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About
If you are reading this blog, you are probably thinking about early retirement. Is it really possible to Retire By 40? Let’s put off the retirement topic for now and focus on what you really want to do. What is your ultimate goal? Do you enjoy your job and would love to do it until you can’t do it anymore? Let’s face it, most of us only drag ourselves out of bed and go to the office/work site because we need the money to pay the bills. Could there be an alternative? Would you rather go it alone if money wasn’t an issue? The Retire By 40 Value Proposition outlined why you should spend your valuable time here.
Follow this blog on Facebook, Twitter, RSS, or email to see if I can really retire by the time I’m 40.
Here at Retire By 40, we will explore leaving the day job much earlier than 65. This can be done by aggressively saving and investing as soon as you start working. Many financial advisers will tell you to save 10% of your income for retirement and you will be ok. If you love your job, then I think this is an OK model, but how many of us really love their job? Instead, Mrs. RB40 and I have been saving and investing over 50% of our take home pay for many years now. We live on one paycheck and minimize our expenditures for this to be possible.
I have been investing our savings for over 15 years and I am focusing on income producing assets over the past few years. If you want to retire early, passive income is a must have. Along with passive income, I am also developing side income to ease my transition from a fulltime corporate employee to a self employed stay-at-home dad. Currently, I am focusing my energies on the following income streams:
Passive and side income
Dividend portfolio – Target $1000/month. Currently making about $550/month.
Rental properties – Target $1,000/month. Currently making about $600/month. The housing crash was a great opportunity to get into the rental business and we picked up a 4-plex in 2011.
P2P lending – Target $200/month. Currently making about $50/month.
Online – Target $500/month. Currently averaging $200/month. Making money online is not stable and can change at any time so this will be a long road. We are transitioning to CPC and affiliate ads so the income dropped quite a bit from last year.
Confession time
Our passive income is currently not enough to cover our expenses. Head over to see my latest cash flow report and you will see that Mrs. RB40 will continue to work after I quit my day job. She likes her job and she wants to continue to be a contributing member of the work force. Some people will say that’s not true retirement if your spouse still works, but everyone is different. Some people want to work in a corporation, some want to work for the government, and I want to be a stay-at-home dad. Of course, once baby RB40 goes off to school, then I will explore self employment more. It’s still retirement to me as long as I can follow my motivation and not sit in a grey cubicle for 8-10 hours per day.
Follow my journey
I am 38 years old now and time is running out. It is not because I will be turning 40 soon, but it is because I know my time in the corporate world is winding down. I am completely burned out and can’t stand the corporate environment anymore. The transition to being a stay at home dad is the right move for me because it will give me time to recuperate and figure out what to do next. As long as it’s not corporate, I think it will be fine.
Retiring By 40 big goal, but a bigger challenge is what’s after my retirement party? I went to work right after I graduated from college and I’ve been working in a corporation for 16 years now. Many people quit their job, but eventually go back to work. Staying out of the corporate world will be huge challenge and will be a large part of Retire By 40?s future.
Follow this blog on Facebook, Twitter, RSS, or email to see if Joe can be a successful stay-at-home dad and keep the finances afloat.
Thanks for reading!
-Joe
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
I knew Michelle long ago. I am interested in seeing what happens? The best of luck to you!
Thank you! Keep reading and see if I can do it. Michelle is the Editor in chief.
Hi, I can’t figure out how to subscribe via RSS. What’s your feed?
P.S. Welcome to the Yakezie.
I made a feedburner link. This link below should work or click on the orange RSS symbol at the right column.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/retireby40.org/?feed=rss
Hi,
I’m not trying to sound mean, but you state retire by 40, but then state on this page to retire by 60? I’m confused.
Investor Junkie,
Thank you for your input. I clarify a bit above, but to me retiring means leaving my 9-5 job. Many retired seniors join the Peace Corp. Michelle did a two years stint when she first graduated from college.
I like your description! Good Luck getting there.
I’m glad I found your blog – I’ll look forward to following your journey. I just turned 40 in August, so I’ve passed your deadline…but I am doing the work I love and have time to serve with organizations and causes I care about, so it doesn’t really feel like work to me.
Thanks for stopping by! Yeah the problem is I don’t love my job all that much anymore. It’s really time to move on.
I need to find something I care about.
Hello Joe & Michelle,
and we both quit when he was 39 and I was 36 years old. You don’t need a fortune and you don’t need to listen to the traditional investment planners who tell you that you need 70 or 80% of what you’re making now…that’s a recipe for never retiring. Retirement is not the right word. We’re doing more now than we ever did. I discovered writing and my husband is on a learning streak that included completing a masters in economics. Stay focused. This is great stuff. If you ever want to ‘talk’, please drop by my site and send a comment my way.
Great plan…it’s all very achievable. I know, because my husband and I have been retired for 14 years (as of Dec 20th
All the best…Colleen Friesen
Colleen, Thank you for the encouraging words! I’ll definitely head over and chat.
I’m excited to see you retire in 3.5-4 years Joe and have your wife work! That would be sweet! I’m feeding off my post “The Secret To Early Retirement”.
Sam
The best financial advice I can give anyone is to marry the right girl.
Thanks for linking!
Awe- that’s a nice quote!
I should tell my boyfriend that. LOL.
I love Okonomoyaki! What about a ramen joint? You should come up to Vancouver BC for some ideas.
My brilliant idea (which hasn’t come about yet) is to put a hot pot joint in Whistler BC. There are lots of Japanese and Asian tourists that frequent Whistler and hot pot is delicious when the whether is cold (with some cold beer, of course!)
We have a ramen joint here in Portland.
Hot pot restaurant sounds good, but it’s a lot of work. There is a hot pot restaurant right near our place and their food is OK. I think hot pot is better at home. I think a hot pot restaurant would do great in Whistler. You can charge 20 bucks a person and people would gladly pay.
We live right next to the university downtown and the students would love okonomiyaki with some beeru.
I love Portland- such a beautiful city. Ahh, hungry students love their Okonomayaki. Good luck with your idea, I’ll be sure to visit it when I come down to Portland
That would be my ideal retirement, to open up a restaurant and work in it as I please.
Hi Joe and Michelle,
My boyfriend and I plan to “retire” by 30. I’m 25 and he is 26. I’m sure we can all get there in 4 years. I have a plan on my blog, if you are intereted you can check it out. Work smart and good luck.
Looks like a good plan. I also think real estate is also the way to go. I’ll keep checking your progress!
I’m curious as to what Michelle will be doing at “work” while you “retire” at 40? Does her work involve working from home? I think it’s a great plan you’ve sketched out for yourselves.
P.S. My husband and I also have 3 crazy cats so I can relate.
She is a workaholic. If I let her quit working, she would find a way to work without getting paid. She is already spending so much time working for free for Toastmasters….
She is in HR and likes it.
I am wondering, how would you deal with Healthcare after retirement? I am 32 and had left my corporate job at 29 to run my business. After running the business for 3 Years, business ran out of steam. I ended up returning to corporate job again so I can have benefits for wife and kids. I have No debt, but can’t get over the health insurance part…As self employed for three years I paid more than $800 / month in self insurance….
In the short term, I will go on Mrs. RB40′s healthcare plan. She’ll keep working for a while after I quit my day job. In the long term, I’m not sure. I’ll probably end up working part time to get some form of health insurance. $800/month is a tough pill to swallow!
Hey – thanks for the shout out. It puts more pressure on me to accomplish my goal – as if I lacked motivation.
We early retiree wanna be have to stick together!
If you just quit your job, you’ll figure out how to make it sooner.
I’m way too chicken to quit my job just like that.
I think you’re on the right track. Noone can blame you for not wanting to up and quit your job! Don’t give up on your entrepreneurial plans though (food cart,restaurant). You don’t have to wait for your kid to go off to school to start exploring your options. Now is when you should be researching, planning, and toying with different ideas. I’ve enjoyed checking out your site and one thing that has really popped out at me is your ambition. In my opinion that’s the key element in prospering financially. You haven’t swayed from your game plan to date so why not start taking it one step further by paving the way for some sort of small business? Honestly, I feel that working for yourself is the only way you can get ahead today. It’s been my game plan anyway.
R.T.
MillionDollarPursuit.com
Thanks for your comment! I also think working for yourself is the way to go. Working for a corporation isn’t secure anymore and you are just enriching someone else.
Thanks for the like on FB! I have the same goals except my target is 45-50. I need a little bit more time
. We are saving aggressively so hopefully I can do it sooner. My motivation is to be able to spend more time with my son. Good luck!
That’s one of my main goal too. I’m finding out that it’s quite difficult to keep up with the little dude and work on the blog. He demands so much attention.
Retirebyforty, I just stumbled upon your website and love it. I had one question. I see that you are trying to live on Mrs. RB40′s paycheck, but how much is your paycheck and how is it being distributed to investments? Thanks.
You can read my guest post at GRS to gain a bit of insight, but the short answer is a tiny bit over six figures/year.
http://getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/03/11/reader-story-re-evaluating-the-rat-race/
Any new money coming in is going to dividend stocks or index fund at this point. Overall, we’re probably at about 70/30 stock market/real estate. I’ll need to check my spreadsheet.
I’m not sure that I’d call leaving your wife to work as “retiring.” When you get married, you become one, so you really can’t say you “retired” unless you’ve both quit working. At least that is my logic, which may well not mean a hill of beans.
My wife left corporate life to take on the really tough but really important job of raising our children. I’ll probably get to the point in about 2-4 years at about age 42 (assuming the stock market ever gets going – common, Santorum) where I could replace my entire income from investments.
We could really retire at that point, but that is way to much living to do and I like my job. I’ll probably continue on and just enjoy using the extra income to help fund some niceties while continuing to become wealthier. I’ll probably also increase giving to friends and strangers.
Hi, this is great! I am just 40 now and have been thinking (and preparing?) about getting retired. What I can learn from you is to really make it real and to be true myself. I may just get retired soon … Will keep watching your site and I may start some thing similar. Please let me know if you come to China some day.
I think about retiring every day, but it probably won’t be for a long while. I wasted a lot of time with junky jobs when I was younger, but now I’m socking away as much as I can into my 401k and also my own “play” portfolio (to see if I can beat the returns on my 401).
First time I heard about Okonomiyaki was from watching a dopey Taiwanese drama. I keep thinking about it now! I think an Okonomiyaki restaurant would be a great idea.
Good luck! It takes a long time to save up for retirement, but keep working on it.
I think an Okonomiyaki restaurant would be a big hit around a college campus.
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