======= ======= ====== ====== ====== ===== ==== ====== ====== ===== ==== ======= ======= ====== ====== ====== ===== ==== ====== ====== ===== ====
Like most people chained to a desk all day, I dream of an early retirement. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sleep in and then spend the day doing whatever the hell you wanted? But while retirement is the dream, I don’t think I want it if it means I’m a pretentious asshole, like “JP Livingston” (a pen name), a 28-year-old New Yorker who retired at 28.
JP, who writes the blog TheMoneyHabit.org, retired from the investment firm she worked at after graduating from Harvard (of course). But it was during a trip to a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan (seriously) during her college years that Livingston devoted herself to a minimalist lifestyle that allowed her early retirement.
“Going to a school like Harvard can sometimes make you feel like you have to pursue a certain kind of high-powered corporate life to be respected. I had been feeling a lot of that pressure and this experience helped. I remember one night we were visiting a temple in the mountains. I was laying on a very thin bamboo mat on a hard wooden plank at probably 4 a.m., staring up at the ceiling. All we had was basic food, a uniform, and peace and quiet, and I was happy, happier than I was at school many days surrounded by a smorgasbord of opportunities and privilege and leadership and all that. It reminded me that we don’t need much to live a happy life.”
Blach. After a brief stint as a horse-trekking assistant to nomads in Mongolia (I’m not joking) post-graduation, Livingston joined the firm she eventually retired from, and saved while investing and was able to bank enough to leave her job at the ripe old age of 28.
Sounds great, right? Living the early retirement dream. But before we get too jealous about JP’s retired status, let’s consider some factoids about her life:
She lives in a 325 square foot apartment… with her husband and her dog.
Fun fact: 325 square feet is the size of an average U.S. hotel room. Now imagine having to live in a hotel room with your significant other and a dog. No, thank you.
She buys her furniture on Craigslist.
Listen, I’m cool with a bargain, but hell if I’m going to sleep on a used mattress.
Speaking of bedding… her mattress is on the floor because she didn’t want to spend an unnecessary $600 on a bed frame.
What the actual fuck? A mattress frame is exactly $37.99 on Amazon. And if you have a frame, you can put shit underneath your bed – a necessity when you live in what is essentially a closet.
Livington and her husband buy their groceries at Trader Joe’s or in NYC’s Chinatown to keep their costs down.
I am 100% down with TJs, but I’ll be damned if I’m spending my retirement years buying off-brand Wheat-Thins with a foreign-language label.
You know what? If that’s early retirement, I’ll think keep working. I’d rather rise and grind for a while longer and be able to afford enough space that I won’t go crazy with claustrophobia during my leisurely days at home while sitting on a reasonably unskanky couch enjoying name-brand Oreos. Because what fun is not working if you don’t have enough money to enjoy it? .
[via Forbes]
Respond
Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
@JennaLCrowley
@donttakeitfromus
You say “retired to a minimalist lifestyle,” I say “chose to be poor.”
I could retire right now and live in a 3.8 million sq ft apartment called the streets
A real open floor plan.
Not worth it. Here’s another way to save money, don’t live in NYC.
*jerk off hand motion* in their direction.
So her goal is to live a minimalistic and inexpensive lifestyle and she chose to live in New York City?
It’s probably just a faze. She no doubt decided to leave her family’s trust fund, because of pride or something. Hell, she was traveling the world while attending college. When she realizes that her hippy husband probably sucks, she’ll just hop back on that trust, marry rich and join a yoga class.
“My husband still works even though our nest egg covers all our expenses.” Yeah, so basically she decided to become a stay at home wife.
*Stay at home mom… they have a dog, remember?
My bad, how could I forget their fur baby?
This almost as painful as that article about the girl who’s broke and lived in her car/campgrounds with her boyfriend but her boyfriend owns a goddamn sail boat. GTFO here with their pseudo poor people hipster shit.
You completely missed the part where her net worth as of age 28 was $2.25 millions, including her investments. I’d kill to make 2 mil by the time I turn 28
To be worth 2.25 million, I need to earn 2.3 million. PGP.
I hope her husbands working still or they don’t plan to have kids. If she plans to live another 50 years, that’s only about $45k per year to live off of. In NYC I don’t think that’ll get you too far
She isn’t living off the principle. The general “rule” is you can live off 4% of your nest egg indefinitely: 4% to you, 3% loss to inflation, and average returns of 7%. So she can live off today’s equivalent of $90k/year from now until death. Sign me up.
Nice picture
How much is in that trust fund that her daddy set up for her?
NotBroke, I enjoyed Oreos (the thin ones, because #diet) and a glass of cold milk last night on my Pottery Barn couch while watching David Blaine blow minds, only to rise at 6:00 am for another Hump Day in the office. Sup?
The article fails to mention that her Husband is probably not retiring at 28, and is probably a doctor.