Government Employees Able to Retire at 39.

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

snoopy7548

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2005
8,126
5,151
146
I'd call them financially independent, not retired, if they're still making money through some means of work. Did they sell all their furniture in order to "retire" early? :p

My goal is to "retire" at ~45, but in reality I would just be financially independent - I would probably have a part-time job and/or side hustle(s) due mainly to the uncertainly of healthcare costs in America, but I wouldn't be required to ever work 9-5 (actually 7-5) five days a week ever again or put up with anyone's bullshit.

I'll have to see where I am in my career at that point, though. I'm certainly staying put, and when I'm 45 I could very likely be in a position where I'm able to negotiate a three-day work week or stay on as more of a freelance consultant.

I'm planning on hitting my goal with $1MM stashed between my 401k and Roth IRA, not counting my separate taxable investments. I live in a relatively LCOL area (bordering on MCOL I guess), so conservatively drawing down 3% would certainly be enough for me as I plan on having my house paid off, and any money from the side hustles or part-time work will just be gravy.

brianmanhanhmnahn, why would you retire in October? Wouldn't it make more sense to retire on Jan 1st, so that you could at least finish maxing out your 401k/getting the potential employer match for that final year?
 

brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,419
5,852
136
brianmanhanhmnahn, why would you retire in October? Wouldn't it make more sense to retire on Jan 1st, so that you could at least finish maxing out your 401k/getting the potential employer match for that final year?

yeah you're right, i know some people who have done that. it gets them the extra 401k contributions+match plus vacation days.

so maybe i'll slack off for an extra couple months just to slide into 2029...
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
4,777
146
I could potentially see it although my guess is they are overselling the 'average' part of themselves. Sounds like they are in CA and the dude went to law school so I am guessing the average federal salary in CA of $85k would probably not be too far off the average between the two of them. Also sounds like they started doing real estate stuff in 2013. CA median prices increased 50% while some (Like SF) have like doubled since then from what a quick google search tells me. And the strong run of stocks has continued. So if they were in CA - invested half of one federal income starting in 2013 they could reach $383,000 in VTSAX today. They bought their first house for like $450k and supposedly put sweat equity into it so they could conceivably have a real estate value close to seven figures. From video titles it sounds like they are planning on peacing out to a cheaper COL country so they might be able to realize a good chunk of the salproperty if they choose. If you throw in investing the remaining half of one income plus another $10-15k\year in side hustles into VTSAX you're up to $850k without any RE value (overly simplified as it is just stocks and assuming $90k annual contributions from the start because I am lazy but $650-750k seems not unreasonable). Throwing that extra into RE investments could have done even better in some CA areas.

So a lot of work and focus on the goal but also a lot of luck too (but more achievable than guessing to invest in NTFLX in 2013 which would be $2.3M instead of $850k)


And uhhh... you think it's possible to retire at even $1m at the age of 39? Not a shot in hell. I don't care how cheap you go with cost of living - the price of goods are still the price of goods. You can move out to the country, the most that's going to do is get you a cheap home - price of goods are likely just as high because distributing goods to small rural communities isn't going to be cheap.

How about paying for kids college fund? Forgetting about that? Nah screw em lol.


I don't even get what people mean by "side hustle" and "part time work". I'd honestly rather fall over and die than work retail or something - so I don't know what dream fantasy folks here are living in where you think you're going to do some kind of entrepreneurial thing "on the side" - but I think that is just a farce.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,079
136
I'd call them financially independent, not retired, if they're still making money through some means of work. Did they sell all their furniture in order to "retire" early? :p

My goal is to "retire" at ~45, but in reality I would just be financially independent - I would probably have a part-time job and/or side hustle(s) due mainly to the uncertainly of healthcare costs in America, but I wouldn't be required to ever work 9-5 (actually 7-5) five days a week ever again or put up with anyone's bullshit.

I'll have to see where I am in my career at that point, though. I'm certainly staying put, and when I'm 45 I could very likely be in a position where I'm able to negotiate a three-day work week or stay on as more of a freelance consultant.

I'm planning on hitting my goal with $1MM stashed between my 401k and Roth IRA, not counting my separate taxable investments. I live in a relatively LCOL area (bordering on MCOL I guess), so conservatively drawing down 3% would certainly be enough for me as I plan on having my house paid off, and any money from the side hustles or part-time work will just be gravy.

brianmanhanhmnahn, why would you retire in October? Wouldn't it make more sense to retire on Jan 1st, so that you could at least finish maxing out your 401k/getting the potential employer match for that final year?

My godfather retired at 55 but he was manager of a bank and a very keen investor. He did very well for himself and managed assets thru his phone from a nice house on the Elizabeth river in Stafford county.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,778
126
If you have a government job that has a TRUE pension, the reason you can retire at 39 is based on the way they're geared. The pensions are setup to pay a percentage of your income as an annuity....the percentage is based on years of service and often an average of the highest income you made while working. Whatever the formula, for a select few people, they may start working at the age of 18 or 19 and be able to put in 20 years of investing and get a guaranteed annuity. In some cases, it may make sense for them to retire and take the pay out. These people were likely making 6 figures to do so and have their housing paid for. They would have likely needed a management position and saved additional money in a roth or 401k or passive income...in addition to their pension savings.

So yeah....you can do that. But you're likely going to have a second career shortly after retiring to cover your healthcare costs. Most people can't make their retirement savings stretch more than a few years without taking a huge pay cut. These articles are all clickbait.

I remember reading about these guys retiring in their 30s and almost all of them were rich kids that finished college with no debt and had a 6 figure job lined up fresh out of college....then they wrote a book or article about how anyone can do it. =P If you truly cut all your expenses and live cheap for years, you can save up that kind of money. Make $100k a year and live on $10k....save/invest the rest, you'll be a millionaire in 10-15 years. Getting to step one and giving up quality of life is the hard part if you don't have connections.
 

snoopy7548

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2005
8,126
5,151
146
And uhhh... you think it's possible to retire at even $1m at the age of 39? Not a shot in hell. I don't care how cheap you go with cost of living - the price of goods are still the price of goods. You can move out to the country, the most that's going to do is get you a cheap home - price of goods are likely just as high because distributing goods to small rural communities isn't going to be cheap.

How about paying for kids college fund? Forgetting about that? Nah screw em lol.


I don't even get what people mean by "side hustle" and "part time work". I'd honestly rather fall over and die than work retail or something - so I don't know what dream fantasy folks here are living in where you think you're going to do some kind of entrepreneurial thing "on the side" - but I think that is just a farce.

It's certainly possible. You have to remember that the money is still invested, and the returns should outpace inflation by a wide margin.

As for a side hustle, the possibilities are endless as it can be anything you're good at. I like to do woodworking, which is a far cry from my career, so I'd like to make pieces and sell them. I mean, look at the schmucks paying over $400 for speaker stands that cost $20 in materials and can be built in an afternoon:


The average person is really dumb and spends money like there's no tomorrow. Once you don't have to spend 50 hours a week in an office, you suddenly have the time to figure out how to exploit that... :p
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,778
126
The average person is really dumb and spends money like there's no tomorrow. Once you don't have to spend 50 hours a week in an office, you suddenly have the time to figure out how to exploit that... :p
When you're not working 40+ hours a week doing one thing, you can make a little side money here and there and it really can add up. Then there are the people who trade a career to become small business owners. You see this a lot in small coastal towns and other resort towns where seasonality kills the traditional business owner who doesn't have a huge nest egg to get them through the slow/dead seasons.

Yeah....lots of things can rob your savings. New cars, buying too much insurance...or the wrong kind, subscribing to services you don't need or utilize enough to justify....there are lots of ways you can take a moderate income and squander it.

When you start really looking at expenses...it's best to review your accounts annually or semi-annually and shut down everything you can and divert it to savings.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,481
3,601
126
And uhhh... you think it's possible to retire at even $1m at the age of 39? Not a shot in hell. I don't care how cheap you go with cost of living - the price of goods are still the price of goods. You can move out to the country, the most that's going to do is get you a cheap home - price of goods are likely just as high because distributing goods to small rural communities isn't going to be cheap.

Since it sounds like they are leaving the US of course it's possible depending on the destination country. (I'm guessing you read my August post as 'they were leaving for the country' as in cheap rural land in the US and not 'a much cheaper country to live in'.)
 

njdevilsfan87

Platinum Member
Apr 19, 2007
2,331
251
126
I agree you cannot retire with $1M at 39, especially if you have kids. However $1M at that age does place you in this expansive "FI bracket" depending on your COL. You could theoretically go without any income at all for many years, maybe even a decades if your annual spending is very low and you are invested at 3-4%/year growth. This makes you hardly if at all dependent on a paycheck in the present moment - you are FI. With that you have all the power to say what you're doing tomorrow.

Then start adding in even small amounts of income via part-time work to cover all of your yearly expenses (let's say $20-$50K after tax depending on COL, and I'm not including a mortgage because that is equity), and that $1M pile is now "coasting" to retirement. You need not contribute another penny to it because in another 20 years that $1M is over $2M+ at 4% growth.

Part-time work could simply be what you're doing now at reduced hours. No need to go barista. Just tell your employer you're looking to cut your hours and salary.