Fire

fred246

I retired early and have no regrets. The bit I miss most is the feeling of belonging to an organisation. From school to university to work I was always part of a big group spending many hours together. I met up recently and they were all telling me how well I looked. I think it's the combination of going to the gym much more and having a tan from more outdoor activities. If you have a very high income and live a normal life early retirement is realistic. There aren't that many people with incomes high enough for it to be very common.

Albermarle

Personally I cannot think of any job that I would find either interesting or not too stressful.

Appreciate your clear view on the subject but I think it must be only a view held by a small minority.

Sea_Shell

My job was both interesting and not stressful.

However what work does is get in the way of other things!!

You still have to be there at set times on set days. Even leave can't clash with colleagues and usually has to be booked in advance.

I've yet to find employment that lets me decide, on an unlimited basis, "it's sunny today, I think I won't go in" at 8am on the day!!!

So I decided to take 365 days unpaid leave!!!;);)

DairyQueen

This blogger has an interesting take on the contemporary FIRE movement. For him, success depends on 'luck', 'grit' and 'above average earnings' but, of these, 'luck' is by far the biggest determiner of success.

An interesting read for a lazy Sunday.

Fire is for the Few, not the Many

"The extrovert wing of FIRE started around the same time (i.e. the financial crash) and have been riding the wave of a decade of rising asset prices and are now writing books saying ‘Look Ma, anyone can do it’. No. Just no. If you want to make these books work right for you, get into your underground lab and build a time machine. Set the controls for Q1 2009 and buy into the market like gangbusters."

GDB2222

Wenlock wrote: »

Fair enough.

Personally I cannot think of any job that I would find either interesting or not too stressful. But good luck to anyone who does.

Just as an example, I thought of becoming a postman. Plenty of exercise, and I doubt there's a lot of stress. Not wildly interesting, but you get to see what's going on in the neighbourhood, and you talk to your colleagues before setting off on your round.

The snag is that it's fine doing a round of the quiet back streets, but less nice doing the main road. Guess which round you'll get as the new boy at the depot.

bugslett

Wenlock wrote: »

We are all different, obviously. My health was definitely suffering prior to retirement at age 50. This was due to:

Sitting at a desk all day - not moving regularly is one of the most detrimental things you can do and even exercising hard after work doesn’t help much.

Extreme stress - no job exists that I wouldn’t have found stressful!

Poor diet - so easy to eat empty calories and high carb foods when you are stressed or bored.

I am now 54. 3 stone lighter, running 5 - 10 miles most days, carnivore diet. No joint pains, stress, anxiety etc.

I don’t understand why anyone would choose to work if they had any other viable option.

Much the same as wenlock.

I enjoyed my business for around 26 years despite it being very long hours and extremely stressful, but the last 2 were just awful as monumentally stupid corporate bull started creeping in, well more of a stampede than a creep.

May and June I was doing progressively less hours and have now been retired for a month having just turned 55.

Since April, I have:

Lost 11lbs.

Massively increased my fruit and vegetable intake

Walking more

Have a daily stretch programme along with a regular light weights programme.

Taken up meditation (still not very good).

My sleep has generally improved.

I have not missed work one bit, even the daily chat with staff and customers hasnt bothered me.

I might find some occasional self employed part time work if i can make it fit for me and find it interesting.

I generally wake up astonished that I can read if I want, garden when I want and most of all I have had the time to fulfill a lifetime ambition.

I realise it's the honeymoon period, but it feels absolutely fantastic.:D

bostonerimus

It's definitely possible as I retired at 52.
I found the frugality aspect really liberating; it's more about not spending money on useless crap that denying yourself anything meaningful.

Terron

GDB2222 wrote: »

I can answer that anecdotally. My late father was a GP, and he chose to work until a few months short of 80. He enjoyed his work. He enjoyed meeting the patients. Above all, he got satisfaction out of helping them.

My father was a GP too. But he was forced to retire when he was 60 due to a heart problem. I am sure he would have preferred to continue, though his pension was pretty good (£33kpa in 2011 when he died). He had always played golf on most Sundays but started playing three times a week until he was in his 70s. Having out of the house was a relief for my mother.

Terron

Andyed201 wrote: »

What are peoples thoughts on the FIRE movement? It seems to be really going in popularity at the moment and is appearing in blogs, podcasts and the news a lot.

I like the principal of things like saving rates and low cost, tax efficient savings, although I am not so much of a fan of the massive spending cuts a lot of people in FIRE advocate - I like a little money for living!

Is it a realistic ambition for most people?

I didn't look into FIRE until after I had lost my job (at 54). It turned out that I had been following many of the principles in a moderate way for a long time. I had been saving into a pension from my mid 20s with the intention of retiring at 60. As my salary went up my spending did not increase to match, so my saving ration had got quite high, without my paying attention to it. I didn't have the time to do much of the expensive things I like to do so I didn't spend much on them. Anyway there were cheap things I liked to do, like spending 2 weeks on an archaeological dig most summers for over ten years.



When I reviewed my finances after losingmy job I found I had enough to live on frugally without working for the rest of my life. Living off capital did not feel righ though so I went into BTL and that has been giving me a higher income and growing capital. for little work (about 100 hours per year). Now with my DB pensions starting to pay out my problem will be overcomming my frugal habits.

robatwork

bugslett wrote: »

Much the same as wenlock.

I enjoyed my business for around 26 years despite it being very long hours and extremely stressful, but the last 2 were just awful as monumentally stupid corporate bull started creeping in, well more of a stampede than a creep.

May and June I was doing progressively less hours and have now been retired for a month having just turned 55.

I'll miss your stories now on the Employment forum!

I expect what really tipped you over the edge was when you lost "bugslet".

Seriously - hope you enjoy the retirement, I envy you.