Discovering FI, Our Town, And My Life

Two stories today and then two thoughts…

Story 1: Discovering FI (Telling The World!)

I learned that I could retire early in October of 2012. I was having an awful time at work and put this into Google:

How do I retire early?

It was a hail mary pass that I didn’t expect to lead to anything useful. But Google led me to Mr. Money Mustache, an anonymous person on the internet who talked about retiring in his 30s. I thought the site was an elaborate scam; people don’t retire before 60! But then I landed on this post and realized this mysterious MMM was the real deal. Numbers don’t lie.

The clouds parted. The sun came out. Unicorns and rainbows appeared. Finding MMM and FIRE was an epiphany and one of the most important inflection points of my life.

And I thought everyone else would feel the same way. I told anyone who would listen. Except they didn’t. Most thought I was crazy. Someone thought I had a terminal disease. I didn’t understand why something that was so clear and obvious to me didn’t land with others.

Story 2: Our Town

I read Our Town in my second year of high school. I didn’t remember much about it, but I went to see a local high school production of the play this past weekend. Some of the lines from the third act pierced my heart:

You know how it is: you’re twenty-one or twenty-two and you make some decisions; then whisssh! you’re seventy: you’ve been a lawyer for fifty years, and that white-haired lady at your side has eaten over fifty thousand meals with you.

Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?

The play knocked me on my ass. In a good way. But it didn’t when I first read it as a 15 year old.

Thought 1: When The Student Is Ready

I was thinking about why the play hit me so hard now. The answer is obvious; I’m in a different place:

• I’m married
• I have kids
• Hopefully I’m wiser
• At 51, I’m a lot closer to death than I was at 15

And MMM/FIRE hit me hard because I was in a dark place in my career. I was foolish to assume that others would embrace FIRE like I had.

I often think about this:

If I had been happy in my career, where would I be right now?

I would have never asked Google how to retire early. I’d probably still be working, maybe in management. Maybe I’d still be in Chicago.

And I probably would been just fine. I wouldn’t have known anything else. Humans adjust to wherever they are in life.

Thought 2: Retirement Isn’t Easy

When you work full-time, it dominates your life. Work is at the core of your day and the rest of your hours are structured around it.

The FIRE community doesn’t talk enough about the change that is retirement. It’s a massive vacuum to fill and a huge life change. It ranks right up there with going to college, marriage, divorce, having kids, and moving. I’d bet that many full-timers see their coworkers more than they see their partners.

Work gives us structure, money, purpose and friends. You can have all of these things without work, but you have to figure it out for yourself. This isn’t easy.

And many of us lack community which is incredibly important. Our lives are shaped to some extent by the people around us. Here in Longmont, the MMM Magnet draws FIREy people to town. It’s easy to be retired early with so many friends in similar situations. Back in the Chicago rat race where I grew up, the life of an early retiree would be lonely. Having fun and interesting people to spend your time with is so important to happiness (and longevity). It’s the number one thing an early retiree should work on upon quitting work.

Happiness And Better

If I had not found early retirement, I’m not sure I’d be much happier. When my job wasn’t awful, I enjoyed writing code. My coworkers were good people and some were even my friends. Work was all I knew.

However early retirement has made my life way better.

• Time with kids: The first thing I did when I quit work was volunteer for every school activity. Spending more time with my children created a stronger connection between us. Fun fact: After I volunteered for 3 or 4 school events, the teacher politely asked me to stop volunteering to ‘give other parents a chance.’
• Fitness: Before quitting work, I had a spare tire around my belly and my back would hurt from sitting all day. Now I go to the gym for 3 hour marathon workout sessions. I’m almost up to 20 pull ups and 100 pushups in one set. I just didn’t have the time to focus on my health with a job.
• Wandering about the world: I have the time to mosey about at a slow pace. It’s fun to just jump in the car and have it drive me to the mountains or ocean.
• Taking it slow: I’m still working on this one. But when I get it right, it’s really nice not to rush from one thing to the next in a frenzy. Life is great when you can move a little slower and look at clouds, stars, sunrises, and sunsets.

And all of these thing lead to happiness, just not always directly. For example, pushing myself at the gym isn’t super fun. However, being in top shape now will lead to longer healthspan. Life doesn’t mean much if you don’t have your health.

Life Is Good

I often get lost in the bustle of my daily routine. Part of really appreciating FI and life is taking time every day to consider just how great life is. I don’t have any tattoos, but maybe I’ll get one of those quotes from Our Town plastered on my arm to remind myself every day how good it all is. Or maybe I’ll get one of these programmable signs:

Life is great. Stop and look around every once in a while. It’s all pretty amazing.

More 1500 Days!!!

You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:

• YouTube: My channel is mostly devoted to home improvement, but I have some other material coming up soon too.
• Instagram: Pretty pictures of dinosaurs, sunsets, and nail guns!
• Twitter: Spontaneous, often insane, ramblings
• Coworking space: On the surface, MMM HQ is a coworking space. Look a little deeper and you’ll see that we’re really building community. The members of MMM HQ are some of the finest people I know
• Buying a Tesla? Use my referral code to get some perks!