Asian guy had $3 million saved up & thought he could retired in his 30s but NOPE

[theking]

A FIRE movement pioneer who retired early with $3 million at age 34 says he must return to work to afford his kids’ college education

When Sam Dogen retired in 2012 at the age of 34 with a $3 million net worth, he made waves as one of the pioneers of the FIRE—financial independence, retire early—movement. Ten years later, he's making waves again—for saying it's time to go back to work.

Dogen, now 45, has written the popular personal finance blog Financial Samurai since 2009. Through it, readers have followed his and his family's journey, from saving for early retirement to leaving the financial industry to writing a book and more.

There are multiple reasons one of the most popular members of the online early retirement crowd is now joining the ranks of the unretired. For one, his investment portfolio, like everyone else's, took a beating last year. Two, he also misses the camaraderie of a workplace. Early retirement is great, but it can also be lonely, he says. There are only so many pickleball games you can play in the middle of the day.

Perhaps the most pressing, though, is because he just can't make the math work on paying for his young children's college education with his current financial situation. When Dogen retired, he and his wife weren't sure they would even have kids. Now they have two, and are raising them in San Francisco. It's expensive, even when you're earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in passive income.

"Life is full of ups and downs and unknowns. You're trying to predict the future, you don't know what’s going to happen," Dogen, who has grown his passive income from $80,000 to around $200,000 a year, tells Fortune.


And you could also argue that Dogen never really retired. Though he left the corporate workforce and lived mostly off of passive income, he also consulted start-ups, produced his blog, and wrote one traditional book and an e-book over the past 10 years. He just did it from the comfort of his home, something that itself is becoming more and more common as some COVID-19 remote work policies remain.

[DuMa]

The fire movement is to retire young.  Now how to get there includes ramen and saving to get to your sweet spot for retirement. 

There is another school of thought that is against this.  It is to save some for retirement but blow the most of it all on the now.  That is right, this concept makes more sense.  You tell me what is the difference between a guy in his 40s, driving a corvette vs a guy at 65, driving a corvette?  I'll tell you what is the difference.  One guy enjoying life while he still is young and healthy while the other guy, well he might not be able to pop a boner but he still drives a corvette. 

The reasoning for retirement to them is simple. Your grandpa and your dad and like many other people who only eats one fixed income like social security, all survived.  If they can do it, so can you. 
Not much money to really blow a load but hey, the government gives you little, you live off that much of a little.  Besides, how much can you eat when you are old? 

Old age should be a time to reflect back on life.  When I was 30, I did this and that like a bad azz because I had the money and the time and the health to live it up like no other. Now that I'm retired, I can't do all that and so, I'm slowing down, not speeding up and trying to compete with them youngster. 

Philosophy in life, different strokes for different folks. 

[theking]

They say, you can always count on health care cost, energy rate and college tuition to go up..