When the Social Security Act was passed in
1935, retirement officially began at 65. And the life expectancy at the time was 58. So from the very outset, “retirement”
wasn’t exactly considered a universal experience. But over the last century as life expectancies
have climbed, the concept of retirement has become synonymous with the final chapter in
a person’s life. Then, the book “Your Money or Your Life”
came out in the 90’s and introduced a radical concept The author, Vicki Robin, proposed that by
living with extreme frugality for a few years, younger people could essentially become “retired”
long before old age. She claimed to have achieved financial independence…
in her 20’s! Today, the phenomenon of financial independence
at a young age goes by the acronym “FIRE”. It stands for “Financial Independence; Retire
Early”. And it’s no fringe movement - FIRE has been
covered by the New York Times, Market Watch, and Forbes. And it’s got more and more millenials wondering
“could I quit my day-job too?” This isn’t about dropping out of society
or living in a cave… necessarily. FIRE practitioners work extremely hard while
living far below their means for years to amass enough savings to leave the workforce. And it doesn’t mean you’ll spend your
newfound freedom just hanging out in bowling alleys like Jeff Lebowski. Many people who manage to retire early continue
to work--but only on projects they’re passionate about. But the question remains… is it possible
to achieve through savings alone? Peter Adeney, aka “Mr. Money Mustache”,
might be considered the modern FIRE movement’s founding father. Adeney was working as a software engineer
while living dramatically below his means during his 20’s. He took his savings and paid off debt and
invested it it in stock-index funds. By 2005 and in his early-30’s, Adeney and
his wife had amassed around $600,000 and a paid-for home. He calculated he had enough to leave the work-force-permanently. Adeney suggests that Early-Retirement is possible
through three fundamental concepts: Frugality, Investing, and the “4% Rule” of withdrawals. Let’s face it - unless you luck into a large
windfall of cash, you’ll have to save up a serious nest egg to retire. And the simplest way to do that is to slash
your lifestyle. Normally, financial advisors suggest a 10-15%
savings rate to retire at a normal age of 65 or so. Want to retire ahead of schedule? Then you’ll have to level that up. Most early-retirees adopt a 50% to 75% savings
rate… or more! It’s not uncommon for them to cut restaurants
& bars, buy cheap cars, bike to work, make do with a smaller house, and avoid luxuries
like gyms, fancy vacations, and expensive hobbies. Simply stashing cash into a bank account is
a good start. But the FIRE proponents rely on the power
of the markets to boost their savings rates. Assuming you saved your money into a general
stock-market index fund, you might expect 7-10% rate of return, based on historical
averages. Any experienced investor will tell you that
year-to-year returns will swing wildly, maybe even crash! So that’s where the third rule comes in… A 1998 study by Trinity University concluded
that a 4% annual withdrawal rate of your money in retirement should allow you to never out-live
your money - even in a bad economy. This means that even with the dramatic ups
and downs of the stock and bond market, as long as your yearly expenses stay below 4%
of your total savings, you should be able to live off them for… well, theoretically,
forever. Put another way: you take your annual spending
needs, then multiply it by 25. That’s the amount you need to become financially
independent. By now I imagine you’re wondering what it
would take if YOU wanted to to retire early. I think it’s time to… RUN THE NUMBERS! Let’s imagine you have a household income
of $85,000, but you live way below your means and only need $35,000/yr to be happy. According to our rule of 4%, you’ll need
$875,000 in the bank in order to be financially independent. Through extreme thrift and aggressive cost-cutting,
you’re able to save $50,000/yr, which comes to 59% of your annual income. At that rate of savings, and assuming your
stock-index funds got an average return of 7%, you’ll have hit your goal in... 12 years. A good income, frugal living, and compound
interest are a powerful wealth-building combination. You might be wondering “What if I don’t
make a ton of money? Is this realistic?” A common critique of the Early Retirement
movement is that Adeney and other leaders of the movement had high-paying jobs in medicine
or engineering. Making big bucks can certainly speed up the
process. But it’s not a requirement. Take Jillian Johnsrud. She began working towards financial independence
at age 19. Her husband served in the armed forces and
she worked in customer service and sales. Over the next 13 years they made an average
household income of $60,000, with no year over six-figures. And by 32 Jillian had saved enough to be completely
financially independent. All while raising adopted & biological children
and climbing out of $52,000 of debt. She uses her freed-up time to travel the country,
write, and raise her children. Today she does some work as a writer and coach,
but it’s on her terms. If you think that “early retirement” is
all about lounging around and avoiding work, you’ve missed the point. Instead, it’s about taking an active step
to replace a job you hate with work you love… and often finances are the biggest hurdle. As Adeney says about the FIRE phenomenon:
“Early retirement means quitting any job you wouldn’t do for free – but then
continuing right ahead with work in something that works for you, even when you don’t
need the money.” And if you’ve already got a fulfilling job
you love-- congratulations, you already have the benefits of early retirement without having
to save up for it! So whether or not you want to sprint toward
early retirement, the mindset of reducing your lifestyle, living simpler, and building
a more rewarding work-life is something we should all be aiming for. And that’s our Two Cents! If you were to retire today, what would you do with your newfound freedom? Tell us about it in the comments.
Saw this video pop up on my YouTube feed. Google must know I've had a lot of interest in FIRE content lately.
It's definitely a little campy, but I still think it's a great resource to give a quick, simple and clear overview to a complete FIRE novice.
It’s not a Bad video. I like it as it points out the basics.
By that definition I’m already retired then!
I kinda like the video, so simple. Anyone else have links to others that might be a bit more technical and not so ... you know.
This lost me at the 3 minute mark. I literally do none of those things, and I live paycheck to paycheck.
I'm earning decently more than min wage too, it just costs a lot to have a family.