Lucky and some planning. Both of us worked for Verizon (and the former companies from NY Tel up) and were offered a buy out in 2010. Back in the day when coworkers with one income were buying $200K + homes we spent $80,000 and paid it off quickly. We both had a pension plan and a matched 401 that we maxed out at work. With some help from my mom and dads estate and the money from our old homes sale we paid cash for our current home. We never carried a credit card balance, this is a key component to early retirement. My wife will not pay interest on a CC. We get points toward gift cards on ours so they pay us to use it. We walked out the door with zero debt and it is still that way now.
Some other small stuff to get where we are but bottom line is donât spend what you make. spend way less and put the rest away. Oh and brew your own beer instead of buying it
Well, thatâs awesome! And I say that because what you are describing is very much how my wife and I have lived so far. I often tell my wife that we can retire early, but she is so programmed into the philosophy that you canât retire before 67 that the convincing is hard to do. But yeah, I am going to brew on, and I donât see myself going back to school at 48 years old.
My wife and I have had this same discussion. Sheâs afraid I will croak long before her and leave her destitute(which isnât far fetched as I also have a family history of early male demise). At age 53 we started a new venture last year that will allow me to continue to work for quite awhile but not racing rats anymore
On the other hand if someone had a good fiscal plan or multiple business partners, good brewing chops as a homewbrewer, and the physical and mental capacity for hard work now is the time. I am amazed at some of the breweries that have become successful that started just in the past 24-36 months while the rest of us are stuck in neutral. One of my neighbors just bought into a brewery here and left an engineering job.
I thought I retired 3 years ago. Now Iâm writing books, producing a podcast and traveling around the world talking about beer. Yeah, itâs actually work, but as retirement work goes, it doesnât suck!
The brewmaster at our local pub stated in an interview that â⌠you really have to like washing things to work at a breweryâŚâ. I guess itâs not all test batches and watching the fermenter burp.
