A few months ago I decided that I am now 10 years to retirement. According to my calculations growing a nest egg that would allow me to retire in 10 years (at age 35) is more than doable based on my current salary and savings rate. Even though I’ve only been working for 3.5 years it was quickly apparent to me that working for other people, commuting to an office every day and working towards goals that are not aligned with my own is not something I want to do for 40 years. So I decided to change it.
Luckily my boyfriend had mentioned early retirement and even the 4% rule to me previously, but now it really caught my attention. And so the dive into the tomes began. I started by reading every post the early retirement blogger Mr. Money Mustache ever wrote, quickly moved over to Jim Collins and his amazing Stock Series, the Mad FIentist and CanIRetireYet.com. For books I read:
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
- Millennial Money by Patrick O’Shaughnessy
- Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker
- Your Money Or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joseph R. Dominguez
- Economics Explained by Robert Heibroner
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
I also officially abandoned my experiment with the new age bank Simple and began using YNAB (You Need a Budget) in addition to Mint.com which I’ve been using since college and my new obsession, Personal Capital, to track my investments at the recommendation of Mr. Money Mustache.
Instead of nights spent knocking back beers and watching mindless comedies I had most likely seen before to destress from work, my evenings recently have been spent reading and re-reading investment studies, 2015 tax code and finance blogs while writing notes about how I can use this information to optimize my path. And I am Loving It!
For the first time I’ve identified my problem (working in a traditional sense) and found the answer: building up my nest egg for early retirement so I do not feel pressured into doing anything I don’t want to for purely monetary reasons. I’ve never been particularly bad with my money but there are a few areas that I’ve realized do not make me as happy as the money I spend doing them. The most pressing was the cost of living in New York City.
Geo arbitrage? Healthcare tourism? Unfortunately illness doesn’t follow a schredule. For example my BIL spent 3 weeks in and out of the hospital for an sudden infection. I’d hate to be underinsured when those bills start coming in. Hope your plans include a decent level of coverage.
Yep I’ll have global emergency coverage. Medical tourism would obviously be for things I can plan (e.g. scheduled surgery, dental work etc).
I have been following you on Instagram for a while, watching your net worth grow and seeing all of the places you’ve been travelling to. It’s awesome and very inspiring! I have been been dabbling a bit for 5 years and currently have a 5 year plan for early (ish) retirement.
Now I’m getting laser focused and so the binge reading of your blog starts today!
Thank you 🙂 and woohoo for a 5 year plan! I hope you enjoy the binge read. I haven’t done that for my whole site in a bit – I think you’ve inspired my reading this week 😉 .