Living Frugally to Retire By 40? Mental Illness or Smart ?

Seems like this thread has gotten a bit off track. But the title reminds me of my days in the poorhouse, when I used to read "tips" about being frugal. In those days, I did the stuff a normal poor person might do, like learning to use a crock pot, taking the bus, comparing prices, and buying inexpensive clothing. But I remember reading some ridiculous and extreme tips. I still laugh when I think about the one from a guy who bought double-ply toilet paper, then separated the 2 layers and re-rolled them to make himself two rolls.

The problem with frugality is that it's time consuming. It takes time to cook casseroles, cut and organize coupons, and bargain shop at different stores. (I shudder to think of how much time it would take to unroll and roll toilet paper.) Frugality only makes sense if you believe you cannot use that time productively to generate income.
 
cool thread. I may be the only one commenting so far who fits the criteria so here's my take. Partially through frugality and partially thru trading I retired at 39. Would I do it over or have spent the money...?

Problem is you only get to take one path in life and don't know what the alternative would have been. There are so many different factors you can't give a one size fits all answer. Most savers are just getting screwed anyway unless they are among the 5% or less who can invest properly. So in the current economic system, for most people, it makes little sense to save - which is probably why most don't.

Is retiring early nice? - for me at least it's even better than I imagined. I had a great job and enjoyed it most years but nothing can compare to the freedom of doing whatever the hell you want every day.

Did I miss out by being cheap? I'm sure in some ways, but I generally did what I loved - travel and sail - while still saving 30% of my salary. You can do most things for a fraction of the "normal" cost if you just learn how. Far far more than feeling cheated by frugality, I feel cheated by the years lost in engineering school and working.

If I could go back, the one thing I would absolutely change is not frugality, but finding a way to retire earlier or have more freedom in my 20s and 30s. Instead of working for a salary I would have focused all effort on attempting to develop an income stream and living outside of a standard full time job. But that's just me, everyone's different.
 
lorax2013 said:
cool thread. I may be the only one commenting so far who fits the criteria so here's my take. Partially through frugality and partially thru trading I retired at 39. Would I do it over or have spent the money...?

Problem is you only get to take one path in life and don't know what the alternative would have been. There are so many different factors you can't give a one size fits all answer. Most savers are just getting screwed anyway unless they are among the 5% or less who can invest properly. So in the current economic system, for most people, it makes little sense to save - which is probably why most don't.

Is retiring early nice? - for me at least it's even better than I imagined. I had a great job and enjoyed it most years but nothing can compare to the freedom of doing whatever the hell you want every day.

Did I miss out by being cheap? I'm sure in some ways, but I generally did what I loved - travel and sail - while still saving 30% of my salary. You can do most things for a fraction of the "normal" cost if you just learn how. Far far more than feeling cheated by frugality, I feel cheated by the years lost in engineering school and working.

If I could go back, the one thing I would absolutely change is not frugality, but finding a way to retire earlier or have more freedom in my 20s and 30s. Instead of working for a salary I would have focused all effort on attempting to develop an income stream and living outside of a standard full time job. But that's just me, everyone's different.
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Congratulations on fulfilling your goals...What you have said is true, you can learn to do things you love at a fraction of cost if you learn how but usually these things are cumbersome thus most don't do it eg crewing on someone's boat to fulfill your sailing aspirations instead of buying your own s/v.
 
dealmaker said:
Congratulations on fulfilling your goals...What you have said is true, you can learn to do things you love at a fraction of cost if you learn how but usually these things are cumbersome thus most don't do it eg crewing on someone's boat to fulfill your sailing aspirations instead of buying your own s/v.
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Or joining a boat club :) rather than buying your own boat--- similar idea to netjets. Also buying several year old luxury cars rather than buying new from a dealer--- there are tons of ways to live well without paying premium prices for premium things....

In my opinion, that's what the Millionaire Next Door type books miss--- hey, this is a good idea, maybe I should write a book on it.......shhhhh.
 
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lorax2013 said:
cool thread. I may be the only one commenting so far who fits the criteria so here's my take. Partially through frugality and partially thru trading I retired at 39. Would I do it over or have spent the money...?

Problem is you only get to take one path in life and don't know what the alternative would have been. There are so many different factors you can't give a one size fits all answer. Most savers are just getting screwed anyway unless they are among the 5% or less who can invest properly. So in the current economic system, for most people, it makes little sense to save - which is probably why most don't.

Is retiring early nice? - for me at least it's even better than I imagined. I had a great job and enjoyed it most years but nothing can compare to the freedom of doing whatever the hell you want every day.

Did I miss out by being cheap? I'm sure in some ways, but I generally did what I loved - travel and sail - while still saving 30% of my salary. You can do most things for a fraction of the "normal" cost if you just learn how. Far far more than feeling cheated by frugality, I feel cheated by the years lost in engineering school and working.

If I could go back, the one thing I would absolutely change is not frugality, but finding a way to retire earlier or have more freedom in my 20s and 30s. Instead of working for a salary I would have focused all effort on attempting to develop an income stream and living outside of a standard full time job. But that's just me, everyone's different.
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Great post.

What are you doing now that you are "retired" ? Has boredom hit you yet?

surf
 
i would suggest no one knows the answer to the thread question...since those who live frugally never got to spend freely...and those who spent will never know what its like to be "retired" at a younger age.

in my case i did make a very above average income over the past 20 yrs...even for the northeast usa...and i did spend "above average" on my family during that time. i look back and wonder if i spent just a bit less on clothes,cars, boats, vacations...would we be any worse ? the answer probably is we all would be fine...my point is "saving" is overlooked a bit too much.
 
Visaria said:
"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."

- George Best
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He definitely was a free spender, perhaps the best player on the greatest Manchester Untied team of all time, 1967-68...
 
I went through a wild spending spree. My business took off due to a combination of fortunate circumstances while i still had a real job at an insurance company. Soon i was making more than the divisions VP at 27 years old. I bought a 500sl mercedes and a nee corvette. My co-workers resented me So I quit security and never looked back. Since that time i have owned a 7000 plus sq foot home in the swanky part of town-- full of art ( most of the art belonged to the former owner, it was too large to move, so we were the defacto caretakers) I have also had periods that it was difficult to pay the rent at times-- add in a brutal divorce, children etc-- several years were far from enjoyable. But overall things have been amazingly fortunate....
 
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