My philosophy comes down to this: you only live once and I can’t imagine ever laying my deathbed wishing I had worked more hours or climbed higher on the company ladder. I can imagine wishing I had spent more time with family, friends, and doing the things I loved.

PS: This was my understanding four years ago when there was still only about 100-200 pf blogs. Now there’s close to a thousand, so this ‘rule’ may no longer hold.

That said, I hope I’ll love what I do so much that I won’t want to retire at 40, but it’s good to have a choice. I do know I’ll want to spend time with my future kids (more than my own dad did).

It’s funny, reading over my post I come off as obnoxiously idealistic! Haha. But my life has been anything but.. I grew up in the foster care system and went through a period of homelessness in my late teens after “aging out” with no financial or familial safety net. This was a period when I had a bit of a “wake up call” regarding the nature of money, employment, society, consumerism, financial literacy, financial independence, mortality, self-perception and how it all ties into determining the quality of our lives. In short, my unusual circumstances forced me into a position of taking a good hard look at my priorities and circumstance, and figure out what I truly valued in life.

I think the defining aspect of my personality is that I am simultaneously a romantic and a realist. I have a bit of an “English major temperament” which explains my fanatic worship of Time as a means to simply contemplate and appreciate life. I am also an INTJ and have strong tendencies toward questioning herd mentality and being skeptical. This, coupled with a penchant for planning ahead, and facing up to economic reality, also makes me a realist.

I know that only time will tell if I indeed “stuck to my guns” but I truly believe that, on many levels, FI is not simply a means to an end but a worthy challenge… a lifestyle, in fact. It’s sort of like an exclusive game, where entry is admitted to those who exhibit unusual levels of endurance, self-control, and patience. Part of the fun is testing out one’s own willpower!

Anyway, I’m glad I found my “niche” in the PF world

This assumes that there is “nothing to do” when one is not at work performing their job. Which is a rather dire way of looking at leisure time! If anything, wouldn’t you want to retire earlier on less, since even half of the projected 12-15 million should be sufficient to provide a very comfortable lifestyle? It would mean more years to enjoy “doing your own thing.”

As for me, I am currently 21 and starting out with nothing (zero inheritance, saved wealth, or financial/familial safety net). I plan on aggressively investing the bulk of my income, and retiring in my late 30s on approximately 500,000 in investments to support a very simple, frugal, minimalist lifestyle. I know, sacrilege! But what can I say: I’m an extremist when it comes to my worship of my leisure time. I only have approximately 40-50 more years on earth after that, if I’m lucky, and you know how life is… it’s short. And I’ve made my peace with that. The point is, my FI style is more about aggressively maximizing my Time rather than my Investment Income. There is a distinct point (early on, as you can see) when I want to “cross over.” I want to use that free time to explore ideas and philosophies, learn about human history and different cultures, create art, appreciate other people’s art, go to museums, read the canon of literature’s Great Books (a big one for me, because I love to read), enjoy films, take bike rides, hang out at the beach, spend an idle evening cooking and entertaining guests, volunteer for causes I believe in, etc. etc. Goodness, talk about nothing to do, there’s too much to do! What pains me is that there isn’t more time to do it all, and that I don’t have FI now.

Sitting around spending the majority of my life working, accumulating more money than I really need, that’s not for me.

@adfecto – heh, I bet that’s because you don’t disagree as much as usual in this case It’s interesting that you approach it as an optimization problem. This lead my to consider what I have been optimizing. I think the answer is independence or self-sufficiency.

imho this is your best post yet. I think I fall into the “late retirement” category because I do plan to work until I’m at LEAST 57 (my 100% income replacement crossover) but most likely until 62. The catch is that I have started saving young enough and in large enough amounts that I will have amassed a huge amount of wealth ($12-15 million). I will be free to spend significantly more at age 57+ then I do during my career.

My goal is to maximize my lifetime financial potential. Literally I will spend as much as I can (and have as much fun as I can) between now and when I die. That of course requires investing now for maximum spending later. I think I’ve picked a plan that is the best route to achieve my goals (at least for me). Sitting around with nothing to do is not for me.

At any rate, cool blog…I found it through Well-Heeled.