets a bit repetitive too quickly.

For a TV, check out Gumtree. You'll always find someone selling a near new TV because people move interstate or overseas or simply upgrade to a much bigger screen... that's how I furnished my 2 Airbnbs. Near new Brand name TVs at a fraction of the new price =

 

I can't think of the name but they have a fb Page. Great idea and all for it but there's something not quite right with these guys, some negative vibes and issues that got them travelling in the first place, bad business deals and /or "people out to get them".
They live a very basic life and often complaints against certain towns and society

 

Thanks for the advice about the book - I'm just about to seriously look into investing quite a bit of $$$, but don't want to go directly into specific shares (I've already got a few small parcels of those, but now want to further diversify), and was wondering what I could read that may help me.

While I have been reading some of @The Falcon 's posts, I like the idea of a good book too.

 

I'd consider home schooling if I thought my child would actually listen to anything I said . Besides, having them at home, during non-school hours, is tough enough.

Plus, the idea of being together 24/7 …… well, let's just say it would provide me with more challenges than I'm willing to deal with. Just ask any mother what they feel like at the end of just one week of having the kids at home over the school holidays…...

 

Interesting article, and good on them for getting to that point at such a young age.

What it reinforces to me is that there are plenty of strategies that can get you to your destination, and some of them are very simple. As long as you are committed to them and consistent in the application of your strategy over the long term.

 

I'm a bit confused how that works. Say my annual expenditure is $30,000 so I times that by 25. So that's $750,000 that I need to save... is that in the bank, in investments giving me a dividend of whatever the $750k invested would be?

 

In investments, returning at least 4% after tax. That will give you your $30k in living expenses.

 

And you’ll need that 4% after tax to be inflation adjusted as well....cash at bank won’t get you there

 

A simple high level breakdown:
100% salary
70% savings
25% tax
5% to live off??? 5% x 190k = less than 10k for 2 adults per year.

I don't understand how is that even possible? Unless the $190k is the after tax salary which was not mentioned in the article.

 

The 70% saving rate would be on after tax basis.