If you know me well, or have at least read my “ABOUT ME” page, you know that our goal is to retire early. Not to come squealing into the 65-years-of-age retirement finish line at the last second, but to beat that mark by a wide margin. I’m often asked by people, “Why?”…to which I reply…”Why not?” There is nothing that says I have to wait until Social Security kicks in to enjoy a life of financial independence. I want to sleep in ’til noon if I like, take a bike ride with my husband in the middle of the afternoon or even travel for months at a time to far-away places.
But it takes dedication and commitment. We all know that anything you truly want, way deep down, is worth some sacrifice. We currently put away just over 60% of our net income into investments. Between our extreme savings rate, and the true magic of compound interest, the balance will grow quickly. Our target is $1.25 million dollars, and according to several calculators, we’ll get there in less than 8 years.
Now that I’ve answered the “Why do you want to retire early?”, I’ll answer those that ask, “What gave you that crazy idea in the first place?”
It was the second wake-up call.
Near the end of 2012, the day after Christmas in fact, my husband started a new job. A few months later, he came home to tell me he’d found out something rather morbid that day. He was told that Sam*, the guy formerly in his position, had died…at work. Sam was in his early 60’s and was only months away from retirement. 7 months, to be exact. Other employees recalled him coming into work each morning with a cheery announcement of how many working days he had left…he could see the day coming where he would finally walk out the door to start the next chapter of his life. He didn’t know that day would never come.
Naturally, I asked my husband what happened.
It’s November 20th, two days before Thanksgiving. Sam stands up from his desk, grabs his coffee cup and begins walking down the main hallway. Without warning…he collapses. Coworkers rush to him, and immediately begin CPR. He was having a heart attack. While the efforts to resuscitate continue, the paramedics arrive. But it was too late. He died right there on the floor.
Days after hearing that story, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I started asking myself things like…”Am I going to work and save for 40 years just to end up dying before I can enjoy it?”…”Am I doing all I can to reach my financial goals?”…”Can I reach them any faster?”
What was once a plan to put in 40 years with a respectable savings effort, has become a determination to save/invest our way to retirement in less than 8 years from now. You only have one life to live. Are you going to (a) make changes to live life on your terms as soon as possible, (b) come squealing into the retirement finish line at 65…or (c) never have enough to retire at all?
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A few days into his new job, my husband is sitting at his desk, in Sam’s old office. He rolls over to the computer, and opens a spreadsheet that is sitting on the desktop.
He calls out to his manager, “What are these numbers on the right-hand side?”
“That’s Sam’s countdown. To retirement.”
* Name has been changed to respect privacy
Oh my god, that’s horrifying. Poor Sam 🙁
I totally agree — I’m not working for 40 years and possibly dying at my desk. I can live a good life on less than we make, no reason to spend more just for the sake of spending more.
I know, it was a tragedy all the way around.
And I couldn’t agree with you more. Why spend on meaningless stuff? One of the great things about saving 60% of our net income, is that we already know how to live on the other 40%. And even then, most of that will go away by the time we retire. (mortgage will be paid off, last of our kids will likely be leaving the nest, etc).
This is a really awesome article and it really puts things into perspective. The story of Sam reminds me of the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette. It makes me wonder what small decisions Sam made during his life that extended his retirement date out further. I wonder if the habits that pushed back his retirement also ate away at his health.
This not only makes me want to continue improving my financial independence journey, it also makes me want to start living healthier so that I can better enjoy that journey. Thanks for this extremely poignant message.
You don’t know how badly I wanted to weave a reference to that song in there. I thought the EXACT same thing myself.
On the 1-year anniversary of Sam’s death, his wife came to the office and spoke about how angry she was that throughout his entire life, he refused to step back from his work. He never took time off. He literally worked himself to the grave, and it breaks my heart.
Woahhhhh….. freaky!!!
What a good reminder to live in the moment. So many of us are saving for future goals, but we must live in the now.
There is no guarantee we will make it to retirement– or tomorrow.
That wakeup call was a unique gift. I had a similar experience when my father passed away of a heart attack at age 47. I decided that I would make sure to appreciate every day and that life is too short to “sell your soul” to a job or occupation or, worse, to meet society’s expectations overall. Thank you for sharing your “aha” moment with us.
47? That’s heartbreaking. So much life left for him to live, but didn’t get the chance. Thanks for sharing your own reminder that we only have so much time…let’s make every second count.
The same thing sort of happened to my dad, although he was at home. He died 7 months before he turned 65. He’d planned to retire then. After that, I decided that I would retire at 55 and since I worked for a place that had age 55 defined benefit pension plan, it was a reachable goal. I decided those extra ten years of life was worth far more to me than to an employer.
You’ve got the right mindset…”those extra ten years of life was worth far more to me than to any employer.”
My feelings exactly. I want the number of years that I lived life on my terms to outnumber the years that I was shackled to a desk.
Awesome article. Thank you!
I lost my 46 year old workaholic husband just over a year ago. We would argue about his working so many hours at our home office…only to be consumed by an aggressive brain tumor that took him within 3 months. We saved, took our yearly trip to Mexico but little more. The joys and risks we should have taken were eaten alive by job stress.
Last year I took my son to Disney, flew to Belgium and just bought a vacation rental in with the hopes of retiring there in 5 years. Am I scared? Hell, yes! But I will not go down in the same complacent ball of flames. I won’t let my dreams die a lonely death.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Sheri
Sheri — Thank you for sharing your experience, your words are profound. Your husband was so young, I can hardly imagine losing my husband at 60 let alone 46. Kudos to you for deciding not to just exist, but to LIVE, and live fully.
Great article.
Your 8 year goal sounds great. Does your $1.25 million target reflect total net-worth including principle residence?
Curious how you plan on breaking it all down.
Scott
Thanks Scott.
No, our $1.25 million target only refers to our total holdings in 401k accounts, Roth IRAs and brokerage accounts. But it is based on a 9% average ROI (before inflation) over the 8 years, which is still an educated guess on an unknown variable. 🙂
While I don’t count our principal residence as part of our target number, it will be paid off in about 5 years, so we’ll own it free and clear by the time retirement comes around.
We will, however, count our recent business purchase as part of our investment holdings.