This is my 5-year countdown to retirement or FINE: Financial Independence, Next Endeavour!
Finances are obviously key but I’m equally focused on health, passions, mindset & lifestyle design.
A lot of FIRE blogs seem to be written by people in their 20s-40s. This one is different.
I’m a middle-aged Gen Xer who’s been working for over 25 years and investing for most of my career. I finally reached a total net worth of CAD $1 million this year when including my primary residence.
Technically, I’m already financially independent – if I choose to live frugally for the rest of my life (ie. LeanFIRE). But that doesn’t appeal to me.
Fortunately, I still love my job and I want to continue to accumulating wealth for a few more years. However, I do want to retire from office life in my 50s, while I still have energy to enjoy travel & active hobbies. This blog is part of that next endeavour.
How I got here:
Both my parents retired from their middle-class jobs while in their 50s. But somehow we have been conditioned into thinking 65 is now a “normal” retirement age.
My parents worked hard. They lived frugally, never took fancy vacations and always seemed tired. They didn’t know much about investing but at least they knew how to live below their means and save the rest.
They were excited to travel when they retired. And have fortunately saved enough to enjoy a few nice travel vacations but not enough to spurge. But by their late-60s, they seemed to lose interest and energy for travelling.
I remember thinking from a young age, how little time we have to do all the things that we want to do. I didn’t know what to do about it apart from having a vague dream of wanting to win the lottery and travel the world.
I did however have some wealthy relatives who seemed to be living the dream but I had no idea how to replicate their success. Something about investing in real estate and the stock market. For some reason, the specifics were a closing guarded mystery.
So I went to university and got a business degree. But I didn’t learn anything about getting rich. After graduating, some of my friends seemed to be making lots of money in the stock market (this was the late 90s). I finally dipped my toes in investing in 2000 right before the dot com bust. Chaos ensued.
I would have loved to say that I dollar-cost averaged in low-cost index funds for the last 25 years but the reality is I probably made almost every mistake possible in my investing career. My one saving grace is, despite making many poor choices, I stayed in the market and the magic of compounding eventually did it’s thing.
To be honest, I never thought I’d ever be able to retire. I had a 5-figure salary for most of my career and it was only in the last 5 years where I saw an end in sight.
So with all that said, ChatGPT says I’m on track to be able to retire by 2032 at 57. I want to make that sooner. I have adventures to complete.
This goals of this blog is to share lessons I’ve learned along the way & design what my ideal retirement will look like. I’m also challenging myself to reach semi-retirement by end of 2027 and be able to fully retire by 2030.
This blog is public to keep myself accountable but anonymous (at least for now) so I can be more transparent with my journey.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, nor is any of my content financial advice. This is my personal journey which is aligned with my specific goals & risk tolerance. Please contact a professional financial advisor if you are seeking financial advice. Do not blindly follow what random internet strangers do 🙂