Early Retirement Television Commercial

[Ego]

A few months ago we were contacted by a woman from an advertising agency who asked if we would be interested in being featured in a television vignette / commercial about our particular form of early retirement. At first we were reluctant and were tempted to say no. Fortunately we agreed.

The process was a lot of fun involving a crew of people crammed into our 485 square foot apartment... camera people, grips, executives from the company, assistants, and a director. The outdoor shots are in Earthquake Canyon near Joshua Tree and the Salton Sea using an octocopter drone cinema camera.... amazing!

We've never done anything like this before, so the whole experience was an adventure.

[jennypenny]

That's awesome! I love what you guys have done.

[saving-10-years]

Really nice and sounds like it was a fun project to do.

[theanimal]

That's great Ego, awesome stuff. How much input did you have during the whole process/final product?

[lilacorchid]

Very nice! I like that the message was more about saving than anything else.

[Tyler9000]

That's fantastic. Very inspiring!

[Ego]

Thanks! It was fun.

Animal, that's one of the reasons we were reluctant. We were worried they might twist our words. Turns out there was nothing to be worried about. The director did a lot of research beforehand and asked a lot of good questions. I think he might be someone who comes here because we were on the same page about saving/spending. In terms of having input into the final product... no, they decided on that.

[GandK]

I loved it! Thanks for sharing!

[stand@desk]

That's a really great commercial, thanks for sharing! I also like the look of you two, you look organized and healthy and focused. Enjoy your adventures! P.S. Do all INTJ's love the bucket fishing hats? I think it's predetermined for all INTJs to wear one!

[workathome]

That's awesome man! Looks great, you managed to fit some good wisdom in those tiny soundbites.

[Dragline]

I was disappointed that there was nary a lentil to be found in that segment.

Nice job, and you guys look great -- healthy and happy.

[Ego]

stand@desk, absolutely. The bucket hat is the outdoor nerd equivalent of a pocket protector.

workathome, I am still amazed at how well the director cut the soundbites. I feel like he did a good job of showing how we saved without it coming across as a great sacrifice.

Dragline, in that last scene I was bent over our campstove. In my pack I had a bag of brown rice and lentils that we had intended to cook, but the sun was setting fast and there was no time so I just pretended to make a meal. It almost seems wrong to not play to the stereotype of misery and malnutrition. Thanks!

[sshawnn]

Nice piece for sure! You two have a built a really cool life.

Ego, I bet you do a mean Casey Kasem impersonation

[Sclass]

Great production. They really packed a lot into 30 seconds. I had to watch it a couple of times. It's easier to read your story here in a few paragraphs. Kudos to the producer for trying to pack it all in without too much information overload. After not watching TV for decades I'm not a skilled TV ad viewer and it all flies by like an MTV video.

Gosh, I had this image of you with a wizard beard and a tie dye shirt ...sorry

Thanks for sharing.

[steveo73]

That was good.

[Chad]

Surprisingly well done. Glad making it was enjoyable.

[Spartan_Warrior]

Yeah, like @Sclass, as an avid commercial ignorer, I had to watch it a couple times (and write it down) to get the full impact. Here's what I got:

Very often, dreams don't require lots and lots of money. In 1993 we had corporate type jobs.

Every single hour of my day was dedicated to this job, and that's when I thought, there's gotta be more to life than this.

And really what we wanted to do was kind of create a nest egg, to create enough that we felt that we could go for a little while, come back, and try something new.

That ended up being over three years of traveling.

And that was the best thing that ever happened to us, because that set in motion the whole way of life really.

So what we do is stay here two, three years.

Both of us work with everything that we have.

Saving one entire salary.

With each paycheck, it just automatically went into an investment account. And we are saving in addition to that.

Every single penny that we have spent in this entire lifestyle has been financed by us.

We write down every last thing that we spend, and we ask ourselves--do we need it, or do we want it? And eventually that bought us our freedom.

And then, once again, we go on another adventure. It gives you this sense of control that you never thought you could have.

Retirement should be the time you do things that make you feel alive. And so we are by all means saving not only for the next trip, not only for the next few years, we're saving for a lifetime.

You're both very well-spoken and look healthy and happy! Awesome job!

[Ego]

It's funny, he asked us to go over our life history since "retiring" two or three times during the interview but we stumbled each time we gave it. It's so convoluted. We have to go back and look over the little finance books that DW keeps to figure out where we were and when we were there. I think the director gave up and cut it so that people would understand.

That first trip we took in 1993 for our honeymoon (VW camper in Europe, N. Africa, Middle East) we left out of our personal website because it gets too confusing. We lived in that van for a year, had x amount to spend and could stay as long as the money lasted. That trip made us frugal. We did the bulk of our work and saving after that.

Sclass, hah! One of the reasons we sold the van was because we were too attached to it. While I've never been tempted to wear a tie-dye shirt or a wizard beard, I had caught myself on a number of occasions talking about the van as if it were a person. Not good. Maybe even a little nutty. So we sold it and evolved.

[IlliniDave]

That was excellent and inspiring!

[BPA]

That's great! I'm just finishing up the advertising unit of my Media Studies course. Before I'm done, I want to show them your commercial. We've already discussed personal values and being wary of buying what you don't want or need...and you mention that too.