How to retire before the age of 60
04/20/2023
I hear this a lot, and frankly the answer is “I didn’t plan it out exactly as it happened.” I’d love to pontificate, but I honestly have facility with basic math but no understanding of Economics other than the basic law of Supply and Demand.
Oh, and the scene in Ferris Bueller where the Laffer curve is referred to as part of Voodoo economics.
To summarize,
I grew up not-rich, worked my ass off and didn’t spend much money for a long time
During that time, I acquired some shares in a tiny startup I was with for several years
I was married for 26 years to a woman with her own career that shared my reluctance for frivolous spending
The two kids we raised didn’t get everything they wanted. They had more than what they needed, but not everything they wanted
My wife had an MBA and invested our money well
When we divorced, she kept the house and I got the stocks that I had literally forgotten about in the back of a closet
It turned out the tiny startup I had worked at merged with another company, and a while after I left they were acquired by a little-known software company called Adobe. Yup, that Adobe. That nest egg along with the accumulated decades of savings provides me the opportunity I’ve chosen.
Good luck trying to plan and duplicate all that.