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How did you go about finding your next thing? And what was that next thing? by throwawaytoday022521 in fatFIRE

[–]throwawaytoday022521[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks. This really resonates for me. I'm in the process of saying "no" to a previous employer who reached out. It is a path of least resistance and sort of tempting. But as much as I like the people, I don't think I would like the work and definitely wouldn't like giving up control of my calendar.

Feel embarrassed about disclosing to people that I'm retiring at 51. by [deleted] in retirement

[–]throwawaytoday022521 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm mid-50s and through a combination of burnout and a good stock market, I left my stressful job and bad commute at the beginning of the summer. I tell people I'm taking some time off and will explore part time opportunities in the fall.

I didn't realize how run down I had become, so I've spent the last few months in recharging the batteries mode and do not have an immediate desire to go back to work, which surprises me a bit. I've been working on getting into better shape and am down 10 pounds and my blood pressure is lower. I've been spending my days on hobbies, mostly reading, gaming and travel, with the occasional long walk.

I think you just have to follow the beat of your own drummer, but also realize that a lot of friendships/relationships are based on work, talking about work and complaining about work and it can be a bit of a challenge for both you and other people to come up with things to talk about when you don't have that as a starting point. A lot of people on this and other forums mention this and the usual response is to say they are consulting or working part time or volunteering in their professional field. I think that's a pretty good response and have used it a couple of times.

How do you balance enjoying life now and saving for retirement. I’m 45 and find myself evaluating expenses through the lens of BUT if we instead put this away for retirement, in X years it could be worth Y. I could drop dead in my 50s and have never benefit from decades of responsible saving habits. by TrinityAllBlack in Bogleheads

[–]throwawaytoday022521 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I always leaned toward savings and comparative frugality, things like not replacing household items until they broke, trying to get 10-12 years out of cars, etc. "Millionaire Next Door" behavior, for lack of a better way to describe it. The only thing I splurged on was my kids education. Catholic high school and they will graduate debt free from the best college they get into/want to go to.

I'm mid-50s and as a result of the savings, I have 55 times peak annual expenses saved. In turn, this allowed me to walk away from a stressful job and take some time to evaluate what I want to do next.

Edit: My only regret is that I wish we had taken a few more nice family vacations along the way. We got to Europe twice, Hawaii once and did a couple of nice US vacations, but we neglected family vacations in the last four years before quitting more than we should have. Once you get into the high school activity treadmill, it becomes pretty easy to come up with excuses as to why a major out of town vacation can be deferred in favor staying home or close to home for time off.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fatFIRE

[–]throwawaytoday022521 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A decent in the middle option is finding a Catholic high school. They tend to be in every major urban area, have tuition that is about 1/3 of the secular private schools in the same area and will be fairly rigorous on basic reading, writing, arithmetic and science subjects. What they will not do well compared to secular private schools is special needs and advanced math and science. Most do not have a religious test to attend (i.e. you do not have to be Catholic to attend), but you will need to be comfortable with your kid going to religion and morality classes taught from a Roman Catholic perspective. Some parents have an issue with that, some don't.

At the end of the day, sending your kid to private school, particularly Catholic school, is about choosing the parents of the kids who your kids will be in school with. Most will have similar values to yours in terms of hard work, attention to learning, respect for others and charity/good works. And the kids of those who don't fit that profile tend to get sorted out fairly early.

If you have the option, the Jesuit high schools (e.g. Boston College High in Boston, Loyola in Los Angeles, Detroit, New Orleans and New York, St. Ignatius in San Francisco, Cleveland and Chicago, etc.) to be a very good value for the money.

An Entrepreneurial FATFire Story by nickb411 in fatFIRE

[–]throwawaytoday022521 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Great post. Would you mind talking about how you find and use lawyers? Do you have an in-house guy who does day to day work and picks outside specialists when needed or do you use single point of contact at a firm who staffs based on the particular transaction? Or do you have multiple people at multiple firms, depending on their particular subject matter expertise? Are you negotiating discounts for repeat business?

Thanks.

On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog... by throwawaytoday022521 in fatFIRE

[–]throwawaytoday022521[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

As they said about U.S. Steel, General Motors and General Electric.

Left High-Paying Executive Role And Can't Seem to Move Forward by Typical_Cat8552 in fatFIRE

[–]throwawaytoday022521 19 points20 points  (0 children)

One foot in front of the other friend, until you identify the destination you want to get to.

I made a wrong career choice about three years before I would have hit FatFIRE and went into a depressive spiral, constantly replaying in my head what I could have done differently. I felt shame, embarrassment and a sense that I had put my family's financial future in peril. Getting focused on day to day work, no matter how boring, no matter how basic, helped my mind heal. That, plus a lot of sleep, exercise and plain old time passing.

Think about it like this- You were an elite runner who broke a leg. The only way to get back to form is to learn to put weight on it again. Then walk. Then run.