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I don't understand the 28 and 26 year old retirees. It would seem they just need to find a different career path as opposed to dropping out of the workforce altogether. Two engineers making $250,000 at such a young age provides them with many other career options. They are young enough to relocate, explore different career options, or find a better fit in their profession or a related area as opposed to closing the door so early. Even a couple of years out of the profession a long gap in employment becomes a road block and significantly limits their opportunities should they decide to reenter the field.
Another area of concern is the fact that many are utilizing healthcare subsidies and are not capturing all the true costs of retirement. The system was not designed to support people who don't want to work at such a young age just so they could have cheap healthcare subsidized by other working people. It raises the costs for working people.
Perhaps the acronym needs to be redefined as FIREHI Financial Independence Retire Early & Healthcare Independent. It also impacts the sustainability of programs like Medicare and Social Security which are based on able-bodied individuals paying in for 40 years.
These extreme early-retirees will not get much if anything as an SS old age benefit, and possibly not much from Medicare either. If someone who graduates at 22 retires at 30, they might not ever get either benefit.
Medicare requires a certain number of opt-in quarters ( I think it's 40 ) and the taxes on Medicare are likely going to be extended to all types of income and with no cap ( perhaps this is better suited in its own thread, but the trendlines indicate that the US govt wants to widen the tax net for Medicare as much as possible ).
SS OASDI (what is usually meant as Social Security -- the cash pension benefit) also requires that minimum of 40 quarters/ 10 years PLUS the program averages 35 years of income to figure the benefit. The expectation is that all pensioners should work constructively for 35 years to maximize the benefit. There are exceptions made for spouses who worked less (half of the working spouse benefit).
I would like to see the minimum quarters increased to 100 meaning 25 years work for any benefit from either Medicare and SS. Perhaps disability could remain at 10 or 20 years, but US policy should aim to reduce any taxpayer financed goodies for extremely early retirees. These programs are for people who worked a full life, period.
These extreme early-retirees will not get much if anything as an SS old age benefit, and possibly not much from Medicare either. If someone who graduates at 22 retires at 30, they might not ever get either benefit.
Social Security came into existence in 1935 to provide benefits to workers after the age of 65. It's a social program / safety net. However, there are a growing number of people who are able to earn and build financial resources in which they'll never need SS benefits.
People used to work in factories, hourly jobs. Look at the range of ways income is generated today vs 80+ years ago. If someone is able to develop financial resources and streams of income starting early in their adulthood and those resources continue to sustain them each year, why should anyone have a problem with it? You'd think people would be glad because that's one less person taking benefits, which means more in the pot for everyone else. Yet they're criticized for having an entrepreneurial spirit and considering their options on how to support themselves that doesn't involve working for a corporation or depending on the government. How strange.
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I would like to see the minimum quarters increased to 100 meaning 25 years work for any benefit from either Medicare and SS. These programs are for people who worked a full life, period.
This is short-sighted view. Are you aware of things like layoffs and unemployment? Or someone who gets ill and doesn't work for several years but later can work, but not for a total of 25 years? What about those who leave the workforce to raise children after working 10 to 15 solid years in cubicle-land, and are out of the workforce for the next 20 years? Benefit programs are for people who have worked at least 40 quarters, period. Those benefits are meant to be a safety net. People know that to get maximum SS benefits they will have to work at least 35 years.
Actually in ER forum, there are people who retired in their early 50s, they complain about corporate drudgery, I had to put up with that too, then they turned around and bragged about their children received full financial aid for college. It’s one thing to be poor and relying on financial aid if you’re poor, it’s another thing to turn your nose at a decent job, a job snob, and then taking pay out in a different way. I think something wrong with that. Flame away.
I remain convinced the real trigger starts with the "R" word. Once someone hears or reads the word "retire" or its variations including that core word, their mind starts to whirl with images of what *they* imagine retirement to mean. Most people who feel triggered think it's some form of sitting on the couch, having no goals, not being productive, taking from others, and all kinds of things.
A new term needs to be developed to describe the action of leaving a traditional job and doing other things, things that may have income streams that begin at some point, but don't involve working years for someone else to get a paycheck, only to be laid-off eventually as they hit or pass their 40s, because they're not the 24 yr old they once were.
I think you are wrong, it’s not sitting around doing nothing. That doesn’t trigger me. I do the same. But this person doesn’t, she goes everywhere, I’m not sure she works part time either, not blogging either. Maybe the Puritan in me with strong work ethic that got triggered.
I think you are wrong, it’s not sitting around doing nothing. That doesn’t trigger me. I do the same. But this person doesn’t, she goes everywhere.
I'm not responding to your post. In fact you posted right before I completed my post and pressed the submit button. I'm not wrong, there *are* people who think that's what retirement entails and they have a huge problem with the idea of some 40 year old "retiring" from their job, not realizing the "R" word may not actually be what individuals are doing over the next 10+ years.
I'm not responding to your post. In fact you posted right before I completed my post and pressed the submit button. I'm not wrong, there *are* people who think that's what retirement entails and they have a huge problem with the idea of some 40 year old "retiring" from their job, not realizing the "R" word may not actually be what individuals are doing over the next 10+ years.
False labeling does trigger some people. Financial Samurai, MrMMM, etc..
False labeling does trigger some people. Financial Samurai, MrMMM, etc..
The word "retire" has more than one meaning. My father used to announce, "well I hope you folks will excuse me, I am retiring." He used it to mean off to sleep for the night. But I think a different word would be useful in the FIRE world since "retire" implies, I will never earn another dime again, that is not provided to me from the government or through my existing portfolio.
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