It's not realistic for me to retire early and I suspect I will be obsolete in the tech industry long before the age of 70.
My plan is to work on lowering my living expenses to the point that as of the age of 50-55, I can switch to a job that is local, not in tech, lower paid, in the physical world, connected to real people. It's obviously not going to be very hard labor at that age.
The idea is to pay down the entire mortgage, optimize the home for energy use, and reduce to just one small cheap car, or maybe even none at all. There's plenty smaller items to save on, but that's the bulk of it. Funny thing is that it's barely even a lifestyle downgrade.
It should add that this is our plan. My wife is in. She has an office job, not in tech, but is equally done with it. A massive waste of life, it drains the soul. We estimate that by that time, it requires as little as 1.5 x minimum wage to keep things going. Which is an absolute joke compared to our current combined earning power.
I'm under no illusion that our potential new jobs are going to be terribly exciting. It doesn't have to be.
Our plan isn't just driven by a disgust for the modern office or fear of becoming obsolete, it's also because we realized that retirement is a scam. We both have a large family and the general pattern we observe is that around the age of 70, most people are broken, exhausted, dead or have lost their partner. They do not thrive in magical new freedoms, travel, or hobbies for some 2 decades. They perish. They sit, talk and complain and slowly see their peers fall apart.
Brutal, but the lesson is to not delay gratification that long. Work with the assumption that retirement sucks and that you're on the clock to improve your life during your good years.
It's not realistic for me to retire early and I suspect I will be obsolete in the tech industry long before the age of 70.
My plan is to work on lowering my living expenses to the point that as of the age of 50-55, I can switch to a job that is local, not in tech, lower paid, in the physical world, connected to real people. It's obviously not going to be very hard labor at that age.
The idea is to pay down the entire mortgage, optimize the home for energy use, and reduce to just one small cheap car, or maybe even none at all. There's plenty smaller items to save on, but that's the bulk of it. Funny thing is that it's barely even a lifestyle downgrade.
It should add that this is our plan. My wife is in. She has an office job, not in tech, but is equally done with it. A massive waste of life, it drains the soul. We estimate that by that time, it requires as little as 1.5 x minimum wage to keep things going. Which is an absolute joke compared to our current combined earning power.
I'm under no illusion that our potential new jobs are going to be terribly exciting. It doesn't have to be.
Our plan isn't just driven by a disgust for the modern office or fear of becoming obsolete, it's also because we realized that retirement is a scam. We both have a large family and the general pattern we observe is that around the age of 70, most people are broken, exhausted, dead or have lost their partner. They do not thrive in magical new freedoms, travel, or hobbies for some 2 decades. They perish. They sit, talk and complain and slowly see their peers fall apart.
Brutal, but the lesson is to not delay gratification that long. Work with the assumption that retirement sucks and that you're on the clock to improve your life during your good years.
Anyway, what was the question again?