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Gone…… Where?

Going now and Gone tomorrow. Gone from work. Going to give of my time, my money, my resources on my schedule. That’s what Gone on FIRE means to me.

freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Going now and Gone tomorrow.

Gone from work. Gone from that daily commute. Gone from the stresses of work. Gone to….no…. going to the stresses of deciding what I want to do today. Going to places I’ve always wanted travel to. Going to spend time with my wife and family. Going to give of my time, my money, my resources on my schedule. Okay, that last line sounds a bit selfish, as I believe that these are all gifts from God that can be taken at any moment. I’m just the manager, so I’m going to do my best with what I’m given. That’s what Gone on FIRE means to me.

Work

I thought it would be appropriate to start this blog on Labor Day. A day where the United States of America honors and celebrates its labor force with parades and the start of football season. I find it funny that we celebrate by taking the day off. Schools are closed, and most businesses have their doors shut. A day where we celebrate the contributions of America’s labor force is celebrated by being completely unproductive (aside from that to-do list at home).

How many Labor Days do you want to be “given” off in your career? There are a significant number of people around me at work who have been there 20, 30, 40 plus years and still HAVE to work. I’ve seen a lot of them retire in there 60’s, some in there 70’s. We all work in a large cubicle farm, across several buildings, so at least we get to see the light of day when going from building to building.

It’s hard for me to imagine doing that for so long, and being tied to it, without having the freedom to be gone from the office for more than whatever amount of vacation time I have saved. For some of them, they’re there because they love the work they do. Not me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my work, but there are other things I’d rather be doing than driving to work, dealing with work problems and schedules, sitting in a cube, and then driving home again after putting in 9 hours. I want to have the freedom to say, “That’s all Folks!”

Goals

I’ve always been a saver, but I have never defined my goals for retirement. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll refine my path to being financially independent. I’ll work through an example of what I need to retire early, and probably another example of what I want, aka FatFIRE. For now, I’m only setting my ultimate goal.

My Goal is to retire by age 45!

I am currently 33 (34 in a month or so), so that gives me about 11 years to get there. I’ll chart my financial roadmap in a future post. I will also post monthly financial reports so we can keep track of the progress. There’s more and more talk about a recession coming in the year 2020. We’ll see when a recession actually occurs, but it should make my financial progress interesting, to say the least.