“Are you planning to win the lottery?”
This is what an academic in their early 60s asked me when I mentioned that I hope to retire before the traditional retirement age of 65-70.
This got us talking about retirement, and they mentioned how they would probably retire at 67. If you asked me 3-years ago, before I knew about FIRE, I’d tell you that I’d retire in my 60s because that’s what everyone (especially in academia) does. Correct? Well, maybe even later in our 70s or 80s. I didn’t even think about “saving for retirement” in my 30s because I felt that it was so far away in time that I shouldn’t worry about it.
When did you start monetarily investing in retirement? My university was investing 7% of my pay to my retirement account (403b) for the first 7 years and then 10% even if I wasn’t contributing a single dollar. Which is what I did until 2022. Foolish in retrospect, but it is what it is. I didn’t know any better. In 2022, I contributed 20% of my gross pay to my retirement fund 403b, and in 2023, I increased it to 25%. As I tell my students, you learn, and you move on.
