Hello everyone, welcome to this site! My name is John and I am writing this blog to detail my journey from cube dweller to financially free retiree. I am presently 31 years old and would like to retire by age 40 in 2026. I’ve been motivated to tackle this arduous goal by a number of things.
First, after working several years of temp jobs after grad school I finally landed a full-time position with a major health care company. For once in my life, I earned more than I needed to survive and felt I should study what to do with the extra. Once I discovered that I could easily retire a millionaire by age 65 by simply saving money, I felt inspired to discover ways to speed it up.
Secondly, I stumbled across the blog Mr. Money Mustache while reading an interview with the author on The Art of Manliness.This was my first exposure to the idea that “early retirement” could be something more than a dream and that the methods involved were simple and easy. Anyone could do it. If that was the case, why couldn’t I manage to retire young too? I’ve already overcome some challenges in life: I am the first person in my family to graduate from college and from graduate school; I climbed my way out of an unprofitable major into a well-compensated position in a secure company; I had a major stuttering problem but dealt with it via years of public speaking at Toastmasters. Compared to all that, how hard could this be?
Finally, my father worked in the construction industry for 40 years as a master electrician. While he managed to retire at the age of 60, he hated his job for many years before that and it left his body battered and bruised. He stuck with it to support his family, but by the time us kids had left the nest he was too old to re-train and go elsewhere. I never want to be caught in a situation like that. I don’t want to be stuck in a job I hate. I don’t want to be so tired from work that I can’t play with my kids, should I have them. I don’t want to be trapped in a cubicle watching my best years fly by outside the window, unable to go out and enjoy life until I’m old and weary. If I could, I’d like to spend more time with my dad making his later years as amazing as his working years were terrible.
As it stands, I get more joy spending 10 minutes in my garden than I do spending 10 hours in the office. I look at my bosses working 50+ hours a week, every week, and have no desire to wind up like them. No matter what HR says, I’ve worked in enough large corporations to know that every employee is replaceable and soon forgotten, There is no reason to sacrifice one’s life for them. With luck, by the end of this journey I’ll have achieved the financial freedom necessary to enjoy all the truly important things in life.
