Anyone here familiar with the FIRE movement toward early retirement?

Nonprofit work can be every bit as demanding, maybe even more so. Contrary to popular belief, nonprofits must make a profit to survive just like a for-profit. They just can't raise money by selling a share of future profits in the form of stock.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with getting as much saved up as quickly as possible, but just quitting work entirely at age 40 seems not very smart. Maybe do something else you like that still pays something but without having to worry so much about income is a better way of thinking about it.

My plan is to quasi retire once the kids exit college. I should be about 55.

Interesting timing of your post. Over the last couple of days I have been thinking pretty hard about a mid- to late-40s retirement.

But as you mentioned the health care and health insurance is the big piece that I would need to research and line out. Any co-ops or professional associations that help with this? Perhaps if I stayed engaged as a part-time consultant?

Exactly. It’s the hard work saving today that can be game changing when you get close to retirement age. That’s why I said quasi retire. I’ll be doing something, but just not sure what.

The part I struggle with FIRE is what “my number” needs to be. I also recognize it can be very hard to walk away from your prime earning years even when you have whatever is deemed “enough”.

My general target is $5M in investable assets but this is a number I recently came up with without much analysis. Assume a 5% return with annually and that gives plenty cash flow to live very comfortably.

Ya, if you start off with maxing everything you can I don't know if you can really go wrong. At some point you have to think if you're doing all that and can't retire, then who can?

There's a lot of good points in this thread, so thanks!
I will be 58 when my youngest theoretically finishes college. I really don't want to wait that long, so I'd like to target 50 for retirement.
I know I'll never really "retire". I'm sure I'll do volunteer work, or teach, be on various boards, or similar. I'm just looking to be more in control of my time. But the idea of living off of interest/dividend income scares me with the risk of a market pull back. Add to that the healthcare risks, and I don't know if I could ever pull the trigger. We live in Europe now, and healthcare is great and affordable, so we are considering staying... which changes the entire equation. I think we'd plan to get more certainty about our kids' future before any major decisions, though.

It's one thing to start out in a great situation and can put away, say $5k/month for 20 years and retire at 42. But who wants to retire just as soon as they have enough to get by and pinch pennies for the next 50 years?

To each their own, but I would rather work until 65 than retire at 40 and try to live off $40k household.

I'm considering ER next year at 42. I posted about it recently and got mixed feedback. I was surprised how many people can't fathom a meaningful life without paid full-time work.
Am I ER ready?