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Comment by CatMustard | Hacker News Reader

Would you mind me asking what age you were when you retired? I'm 28 and five years into my boring corpo career and need something to lust after lol

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If you want something to lust after, I recommend you find a project you care about getting involved in right now, literally today. The things that make us happy are doing something we care about every day, not seeking long-term goals.

Oh I have a lot of projects in my spare time already that I get fulfilment from. Just the 9-5 that doesn't do it for me. My original comment was a bit tongue in cheek though, I don't hate my job. It pays the bills and then some, and doesn't ask too much of me.

47. I didn't wait for FIRE to plan the projects, I had a notebook of ideas I collected over the years and had studied the necessary skills to put them in action throughout my work life.

Additionally, I could see myself going back to work at a company if I saw a truly exciting project. But that excludes around 98% of the jobs I see out there.

No, the next generation of privacy management experiences that will impact billions of users configuring their privacy settings isn't interesting.

Nothing will make a boring corpo job not-boring, but one thing that can help mix it up is to change which boring corpo job you're doing once or twice a decade. Five years is a decent stint at one job. Worth taking a look around and seeing if an opportunity catches your eye.

Beat you to it, my friend. My next job starts next week!

Good advice though, it really felt like a good point in my career to move on somewhere new.

I'm not doing FIRE, I have children and just live below my means. I'm hoping to retire around 55 assuming the AI bubble doesn't nuke everyones portfolio.

If that’s a real concern of yours, maybe park what you think you’ll need in money market funds / gold (FX hedge)?

The typical FIRE requires compounding growth. You start with portfolio worth 25 years of expenses but if expenses keep on growing due to inflation and portfolio shrinks because of expenses and zero growth, it can get hairy quite fast.

There are various ways to look at numbers but my thumb rule is 4% inflation 9% growth keeps you perennially happy with some choppy years of course. 4% inflation 9% growth implies you can withdraw 4-5% every year and still have equivalent portfolio in inflated money.

Typical FIRE also requires access to affordable healthcare. In the US that is going away with ACA subsidies.

Five years ago I paid for “market rate“ insurance through my business for my family because we did not qualify for ACA subsidies. The cost was about $40,000 per year.

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