It Takes More Than Money to Retire Early: Lazyman

It Takes More Than Money to Retire Early: Lazyman

When we think about early retirement, we tend to focus on the money. That’s natural because we need money to retire early. Building a portfolio is a crucial step to early retirement. When I was trying to retire early, it was all about how much we spend and how much passive income we need. However, it takes more than money to retire early.

We have done well over the years and saved up a good amount. That’s true for lots of people. There are over 11 million millionaire households in the US now. Most of these millionaires are still working hard. Clearly, money isn’t the only requirement for early retirement. Some people just aren’t a good fit for early retirement. Finance is a big part of the equation, but there is more to it than that. I thought it’d be interesting to see what that elusive something is. That’s why I’m doing this interview series.

Today, we have Brian from Lazy Man and Money, my east coast doppelganger. I met Brian in 2014 and found that we are very similar. We both retired from an engineering career, became a stay-at-home dad, and our wives kept working. Also, he’s one of the few bloggers that started before me! I’m a big fan of his blog.

Can you give us a brief background about yourself? What career did you retire from?

Answer>   I was a software engineer.  I started programming when I was 8 or 9 back in the mid-1980s.  In 2008 (age 32), I transitioned from full-time software engineering to blogging.

At that time, my military wife was working in Silicon Valley, which sounds like a perfect situation for me as a software engineer.  However, Silicon Valley demands 12-15 hours of engineers’ time (hence the Google/Facebook/Apple campuses).  That doesn’t work for a military spouse, because the military commitment has to be the main priority.  The competing priorities wouldn’t work if we were to start a family.  Now we have two boys ages 7 and 8.

Early retirement means different things to different people. Many people don’t think I’m “retired” because I blog a few hours per day and I’m a stay-at-home dad. That’s perfectly fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What does early retirement mean to you? Do you work at all?

I’m not retired, but self-employed.  I blog, run customer service for a small Silicon Valley company, and sit dogs while their owners are away.  It sounds like a lot and it can be, but I can mostly choose when, where, and how much I work.  It has those elements of retirement, but it keeps me busy.

Like many FIRE bloggers, I prefer to focus on the Financial Independence (FI) rather than the Retire Early (RE) of FIRE.

What were your financial goals and how long did it take you to achieve them?

My main financial goal was to be able to “retire” with my wife when her military pension vested at age 44.  We’re 45 now and I think we reached the goal of financial independence.

FI is a difficult calculation for us because we have three rental properties and our primary residence with mortgages.  The kids go to an expensive (but great) private school.  We get a very good military discount making it a reasonable investment.

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https://retireby40.org/it-takes-more-than-money-to-retire-early-lazyman/