Not long ago I had lunch with my recently early retired friend Russ, who gave me the inside scoop on snowbirding from wintery Minnesota to sunny Florida. Russ and his wife, Tracey, are new to the lifestyle, having bought a condominium on the gulf coast of Florida last year, which they can enjoy now that he retired from MegaCorp at the end of January. They … Continue reading Early Retirement “Snowbirding 101”
It has been more than a month now since I early retired from MegaCorp and adopted my new life of leisure. It feels like I am still “skipping school” and am expected to go back to work at some point. The good news is that I’m not going back to anything and enjoying my time immensely. It is wonderful to have all of the time … Continue reading Milestone: First 50 Days of Early Retirement
Now that I am retired early and enjoying my first month without work, people are asking me for advice on how much THEY need to save to retire themselves. Many people don’t seem to know where exactly to start. Calculating the money needed for retirement feels like walking into a foreign casino to them – full of opportunity, but also fraught with risk. With that … Continue reading Calculating Retirement Odds – Using FIREcalc
While I am only starting my third day of early retirement, I can already feel that my fundamental relationship with TIME and SLEEP is changing. First off, I am starting to understand what freedom from everyday work feels like. Simply put, it feels like I am SKIPPING SCHOOL – but EVERYONE knows. Even the principal (my old boss) knows. For the last few weeks, even though … Continue reading A Wrinkle In Time
Health insurance is a big, incremental expense for people hoping to retire early from corporate life. Understanding our options and the costs has been an important focus for us as we’ve plotted our upcoming FIRE escape on 4/1/16. (Please note that the following is our understanding of healthcare insurance options, and that we are not experts in this topic. Please consult an insurance … Continue reading Health Insurance for Early Retirement
Like anything, reaching the goal of early retirement starts with a choice to start seriously planning toward it. In sequence, picking a retirement age to shoot for is the first of one’s MILESTONES toward a life of financial independence and retiring early. This is the starting point at which you start hatching a financial plan and start making decisions to focus on it. For us, … Continue reading FIRE Milestones – Picking An Early Retirement Age
I’ve probably been talking about early retirement for about as long as I have been gainfully employed. When I started first working after college, one of my older brothers pointed out that my starting two weeks paid vacation amounted to only 1 year off for every 26 years worked. That got me thinking right away about saving enough to retire BEFORE I hit the 26 … Continue reading FIRE Milestones – Sharing Plans with Friends & Family
Even as I plan for an early-exit from the workplace in early 2016, I continue to work hard to deliver results for the company. While I haven’t shared my plans with my boss at MegaCorp yet (Happy April Fools Day 2016!), I have tried to show as much commitment to the company as I always have. I want to go out knowing I did things … Continue reading An Awkward Knot @ MegaCorp
While I definitely have been making quite detailed plans for what I would like to do in retirement, I am finding it much more fun just to say “My plans? – to do as little as possible.” It’s a bit flip, but I’d rather not make it seem like I have this whole thing figured out, when I don’t. In fact, when people … Continue reading No Plans For Early Retirement?
This is another post in my series about FIRE Milestones – the key moments that have shaped our journey to financial independence and retiring early. With the four month mark coming up in our early retirement countdown, I have been pretty good about keeping my plans separate from the office. Only a few people know of my secret plan to escape MegaCorp for a life … Continue reading FIRE Milestones: Confidentially Telling Someone @ Work
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