[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by nrahul

Instead of considering a plan B, I'm inclined toward FIRE movement. I don't have EMIs, tracking my spending to reduce the money leaks and investing more than 60% of my post tax income.

I really like what I do but I'm less dependent on my job. The lesser dependent on the job now actually helping me more as I focus on my areas of interest and do it really well.

What an intelligent person you seem to be. Perhaps some of us could take some life lessons from someone like you...

Debt Free. Working for your passion. Enjoying the process. Stress free.
You are living the dream!

[penpavan]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Morbid to say the least. Jobs are such a ....hostage situation.

Yeah and stop visiting the new car launches threads around here.

Thanks Red Liner for this post. The above line made my day. Anyway, your post is something I agree with totally. Re-skilling/re-learning etc are not going to save you from the axe. Its not the lack of skills that risks us but how big pie we are eating.

[nrahul]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

You are living the dream!

While my family is on-board, the only downside is my family thinks I'm not living upto my full potential like non-significant title, smaller house, etc.

[SPARKled]

So I think I should contribute here as I have just retired from my stressful IT middle management job in April at a ripe old age of 39. I have a decent little corpus which which gives me about half of my last take home salary and is frankly quite enough as I havent really splurged on an unwanted camera accessory, that has been a sink hole for my funds since the last decade or so. My wife works in a PSU which frankly isn't in a great shape but is steady. I have no home loans or any other financial liabilities, just a small kid whose studies are the only foreseeable expenses within the next decade or two. I plan to move to my home town where I made a house just about 7 years back and my current house in Mumbai will fetch me enough in rent to make my overall income to be more than even what I earned in my job. So a little planning is needed if you want to retire early.

Life has been really good since I have left my job. No 7 AM calls, no 9:30 PM calls, no trying to prove my value to the company by doing nonsensical stuff that I never enjoyed and no pressure of the axe falling on me this year or in the next appraisal. Health is better, sleep is better, there is enough time to spend with the family. The current income flow is fine as of now but is bound to increase once I decide to move to my home town in a couple of years.

I plan to become an entrepreneur soon, but am frankly short of ideas that excite me; however I am in no hurry to become one as well. Just enjoying retirement as of now.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

So I think I should contribute here as I have just retired from my stressful IT middle management job in April at a ripe old age of 39.

Awesome, awesome! I wish you all the very best!

Taking the decision to simplify is amazing, all of us think about it several times each day, but none of us actually do it. I wish you good health, peace of mind, clean air, and stress/traffic-free days!

Edit: PS: I'm 39 too!

[Oxy]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

So I think I should contribute here as I have just retired from my stressful IT middle management job in April at a ripe old age of 39.

Wow! Very well done sir. Many people here would love to be in your shoes.

I am 39 too and I hope to be debt free in another 8-9 months as I am on track to close my home loan by then. So I will be in the position you are, minus having a decent corpus (except my Provident Fund) as most of mine and my wife's income goes towards part payment of the loan. And I believe I am severely underpaid.

Need to explore some plans to form a retirement corpus somehow. Any pointers from your end would be very useful.

[poloman]

The corpus figures floating around which one may need after retirement are mostly exaggerated. Once your kids get up on their own feet, your expenses are going to take a major downturn. Food and medical expenses will top the list then.
Going too much frugal or in FIRE mode can take the spirit out of your life. So stop worrying too much about the future, try to live out today the way you like.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

So I think I should contribute here as I have just retired from my stressful IT middle management job in April at a ripe old age of 39. .

WOW!!! Awesome job man

May I ask when did you start planning about this exactly? I mean am sure it would have taken quite a while to finish off loans(if taken for the Mumbai house) and accumulating a substantial corpus. You talk about shifting to a smaller town. What happens to your wife's job and kid's education? They too get relocated when you make the move?

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

Life has been really good since I have left my job. No 7 AM calls, no 9:30 PM calls, no trying to prove my value to the company by doing nonsensical stuff that I never enjoyed and no pressure of the axe falling on me this year or in the next appraisal. Health is better, sleep is better, there is enough time to spend with the family. The current income flow is fine as of now but is bound to increase once I decide to move to my home town in a couple of years.

I plan to become an entrepreneur soon, but am frankly short of ideas that excite me; however I am in no hurry to become one as well. Just enjoying retirement as of now.

Great to hear about some "real" life stories of people who are getting off their backside and doing something about the mess that all our lives have become - instead of discussing theories ad infinitum! Our lives are a grand mix of Road rage, imbalanced family lives, health issues, electronic device addiction, societal approval...and ofcourse NetFlix. The list goes on.

Looking at Delhi I am shocked that people still choose to live there. Is the Media over hyping the whole pollution thing or is it actually a fact? How can families who have the means to get out still continue to stay there and put their children's lives at such risk? I just dont get it.

Congrats man. All you need now is for your health and loved ones to be on your side. Those are the only things important.

[sgiitk]

@SPARKled' I appreciate your attitude. Anticipating a short working career you saved accordingly. You should not have too many woes.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

So I think I should contribute here as I have just retired from my stressful IT middle management job in April at a ripe old age of 39. I have a decent little corpus which which gives me about half of my last take home salary and is frankly quite enough as I havent really splurged on an unwanted camera accessory, that has been a sink hole for my funds since the last decade or so.

I am looking at this position by 2022, will be 45 by then, built my house to a target a price, so house loan is already closed. I have a target amount in mind to save before retiring from corporate life, so working hard to achieve the target. I am already a freelance web developer plus have expertise in product packaging. I either want to be an entrepreneur or take up a teaching job by 2022

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

So I think I should contribute here as I have just retired from my stressful IT middle management job in April at a ripe old age of 39.

First of all, congrats on your successful retirement.

I have a question for you. How do you spend your time? I read that you spend time with your family, but then you should get bored in no time. Having a job gives you things to do, you get to meet people and sometimes you get to go places.

The one question that comes to my mind when I think about retirement is, what will I do after that? An extended weekend at home is enough for me to start feeling bored that I want to get back to office. Back in the old days during the dotcom bust, I got a pink slip and was out of job for about two months, and that was the most boring period of my life.

If I have to fill my time after retirement with things like going to a club, travelling etc, I need a much bigger corpus that what I am building now. So, I'd like to know what you do with your time.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Is the Media over hyping the whole pollution thing or is it actually a fact?

Am very curious about this too. Is it really as bad as reported? But then, even if it's not at a 'red-danger-mark-level', there's no denying that commuting everyday in the normal traffic in any of our cities is certainly going to have a detrimental effect over years.

Originally Posted by civic-sense

The one question that comes to my mind when I think about retirement is, what will I do after that?

A simple, inexpensive hobby perhaps? Maybe take up/pursue a sport. That will keep you healthy, active and enable a social circle of fellow participants as well. At least that's what I'd do. I already pursue a sport on weekends, if I had the means to enable me to not require going in to work everyday, I'd certainly take it up much more seriously. Other options are remote consulting, volunteering.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Is the Media over hyping the whole pollution thing or is it actually a fact?

Originally Posted by am1m

Am very curious about this too. Is it really as bad as reported? But then, even if it's not at a 'red-danger-mark-level', there's no denying that commuting everyday in the normal traffic in any of our cities is certainly going to have a detrimental effect over years.

Given that I do not "trust" the media reports and take their "news" with a bucket of salt, this is what TOI reported yesterday.

Link

Do not deny the ill effects of pollution but is this an "outlier" case? The doctor treating him also opined that air pollution is "one of the causes" of heart attack. Even in a village with very minimal pollution, there are many cases of heart attacks. So directly correlating pollution with heart attacks, is in my opinion, a statistical aberration or wrong conclusion.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

Link

Do not deny the ill effects of pollution but is this an "outlier" case? The doctor treating him also opined that air pollution is "one of the causes" of heart attack. Even in a village with very minimal pollution, there are many cases of heart attacks. So directly correlating pollution with heart attacks, is in my opinion, a statistical aberration or wrong conclusion.

No - it is not a statistical aberration, it's just that studies on this issue have only been coming to light with added focus on pollution/particulate matter's effect on heart health.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740122/

Air pollution is now becoming an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Numerous epidemiological, biomedical and clinical studies indicate that ambient particulate matter (PM) in air pollution is strongly associated with increased cardiovascular disease such as […]. The molecular mechanisms for PM-caused cardiovascular disease include directly toxicity to cardiovascular system or indirectly injury by inducing systemic inflammation and oxidative stress in peripheral circulation. Here, we review the linking between PM exposure and the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and discussed the possible underlying mechanisms for the observed PM induced increases in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0526084541.htm

"There is strong evidence that particulate matter (PM) emitted mainly from diesel road vehicles is associated with increased risk of heart attack, heart failure, and death," said lead author Dr Nay Aung, a cardiologist and Wellcome Trust research fellow, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, UK. "This appears to be driven by an inflammatory response -- inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) causes localised inflammation of the lungs followed by a more systemic inflammation affecting the whole body. "

"We found that as PM2.5 exposure rises, the larger the heart gets and the worse it performs. Both of these measures are associated with increased morbidity and mortality from heart disease."
… They found that people with degree-level education were less prone to having a larger heart and had a smaller reduction in ejection fraction when exposed to PM2.5 than people with a lower level of education.

Dr Aung said: "People who were highly educated were less likely to have harmful effects on the heart from pollution. This could be due to a number of factors including better housing and workplace conditions, which reduce pollution exposure. Educated people may also be more aware of their health, have healthier lifestyles, and have better access to healthcare."

The reason we don't hear more of this is the simple fact that first-world economies is often where such studies occur and are widely publicized, and such countries often don't have the scale and magnitude of pollution that emerging economies have (yes, exceptions like California/Tokyo are there with significant pollution). This is further exacerbated in India by particulates not just from vehicles, but also general dust (due to poor green cover), construction, generators, etc.