Who's ready to retire at 40?

[cab83_750]

I am 45 years old and almost retired 3 years ago. I figured that I might as well enjoy the rest of my life while I am still active. I had calculated that with everything, I could still fund my 2 kids' education, and still get out of the rat race. For the last 3 weeks, retirement bug is scratching me again.

Work has been alright: 6a.m.-3p.m., user community likes me, I have mostly funny co-workers, 4 weeks vacation, 1 week sick-leave, 401k, pension, but I lost my office and have to deal with politics.

Am I crazy or lazy to think I should just retire and vegd out for the rest of my life? I have been working fulltime since 15 years of age.

Anyone here is also sick of the rat race, the office politics, etc.?

[nostatic]

depends what you do. I'll "work" until the day I die, but I love what I do and always have new ideas for new projects. I guess when I run out of ideas I'll quit working.

But I also need to work to pay for my racing. And I'm not a very good saver...

[Jandrews]

Good on ya, cab...

I was shooting for the same thing, but the late 90's market dealt me a curveball....duh. I'm 43 and still plugging away. I've reset my expectations now more toward 50. I have a good thing going at work and it would be silly (and impossible) to try to get out now. However, if I had $3M now, I would not break the plane of the door on Monday...


JA

[osidak]

yes and i am shooting for 55 (almost 35 now)

[cab83_750]

I am a computer geek and I have been blessed to be able to not only talk computer lingo but also talk to people.

I have enjoyed dealing with people and so far I have not had any personality issues with anyone for the last decades (except for 1 current co-worker). BTW, no one likes him (heh! heh! heh!)

I am not bored with work; thus I still work.

However, let me share some thoughs with you guys:

1. How much do we really need? How much $$? How much property?
2. Have you not known people who thought they would live past 50 or 60 and are now dead?
3. With all due respect to the people who died from the twin-towers, don't you wonder that there were a lot of young, educated, high-earning people. Now they are dead.
4. At least 2 executives whom I had a conversation with, who made an annual $1M in salary (before bonus), once told me......."don't do what I did. I would give up everything I have just to roll back time, enjoy life, and see my kids grow up as kids, teenagers, etc.!)

[nostatic]

that's why i race. and don't own a home or property. and just have enough money in the bank to cover a big emergency. that is not counting my retirement acct which gets matched 2-fold by my employer.

Of course I don't make $1M/year, and I mostly work my own schedule. Could be a lot worse.

[cab83_750]

Originally Posted by nostatic

depends what you do. I'll "work" until the day I die, but I love what I do and always have new ideas for new projects. I guess when I run out of ideas I'll quit working.

But I also need to work to pay for my racing. And I'm not a very good saver...

Are you self-employed? If not, what is the profile of your co-workers? Are they younger than you? Are there any 'clicks?' Are you let in? Sometimes, you may have the greatest idea, but if the majority thinks otherwise, well......

[nostatic]

I'm in a research unit at USC. We have about 150 employees at our location. Mostly younger than me. Every place has fiefdoms and cliques. We are inbetween academic and corporate culture. As for being "let in," I really don't care if I am or not. If people don't want to work with me, that is their loss. I run my own projects, find new projects, oversee some other critical functions, and deal with the typical BS that thankfully is pretty minimal.

But a big part of it is expectations. If you think that the work environment is going to be "perfect", then you're going to be miserable. I had a bit of a heated discussion last week with the head of IT. He wasn't notified when we were going to go live with our new site. I had assumed the external developers were communicating with his people. I let him rant and rave, pushed back a little, apologized, then all was well. I know that his anger was mostly based on past events, not really about me. So I just deflect and then everything is fine.

Work is mostly expectation management and handling people. My old boss gave me a great bit of advice many years back. Mangement is 80% "mommy, he hit me" and 20% "mommy, he took my stuff." Expect that, treat them accordingly, and things will be fine.

Work is what you make it. If it is insufferable, then go someplace else. As for my brilliant ideas being ignored...I'm used to it. I'm an idea guy and get paid to poke people with sharp sticks. Early on I came up with my 5% rule. If I can get 5% of the people to adopt a new technology or if 5% of the ideas I contribute get picked up, I'm way ahead of the game. I beat my head against the wall for many years before realizing that most people don't want change, and don't want to be pushed/challenged.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Fantastic cab!

The last thing in the world I want to be doing is working to sustain myself until I die. Retiring early is a primary goal of mine, although I've seen some adversity on the path that set me back somewhat. I fully expect to retire by age 55 (if not sooner) while I can still enjoy life. I think being one of these used-up shells of a person that has to scrap together after a lifetime of hard work is a horribly unpleasant scenario, and it's one I won't put myself into. Even worse is "settling" for fixed income or saying "oh, I'm going to work hard my entire life and then if/when I retire, I'll be (1) too old to enjoy it and (2) will earn only a fraction of what I did before".

I have no idea why people choose this path. Good on you for getting out of the rat race early. No matter how well one plays it, at the end of it all you're still a rat. Getting out is the only way to become something better.

[legion]

I want to retire at 30.

[WI wide body]

cab, you need to consider it very carefully. I did retire at 54 and I can give you my perspective if you want to hear it.

First of all, nostatic is entirely correct. It's very important on how you feel about your job. Some folks must be extremely lucky and have a "career' that they truly enjoy and they would miss going to work. Those guys should not even consider retiring. They would go nuts.

However, other guys (like me) never actually even considered my job to be a "career." I simply went to work to make money to feed my 6 kids (yes, I was a slow learner in that area also) keep the "War Dept." at home happy and have some fun myself. So when the opportunity to take a "package" came along I jumped at it. Plus, like all big companies they were starting to really squeeze the middle managers and salaried people. It affected the younger guys more than me but it was still a pain.

But I did okay. Started in a factory when I was 17 and even got into supervision when for some strange they made me a Machine Repair Dept. manager. (even tossed the Mould Shop at me later) And then when I did retire we had a good relationship and I did short (2 to 5 weeks) assignments in places like Germany, Madrid, Sydney and Melbourne, Oroshaza near Budapest, Zipaquira outside Bogota, and Yorkshire to name a few. So it was a great deal...for a while.

Then the crap hit the fan when the economy tanked after 2000. And what's the quickest way to cut costs? Gee, quit hiring them retired guys! So those jobs mostly dried up. And I really ended up missing it. Both because I not only lost a bushel basket of $$$ from my IRA's and lump sum but I actually missed the short assignments and the inter-action of the jobs involved.

I went from mechanical/technical stuff to being in charge of the garage, lawn mower and the house appliances! If it wasn't for my "toys" (911's and a couple of old Triumph Bonnevilles) I would have went nuts. Plus I got back into playing golf and a whole new routine.

However, having said all that I still honestly never had a day where I said "Gee, I wish had to go to the factory today."

So I would suggest that you take it real slow and try to determine how it really will work out for you and your particular situation. Do not judge it on how it might appear for other guys. I found out that once you take the leap the diving board can suddenly be removed!

Good luck.

[Moneyguy1]

Find something you love to do and it isn't work.

I have been retired for 7 years on the 30th of this year. I enjoy fixing things and keep busy volunteering time and treasure. There are so many in real need and so few to help them.

[Z-man]

For me, the big 4-0 is just around the corner -- literally - (Dec 18th). Given the crazy hours I've been working (12-16 hour days, working a regular 9-5 day, then coming in at 11pm working until 4am...etc).

And this has been going on since the summertime. Remember that little annoucement in the automotive world back in June? The thing about Daimler-Chrysler splitting? Well, I work for Mercedes-Benz, USA home office, and the split meant that our datacenter more than doubled in size overnight. There were some crucial systems that we had to bring back inhouse from Chrysler.

I would just love to take this job and shove it... Actually, it is Saturday night, 11:11pm, and I'm typing this from my desk at work. We're doing a major upgrade/conversion/migration on my systems -- I'm in IT - SAN admin, and I'm the sole SAN admin in my whole company.

For the SAN guys here -- right now, I am responsible for about 170TB of SAN storage -- three IBM ESS 2105's (soon to be empty -- that's the migration I'm doing right now), one IBM DS8300 & a 4-node IBM SVC, 8 McData/Brocade directors/switches; mainframe systems (5) as well as Linux (running under z/VM), 60 UNIX servers, and 20 Windows/ESX servers. And I'm supposed to give out disk to all these systems, as well as maintain the mainframe environment. Oh yeah, I also RUN the disaster recovery tests twice a year for mainframe.

Overwhelmed? Yeah, just a little.

But I have a dream. Some of you may be familiar with the AMG Challenge program Mercedes Benz offers it's AMG customers -- it is a program similar to the Porsche Driver's Experience. But I believe it is lacking in appeal and can offer both the customers and the company so much more. So I want to see if they would be interested in revamping the program. Now THAT would be a fun and challenging role...but that's a pipe dream for now...

Anyway, back to the retirement gig -- if I could I would definately do it. But the cost of living in the Northeast prohibits me from doing so until I turn at least 85 or so...

Sorry for the rant.
-Z-man.

[Ronbo]

Remember that if you retire at 40 you have to plan on living another 40+ years. Will you have enough alternative income to cover your living expenses? Savings won't do it, unless you live off the interest of a multi-million dollar account. Don't forget 40 years of inflation yet to come. What about health insurance? College for the kids?

[Hard-Deck]

I'll retire in 7 years or so with a good retirement, max'ed IRA and other supplimental income from investing in the market and properties over the years.

A good rule-of-thumb for your savings = you can only take out 4%/year and not run out of money. The stock market average is ~10.4%, then inflation eats 4% and you take out 4%, then factor in variations over the years.

So if you have 2 million, you can take out 80K/year and theoretically (my theory) not run out of nest egg and it'll continue to grow ahead of inflation.

It's hard to gauge when you should walk away from the Rat Race, and a lot of it is speculation. When you can...do it.

[cab83_750]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Fantastic cab!


I have no idea why people choose this path. Good on you for getting out of the rat race early. No matter how well one plays it, at the end of it all you're still a rat. Getting out is the only way to become something better.

I just want to clarify that:

1. I 'was' to retire. I had 2 house built and a farm to 'play mud wrestling.'
2. When the retirement setup was completed, I could not jump into it.
3. I remained at work, and still working, and enjoying it.
4. I don't have any issues at work.
5. I do not wake up in the morning with the attitude of, "*****, back to work!"
6. It is just the question of "when do I stop?"
7. 99% of my coworkers tell me not to do it as I am too young; however, I have always been the rebel: "If everyone tells me I am wrong, who is to say that they are right!"


As POP stated above, " at the end of it all, you're still a rat."

As another clarification, I have gotten out of the rat race years ago. I was in management for over 10 years; now, I decided to be a staff member, I do my job perfectly, go home and enjoy my life with my kids.

[cab83_750]

Originally Posted by Ronbo

Remember that if you retire at 40 you have to plan on living another 40+ years. Will you have enough alternative income to cover your living expenses? Savings won't do it, unless you live off the interest of a multi-million dollar account. Don't forget 40 years of inflation yet to come. What about health insurance? College for the kids?

Are you a financial analyst? I thank you for the formula and will take that into account in detail.

From a high-level standpoint:

1. College for kids ---- ok.
2. Living expenses ---- retirement setup fully paid. Just utilities, food, clothing.
3. Health insurance was considered but still unanswered. I understand I can get the "emergency policy" wherein it will cover 'big' expenses and I pay office visits in full.
4. Alternative income would be what I have accumulated.
5. Savings....... ssshhhhh.


I am not qualified to answer about being 80 years old, but I do not think I want to live when I am 80....."when I can not drive or wash myself, I want to meet Dr. Kevorkian (sp?)! "

[WI wide body]

snapper, I would absolutely not bank on that "10.4 stock market" return when making long range plans. At my age I think that I'm probably safe but I fear for my kids and grandkids.

Our clever trade policies are currently sending roughly $2,000,000,000.00 PER DAY to foreign nations via our trade imbalance. Then those nations use that cash to buy our debt. When those even more clever guys from those nations finally decide to call in all the notes that our scummy politicians are now writing to pay the bills...we are likely to see a financial and economic disaster in our nation. It simply cannot go on forever without dire consequences. Any economic "expert" who says it can is a complete fool or else he has been bought!

[Jim Bremner]

My FIL retired to early.

drank, sat around, drank, got lotto tickets.

Just make sure that you have something in life to work @ or things to keep yourself busy.

he retired @ 55 and died @ 67 of cancer.

[SCWDP911]

retirement to me is relative. I am trying to emulate my father in law and find something I enjoy doing so much that I WANT to do it everyday. I also could be very content selling it all and buying an RV and taking the kids around the country with us while we can still enjoy all 6 of them. My wife is keen on this, but would like to move to Equador or soemwhere like that... or at least mix in plenty of world travel with the kids. They have already seen 46 states and a lot of the NPS.