I am now 18 months into my early retirement journey as measured by the start of my career. I'm 24 years old now and things are going well so far. I've been rather accustomed to a lean college lifestyle and I've been able to hold on to that even after landing a job with a decent salary. I move quite often with work and so far it's taken me to the midwest, west coast, and deep south of the Unitied States. Seeing these different parts of the country has been a tremendous journey of self discovery through new relationships, extensive travel, new hobbies, and learning of all kinds. The constant change has kept me on my toes and reinforced my disdain for the traditional American lifestyle.
Life in California (Bay Area) especially served to deeply reinforce my commitment to ERE (seems like many others on this blog can relate). Most individuals I met there upheld the "work hard, play hard" lifestyle as it is called. They worked for elite tech companies with high paying salaries and on weekends they retreated to the club scene and blew money on bottle service. The rent they paid was exorbitant. They ate out at fancy restaurants for nearly every meal. They were clearly trapped in a cycle of consumption in it's most extreme form. I often encountered 35 year olds that never experienced anything other than paycheck to paycheck living. This saddened me deeply because many of these people were my friends. They were passionate, caring, and inspiring people and I didn't want to see them work their entire life away.
The most important thing for me right now is to state a thesis or a purposeful reason for persuing the goal of financial independence. There is a reason why we are all here, for many of us the reasons are probably similar, but I think there is a highly personal awaking that must have occured for each of us at some point. My awakening comes from several different sources.
First off, there is a history of early retirement in my family and this concept may have been inherited for me. My grandparents on both sides of the family were farmers. In their early 50s, my grandparents on my father's side sold their farmland, moved into a small home and lived off the investment earnings until death and were even able to leave a sizable inheritance to my parents. On my mother's side, my grandfather retired and rented his land to other farmers and lived off the rental income. Unfortunately, this financial wisdom seems to have skipped a generation. My parents are not yet completely retired and they are in their late 60s. At times I feel personnally guilty for this because I know their decision to put me through college was a significant burden for them (which I am quite grateful for I might add). However, it is also a reality that it took them a very long time to take control of their finances and begin planning for retirement. This awareness has made me much more proactive about finances along my journey through life
My second reason for early retirement comes from my observations about society. The traditional model of living (i.e. the ratrace) effectively acts as a silo. It prevents people from seeing the richness of life and the value of each day. When people move so quickly through life and focus on the same things each day they begin to take things for granted and lose passion and purpose. This stunts their spiritual growth and they try to rectify it the only way they know how, by buying nicer things. This seems to be the premise of lifestyle inflation that traps people in the system. Many Europeans that I have interacted with seem to have much healthier views on the role work plays in our lives (working to live), but they still seem to become entrenched in very long careers. Ultimately, I don't see the corporate world I live now being able to give me a complete and fullfilling life in the long run and leaving early is absolutely necessary.
Finally, I have a lot of creative endeavors that I would love to pursue more seriously. During summers in high school, with an abundance of time, I was able to golf 40+ hours a week. Being able to completely commit myself to a hobby was such a blast, but my career has become a barrier to these types of immursions. Unfortunately, my list of hobbies and interests is building quickly and I need to create more time to fully explore them all! To name a few: mountain climbing, sailing, metal detecting, entrepreneurship, snowboarding, biking, divination, pick up artistry, yoga, travel, economics, and writing. In addition, I think it is very important to share the wisdom that we gain from ERE with our peers in the real world. If we can show them the incredible possibilites that ERE brings, mayber there is a chance to bring about some valuable culture change. Or perhaps we will be shunned as a radical subculture. I don't know, but I certainly must give it a try.
I look forward to interacting with you all on this forum and sharing knowledge and experiences.
Here's a song to keep you inspired on your journey! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvHYWD29ZNY
And a pretty cool and relevant quote from Aristotle: "Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god."