How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank

[renggileh]

Its ridiculous when you say about the lambo things, the point is not for being more consumptive to save the planets, not the contrary. The millennial should concern about long time-simple living, being more spiritual, understand about their self and be more environmentalist, not those who party everyday and spend those money to buy shit product.

you are right, no matter how much money we have if our lifestyle is too luxurious I think it will never be enough.
simple life is good, because I think money is not a guarantee of a happy life, there are things that are more valuable than money.

[theyRmose]

Its ridiculous when you say about the lambo things, the point is not for being more consumptive to save the planets, not the contrary. The millennial should concern about long time-simple living, being more spiritual, understand about their self and be more environmentalist, not those who party everyday and spend those money to buy shit product.

you are right, no matter how much money we have if our lifestyle is too luxurious I think it will never be enough.
simple life is good, because I think money is not a guarantee of a happy life, there are things that are more valuable than money.

very wise, I agree
Our lifestyle determines how much money we will spend on daily living needs. and a simple lifestyle is the best choice.
just don't be too stingy for yourself. 

[cryptolandlords]

The fear of the source of income at old age  make people to serve in government parastatel with the hope of pension. I see it as a way of managing poverty. Having your business empire can grant generational pension.

[tee-rex]

Free time is true wealth.

I don't know about that.  I've known quite a few people who live in shelters and who have no job, and the lives they lead couldn't be considered "wealthy", and I'm not just talking about them not having money.

Living a life of ease is something we all want when we're working 40 hours or more a week, but many people end up doing nothing with their lives when they do have free time.  Having a job has quite a few benefits aside from the paycheck, especially if you like what you're doing.  I have no plans to retire right now, as I like working.  It gives me purpose and a sense that I'm doing something worthwhile.

If you don't know what to do with your life when you have free time on hand, it means that you are wasting them, both your life and time. It is like wasting money and wealth, not very much different really. So free time is true wealth if you know what to do with it.

Regarding living a life of ease, it is definitely not what all of us want. For myself, I want my life to be positively challenging, and that is certainly not about having an easy life. We all need challenges to overcome if we want to experience our lives as productive and fulfilling. Having a job is not a substitute if your life is empty and has no meaning beyond that job. It is a crutch, though if you really like your job, it's okay, but this is not what this topic is about as I get it.

[pawel7777]

...
I purposely ignored inflation because it would add complication. On the other hand, a 5% return is on the low side. If you get 7.5% return with 2.5% inflation, you would be back on track.

Yup. And there's another upside: if, during those years, your expenses included mortgage payments - those will decrease or get fully paid off, so you'd need less income to keep the same lifestyle.

I highly doubt that this can be done in the current era.

Of course it can. It's not like we're talking about some ancient concept from the 60s. The key is to not get stuck in minimum wage, entry level job, as such would pay at, or below survival rate, leaving no room for saving.

... so that in the next 10 years they can have billion in their account. I am sure that would be the money which they will need for their next 60-70 years if they wanna get retired by 30's. 

The idea is not to eat through your savings until you die, but to accumulate enough money to generate you sufficient interest/investment income to live on that. Doesn't really matter if you live 20, 70 or 100 years of retirement.

[Thirdspace]

Mr. Jensen was making about $110,000 a year and had benefits, but the stress hardly seemed worth it. He couldn’t unwind with his family after work; he spent days huddled over the toilet. He lost 10 pounds.

After one especially brutal workday, Mr. Jensen Googled “How do I retire early?” and his eyes were opened. He talked to his wife and came up with a plan: They saved a sizable portion of their income over the next five years and drastically reduced expenses, until their net worth was around $1.2 million.

How is it possible they saved five years income to get net worth $1.2 million?
even if they didn't spend a dime, the total would be only $550,000 which means they started with net worth ~$650,000
most common workers would have hard time accumulating $1 million even in 10 or 20 years
this condition is hard to attain for regular people who are still struggling to fulfill his daily/monthly needs

I think anyone having over $100,000 yearly salary is considered mid-high class worker
and anyone having over $1 million saving/investment is already financially more than sufficient
if invested properly, it would easily generate enough to guarantee decent non-luxurious lifestyle

[Ladysmith]

Free time is true wealth.

I don't know about that.  I've known quite a few people who live in shelters and who have no job, and the lives they lead couldn't be considered "wealthy", and I'm not just talking about them not having money.

Living a life of ease is something we all want when we're working 40 hours or more a week, but many people end up doing nothing with their lives when they do have free time.  Having a job has quite a few benefits aside from the paycheck, especially if you like what you're doing.  I have no plans to retire right now, as I like working.  It gives me purpose and a sense that I'm doing something worthwhile.

I do like the extreme saving aspect of this.  Blowing your money on stuff you don't need is a recipe for disaster.  Feeling like you have to work just to pay for all the extras is not a path to happiness.

You have a point. If you enjoy what you do you'll never work a day in your life. Perspective is everything. The point is to not feel forced to be anywhere you don't want to be. If work is where you're most happy, then you are spending your time as you want, and you are "wealthy" in this sense of the term, as well as the other, I'm sure

Most people can't say the same, and spend the majority of their lives in what they consider to be corporate prisons, working to make someone else's dream a reality.

[tee-rex]

Mr. Jensen was making about $110,000 a year and had benefits, but the stress hardly seemed worth it. He couldn’t unwind with his family after work; he spent days huddled over the toilet. He lost 10 pounds.

After one especially brutal workday, Mr. Jensen Googled “How do I retire early?” and his eyes were opened. He talked to his wife and came up with a plan: They saved a sizable portion of their income over the next five years and drastically reduced expenses, until their net worth was around $1.2 million.

How is it possible they saved five years income to get net worth $1.2 million?
even if they didn't spend a dime, the total would be only $550,000 which means they started with net worth ~$650,000
this condition is hard to attain for regular people who are still struggling to save some money for retirement

His benefits may have by far exceeded his wages, though in this case the whole arithmetic is meaningless as he could have just received his severance pay and that would make up all his "savings" (or the best part of it). Besides, we know only his income but the author mentions that guy's wife as well, though he fails to mention her income. See where I'm getting at?

I think anyone having over $100,000 yearly salary is considered mid-high class worker
and anyone having over $1 million saving/investment is already financially more than sufficient
if invested properly, it would easily generate enough to guarantee decent non-luxurious lifestyle

That largely depends on a country. In some poor and underdeveloped countries people won't earn so much during their entire lifetime. On the other hand, you can save enough, then retire and move to a country where cost of living is substantially below the country of your income. This is what many elderly people from the US and other costly places do, by moving to Eastern European countries like Czech Republic or Slovenia where standards of living are still pretty high but costs of living are way lower at that.

[Samarkand]

...
Blowing your money on stuff you don't need is a recipe for disaster. 
...

And yet this is precisely what the big majority of people
are doing everyday. If you take a look at the average savings rate
in countries like the US, you will be shocked at the results.

People are bombarded with ads constantly and in
consequence develop the feeling that they really need that car or that vacation.
Some are even so stupid to buy depreciating assets like a car or a
new TV by going into debt.

Reducing your exposure to ads is the first step if you really
want to live a more balanced lifestyle without having to worry about
your finances constantly.

[pawel7777]

...
People are bombarded with ads constantly and in
consequence develop the feeling that they really need that car or that vacation.
Some are even so stupid to buy depreciating assets like a car or a
new TV by going into debt.

Reducing your exposure to ads is the first step if you really
want to live a more balanced lifestyle without having to worry about
your finances constantly.

The bigger problem is that we, as society, operate on social hierarchy system, with wealth being one of the indicators of high social value. There's an enormous pressure, especially on young people (with all their insecurities) to try to highlight their wealth (or fake it) with expensive phones, cars, holidays etc. And with loans, car finances, credit cards easily available, even low-earners can purchase flashy items creating a pressure on their peers to do the same.

[CASTIEL05]

FIRE stands for Financial Independence Retirement Early, this is yhe first time I encountered that acronym. Seems like it is good to hear that at age of 30, you are financial stable. But I think, it won't happen easily specially in my situation that I am just a normal person without any luxurious material. Anyway, everything in this world starts with nothing. I always dream to be successful and I am motivated to strive hard even in the darkest night. To dream is to believe that you can do it no matter how difficult the life.

[reyanshbasu]

This only means that, no matter how much you earn, your life is at stakes if you do not know how to spend your money wisely. If you have a high paying job but you have a lifestyle that will consume almost your income, then your job is useless. It won't help you out to retire early. Retiring at an early age should be done by changing your lifestyle first. Having a simple and practical life.

[pitiflin]

I have heard of similar stories, and even in bitcoin. So basically some hodler cashed out in december 2017, and now he's living a fucking good life. Its possible, a lot of people dream of it, but its not advisable. You're basically predicting things for your future. Its a risky step and isn't worth. There are lot of factors that aren't focused here. Cost in living in the future is gonna be so damn high, and so are the taxes. 1 million $ wouldn't be worth as much as it is now. What is USD gets devalued? Or god forbid,something worse happens?

[gambitcoin53]

bitcoin can certainly help people after retirement, but only if they are good in trading analysis, and since bitcoin is highly volatile, it is too risky to rely on bitcoin trading alone, you wouldn't want your retirement money goes to waste when you loose it in trading, retirement is not really the key to have money in your bank, that is only the result of your long term work, some people retire with nothing, especially now, money is undervalued because of the expenses, so if you are planning to retire, make sure it is worth your expenses, then half of it should go to investments, maybe diversify it to crypto and the tangible investments such as family business or property investments. you dont want to retire and plans to rent all your remaining life. be wise before you retire. 

[tee-rex]

bitcoin can certainly help people after retirement, but only if they are good in trading analysis, and since bitcoin is highly volatile, it is too risky to rely on bitcoin trading alone, you wouldn't want your retirement money goes to waste when you loose it in trading, retirement is not really the key to have money in your bank, that is only the result of your long term work, some people retire with nothing, especially now, money is undervalued because of the expenses, so if you are planning to retire, make sure it is worth your expenses, then half of it should go to investments, maybe diversify it to crypto and the tangible investments such as family business or property investments. you dont want to retire and plans to rent all your remaining life. be wise before you retire. 

While I strongly agree that in no case you should rely on bitcoin alone but that's for other reasons. It is not about being good at trading, analysis, or anything to that tune. The primary reason why you should not keep everything in bitcoin is because we don't really know whether bitcoin will still be around in a year (most likely it will) or in a decade (things become more at this point).

If we knew in advance that bitcoin would be sticking around still in that time, your trading skills, or lack thereof, would be irrelevant as long as you are aware of your weak sides. You could just keep your bitcoins, spend them when necessary, and then buy back what you sold whenever the price goes down. It is not a rocket science, so anyone and his dog can follow this simple strategy.

[ajoygb]

Well if i have that amount in my bank i will move out from my job and plab wisely. Invest to business and of course invest in crypto. Atleast i know it is now my time no boss, no pressure.
.

[Kakmakr]

For every $10,000 income ...
Yearly Spending: $5000
Yearly Savings: $5000
Interest: 5%
<snip>

This looks nice and all, but you ignored inflation, which is a very important factor here. Assuming inflation at 2.5%, your interest effectively goes down from 5% to 2.5%, resulting in this:

Year   Spending      Interest     Total Savings
1    $5,000.00     $0.00     $5,000.00
2    $5,000.00     $125.00     $10,125.00
3    $5,000.00     $253.13     $15,378.13
4    $5,000.00     $384.45     $20,762.58
5    $5,000.00     $519.06     $26,281.64
6    $5,000.00     $657.04     $31,938.68
7    $5,000.00     $798.47     $37,737.15
8    $5,000.00     $943.43     $43,680.58
9    $5,000.00     $1,092.01     $49,772.59
10   $5,000.00     $1,244.31     $56,016.91
11   $5,000.00     $1,400.42     $62,417.33
12   $5,000.00     $1,560.43     $68,977.76
13   $5,000.00     $1,724.44     $75,702.21
14   $5,000.00     $1,892.56     $82,594.76
15   $5,000.00     $2,064.87     $89,659.63
16   $5,000.00     $2,241.49     $96,901.12

With median income for US of ~$45k (quick google search), that gives $10,087 annual interest, so less than half of what you need to maintain the same, frugal (dis)comfort of life, unless you manage to get better yield for your savings.

A lot of people are beating inflation by relocating to third world countries where the Bank interest rates are higher than the first world countries. A uncle of mine worked in a first world country for 30 years in the Post Office and on his retirement income, he would barely survived.

His solution was to relocate to a third world country, where he got more interest on his savings and also a favourable currency conversion for the money that are coming from his first world retirement fund. He is currently living like a King in a third world country, with his Post Office pension fund income.   <He is also getting 8% interest on his savings>

[audaciousbeing]

Reading the article has actually widen my horizon to life differently. I have always thought about retiring early though but this has actually proven that its possible. There is also a way to look at that quite a number of people are not happy with their jobs and would want to retire early but they cannot because they are yet to make ends meet. This is even common in developing world where basic things that makes life easy for someone who is not greedy is not made available.

I wonder if there is a similar movement revolving around bitcoin and crypto? I know there are many buying lamborghinis living beyond their expected means for their age group, due to being early adopters of crypto.

Perhaps in the future we'll see a crossover of sorts where FIRE adherants and crypto join forces. lol

For me, I thing crypto is the surest way for anyone who is serious about not working till forever. There is no point working till 60 or 65 when you have enough wealth to sustain you. With crypto trading and activities, one can retire from working 8am to 5pm every day and waking up early to work and the hours increased as you move up in career ladder but crypto, you have your life in your hands to decide when you want to trade, make money, take vacation then relax with family. What kind of life is more fulfilling than that?

[btcrich2020]

Well if i have that amount in my bank i will move out from my job and plab wisely. Invest to business and of course invest in crypto. Atleast i know it is now my time no boss, no pressure.
.

Not only you, many people will enjoy and leave the job if they have 1 million in the banks, my always dream figure is 1 million in the bank but we cannot reach the target because we have to work very hard for it to reach the target.

[pawel7777]

...

A lot of people are beating inflation by relocating to third world countries where the Bank interest rates are higher than the first world countries. A uncle of mine worked in a first world country for 30 years in the Post Office and on his retirement income, he would barely survived.

His solution was to relocate to a third world country, where he got more interest on his savings and also a favourable currency conversion for the money that are coming from his first world retirement fund. He is currently living like a King in a third world country, with his Post Office pension fund income.   <He is also getting 8% interest on his savings>

That's definitely something to consider Sounds like a solid plan 'B' if everything else fails.

As always there are some downsides and obstacles: you'd need visa/residency permit etc, there's language barrier, and the higher interest rates almost always come in pair with high inflation and general instability.