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Comment by baccredited | Hacker News Reader

I wish I knew I could save aggressively and achieve financial independence in a relatively short time frame. Even medium salary programmers in the US can save the bulk of their income and retire early (if they so choose). I'm on track to retire in about 4 yrs but wish I had done so quicker.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

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Indeed. One addition to this: retirement isn't about quitting working, it's about having the OPTION to quit working, which means that you can pick and choose the kinds of positions that really interest you, or that have some social value, or whatever - you don't have to be a wage-slave any more. You can achieve this by following the Mr. Money Mustache thing & basically deciding that the you 10 years from now will like you a lot better if you do it.

By retire early, do you mean retire like Mr. Money Mustache suggests, -- i.e., extremely low cost of living, don't use AC, don't drive anywhere, probably live on less than 20K a year?

Or are you making a large enough salary in the PNW/San Jose or something where you can put back 1-3 mil in 10 years?

I ran that calculator and while it says I can retire soon, I've always heard 25x income to be a much more reliable number.

No I'm not a lean FIRE guy like MMM more of a FatFIRE https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/ Our family spends like a drunken sailor on shore leave. I'm lucky to come from a dual income family and save 100% of my salary. I'm targeting saving 25x yearly spending.

Thanks -- haven't heard that term before. I'll check it out. I like the idea of early FI but I'd like more a cushion that I think some of the lean guys are going for.

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