Our 80/20 Rules for Early Retirement: How We Did It

[@TwoSidesOfFI]

If you retired early, what are the key pivot points or decisions made that accelerated your own FIRE path?

[@bluecollarbullionballer4269]

53 looking to retire at 55.Came from zero finacial literacy,lots of debt,and two bankruptcies.Decided to change my direction in life.Devored hundreds of books and hours of KZbin channels like yours..Now I have zero debt including home,income producing stocks,CLO'S ,selling Theta in options market,and save in precious metals.Breaking the family cycle of poverty isn't easy and takes work but is achiveable.Good luck with your channel.Happy investing/stacking.

[@PowerfulMoneyHabits]

I wish I would have had better financial education growing up. I was good at making money and saving it, but saving it to spend and not to invest. I'm 51 and am investing 67% of my income right now so that I can reach FI by 2030! I can't wait! Thanks for all your videos- please keep making them even after reaching FI!

[@TwoSidesOfFI]

You've got this! Thanks so much for your support

[@jondiaz3475]

My wife and I didn't do anything exotic. My quietly declared target was age 55 since that was the year our daughter would finish HS. We worked jobs with normal incomes, bought a house that was manageable on one income, cleared debts quickly, saved aggressively, invested conservatively, raised one child, and exited the workforce at 55. Did not use any professionally managed financial services beyond work 401k plans. I will admit to being a hardcore Quicken user. Started the account when we were married in 1998, and have tracked every single thing for 26 years. It didn't necessarily modify our spending behavior, but it definitely doesn't let you hide any bad habits. And as someone else mentioned, keeping track of net worth is a great motivational tool. :)

[@rarelycares8416]

Same with us, very boring but our key was starting early, 19 years old or earlier for me. By the time I was 28 and going to my second major job I was still only making $30k/year but I had $50k in my 401k. Never stopped and retired at 55 earlier this year. I planned on having my house paid off by the time my son finished high school and beat it by one year. Never got scared during downturns and just kept investing. I used Quicken for about a year in the '90's but never saw the benefit of being that in the weeds, my budget/net worth was always in the back of my head and was what I thought about as I fall asleep at night.

[@Hawking1969]

Advice to my 15 year old self: 1) Maximum income up to your pain tolerance. Consider a full time stable job and always have a side gig. 2) Minimize expenses up to your pain tolerance. Enjoy the free things in life. 3) Invest in at least 10 stocks (I do QQQ). 4) Check your Net Worth at least monthly and treat it like a video game score. 5) Eat well, exercise, get your check-ups 6) Read to learn as a hobby 7) Cultivate and maintain relationships with your parents, siblings, spouse, friends, colleagues as applicable.

[@EB-ok3io]

8) Start a youtube channel

[@TwoSidesOfFI]

def a better bet back in the old days of YT...not so easy to hit it big now

[@shawnpmartin77]

I always appreciate you two

[@Sanjuro806]

Appreciate the honest conversation. I also jumped ship from 12 year career. Scary times, and it ended up being the best decision. Amor fati... embrace the fate!

[@TwoSidesOfFI]

Thanks! Best wishes to you

[@worldtrav72]

Always a good conversation. Thanks for uploading, gents! For us…it was Dave Ramsey-stuff for 25 years to build a war chest (defensive), then got educated on smart use of debt and market momentum to get aggressive. A key decision was to have a multigenerational household for the past 15 years. Complete game changer. Mistakes were not enough in S&P500 cheap ETFs during the 2010s.

[@bRIZZAd]

Going independent and starting my own personal consulting business has been a key pivot point / accelerator (fuel for the... FIRE). My wife also started doing contract work, consulting through the business as well. It hasn't been without risk, but has increased our pay and afforded us the opportunity to invest more (versus only achieving additional investing $ through cutting back/frugality). While I think it is important to look at your spending to validate that what you spend your money on matches your values... contentrating on increasing your income has significantly more potential to accelerate a path to FIRE. Like other aspects of FIRE, it isn't a 'one or the other' type of issue, you can and should investigate both avenues.

[@andrewoneil8535]

Another good quote is take lots of low risk low regret actions.

[@AnhNguyen-bi6vg]

Always interesting and fresh topic. Thank you

[@johnlittle8267]

interesting I had to take a 25% pay cut when I was 41 and stuck with the cut through the next 13 years with only CPI raises and still retired at 54. The good part was just the putting in around15% of my pay and maxing out my spouses 403b at the IRS limit. This over time got us to our number without saving any of our paychecks.. When the pay cut happened our son was getting close to school age so it didn't seem as bad since his $12k per year expense went away.

[@user-bs1lj3kv7h]

Thanks for another good episode. I think people certainly have a collection of intentional decisions especially once reaching a certain age that power them forward towards “reaching their number”. I can say personally that my wife and I set a good “compass bearing” early in life and never wavered much from that. This allowed us to accomplish all the big financial goals we set for ourselves and ready to retire in a few months at 55. I could always have put more away early (especially before hitting the Roth income limits) and those points I share with my kids.

[@mikesurel5040]

Great episode. A lot of it boils down, to me, success is where preparation meets opportunity. Also you both talk about being lucky. But putting in the work matters too. Plenty of folks in the world have had the chances you have had and not taken advantage of them

[@TwoSidesOfFI]

Love that idea, thanks

[@EK-lp8od]

Hi Guys, I've listened to many of your episodes and I've never heard you guys talk about giving yourself a raise. I'd like to give my self a yearly raise so obviously that may mean starting with a more conservative withdrawl rate. I like to use, in addition to all the statistics you guys and Karsten has talked about, a "how long will my money last" calculator. I like the one from Mutual of Omaha the best. Anyway, any thoughts on giving yourself a raise?

[@TwoSidesOfFI]

Thanks for sharing. When I used a fixed withdrawal rate I did eventually give myself a raise. Admittedly I waited a little long. But I’ve been using a CAPE-adjusted approach for the past two years and now there’s no need to take an explicit raise. I simply treat the WR from the tool as a ceiling.

[@tiffanyscheel2529]

Definitely make that one extra mortgage payment a year! Even if you divide it by 12 and pay a small amount monthly. It will make a huge difference for your independence later.