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Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:14 pm
by unemployable
I'd be right on the average. Thirteen years of full-time work after graduation, although they weren't continuous, with a 15-month gap between jobs that included all of 2006. Quit last job at 39 and have found the "ERE with occasional part-time work" model more amenable than convincing someone to hire me for a real job.

I wasn't as extreme as others while working. I lived in Chicago's best neighborhood but in the cheapest apartment I could tolerate there, and traveled a lot for fun, maintaining top-tier airline status for nine years. But I did avoid a lot of high-cost, low-return stuff such as "owning" a car, eating out and dating, and my personal network included, for example, people with very good Cubs season tickets who rarely used them.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:28 pm
by Laura Ingalls
@CS and 7wannbe5

I am another believer in part-time. DH and I both presently work part-time. I think I have been part-time 16 of the 24 years since I completed college. But loading some full time work in the our post-college, pre-kid days is helping our present selves be so lacking in ambition now (I can only imagine if we had been Jacob caliber savers).

I recently calculated my inflation adjusted loan lifetime earnings. I didn’t wonder where it went or how I survived. I was surprised that my inflation adjustment almost doubled my early salaries.

Our present net worth is about 50% of lifetime earnings.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:54 pm
by 2Birds1Stone
I reached basic FI this year. First career job started 3/20/2010, and I hit FI 6/1/2018. So about 8.25 years, at the age of 31.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:45 pm
by CS
@Laura Ingalls

Nice to hear there are others. My net worth is less than fifty percent of my lifetime earnings, which I find annoying and maybe little mortifying.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:57 pm
by jacob
My NW > lifetime earnings ... has to do with getting a head start and being in column A here: http://earlyretirementextreme.com/updat ... ation.html

Seems kinda unfair at this point ... but it's still good to get in on it. The earlier the better. Don't blow your "early income"; it's best invested.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 7:50 pm
by CS
It's true - that early money is the best money. I do regret not saving the more of it - what I did put away in my early twenties has quadrupled!

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:39 am
by Laura Ingalls
My 16 year old had a net worth greater than earnings. DH opened a Roth for minors account and funded it with an amount equal to his w-2 earnings from burger flipping. DS picked NVDA as his investment of choice. So far that has panned out pretty good :lol:

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 1:20 pm
by prognastat
jacob wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:57 pm
Seems kinda unfair at this point ... but it's still good to get in on it. The earlier the better. Don't blow your "early income"; it's best invested.
It's unfortunate for those that start later or worse yet behind, but the sooner you start and the longer you have compounding interest working in your favour(invested) rather than against you(debt) the easier it is. I've been lucky that though I didn't start off full on ERE/FIRE minded I've always been relatively frugal and avoided debt.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 2:52 pm
by CS
@Laura Ingalls

Lucky teenager! What a good lesson.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:24 pm
by Kriegsspiel
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Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:49 am
by Sclass
I retired 14 years after my last degree. 29 at graduation (PhD). Retired at 43.

I took a two year break between jobs so Social Security says I only worked 12.

I never had a number in mind or any goal along the way. This site didn’t exist. I was just trying to save and invest as much as possible for the simple sake of having more. Retirement got forced on me because I got backed into a corner in my career and I got sick at 41. By 43 I thought my illness was behind me and I didn’t need the company insurance plan.

Unconsciously I also wanted to keep up some illusions of responsibility. I was being judged by my family and my in-laws. Quitting in my thirties to be a man of leisure may have been too much for my father-in-law. He always acted like his daughter was on loan to me back in those days.

I think the financial crisis also made me stay on till 2012. I had enough in 2007, then suddenly I thought I didn’t. Then by 2010 I thought I did. All a long I did but what I thought and feared was a different thing. Getting whipsawed by the market can give anyone second thoughts about giving up the paycheck.

I technically could have retired earlier than 12 years but I didn’t want to for these reasons. Probably there were more reasons scaring me that I just cannot recall. So the number 12 is kind of irrelevant.

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:03 am
by wolf

Re: Working years after graduating (or 1st fulltime job) till FIRE'd

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:40 pm
by LiquidSapphire
I started work in 2005, but didn't pursue ERE hard until 2011. Ended up sort of semi ERE in 2012, though perhaps people here would consider it Full, idk. I recently accepted a j*b though mainly because I felt I miscalculated my spending preferences and I decided I wanted to buy some property. Then I'll ER for realz:)