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I retired in early 2011 at the age of 51. Word to others . . . Regardless of how you spend your retirement days, eat healthy and stay fit. You worked hard to get there. Enjoy a healthy active retirement. . . Cheers!
It really comes down to savings rate and time. If you can live beneath your means and save enough, you can retire at 50 with a savings rate of around 30%, regardless of income, using a pretty repeatable methodology of investing in low-fee, diverse index funds that get average returns.
You can be the world's best penny pincher and still not have enough income to even make basic needs, as frugal as you might be.
Of course it's true. Whether that means everyone will be able to successfully build up a large enough portfolio to sustain themselves is another question.
You can be the world's best penny pincher and still not have enough income to even make basic needs, as frugal as you might be.
I’m just pointing out the math. If you can live on 70% of your income, investing the other 30%, then you can early retire at the same standard of living if you start saving at the start of your career. Living on the 70% is up to the individual. Of course it gets harder for lower wage earners.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,763 posts, read 58,180,906 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner
It has been my observation that frugalness is a key component to spending less than my pension income.
Of course 'frugal / budget' is quite subjective.
IIRC, SC was spending >$500. month on groceries and entertainment. Insanely lavish, by the stds our family considered 'frugal'. (While prepping for, and surviving early retirement).
$1000 car!!! Yikes, that would have bought me (30) cars (which each last 500k+ miles.)
Still sticking with the 1200 calories / day, and getting by fine, no need to be frugal) I won that battle over 20 yrs ago (Probably over 50 yrs ago, considering I was living out of the back of my pickup 53 yrs ago today.) Gas was a luxury at $.19 / gal. By the time it hit $0.75 / gsl, I was brewing my own (as I have continued to do since then).
Every step of life has been a frugal excercise. Enjoying the warmth and dryness of my $38/sf home. Built brick-by-brick (by hand). Tax assessor values it at over 10x my cost basis (which creates taxes very bad for my cash flows). Wish I could trade 'community service' or 'job trainer' in exchange for taxes due, '
IIRC, SC was spending >$500. month on groceries and entertainment. Insanely lavish, by the stds our family considered 'frugal'. (While prepping for, and surviving early retirement).
$1000 car!!! Yikes, that would have bought me (30) cars (which each last 500k+ miles.)
Still sticking with the 1200 calories / day, and getting by fine, no need to be frugal) I won that battle over 20 yrs ago (Probably over 50 yrs ago, considering I was living out of the back of my pickup 53 yrs ago today.) Gas was a luxury at $.19 / gal. By the time it hit $0.75 / gsl, I was brewing my own (as I have continued to do since then).
Every step of life has been a frugal excercise. Enjoying the warmth and dryness of my $38/sf home. Built brick-by-brick (by hand). Tax assessor values it at over 10x my cost basis (which creates taxes very bad for my cash flows). Wish I could trade 'community service' or 'job trainer' in exchange for taxes due, '
I never made much money.
Never needed much.
It is eye-opening when we compare the cost basis of our home, to what it is assessed at.
It is eye-opening when we compare the cost basis of our home, to what it is assessed at.
Somewhat related...Didn't you build the interior of the home to perfection while leaving the exterior "so-so" in order to discourage the tax man from assessing its full value? I hope I remember that correctly because I thought it was a brilliant idea.
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