I can’t help but look back and wish that someone would have shook me, gotten right in my face, and said “You will NOT want to work your entire life. Save now.” I say this growing up in a house that DID prioritize saving. My mom gifted me David Bach’s Smart Women Finish Rich for high school graduation. My brother left the traditional workforce after about 10 years in, prioritizing the flexibility that entrepreneurship provides. I vividly remember thinking, “I went to school all those years because I LIKE what I do. I WANT to work.” I’m not sure enough hahahahas could be played here.
Mr. TSP joined the Air Force, not necessarily out of a burning desire to serve or an understanding of the long-term benefits of an Active Duty career, but purely out of necessity and having exhausted other options (ahem…college).
There wasn’t necessarily any plan to put in 20 and retire.
When I finished college, I read Dave Ramsey and recognized the benefit to living debt-free – the flexibility and peace of mind it provides. We snowballed our way out of $100k in student loan debt within 3-4 years. I enjoyed my career. It had been ~10 years, 2 babies, multiple moves and many stressors later when we both realized maybe this wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. In the meantime, we both watched our professions change for the worse. We wanted more out of life. There’s something about feeling like you’re missing out – on your kids’ short childhoods, time with the person you chose to spend forever with, family vacations and girls’/boys’ trips, and time with aging family – that gives pause.
See, society leads us to believe that working from 18/22/24 to 65 is normal. That giving more than half of your waking hours to a job that will replace you in a heartbeat is the way to success. That being burned out with no energy left for your family or the things that you love is unavoidable. That you need all the things – a house, couple cars, expensive vacations, and the latest gadgets to be happy. I don’t even recall how but I picked up J.L. Collins’ The Simple Path to Wealth, but I did. And I was fascinated. See, he continually talks about F-U money and how freeing it is to choose what you want at each season of life. Love the job? Stay. Hate the job? Leave. Want to stay home with the kids rather than spend $20k in childcare? Do it. Could there possibly be a way? For the first 15 years of Mr. TSP’s active time, people would say “oh wow, he can retire at 40?” and I would reply, “Yeah, but the pension isn’t enough to live on” without a second thought. And maybe it isn’t, but the FI movement has shown me that:
1) There is a way (multiple ways) to retire early, and
2) There is nothing better than having options.
