I'm 36, male, with a background in electrical engineering. Depending on how you define early retirement, I retired either two weeks before my 28th birthday (last time I worked a job for anyone else), or at 34 (when my passive income exceeded my living expenses). Regardless, I manage to keep myself busy.
I invest in real estate (I own six residential units in TN and IN, with others underway as we speak; also do direct mail/wholesaling and have some land off-grid that I'm building on), I am a songwriter (and own a recording studio that I rent out), and I continue to take consulting work in the oil and gas industry when the mood strikes me.
Basically, I've always lived frugally. Once I started seeing really good income from consulting during the most recent boom ('10-'12) I didn't change my lifestyle -- just invested it all. I bought a house in a hot neighborhood in Nashville for a good price. I improved it, converted a detached garage to finished space and put a recording studio in. And I share the house with roommates. So I was living for free, which allowed me to continue to invest my consulting income into a second rental -- a duplex in Nashville which I rehabbed and rented myself. I let that ride while I saved a bit, and then this year I bought a triplex in a rust belt town for cash. I picked the town because (1) it's got a big college and nice restaurants, and (2) I got a rec for a good property manager there. Later in the year I also bought a tax lien on another house in the same rust belt town. I'm set to take possession on it later this month, and I'll start the PM rehabbing that to be my next unit.
I also have a few partnerships in RE and music that generate income sporadically with little to no input from me.
My hobbies are building things, being outside, making music, reading, and analyzing things. So they're pretty much all things I get paid for. I'm past the point where I require the consulting income but since I enjoy the work I keep doing a bit of it. Just more fuel for the FIRE (pun intended). I'm not quite to the point where my passive income is steamrolling, but I'm at 2k per month, and will likely be at 3k/mo in early '17 (as my triplex is renovated and stabilized, and the new foreclosure should be rehabbed and rented as well). It's pretty crazy how quickly it all has happened.
It's been a real thrill to read the threads here about people's journeys. Sorry mine is pretty boring by comparison.
