Monday, August 29, 2016

Early Retirement Isn't for You

Early Retirement Isn't for You
*from CubaGallery at Flickr Creative Commons
A lot of good bloggers are getting featured in mainstream news outlets these days. Which is good, I think. Even if the comments aren't positive, the narrative of someone like the Mad Fientist or the 1500 Days clan on a major outlet needs to be shared. Right?

I figure with how little the average worker even thinks about retirement, let alone actually saves for it, these outlier stories have value. They show another way to approach retirement, to approach work, money, life...all of it. 

The thing that drives me a little crazy is the ignorant vitriol in the comments section. Why bother to spew negativity if you're not going to spend even a little time reading up on these people you're criticizing?

Even if you think a million is nowhere near enough to retire on (and for the average commenter with debt up to his eyelids and a bloated budget, I'm sure it's not), isn't there still a lot of value in learning how to quickly build up a million dollar nest egg? 

Even if you're not enamored with the idea of living frugally, isn't there still value in learning to cut waste out of your budget so you can spend on the things that matter?

Even if you don't think these guys are truly retired because they're getting side income from their blogs, wouldn't it be nice to learn how some average guys learned to make significant side income just from writing on the internet?

I just don't get it. Then again, I'm a frustrated idealist. There are lot of things in this world I don't get.

Despite all the advice from other bloggers telling us not to bother reading them, I still wade through the stream of shit in the comments. I can't help it: I feel like I need to understand how the average person views this strange group of financial independence and early retirement bloggers.

For every positive comment, there are five negative ones. The canned response is either:
  1. These people are liars: they are not telling the truth about how they got the nest egg, or what their real expenses are.
  2. These people are naive: they will run out of money, and soon.
  3. These people are just lucky: nothing bad ever happened to them, they got a head start in life, they hit the lottery with high paying jobs, so of course they're able to do this. But I can't do the same because [insert self-defeating, self-fulfilling prophesy here].
And maybe I'm just bitter today, but I feel like I'm done with these people: the people who know so little about money, and somehow have it all figured out, too. The people who see someone trying to pull himself up, and respond by trying to pull him back down into the muck.

I'm giving up. You win, you teeming masses of the mediocre. You've worn me down and convinced me.

You are right: you won't be able to retire early. You'll have to work until you're sixty, if you're lucky, or even into your seventies if things don't go as planned. You are going to give forty or fifty hours a week, for your whole life, to a job you don't even like that much. But don't worry, you're not alone. Just peek over the cubicle if you need a friend to commiserate with.

You are right: the only people who can manage to acquire wealth this early in life were just born lucky. Or worse, they're liars and cheats who are hiding something, like big inheritances. You can't live as frugally as these jokers are saying, and you can't get a million dollars that quickly, either. For real people, good, honest and upright people, there is no shortcut. The only way you'll get millions of dollars is after many decades of steady, excruciatingly slow progress.

You are right: it's really expensive to live in America. With the car payments, the credit card bills, the mortgage, a nice vacation every year for the family, there just isn't enough money left to invest, unless you're one of those one percenters. And even if you could cut costs, why would you want to? You could die at any point, and wouldn't it be embarrassing to die with a pile of money when you could have bought more cars or jewelry? Don't you want to spend your money, and live life to the fullest?

But most importantly, even if you are wrong about these weird, anonymous bloggers, even if they happened to be telling the truth about these strange frugal lives they lead, it's not like you're ever going to follow suit. You're living your own life. You're doing okay. You don't need some jerk telling you how to manage your finances.

You've got it figured out. 

This financial independence, early retirement thing isn't for you. And that's okay. Your life probably isn't for me, either.

30 comments:

  1. If you are so narrow minded, you will never be able to open up and willing to accept new ideas. That's what I see these naysayers as.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm ironically being narrow minded in my criticism of them, too. But hey, no one said I had to be a nice guy to be a personal finance blogger.

      Delete
  2. Well, you pretty much nailed it. Personal finance is filled with so many armchair quarterbacks it isn't even funny. Everyone know what other people should do, yet they do nothing in their own lives. Of course.

    A lot of people don't realize what being debt-free can do for your finances. When you're debt-free, you don't need a lot of money to live. That can make early retirement arrive a lot sooner, yet it's a concept people who are deep in debt can't grasp.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the kind words, Holly. I was reading what I wrote this morning and was like, "Man, you're a bitter a-hole today". So I'm glad it didn't go over as poorly as I thought.

      I guess I'm losing patience for people who just want to whine about their situation, but aren't willing to even TRY to improve it. I mean, people are giving a free blueprint to better finances. Maybe give it a shot before shitting all over it.

      Delete
  3. Amen to that brother!!! I mean geez, there is a good chance, a VERY good chance I will never be able to retire EARLY, but I'm sure I can learn a thing or two from these people. Even if they did "have it made" by not having kids, high paying jobs, and inheritance, or whatever, it's something to aspire to. I posted an article (that I didn't even write) on my FB page about a couple who decided not to buy a home despite their friends and family bugging them, only to be able to retire early and travel the world. I posted it only for the fact that I too have been getting bugged by friends and relatives to buy a home when I don't want to. And boy did a couple people get pissed. "Oh sure they got to do that because they didn't have kids...bla bla bla" I think people who write that are victims, and they will alway be victims. They blame everyone else for their problems.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hear you, Tonya. While I'm coming off like a jerk in this post, I really don't think early retirement is for everyone, or even most people. We're a weird bunch.

      But like you said, there's so much to learn from people like the Mad Fientist & Mr. 1500 Days. These guys have a ton of wisdom to share, and they're sharing it...for free.

      Isn't it way better to take the parts you like and leave those that don't, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

      I'll have to read that article about the couple who didn't buy a home. But maybe I'll skip the comments. :)

      Delete
  4. I'm not aiming at early retirement, but I've learned an enormous amount from the FIRE bloggers. Sometimes the posts are tone deaf and condescending, but on the whole it's an incredibly useful framework in the early stages of wealth building. Of course, it's a little bit crazy to expect anything above mediocrity from the average person because language, but I do think that the absolute average can and should be much better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hear you, Hanna. I suppose there's some irony in my own post being condescending and tone deaf, but I feel justified. These commenters want to dish it out -- it's only fair that they learn to take it, too.

      And great point about mediocrity being the norm, by definition. I didn't think about it like that.

      Delete
  5. Safe with their online anonymity, certain types will just not believe what is written and be viciously vocal about it - if this was someone who stood in front of them and said 'This is how I was able to retire early', you certainly wouldn't get them saying such things to their faces!

    It is a real shame because even if you are not aiming for early retirement, then certainly aiming to improve your finances (which is what all PF/FI blogs talk about) should be something for all people to learn about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know the original point of the post was supposed to be about how it's okay that we all have different financial goals. But then I found myself ranting and angry at these random commenters, and that's what came out.

      Like you said, there's no way we'd be seeing these sort of comments in real life. That's the big downside of the internet: the anonymity brings out the worst in us sometimes. And that goes for me, too, as an anonymous blogger.

      Delete
  6. I'm fairly new to the FIRE realm and am amazed that so many people scoff when they hear success stories of people reaching financial independence. Whether you agree with the concept or not, it's an incredibly interesting idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's certainly different and, yeah, I think it's interesting.

      I took a peek at your blog and it looks sharp. Welcome!

      Delete
  7. Nailed it! Sometimes you just need to let people believe what they're going to believe. But don't feel too upset about it. It's just a defense coping mechanism being thrown up to protect them from the truth: If you really can retire early, what does that say about the choices they're making? Did they pick the wrong job? Did they marry the wrong person? Do they spend too much? The list goes on and on. So much easier to deflect than to deal with these questions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, I should have some sympathy for people. I mean, early retirement really isn't and can't be for everyone, in some sense. If everyone did it, it wouldn't seem that early.

      Like you said, a lot of people just might not be ready to ask the hard questions. A lot more might honestly not want that kind of life.

      As always, the lesson is to have more empathy than I did. I really hate reading my words the next day sometimes.

      Delete
  8. Thanks for the mention DBF! The thing I always think about is this:

    The Personal Finance community is so incredibly open and honest. I've never done a business deal with anyone, but there are a load of people in the PF community that I'd consider partnering up with, even though I haven't even met some of them in person.

    The people who dismiss our stories are only hurting themselves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, we are an oddly transparent bunch. Maybe that's the reason for the skepticism.

      I think it'd be great if you partnered up with someone in the PF community. Maybe you guys can make an app.

      Delete
  9. I love haters. I love how they drive up the comments, I love how their vitriol drives me to succeed, I love how they justify their mediocrity by trying (and failing miserably) to tear other people down. But you know what I love about them the most? The thing that makes the haters absolutely VITAL? The fact that THEY will continue working, buying shit they don't need, to make companies MORE money to pay our dividends, so us early retirees can continue living our awesome lives. We owe a lot to them. So thank you, haters! We couldn't have done this without you. Now get the F*** back to work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! I guess that's true: our consumer driven economy is particularly dependent on consumers buying things.

      When the possibility of everyone becoming frugal is discussed, and consumption hitting the floor, I've noticed most PF bloggers will trot out a flimsy excuse that everything will somehow work out, that the economy will gently adjust to a 'producer' economy. I don't see it that way. A move away from a consumer economy would be terrible and painful for almost everyone, including those of us trying to live off of investments.

      But like you said, they're just going to continue buying and keeping this whole thing moving. I suppose I should have thanked those commenters.

      Delete
  10. BRAVO, DB40! It's the old entitlement mentality that runs rampant throughout this country. "I deserve to have everything handed to me, and if you've built your own empire, it's obviously because somewhere along the line someone handed everything to you and you're just not fessing up about it."

    I get so sick and tired of it. I've stopped reading the comments because of it. Go ahead and wallow in your own sh*t if you want to. For the rest of us, we'll choose hard work and change for the better. It sure beats sitting on your a** feeling sorry for yourself. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah! Totally agree, Laurie. At the core of a lot of the complaining probably is a sense of entitlement or, worse, some jealousy.

      I've noticed that some types of success is almost universally lauded (e.g. - athletic success in pro sports or the Olympics, academic success, success in the military/battles) while others is generally distrusted (personal finance or wealth building). I'm not entirely sure why there's a difference. Being good at something, getting the desired result, is not all that different in one field than another.

      Delete
  11. Haha well it did come across as a little bitter but I enjoyed it nonetheless :)

    You can't beat a good rant.

    There are the obvious protests of people who are severely disadvantaged not being able to FIRE, which is fair enough*, but the irony is most of the comments seem to come from people who are in the middle of the road to high side of the income spectrum just like most FI bloggers out there. Rather than examine their own lives closely to see where they may have gone wrong it's easier to shoot abuse and get back to autopilot.

    *And then there is the obvious counter argument that reading about how to be frugal and attempt to improve your income can surely not be a bad thing?

    We (FI blogging community) can only try to help out but if it's right in front of people's faces and they still don't get go for it, then we don't owe then anything and they should be mocked accordingly as MMM often says.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I must have just been salty on Sunday when writing that. I think I get defensive of my fellow PF bloggers, too.

      As you noted, a lot of (maybe the majority of) people leaving comments also note how they don't want to live a frugal life: that they enjoy having nice things, nice vacations, eating out. Which is all fine. But then, of course, you can't also say that financial independence is out of reach: it's just not what you're reaching for.

      Delete
  12. I agree. I wrote comments and a post similar to yours. I don't get why people have to shit on them. I will probably be one of those people who will work to 60 (just b/c I love my job) but I am going to be financially independent come hell or high water by the time I am near 50. I just want want to go on these boards and debate every single one, even though it is exhausting. I don't know why it makes me so mad. However, never let it be said how many people get in their own way and/or are the Eeyore in their life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm with you, Jason. I think there are some people, maybe healthier people, who can avoid the fruitless debate. We are not those people. :)

      Best of luck on hitting the financial independence goal before 50. Let us know when it happens. :)

      Delete
  13. I tend to read the comments on the mainstream articles too even though I know they're rarely any good. It's always so funny to me to see all of the venom in the comments. Sadly there's no real convincing many of these people because they can't get past the spend 110% of what you make consumerism so they search for any excuse reason why someone else succeeded and their going to be grinding away until they die. Such is life though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hear you, Passive Income Pursuit. It's helpful to know I'm not the only one wading through the comments.

      As a closet idealist, at my core I believe everyone can change their ideas & behavior. That's why I get so frustrated when I read the comments. I suppose if I just concede that most people aren't going to even consider the possibilities, then I might be happier.

      Delete
  14. The article on Brandon was depressing because he made himself miserable by not seeing friends and deprived himself of little things. I'm hoping he is doing very well now. Pretty sure he is.

    However I think so much of it is jealously man. They are just jealous.

    I read the comments sections for kicks and giggles.

    Here's a quote that sums up things perfectly.

    Don't let the opinions of the average man sway you. Dream, and he thinks you're crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you're lucky. Acquire wealth, and he thinks you're greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn't understand.

    -Robert G. Allen


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's an awesome quote, Lila. Like you said, we need to be more secure in our own decisions because others just aren't going to always approve, and that's okay.

      Delete
  15. I'm a big fan of income from blogging as a way to significantly boost one's retirement asset base (savings or otherwise).

    For the non-believers, all I can say is: Try it yourself. What have you got to lose?

    ReplyDelete