Retired at age 52

[McLovin]

My plan was always to retire at 55, but thanks to some breaks (mainly the 2008/09 crash) and good planning, I've come in a few years ahead of schedule.

I'll never be fully "retired" in the Hollywood movie style (sitting on a beach sipping an umbrella drink with nothing to do) because managing my assets will always take a good part of my time/focus. But I enjoy that, and don't count it as "work." I wake up every day when I want, wear what I want, do what I want when I want to, and answer to no one, so that's retired in my book.

I was able to get there without ever really having a yuuuge salary or work income. Certainly better than most, and I never had an unpaid/unemployed day in my working life, but not a 1%-er type working income. Did it through having an excellent understanding of economics, economic systems and the political process. Also being disciplined in knowing when to accumulate cash, and when to deploy capital. Knowing, understanding and accepting objective reality (i.e., knowing what is real and isn't, and acting accordingly). Those are things the vast majority of people are very bad at.

Anyways, it's been a couple of months, but I've somehow stayed very busy. Complaints? Nope! The freedom is amazing.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Awesome, congrats!

[legion]

Congrats!

I'm hoping that I am able to at 65 myself, but don't know that I ever will. It's not that I enjoy working, but I've got young kids, probably haven't saved enough, and would probably be even more bored and withdrawn than I already am if I retired.

[McLovin]

Thanks puppy. We're kindred spirits in a way, with the buying and selling cars, I also had a dealer's license and warehouse, but mostly to have my hobby pay for itself (it actually was cash flow positive) and to have the space to store my personal cars. It was useful because being forced to cycle through cars every month or so to pay the rent kind of got cars out of my system a bit, haha. After that I've been happy to just live vicariously through your threads!

Legion, yea, kids are expensive. We had kids relatively early, so we've been empty nesters for a few years now. It's hard to retire when you still have kids, because the expenses are a bit unpredictable, esp. college. Which can be shockingly expensive.

[berettafan]

congrats man! surely wish I'd been more focused on such things early on in my working career.

[Jim Richards]

Congrats, McLovin! Retirement is the best job ever.

[Skip Newsom]

Well done!!
I walked away from my employer at 55 after 36 years and had similar approach.
I always invested in my 401K and increased the percentage I invested as my salary increased.
(It really helped that my employer matched 50% up to 8% invested)

55 was always my goal and since that was also the age where I could retire and draw a pension it made sense to me...
We have always been pretty frugal and it continues, I've never liked being in debit and we payed off our houses early, turned one into a rental.
That was a very good move!
I've been free of the working grind for almost 2 years now and we are doing just fine, I don't mind doing lots of things myself (painted the outside of our rental this year, lots of home and yard projects) and even though we travel a bit (Florida, Hawaii, Oregon, Cali) we have increased net worth.
Tough part for us is spending the investments even though that's what they are for!

I'm not at all bored, but I do want to spend some time volunteering... the satisfaction from helping others is more than worth it!

[aschen]

congrats, 52 is a great achievement for retirement. I am hoping to do it by 60 but even that takes a ton of discipline

[MRM]

Congratulations. I gather the source of your retirement fund was mostly investments. Can you share your secret? Anything more exotic than putting as much in an S&P 500 index fund as you can, as often as you can, and keeping it there?

[Jims5543]

My wife and her insistence on our kids attending private school threw a monkey wrench in on my plans to be retired by 55.

Coupled with me having a small business and trying to keep as many employed as possible through the 2008 crash hurt me bad.

So, at 52 I see myself working at least another 10 years, to be honest I would lose my mind if I did not have something to wake up and go to each day. My plan is to scale back my involvement in the business in 5-7 years and then scale back further at the 10 year mark.

The cool part about being self employed is I feel the way Mclovin feels right now and I have felt that way for the last 20 years.

In the winter I wake up late, in the summer early to beat the heat here in Florida, I take off when I want and how much I want. Do I work a lot? Yes, and by choice, the economy is strong the crash in 2008 spooked me so I am grabbing all I can and also wearing a lot more hats than I did pre 2008.

From 2004-2008 I had a guy running this place and reporting to me. I would be away at my vacation home a lot and he would send me an email with all the days problems and projects to review and I would send back for him how to handle everything under my direction the next morning. It was an amazing setup that gave me freedom to not be in the office at all and I was not, I was out roaming the Smokey Mountains and the SE USA.

Congrats on the freedom McLovin, that is quite a feat, enjoy your freedom.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by MRM

Congratulations. I gather the source of your retirement fund was mostly investments. Can you share your secret? Anything more exotic than putting as much in an S&P 500 index fund as you can, as often as you can, and keeping it there?

I could put together a detailed exposition of what I did, if anyone is interested.

But, in a nutshell, no, I didn't do S&P Index, or 401Ks. I did 401K when I started in my career almost 30 years ago, but it didn't take me long to see that would not get me where I wanted to go, and in fact, would PREVENT me from getting there. So I quit putting money into retirement accounts fairly early on (I do still have some there from the early days, which of course I can't take out yet).

What I did is in many ways contrarian to what most people do, and what most "advisors" would tell you to do. It's a combination of a bunch of little things that add up over time (some of which I'm sure many would find quite humorous), and then some well-calculated big things.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by Jims5543

My wife and her insistence on our kids attending private school threw a monkey wrench in on my plans to be retired by 55.

Been there, to the tune of over $400,000 and counting. But college only, not high school. I don't think the value is there for high school, no one later in life cares where you went to high school. Where one goes to college, however, does tend to matter. It is IMO a "trajectory setter" for a kid.

There is a very small handful of colleges (maybe 10 or 12?) that are so selective that they don't need to offer ANY athletic or academic scholarships, and can still turn down 90%+ of applicants. I give credit to my kids for working very hard and earning their way into those. But it's a huge cost, it's gotten so high that I question whether it's really worth it (they could have gone to other schools for free). But they earned it, and I wasn't going to take that away from them.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by Jims5543

The cool part about being self employed is I feel the way Mclovin feels right now and I have felt that way for the last 20 years.

That's awesome, it's really the best of both worlds.

[dmcummins]

Congratulations, I’ve been retired now for 11 years and it has been great. I also had planned to retire at 55 but went earlier. I was a little concerned around 2008-2010, but there was no way I was going back to work.

I have no regrets.

[fast_e_man]

Congrats, on retiring at 52, that's awesome! Getting the last child out of college and remaining empty nesters is liberating. We got our youngest out of college this past May and he's now fully on this own financially.

Staying disciplined with savings and your investment approach over the long haul is really important to make sure you can practice a reasonable amount of self-determination in life style and long-term plans. Sounds like you've done really well in that regard.

It's great to hear you are a couple months into retirement, and clearly thrilled! I enjoy reading about everyone's "double thumbs up" feedback on retirement. I'm targeting Nov 1st as my last day in the office - forever, so threads like this help amp up the anticipation for us soon to be retirees!

[fxeditor]

Originally Posted by McLovin

I could put together a detailed exposition of what I did, if anyone is interested.

But, in a nutshell, no, I didn't do S&P Index, or 401Ks. I did 401K when I started in my career almost 30 years ago, but it didn't take me long to see that would not get me where I wanted to go, and in fact, would PREVENT me from getting there. So I quit putting money into retirement accounts fairly early on (I do still have some there from the early days, which of course I can't take out yet).

What I did is in many ways contrarian to what most people do, and what most "advisors" would tell you to do. It's a combination of a bunch of little things that add up over time (some of which I'm sure many would find quite humorous), and then some well-calculated big things.

Congrats on your achievement! Now that I'm 49 I think I may have to extend my departure from the rat race a little longer than my original 55yo goal (having a kid at 41 will do that to you!).

I'd love to hear how you did it! I think I have a pretty good grasp on money and investing but I always love hearing other peoples perspectives!

Congrats again and best of luck!

Michael

[KFC911]

Awesome McLovin.....always have enjoyed your posts....if I may be nosy, and you wish to disclose...retire from what ? Similar paths....no kds, ten years into it....no regrets .
Planned it for age fitty....but jumped into the abyss during the darkest hours of '08.....a couple of years early....did I mention no regrets yet .....

hint.... 72(t) distributions would let you tap those early tax deferred accts. penalty free....If you desire.

Best of luck....I stay busier than ever....my terms though. Congrats man...enjoy what you've earned !

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Thanks puppy. We're kindred spirits in a way, with the buying and selling cars, I also had a dealer's license and warehouse, but mostly to have my hobby pay for itself (it actually was cash flow positive) and to have the space to store my personal cars. It was useful because being forced to cycle through cars every month or so to pay the rent kind of got cars out of my system a bit, haha. After that I've been happy to just live vicariously through your threads!

I recall you sharing that before. Oddly enough I would like to someday go back to the dealer thing as a semi-retirement gig. It was cashflow positive, mostly fun, scratched the itch for driving different cars, would keep me busy, and gave me some great write-off opportunities.

It sounds like you figured out a great system that worked well. I'm financially sound but not to the point of being comfortable managing my money directly, and honestly don't have the free time to commit at this point in time. I'm content to max out my 401k, just paid off my house to be 100% debt free, and trying to live life as simple and cheap as possible. I'm also aiming at 55, only 17 more years to go!

[Sarc]

Originally Posted by McLovin

I could put together a detailed exposition of what I did, if anyone is interested.

it didn't take me long to see that would not get me where I wanted to go, and in fact, would PREVENT me from getting there.

What I did is in many ways contrarian to what most people do, and what most "advisors" would tell you to do. It's a combination of a bunch of little things that add up over time (some of which I'm sure many would find quite humorous), and then some well-calculated big things.

Color me very interested.
Though not retired, I did inadvertently beat my goal by a few years of "retiring" from the 9-5 grind by the age of 45. By simplifying things and removing some paralyzing toxicity, I've been able to increase my income while reducing my working hours. Another story for another day.

That said, I've become borderline obsessed with catching up and ensuring everything is taut and secure so to speak and at the moment I find the investment/retirement options for someone with multiple sources of income a bit daunting.

A big congrats to you, McL.
I'm all ears.....

[JacobS911]

Originally Posted by Sarc

Color me very interested.
Though not retired, I did inadvertently beat my goal by a few years of "retiring" from the 9-5 grind by the age of 45. By simplifying things and removing some paralyzing toxicity, I've been able to increase my income while reducing my working hours. Another story for another day.

That said, I've become borderline obsessed with catching up and ensuring everything is taut and secure so to speak and at the moment I find the investment/retirement options for someone with multiple sources of income a bit daunting.

A big congrats to you, McL.
I'm all ears.....

I'm all ears too! and Congrats on such a huge accomplishment! I recently lowered my 401k contribution to the lowest amount to get the max match.. mainly for putting more money in brokerage for freedom to use the funds for early retirement at a similar age you called it "quits" on the 9-5.. At 34 years of age I'm interested in hearing some more details on your story and what you believe were the major factors of accomplishing your early retirement goal!