Where am I ..?

I am retired and have been for the last five years. I left the rat race at 55 and have financed my new lifestyle on my own dime.

I own my home

I own my van

I have no credit card debt

I paid the kids educations off

I have no long term debt

I have monthly renewable income

I will get a pay raise in 23 months from $ocial $ecurity

I have realized my definition of full self actualization

I am as happy as can be and have a wonderful wife and 3 grown kids that I am extremely proud of.

So,,,ask away ..I will try and answer your questions on how I did it !

Incredible! Exemplary. You don't need to be asked, just tell us, so those who are in doubt, will learn.

You must have had a plan - no.1

You must have worked hard - no.1

These are only assumptions..or are you just lucky...I doubt that.

Let us know, what you overcame to achieve this...or did not have to overcome. Congratulations.

The most important means was our plan. Simple but effective .. engineer a lifestyle that could be paid for within our budget.

The 25/75 rule applied ..that is 25% of gross income went to savings/investment.

A combination of stock funds and 401K. All pay raises also were done 25/75. Stock funds always had dividend re-investment plan.

I didn't mess with mixing funds. I wasn't smart enough to understand their complexity. But understanding market segments of stocks was a piece of cake.

Compounded growth over 30 years was the prime producer of value. The ups/downs of the stock market were always generating opportunities for new investment directions. It was just a matter of checking performance every quarter and making reasonable decisions on investment direction.

We always lived a modest lifestyle but didn't miss any fun stuff either.

We never let the credit card cause us to go broke. If we bought something on credit, we paid it off before we bought again. Mostly it was in a 3 to 6 month time frame.

We maximized on money for education of the kids. Grants were a major part of paying the expense, along with student loans. The kids worked every summer for spending money and "they did not have a car in college"..they walked !

We have been in the same house for 21 years. It's more comfortable now than when the kids were young. Ha Ha ..the kids are gone so we moved into their space LOL LOL...Once the 401K and the mortgage were within range ..I payed off the house with a 401K loan. Then I paid myself 1.5 interest percent per month for the priviledge of borrowing my own money LOL LOL ..

There's more ..but this will be for starters ..maybe it will generate questions..

Froggy

Froggy

Adopt me?????

I like most people our age am looking to find fullfilment in the work environment. With 70 million of us I sure their is some structured method to identifying what would be a satisfying career and coaching to achieve the ideal job to achieve that objective. If that is what you do please advise.

Kerold

How did you do it? Particularly how have a achieved the renewable income and can get SS in 23 months when it looks like you will be about 57?

Bull ...."I could nevr afford the grocery bill to feed you"...LOL LOL