I started late (after losing a few years in the military, a delayed university degree and a new career – financially speaking). I also have kids, but I am working my own plan. Age 45 would be a challenge, but it’s not impossible.

Again, congrats!

I am 44-yrs old and have been making some major lifestyle changes (save more and live more frugal) so that I can retire at 55yrs. I wish I had done more of what you did so that I could have retired earlier. Your post is an inspiration for me to keep on keepin’ on……..congratulations!

My old company made several changes from 2001-2007 to cut its costs once it began to be more bottom-line oriented. These included the following:

(1) Phasing out its pension benefit in 2001. It grandfathered the pension for older employees (not me), froze it for everyone else (me), and did not include one for new hires. It put in a mediocre cash-balance program but a few years later phased that out, too, putting a profit-sharing program in place for new hires. Therefore, any additional years I worked after 2001 did nothing for my pension.

(2) Phased out retiree health benefits. Like with the pension, older employees would get them when they retired, but younger ones would not. And the company picked up a smaller share of the total premiums.

(3) Moved the company from Manhattan across the Hudson River to Jersey City, New Jersey (before 9/11/01). This saved the company money but worsened the commute for most of the employees, including me. My commute already sucked so this made it intolerable on a daily (and part-time) basis.

(4) Expanded the standard work week from 37.5 to 40 hours for most employees (not me because I was working P/T by then, thankfully). There was no pay raise to compensate, of course.

(5) The company used its stock in place of cash for its 401(k) matching funds. This meant 40% less stock at the end of the year for our allocations.

These moves increased the company’s bottom line, and therefore, its almighty ESOP share price. So the only way to get any benefit from these costs was to quit the company and cash out the ESOP.

Had my old company not put in an ESOP, I likely would have continued working P/T for a little longer. Maybe 12 hours a week, maybe 20, I am not sure. Depends on how miserable I would be. Then again, my commute probably would have been more tolerable (i.e. not to Jersey City).

Also likely is if I had retired, I would have cashed out all or part of my 401(k) – not when the market sucked in 2008-early 2009 – taken the hit in taxes and penalties, and added it to my own $300k+ savings to generate the income I needed to live on. I would have a smaller 401(k) but perhaps a bigger pension in my later years to offset it.

Don’t despair Mama Zen, I was in debt up until I was 35 years old and am still on track to retire completely a couple of months before my 45th birthday and am semi-retired now at 44 (working about 15 hours a week now). Single parent w/two kids, so it’s do-able if you want it bad enough.

I’ve been following a great many “early retirees” and have to say this is the main criteria for retiring early. The advice given by these people reminds me of the old joke: get a hundred men to flip a coin, removing those that don’t turn up heads. Eventually you will have a man who has flipped only heads, and he’ll write a book on how to do it. Derek Foster’s books don’t explain how he made his money (he gambled big and turned a huge profit, if he lost we’d never have heard of him).
Likewise DeeGee was lucky his company moved from Non-profit to profit…obviously he profited well from this. Likely regardless how frugal he was, without that stroke of luck, he’d still be a wage slave like the rest of us. I don’t recall seeing a change from non-profit to profit being part of the selection criteria for a job.

Congratulations to DeeGee on his luck, but as someone to emulate to retire early…
fred

You’re right, having children is a choice, and as all choices we can make in our lives, some of us take good and bad decisions.

Some people have children and, I regret to say that, should’nt have em. Some don’t and should (and sometime crave to) have some. It is about choices, and, as investments, about ‘luck’ too.

The important thing is to live in a lifestyle that fits you, and you seem to have acheived that, nice to you

All the best for your future in this new part of your life, it was great to open yourself to all of CD readers!

PS: yes, in some ways living in Canada is cheaper, but it also depends in wich province you live… il live in Quebec, so have a lot of taxes to pay… but that’s part of my choices too