Living the Good Life on $24,000 a Year? Retire in Your 20’s or 30’s?

[LevelUP]

So here's the scenario

- $24,000 income
- modest home around 1200sq feet that is paid off
- car paid off
- no debt
- live in area which cost of living is low

Here is an example of what would be an estimate of your expenses

$0 Rent
$50 Home Insurance
$80 Property Taxes
$200 Utilities
$0 Car Payment
$20 Car Ins
$30 Gasoline (Prius 50mpg, no work commute)
$0 Health Care (Obamacare)
$15 Cell Phone plan
$200 Food
$595 Total

$2000 Income
$595 Expenses
$1400 Left Over

$600 a month could be used for spending on whatever you want such as eating out, electronics, clothes, and vacations.

$10,000 a year is left over which you could save or do whatever you want.

Freedom

Freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want.

Who's in?

[Messdiener]

This is basically an intense form of FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), which was popularized by the likes of Mr. Money Mustache, JL Collins, and a few other folks online.

The numbers do work out, but one has to be wary of wild market fluctuations. If we have years of bear markets, FIRE is less than sustainable.

But the types of folks that do FIRE don't tend to **retire** completely. They pick up other projects and odd jobs to keep them busy, albeit work that actually interests them. So even if markets collapse for long periods of time, they tend to still have income streams to help them keep going.

[rachel83az]

You left utilities out of the list. Those can be substantial in some areas.

[LevelUP]

You left utilities out of the list. Those can be substantial in some areas.

Added utilities.

[Kab]

You never know what will happen in live, extra cost (specially later on with your health) and house renovations. Also many things can change and what now is cheap in an area in 20 years can be expensive.
I would keep working and improving my financial situation as much as I could until retirement. Anyway... could be a relative boring life after some years of having nothing to do.

[rachel83az]

Agreed, you never know what life can bring. Some people can wind up with a property tax bill that costs several thousand a year after property values in the area go up and their property is reassessed. Or maybe you buy a house now and in 10 years it gets seized by eminent domain for a public works project. They'll compensate you, sure, but not what it's actually worth. So, now you're homeless and only have maybe 80% of the money it now takes to buy another home.

[Vle045]

I’d like to think that I could, but at this point, no. I had many years of struggling like that. We are finally at a good place now, and I prefer to keep it that way and keep moving forward. We like being able to provide for our family and give our son a private education. Of course, I still look for bargains when I can.

[freeloader]

That’s not for me. I like working, for one thing. My mental health has really struggled during period, such as a while being unemployed when I wasn’t working. I also like a lifestyle that is a little beyond the one OP describes. My wife and I could live pretty comfortably of $50-60k, probably, if our house was paid off. But of course, at that point we would have to buy our own health insurance (too much income for free/very low cost gov’t care), so one or both of us would end up working. If I am going to be working somewhere for $12-$15 to buy health insurance or my current gig where I make around $30/hr, I think I’ll just stay where I am.

The OP plan also is great if everything works just to plan. And you never have to buy a new car. And you don’t have any fancy tastes. Personally, we will stick to what we are doing. Work more/harder now with the aim of retiring at around age 60. OP’s plan would stress me the F out. I would wake up every morning afraid that I might get sick and wreck everything. I would end up giving myself ulcers and it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[SteveFoerster]

I guess it might work, but only if you're dead sure that you never want kids.

[Alpha]

I would prefer to have a job that adds meaning to my life.  My job benefits my community and the larger world.  The plan, as it was outlined, seems to put you in a position where you're essentially doing nothing all day, every day.  It doesn't actually allow you to do anything you want, it simply removes employment from your life.  I actually like my job.  I like my co-workers and I believe in what we're doing.  I think I'll stay put.