How I Retired In My Early 30’s While Going Blind - Retired At 32!
While I don’t spend every day at the beach, it’s nice to know I can go whenever I want!
Table Of Contents (Jump Links…)
The Moment That Sparked the F.I.R.E. Inside.
Before we can get into how I retired at 32, we have to talk about WHY I wanted/needed to retire early. It’s not the way most people do things, and it comes with plenty of planning, challenges, and discipline. I guess what I’m saying is early retirement doesn’t just fall into your lap. You have to decide to make it a life priority. As I mentioned in my post Why Blog?, I have a degenerative eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa that was slowly robbing me of my vision. By my early twenties, I wasn’t driving at night, and I was running into more objects. I knew my top earning years were limited. As time progressed, simple things like commuting to work, finding things I’d dropped, or even seeing what someone else was trying to point to became a big challenge. It got to the point where I would car pool into work to avoid driving. (Anyone who says you can’t find a carpool to save money isn’t trying hard enough!)
The moment I gave up driving was a pivotal point that changed my life.
At age 26 my vision was getting really bad. I was forced to turn my car keys in. I knew it wasn’t responsible for me to continue driving. It was both a relief and a bit soul crushing. In the United States, we strongly associate driving on the open road with freedom to do whatever we want. At the moment I gave up my license, something snapped in me. Alarm bells started ringing, and I started to panic. The clock was ticking … faster and faster. I was going blind. It was real, and I couldn’t ignore it! I started to question everything in life, all the things we never think about. How much longer can I work? Will I be able to provide for myself? What happens if I can’t figure this out before time runs out?! Will I be homeless? Gahhhhh! I honestly thought I was screwed.
At first, it looked impossible. How could I retire in my thirties? I’ve always been a moderate saver by normal standards (which in the FI/RE world isn’t that impressive). I’d never heard of the FI/RE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early). Retiring early was for trust fund babies and rich people. I was a guy going blind making $48K per year. We had just come out of the great recession. I was just happy to have a job!
In hindsight, some of my fears were a bit unfounded. I have a very supportive family that would never kick me to the streets. I’m reasonably well-educated with good work experience, connections, and skillsets. That being said, I’d hit rock bottom. I didn’t want to just survive, DAMNIT. I wanted to thrive! I wanted to see the world and experience all the amazing things it has to offer. I was going to be damned if something as petty as going blind was going to stop me. Call me a stubborn ol’ mule, but I went into overdrive. Come hell or high water, I was going to figure this thing out and retire early!
A plan can help you do things others think are impossible.
The Plan
Once I had acknowledged I had a problem and that I wanted to overcome it (equally important), I did what I always do. I came up with a plan and executed it.
The first thing I did was break the problem down into three categories which I now like to call the 3 Pillars of “FI” in FIRE:
Income – Making more money helps you save more money.
Savings – Reducing your costs helps you save more money.
Investing - Make the wonderful green army work for you! Remember the eighth wonder of the world is the power of compounding interest.
Once I had established the three categories I could do something about, I immediately started working the problem.
By breaking the problem down into the three smaller components above, I was able to start figuring out what I could do about each one. This is how I tackle most of the obstacles in my life, be it a challenge at work, how to live daily life going blind, or building the foundation for your future. Instead of looking at the things outside of my circle of control and wishing life was easy, I broke it down into smaller parts and tried to improve each component. I worked incrementally toward the solution.
Income:
There are two types of income: earned income and passive income.
Earned Income:
Step one was to negotiate a higher salary at my job. I was hired into a struggling field (construction management) in 2010 during the great recession. I was making around $46-48K. The market had improved quite a bit, and I had gained a lot of work experience over the past 4-5 years. While my company was struggling, I knew I was being paid under market rate. So I asked for a raise to $60K and walked away with a new salary of $58K: a 21% raise in one afternoon! I was off to a good start!
I asked around my peer group and did some research. I found out the market rate for my skills and experience level were between $75-95K. I knew the small company I worked for at the time wasn’t going to pay that, so I quietly started looking for another job. It was easier said than done being a low vision individual who showed up for interviews with a white cane and couldn’t drive. I knew it was going to take time, but I was confident I would bring significant value to any team I joined. I was sure the right employer would see that. It took me about nine months. I turned down several just “OK” job offers, and I was able to land a job as a supply chain manager in aerospace production. It paid $80K with an additional $10-20K in bonuses depending on plant performance. Plus, there was room to grow in the company! I felt pretty pleased with the progress I’d made, but $80K x 5 years is $400K, not even close to the additional $1 million goal I’d set for myself. Not to mention, I’d need some money to live on while I was still working.
If you’d like to make more money (Who doesn’t) check out me detailed post on How To Make More Money
For some side hustle ideas checkout my post on the Top 10 Side Hustles
I needed to identify some additional income sources, while I was working or something that’d pay me once I retired.
Passive Income:
When most people think of passive income they think of investing, and that’s a great way to retire! Unfortantly I wasn’t very confident I’d be able to save $1 Million or more before my vision gave out.
The next step was to investigate passive income opportunities.
I really did my homework here. I discovered that a small percentage of employers offered private comprehensive Long Term Disability (LTD) insurance. These policies typically pay about 60% of your base salary if you end up on them. The duration of the policy payout varies based on what plan the employer selected in their benefits package. If I could find an employer that offered this as part of their benefits package, that would be an excellent potential Plan B for someone with an unpredictable degenerative eye condition such as myself. Frankly checking to see if your employer offers long term disability benefits would be smart for anybody. you never know what life has in store for you. I was lucky I had a little heads up since my condition is genetic.
Keep in mind there are several restrictions and limits to qualify for a plan like this. It shouldn’t be the main retirement plan. To get this benefit, I would still need to get hired by a company that has this benifit. This really really narrows down potential employers if this is a benefit you’re looking for, and of course, I’d have to stay hired by doing a good job and bringing value to the company for as long as possible. I was very qualified, but let’s be honest: the world isn’t always fair to people who are different, but I had to try! Luckily, the company I mentioned above offered a very comprehensive plan that pays out until your Social Security retirement age. In my case, that was 68 years of age (This is subject to change).
To learn more about how Long Term Disability Policies work check out my article detailing the Long Term Disability Process
Savings:
Moving on to next pillar of FI: savings The end goal was to be completely self-sufficient through return on investments. In order to do that, I needed some savings to invest!
In 2014, I only had around $35K in retirement accounts. I did not have a lot of liquid savings outside of an emergency fund. Fortunately, I had no debt. (THANK GOD!) I also owned a house with about $35K in equity in a strong housing market. I knew I’d need to move if I found a new job, so I spent a year fixing up my house. During this year, I also rented a room out for around $600 a month to help with construction costs. I spent about a year doing mostly cosmetic work on the house such as deck rails, fresh paint, garage doors, new toilets, sinks, faucets, hot water heater, etc. In 2015, I sold the house for a net profit of $70K (after taxes and fees). In hindsight, I could have rented this house out for a few years, then sold it for even more. But hindsight is 20/20, and the great recession was still fresh in a lot of people’s minds. Also, keep in mind I can’t drive. I would’ve needed to hire a property manager when I found a better job and moved away. Remember one in the hand is worth two in the bush. At this point, my net worth was around $118K. I had more than doubled my savings in less than two years. I was feeling pretty good about the plan thus far. When I started my new job in early 2017, I started maxing out my 401K plan for the first time. At that point, I had saved up more money than I ever had.
For a deep dive on why saving is so important and how you can save more check out my post Spend Less Save More
Next, I needed to learn how to put it to work.
Investing:
Once you get your expenses under control, and increase your income as much as possible, you need to put the money you’re able to save to work for you! You do this by investing.
Over the years my investing strategy has changed, but I’ve come to realize that picking stocks or trying to “Time the Market” is a losers game! I’ve since invested primarily into broad based index funds which does most of the work for me while reducing my risk. If you want a detailed breakdown check out My Simple 3 Fund Strategy.
You can only plan for so long. At some point, you have to put things into motion.
Execution
So that was my plan. Let’s quickly review my execution: what I did well and what I would do differently given the opportunity.
Income: A+
-I realized I was being underpaid for the services I provided. I asked for and got over a 21% raise just by asking of one!
-Then in early 2017, I got a better job that paid significantly more with much better benefits.
-I was also able to secure a passive source of income that will pay $52,800/year until I’m age 68. While I know a lot of people won’t qualify for disability insurance (which is a good thing), I think it’s important to highlight how important this was for me. You could do something similar with rental homes, a side hustle, or by being more aggressive saving and contributing to investments that provide a robust yearly return.
Savings: C
Once I got the new job in early 2017, I had to frequently move from plant to plant which is expensive. I also got a bit too comfortable with my increased salary. I enjoyed happy hours with my higher earning friends and took some vacations that would’ve been money better saved. I still saved around 20% of my income by maxing out my 401K, but I wish I would’ve focused more energy into it. I realize now that amount you save is much more important than the amount you earn. I’ve taken this lesson to heart and am saving more in retirement than I was able to do while working. That is almost shocking when you think about it.
Another major mistake I made was a toxic relationship in 2018-2019. That ended up costing me around $20K-30K in missed opportunity costs. I’m sharing this as a caution to my FI/RE friends. Be very careful who you partner up with and the types of people you surrounds yourself with. The people around you will have a significant impact on your chances of reaching your ambitious goals. If you find yourself surrounded by people that make it harder to stick to your plans, you need to make a change now. If I were to go back and go thru this again this would be the first thing I changed
Investing: B
This period of time was the wild west for investing. While it might not look like it compared to today’s market volatility, keep in mind that we were just out of a harsh global recession. Additionally, knowing that my high earning years were limited, I wasn’t going to be able to bounce back if my investments tanked when the ticking clock counted down to zero. For my risk tolerance level, I was smart to stick to index funds and conservative dividend stocks. My critical error was sitting on the sideline with a lot of cash waiting for a market dip. At my age, I had time on my side and should’ve been all in.
FIRE DAY at age 32! I left the corporate world for good.
FIRE DAY: December 2019
After a few years the bittersweet moment came. I wasn’t ready to retire, but my eyesight was deteriorating very quickly. I was struggling to keep up with the fast pace of work, and I was starting to make mistakes. When you are responsible for an operating budget of $55 million per year, mistakes are simply not tolerated (understandably so). So in December of 2019, I turned in my badge, laptop, and cellphone and left the corporate world for good. Sometimes I miss the challenge. At times, I miss the teams. But the time had come for me to start the next chapter in my life.
Net Worth FIRE DAY: December 18th 2019
Investable assets: $174,000
Insurance Contract: $1.17 million **(Adjusted for 3% time value of money)
Net Worth: $1.51 million
This is where I was at the end of 2019. I retired through a process called a medical layoff. My job put me on the private LTD plan, and I officially became Financially Independent and Retired Early. My future was secured.
That being said, there is a lot to do still. I’d like to grow my investment portfolio up to my original goal of $1 million. I plan to do this by continuing to save some of my passive income and stepping up my side hustles to try and bring in some additional revenue. Like I said earlier, I want to do more that just survive. I want to thrive!
I’m not sharing my story because I think this is the way most people will retire, I’m sharing it in the hopes that anyone who was in my situation realizes there is more than one path to financial security. I hope my story is an inspiration for you. I’ve faced some real challenges, come up with some creative solutions, and made some mistakes along the way. Remember you don’t have to be perfect. Having a plan and working toward a clear goal will make you successful no matter the hurdles you encounter! Your journey will be different than mine, but by following the process I’ve laid out above you’ll be able to find your path to early retirement too.
“The guy who invented the pet rock made a million dollars.”
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Author’s Note:
I know there is a lot of stigma in our society about being on disability. I don’t disagree with the sentiment. The system is abused and unfortunately, it ultimately hurts people like me who have a legitimate need for this type of insurance. I have a few statements I’d like to make.
1) I managed an operating budget of $55 million per year of direct spend acting as a supply chain manager for my company. Over the three years I worked there, I saved them many times the cost of my insurance payout.
2) This is private insurance paid out by an insurance company that the employer partnered with to offer as a benefit to its employees. This is not a government program spending your hard earned tax dollars. I know some people may feel this is unfair, but it’s no different than medical or car insurance paying for an expensive accident. If you still think it’s unfair, I’ll pay you $1 million if you can cure my blindness!
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