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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

I “retired” at 55. The scare quotes, are because I didn’t have a choice. No one wanted to hire me.

Back in the 1980s, when I was just getting started, I was told to save everything I could.

I thought it was silly advice, but I took it, starting in 1990, when I started my final job, which lasted until 2017.

Good thing, too.

I’m not rich, but I was able to retire, and it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me (although I didn’t think so, at the time).

I have enough to afford decent tools, and work hard, every single day, on stuff I always wanted to, but my management never let me.

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I did quite the opposite.

Ignored all the sage advice, lived a rather tumultuous life, but lived it fast.

Diagnosed ADHD at 45 was a bit of an aha moment!

So I'm stuck on the treadmill for quite a few years yet.

Envious of where you've ended up, but imagine the path there wasn't easy.

All the best with retirement!

I've lived pretty humbly. I think many folks, here, would sneer at my lifestyle (sneering at others, seems to be in fashion, these days), but it allowed me to be where I am, today. Also, I never really made a huge amount of money. There's kids coming right out of school, that are starting at more than I ever made, at the peak of my career.

That can't afford a house.

Crazy times.

This is the key in my opinion, and the most difficult to discuss with others without them getting defensive. You have to look at every dollar you spend. For me, debt and inflation have the potential turn my dreams to nightmares.

Yup. A very wealthy friend of mine tells me that the key is avoiding personal debt (and being careful about corporate debt, too).

When I got married, I had a lot of credit card debt, and I had to use most of our wedding gift money to nullify it.

It was humiliating, and I vowed never to carry a balance again, and to avoid any form of debt, if at all possible.

WFM YMMMV

I “retired” at 55 when I was laid off. The biggest reason I didn't find another job is that my spouse was working at a job that she loved. For the previous decades my career and our two children were our priority by necessity, but now she was able to concentrate on herself. I'm 70 now and my wife worked until the day she died last year.

I am sorry to hear that, but you had a good life together (I assume).

I plan to “work”, until I croak. The coroner is gonna have to rub “QWERTY” off my cheek.

The difference is that no one is paying me, and that makes all the difference. When someone pays me, they pay for veto rights, and the right to impose their stupid on me.

Having enough, so I don’t have to deal with that, is heaven.

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