Early retirement Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

How To Reduce, Reuse, And Save More Cash

Last Updated: April 13, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 13 Comments

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Hi, this is Michelle’s editor, Ariel! You may have seen me here before talking about taking my side hustle full-time, living in a small house, and real life frugality. When I’m not working for Michelle, you can find me spending a lot of time over at M$M, working as a staff writer and editor-in-chief.

The other day I found myself asking this question in a popular FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) Facebook group:

Anyone else focusing on a zero/low waste lifestyle and merging that principal with FI?

I asked this question because, while I don’t hang around in those kinds of communities a ton, I find that what I often see is more focused on sexier topics like investing strategies and increasing your income.

Both of those are incredibly valuable tools when you’re working to improve your financial health, even if you aren’t working towards FIRE, but I was searching for advice that felt a little more relatable to my personal goals.

It turns out that I wasn’t alone. [Read more…]

How Is Early Retirement Even Possible?

Last Updated: November 9, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 22 Comments

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Early retirement has been extremely popular lately, and I’m sure you’ve been hearing about it a ton.

Between “Why I Hate the FIRE Movement,” says Suze Orman (from Afford Anything), Mr. Money Mustache, and any of the other amazing FIRE blogs, early retirement has been in the news a lot lately.

And, I love it!

But, I know there are a lot of people who are confused or even skeptical of what early retirement is and whether or not it is a real thing.

First, if this is the first time you have heard of FIRE, it stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early, and it can mean a lot of things to different people. But, the basic idea is that you work towards financial independence– either having enough saved and/or enough passive income to cover your expenses. You can then choose whether or not you want to work. [Read more…]

How Elizabeth Reached Financial Independence by 32 And Moved To A Homestead

Last Updated: February 28, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 93 Comments

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My monthly Extraordinary Lives series is something that I’m really enjoying doing. First up was JP Livingston, who retired with a net worth over $2,000,000 at the age of 28. Today’s interview is with Elizabeth, who reached financial independence at the age of 32.

Elizabeth Willard Thames, better known as Mrs. Frugalwoods, is the creator of the award-winning personal finance blog, Frugalwoods.com. At age 32 she “reached financial independence and left a successful career in the city to create a more meaningful, purpose-driven life on a 66-acre homestead in the woods of Vermont” with her husband and young daughter.

Thames is the author of the book, Meet The Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living. Before becoming a writer and homesteader, she worked for 10 years in the non-profit sector as a fundraiser and communications manager. [Read more…]

Retiring Early: Is Early Retirement For The Crazy and Boring?

Last Updated: December 12, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 26 Comments

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For most people, retirement means something that only older people do after decades and decades of working. However, more and more people are thinking about early retirement. And, when I say early retirement, I mean being financially secure enough that you don’t need to work unless you want to.

Even though it takes a lot of work and planning to retire early, some people seem to think that early retirees aren’t very smart, are lazy, or even boring.

I see this a lot when I read articles about people who have retired early. I always scroll down to the comments of these articles because I find it interesting to see what people have to say about early retirement. I’m always shocked, and saddened, when I read comments that say these early retirees are being careless and won’t be able to live exciting lives after they retire.

Some people assume these people haven’t saved enough and are naively thinking their money will last forever. Some assume early retirees just want to stop working because they are lazy. Others think that early retirees just sit around all day and do nothing in order to save money. [Read more…]

How I Retired In My 30s – From Ugly Crying To Retiring Just 10 Years Later

Last Updated: October 22, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 42 Comments

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Hello! Today, I have a great article from JT. JT has a great story about how he was down to his last dollars living in a hostel, to hitting his retirement number just a little over a decade later. If you’re looking for another great retirement article, I also recommend How This 28 Year Old Retired With $2.25 Million. Below is his article on how to retire in your 30s. Enjoy!

Have you ever seen a grown man ugly cry? Our faces scrunch up like a squeezed sponge, wringing the water from our eyes. Our shoulders shake uncontrollably. We gurgle out a noise that’s a cross between a laughing hyena and a grunt. We’re not pretty.

It was 2000. I was ugly crying on the bed of the Spanish Harlem hostel where I was living, down to my last dollars. Months earlier, I graduated college, sold my car, and drove from Los Angeles to New York City with sunny West Coast optimism. Then after months of getting rejected from job after job after job, reality blew in like an East Coast blizzard.

They say, “New York City: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” For those of us who have tried, it can feel more like, “Since I can’t make it here, I can’t make it anywhere.”

I wasn’t crying because I failed. I was ugly crying because I thought I was a failure.

And yet, a little over a decade later, I hit my retirement number. So what happened between the tears of sadness and the tears of joy? I’ll tell you exactly what I did to hit my retirement number in my 30s. [Read more…]

Quiz – How Serious Are You About Early Retirement?

Last Updated: July 2, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 30 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

A few months ago, Joe from Retire by 40 published the quiz How Serious Are You About Early Retirement? I took the quiz (BudgetsAreSexy did too!) and found it informative and entertaining. I thought it would be fun to share my answers with you and let you know about the early retirement quiz, if you haven’t taken it yet.

Early retirement is a great financial goal to have.

For us, I don’t know when or if we will ever completely stop working, but having the option to is important.

Looking at early retirement as a goal, whether you stop working completely or not, means financial stability is a top priority for you. You just never know what may happen, and that stability is always a great thing to have. [Read more…]

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