re: Anyone here familiar with the FIRE movement toward early retirement?

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Yes very

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i more or less did it.
goal before 40.
..got there a few years early.
took me ~5-6 years but that was expedited from selling a business during those stimulus years(we got 100% of revenue when normal for that area would have been 60% or so) and then buying a shitload single-family homes in texas during that housing downturn (which comfortably funded my expenses at that time)

i'm a bit ADHD so sitting around "relaxing" was a much bigger challenge than it needed to be.
..i ccouldn't really not do *anything* for very long.

i ended up buying a boat and sailing around el caribe (but did finaly got caught up on reading)...
sold most of the RE in USA(did buy a cash flowing farm overseas)...and eventually started up a slightly more ambitious business in USA again...which is now mature enough for my presence to mostly be irrelevant.


the amount of time spent on the water & in the air could get label me as "perpetual tourist"..but i do manage investments/businesses myself. (which can luckily be done from anywhere with a smartphone and small laptop a few hours each day)

so maybe i'm part-time "retired" now..which works well.

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I'm still missing how they plan for healthcare, but my wife and I were talking about it as a possibility for us in our late 40's.

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i have medical coverage now via company..but did not have any medical coverage at all during my 30s

paid for dental cleanings out of pocket twice a year whereever we happened to be....that was it.

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I think it’s a good goal to have but $1m in the bank in your 40s isn’t near enough. It’s assuming everything is going to go your way (no big medical issues) and you are definitely not going to be helping your kids out at all (weddings, maybe grandkids, paying for some vacations, etc).

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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.

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the 4% rule is a good rule of thumb..
LINK

basically, figure out your expenses....then multiple by 25.
once you reach that number...is probably safe to "retire" if u wanna

geographic arbitrage as a way of reducing expenses (without decreasing lifestyle) helps too
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What kind of farm and where is it? How’d you find it?

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LINK /


if interested in a 2nd passport.. foreign RE/investments is a great way to do it.

My kid will be entering college when I'm 55, that is my target date to make work optional which is what I think alot of people mean when they say "retire early".

I follow it. To me it isn't as much about wanting to retire early as it is knowing that I would be able to retire early. Early for me would be at age 53-55 which is a pretty reasonable expectation unless something drastically changes.

They “plan” on doing this, but how many actually do it?

They are single and living with their parents and think “when I get out of school and make $125,000/yr., I’ll be able to put away $100,00/year and retire at 40.”

Then suddenly they are 35 and married with 2 kids and buying a house and going on vacations and paying for private schools and realize they can’t do all this by spending only $25K of their $125K/yr.

I’d submit that

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They are single and living with their parents and think “when I get out of school and make $125,000/yr., I’ll be able to put away $100,00/year and retire at 40.”

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is not at all who “they” are. In my research, seems to me it’s more late 20s and 30s with a job who enjoy time more than $ after grinding for a decade or so.

1. You can still take awesome trips. I just went back packing for a week in the mountains. Alternately, I could have spent the same amount on a flight, 5 nights in a hotel, more expensive food, etc
2. I watch way too much TV as it is and i pay $10 for Netflix

So how many do you know who are retired at that age? I’ve met zero.

Enjoying time more than money is wonderful. But you can’t fund the next 40 years of your life with time - you need money.

Yes, it is. I retired at 44, though not by choice.