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Early Retirement (2006)

philip.greenspun.com

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Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#241

Post by spacedcowboy »

myth_drannon wrote: post #223
spacedcowboy wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a Brit, been living in the US for a decade or so now. I came here for the money and the weather, but the weather is going to shit these days... The long term plan was always to make sufficient money to retire early, then go home. Complicating this easy straightforward idea was that I got married (!) and now have a kid who I don't want to uproot. So now I wait for college-days, and then sod off back to the UK :) T…

Living far away from your children and grandchildren is really sad, especially once you get old and need help and company.

But... I won't be ?

I'm a Brit. I have lots of family in the UK. My wife doesn't have any siblings, her mother lives in Costa Rica, and her father lives in Southern CA but hasn't visited in the 10 years we've been married (we've been there).

Perhaps it wasn't clear, but I was expecting the kid (man, at that point, I guess) to come with - there's plenty of excellent universities in the UK, and he'll even be legally able to have a beer or two...

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#242

Post by BeetleB »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #57
jorblumesea wrote: post #43

If you've ever talked to anyone that has done FIRE or just retired a few years early, it's always health insurance. The current US system of healthcare via your employer is a huge blocker to any kind of alternative lifestyle. Have to wait until 65 (or like 68 by the time most of us can retire)

The current system is not healthcare via employer. Anyone can go to healthcare.gov and get the same insurance plans. The main benefit of employer purchased health insurance is that you buy with pre tax dollars.

> The main benefit of employer purchased health insurance is that you buy with pre tax dollars.

The main benefit is that my employer pays most of the premiums. As an example, I have a high deductible plan. The deductible is only about $3750/year. I pay 0 in premiums. The equivalent health plan from healthcare.gov is easily over $10K in premiums.

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#243

Post by throwaway894345 »

ghaff wrote: post #240
throwaway894345 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your property taxes and insurance are high it’s because your house is worth a lot of money. If your house’s value constitutes a large share of your net worth such that taxes and insurance are a burden then it indicates that too much of your equity is in your house and you should downsize.

I never said they were a "burden." I was indicating that just because you've paid off your mortgage doesn't mean living in a house is free. I think you'll find those numbers are not especially high for a house. (As opposed to a condo which have their own fees.) My house is not especially large--but it is about 200 years old although renovated so budgeting a few hundred dollars per month for maintenance seems reasonab…

> I never said they were a "burden." I was indicating that just because you've paid off your mortgage doesn't mean living in a house is free.

No one claimed it was free, and if it’s not a burden then what’s the problem? My point is that $80K without a mortgage or retirement allocation leaves significantly more money left over than $80K with those expenses. Where is the problem?

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#244

Post by mvp »

DickingAround wrote: post #210

"In olden times, the average person didn't expect to be happy" - I don't think that statement is supported by any evidence or logic. People are happy sometimes even when they're food-scarce. Only the dead are truly never happy. Similarly, the concept of 'pursuit of happiness' then referenced was a sort of adaptation of the 'right to property'. Perhaps this article would be stronger with a deeper research into history…

That sentence was followed by 'Life could be a struggle for survival with hard work and adversity at every corner. Marriages were arranged by parents and if, after 20 years, the couple hated each other, there was no option to divorce.'. So, if you don't struggle for survival, and don't have to work hard, and are not hit by adversity, and not forcely married to a person you don't like, then you may be happy. That seems a reasonable assumption considering the objective of the essay.

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#245

Post by toomuchtodo »

spacedcowboy wrote: post #241
myth_drannon wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living far away from your children and grandchildren is really sad, especially once you get old and need help and company.

But... I won't be ? I'm a Brit. I have lots of family in the UK. My wife doesn't have any siblings, her mother lives in Costa Rica, and her father lives in Southern CA but hasn't visited in the 10 years we've been married (we've been there). Perhaps it wasn't clear, but I was expecting the kid (man, at that point, I guess) to come with - there's plenty of excellent universities in the UK, and he'll even be legally ab…

Some might say you're giving your son a gift having citizenship in both the US and the UK. Options are freedom.

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#246

Post by beervirus »

brianwawok wrote: post #113
beervirus wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation is very real, and it’s most apparent in home values right now. Even if you pay off your mortgage, your property taxes keep going up as values increase.

If your property taxes are indexed to assessed value (which mine are), it also means your property value is going up. So double taxes would mean double value of home. It just means that at some point you may need to sell your home and downsize, pocketing a nice profit on the way out.

Unless prices fall in the future, in which case you’ve paid a lot in taxes every year and never get any benefit from the temporarily high valuation.

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#247

Post by mvp »

MattGaiser wrote: post #51
giantg2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but it depends on what you consider work. The author in your quote is implying that in public school you get a lot of work done. I don't think this is necessarily true. Unless, we are counting sitting in school for 6 hours each day as work. If we measure work as simple attendance and adherence to a schedule, then it seems that work and school are similar (ie sit in a class lecture v sit in a meeting, with ve…

I agree. I don't think either setting can be considered highly productive.

I think the point was that for a lot of people the settings are more productive than if they were left to their own devices.

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#248

Post by mlyle »

nuclearnice1 wrote: post #230
2sk21 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should mention that I started regular automated index fund investing in the mid 1990s. I have been through two _big_ market corrections: 2001 and 2008-9. Despite being nervous, I never once stopped my automatic investments.

And 2020. Down 30%

And fully recovered (irrationally?) within 4-5 months.

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#249

Post by dharmab »

nodejs_rulez_1 wrote: post #217
simonh wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have kids the calculation changes, at least for me. I could retire comfortably in a few years, but my earning power is at it's peak. Every extra year I work provides significant extra resources for my family, to help the girls afford their first houses and get a good start in life when they graduate. I'll probably work another 5 years beyond what I'd probably do if it was purely about self-interest for mysel…

> ...to help the girls afford their first houses and get a good start in life when they graduate... I thought having a possibility to graduate is 'the good start' in life.

Not for a few decades now. Since a 4 year degree is the baseline for young people entering the workforce, a degree is not a guarantee of prosperity.

Re: Early Retirement (2006)

#250

Post by yibg »

mlcrypto wrote: post #194
voidfunc wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you got lucky on a crypto-gamble and you think your situation applies to everyone? Help could mean a lot of things... it could mean $20K towards their down payment all the way up to buying the damn thing, the poster didn't really clarify. This whole "builds character" thing is a bunch of bullshit that people spout off to poo-poo those that have a leg up in life.

Its not a gamble. It's a sure thing that only people with the right mix of technical knowledge and Austrian economics can see

Also very easy to justify as obvious after the fact only.
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