[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I think it is better to rename the thread title to The Retirement/Early Retirement Planning Thread

Agree. The thread needs to be more about the 'Planning' rather than the over focus right now on 'Early'.

Your best earning years, for most, are the last 10 to 15 years of your active working life. Between 47 and 58 I earned many many times more than in all the previous 26 years before then. How much is 'many times' will vary a lot from person to person but direction wise it holds for most.

Also, those eager to retire at 40 may want to pay heed to their need for fulfillment, achievement, recognition, status, position within their own family, the need to maintain their network etc. Chilling on the beach has some value for some time but just as we can get tired of eating too much of the finest chocolates only indulging in our hobbies and holidaying can grate after 6 months or a year. The biggest knock we get, which no amount of intellectual thought can ready us for, is the perceived and real drop in our status manifested in a thousand subtle ways. So just because we are tired of our current line of work is no reason to retire early though it may be reason enough to switch careers - a risk, a hell of a lot of effort but for some well worth it.

Personally, I chose to retire early at around 58 instead of a more (in my eyes) acceptable 65 or 68. But I switched to Career Mark II which I really wanted to and which keeps me very busy plus I took up Board seats in some good companies to stay relevant in the corporate world and retain a modicum of positioning. Otherwise once you are out of the rat race you very very quickly become an irrelevant rat.

[poloman]

Grass is always greener on other side. We yearn for retirement when you face pressure and stress at work. But don't realize that with out any goal or focus or even pressure it is difficult to sit at home and pass time. This is like a city guy who yearned for a quite and peaceful life bored out of hell in a Himalayan village when he actually moved there for a week.
I have achieved financial freedom few years back. Means fixed income other than salary can cover your expenses and can save a substantial amount also. But will never advocate for early retirement. I took a break for one year and it was nothing but a wasteful, boring and tortured phase of life. Returned to do what I know the best and don't repent a bit.
Many seems to think that teaching is less stressful and productive than IT career. Many career teachers may not agree to this perspective.
Let us continue do what we know the best,retirement will happen when it is due.

[srsrini]

The thread has a particular title. However, we should remember a key point.


Achieving early Financial Independence can be a valid, useful goal for many people. (In fact I can even argue that it *should* be a goal.) However "Retiring Early" can be a choice. After achieving FI, you can continue in your career - even in the same job. FI would give you a much better perspective.

This well written article illustrates this point: https://freefincal.com/achieve-finan...dence-lessons/ I am quoting the relevant portion from the story - do read the entire story. (Disclaimer: The storyteller and I are part of a kind of mutual admiration club.)

----------- Begin quote ---------------------------------
"
How Financial Independence has helped my career

The closer I got to FI, the more I started enjoying my career. In the corporate world, competence is important – but so is confidence, and FI gives you that by the bucketful. You start pushing back on unrealistic deadlines and saying no to useless work and meetings. You don’t hesitate to be truthful even to your boss. Your juniors respect you more because you are not a yes-man/woman. You can get away with avoiding office politics.
Last year – I asked for a pay hike and promotion. I received a 20%+ salary increment. I would never have had the confidence to ask outright if it was not for FI.

Most important of all – work becomes a choice and not a necessity. This attitude itself makes your job immensely enjoyable. You are no longer a slave. Once you taste this freedom, you can never go back! "

---------------- end quote --------------


By the way the author of freelancer has achieved FI - he declares his financial audit every year. He continues on in his career.

[shankar.balan]

Some of us are lucky to have found our happy place in terms of work. Me included. No problems there.
All these various things written here in your post.
Straight talking.
No Yes Man nonsense.
No Slavery. (though I regularly joke about it)
Do what you’re passionate about rather than do a job for the sake of doing a job.
Etc.

I have been able to achieve ALL these things even without “Financial Independence”. Work is however right now, a necessity so as to help build that retirement corpus and achieve Financial Independence.
I actually am able to follow my heart and enjoy my day. And I get paid for that. So no problem. And luckily there is no Politics. Hence I am happy in my work day.

However, like I said, there comes a tide in the affairs of men, which has to be taken at the flood - and therefore I want to now start re focusing on all the other things that make me happy, for which, in turn, I require full financial independence.

The trick therefore, is to calculate the right corpus needed, if one actually has say 30 years of ‘non working” life to budget for, and if one wants to live according the standards that one has always been used to.

The only thing holding most of us back is that “addiction” to the monthly pay cheque and the trappings that come with “Senior” positions in companies, including status and recognition and all of that.

Personally, I dont mind being a “nobody” as long as I can live life the way I want to, with zero interference and opinions from others.

But again, for this, I require to achieve “Full Financial Independence”.

Which brings me right back again to my 2 earlier queries - projected Y-o-Y Inflation and projected Y-o-Y Interest earnings.

Originally Posted by srsrini

The thread has a particular title. However, we should remember a key point.


Achieving early Financial Independence can be a valid, useful goal for many people. (In fact I can even argue that it *should* be a goal.) However "Retiring Early" can be a choice. After achieving FI, you can continue in your career - even in the same job. FI would give you a much better perspective.

This well written article illustrates this point: https://freefincal.com/achieve-finan...dence-lessons/ I am quoting the relevant portion from the story - do read the entire story. (Disclaimer: The storyteller and I are part of a kind of mutual admiration club.)

----------- Begin quote ---------------------------------
"
How Financial Independence has helped my career

The closer I got to FI, the more I started enjoying my career. In the corporate world, competence is important – but so is confidence, and FI gives you that by the bucketful. You start pushing back on unrealistic deadlines and saying no to useless work and meetings. You don’t hesitate to be truthful even to your boss. Your juniors respect you more because you are not a yes-man/woman. You can get away with avoiding office politics.
Last year – I asked for a pay hike and promotion. I received a 20%+ salary increment. I would never have had the confidence to ask outright if it was not for FI.

Most important of all – work becomes a choice and not a necessity. This attitude itself makes your job immensely enjoyable. You are no longer a slave. Once you taste this freedom, you can never go back! "

---------------- end quote --------------


By the way the author of freelancer has achieved FI - he declares his financial audit every year. He continues on in his career.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Chilling on the beach has some value for some time...

Originally Posted by poloman

This is like a city guy who yearned for a quite and peaceful life bored out of hell in a Himalayan village when he actually moved there for a week.

Sir, you underestimate my generation's ability to waste time! (Ok, at least some of us.) Speaking for myself, am sure I will have no regrets spending years on a beach doing nothing but swimming and reading. (Got a chance to do exactly that for a month, May 2016, in Palolem. And boy I'd go back anytime if I didn't need to work anymore! I spent a fraction of what I do in a month in Bangalore, but felt so much healthier, better and happier.)

But on a more serious note, personally I don't expect my lifestyle after retirement (whether I manage to get there early or not) to be the same as before. I know I'll have to tone down a lot of things, especially expenses and live a much simpler life.

Originally Posted by poloman

I took a break for one year and it was nothing but a wasteful, boring and tortured phase of life.

I did too and on the contrary, it was the best year of my life so far! Can't wait to do it again sometime!

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Personally, I dont mind being a “nobody”

Hear, hear! Perhaps it's just me and my particular attitude to the job, but I don't identify myself by my job or designation, never have. I don't derive any sort of status from it that I would miss if I wasn't in the role. I guess if I was doing something really important or meaningful, like surgery or law enforcement or something, I would think differently. But now, the way I see it, what I do (IT) makes some rich guys (CEOs and private equity folk) richer (and pays my salary too of course), that's about it.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by am1m

Sir, you underestimate my generation's ability to waste time! (Ok, at least some of us.) Speaking for myself, am sure I will have no regrets spending years on a beach doing nothing but swimming and reading. (Got a chance to do exactly that for a month, May 2016, in Palolem. And boy I'd go back anytime if I didn't need to work anymore!)

Hear, hear! Perhaps it's just me and my particular attitude to the job, but I don't identify myself by my job or designation, never have. I don't derive any sort of status from it that I would miss if I wasn't in the role. I guess if I was doing something really important or meaningful, like surgery or law enforcement or something, I would think differently. But now, the way I see it, what I do (IT) makes some rich guys (CEOs and private equity folk) richer (and pays my salary too of course), that's about it.

I would not call it wasting time. Chilling and reading is a superb pastime, if you can manage to do that often or for a consistent period of time. Personally, I can read all day or play golf all day and not feel an ounce of guilt or regret. Because I am living MY life the way I want to.

Ref designations and all the trappings of Corporate. Yes, I am totally with you. I couldn’t care less about designations. Designations dont have anything to do with true status in life.
One will have achieved “status” if one has lived honestly, played the game “straight” and made a positive difference in the lives of one’s family, friends, colleagues, teams, customers, the neighbourhood, helpless animals and the like. Nothing else matters.

Personally I ve always been an unconventional, irreverent, non rule bound, maverick sort of person and now at 48 I am not going to change to please anyone except myself. Yes, me too, I am working to make the Investors rich and along the way, I am hoping to make enough for my own relaxed fearless retirement. Just that the “Required Corpus” seems very very far away and difficult to attain.

I have to find a way, to that ideal of Financial Independence, if only to be able to pursue my other interests fearlessly in a non-working life scenario.

[deadguy25]

Originally Posted by pseudo_coder

Sorry to know this. And appreciate your honesty. Not many can say this.

What's your profile? May be someone here could help?

Thank you . Apologies for the delayed response.
I worked in the telecom and networking domain for an Indian IT services giant. I am based out of Bangalore. Was a senior\delivery manager taking care-of operations and delivery for few projects. The biggest problem is that my technical skills are long lost.

I am trying to see if I can land any freelance writing\editing jobs.

As of now, I am totally happy. I wanted a break, been longing for it, and got it handed out.

Thank you once again.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by deadguy25

Thank you . Apologies for the delayed response.
I worked in the telecom and networking domain for an Indian IT services giant. I am based out of Bangalore. Was a senior\delivery manager taking care-of operations and delivery for few projects. The biggest problem is that my technical skills are long lost.

I am trying to see if I can land any freelance writing\editing jobs.

As of now, I am totally happy. I wanted a break, been longing for it, and got it handed out.

Thank you once again.

Would you like to PM me ?
Can atleast see if it is possible to help.

[shankar.balan]

Phenomenal topical coincidence to see this article in ET Today.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Phenomenal topical coincidence to see this article in ET Today.Attachment 1945409

Step 1: sell that mini of yours

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Step 1: sell that mini of yours

Forget it man. I earn in order to follow my dreams and the Mini has been a long standing dream, just as the Skoda Yeti was.
And anyway this is only a second hand one which I saved up for and bought, just like I did in the case of the Skoda Yeti.
If I had gone and bought a Mini Brand new, at the ruling prices in India, then that is an entirely different matter and it would have spectacularly advertised my foolishness!

[Latheesh]

Housing is a major area I observed people always overspend. I know few people who pay 50-70% of their monthly salary towards home loan EMIs. That is a very scary situation.

Another point I observed that many people in their 40s (IT sector) had a fair share of overseas assignments (5+ years) early in their career. That helped their corpus accumulation or housing expense in a big way.

For normal early retirement (50 - 55) you need to save and invest atleast amount equal your current annual expenditure every year. That itself is difficult for majarity of the working class in India. Also, you need to start saving early in your career.

We have good number of people on this forum who were able to execute their plan so well. Thanks to all for contributing here which will help us mango people to atleast check where we are.

[pseudo_coder]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Housing is a major area I observed people always overspend. I know few people who pay 50-70% of their monthly salary towards home loan EMIs. That is a very scary situation.

Do banks allow emi = 70% of salary?

It's not EMI, but the cost of the house that would determine if it is overspending. Some may buy a cheap house, but pay highest possible emi just to clear the loan as soon as possible. That's a wise decision.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by pseudo_coder

Do banks allow emi = 70% of salary?

I have no idea. But I heard something like loan top-up and transfer etc.

[vikramvicky1984]

Originally Posted by pseudo_coder

Do banks allow emi = 70% of salary?

It's not EMI, but the cost of the house that would determine if it is overspending. Some may buy a cheap house, but pay highest possible emi just to clear the loan as soon as possible. That's a wise decision.

Yes they allow up to 80% in normal cases (including if one wants registration & furnishing costs). If you can show other assets- LIC, FD, PF etc. it can go even higher.

I am one of those who who pay a very high EMI to get rid of loan as soon as possible. Basically i pay my EMI (70% loan) on 11th of month and then pay whatever I am left with on last day of month as prepayment.