I spent a good chunk of my adult life in frugal mode working my way through college. I always knew I wanted to retire early which was why I had always been frugal and avoided debt…but “early” before was like 60 instead of 67. I figured I’d end up with a wife and kids eventually, and those would add a significant amount to how much money I have to earn over a life time.

Around the time I finished college was around the time I was started to realize what a scam marriage was and that women were a waste of time and money. How much money can one save by avoiding that trap? For me…let’s just say if it cost 250k per kid to raise to adulthood, and an equal amount for a wife over the next 20 years, and 250k to buy a house that I don’t need as a single guy…that’s a million dollars if I had two kids without taking divorce or inflation into account. If I make 100k a year and take home 75k after taxes that is a solid 13.5 years at a minimum for a 20 year span of my life…the expenses of the wife and house would continue even once the kids were grown and out.

Additionally these are all up front expenses. The younger you are when you invest money the more time it has to compound and grow. Spending all my money on a woman while young means I’ll get much less benefit from compounding over my life time. Realizing this, I haven’t pursued money any less than I would have if I was married with kid(s) right now…I simply adjusted my strategy. I’m not wasting my life away as a debt slave to the banks to keep the wife happy…instead I’m stacking money in investments, and that early retirement is getting closer each pay check. Like I said before…I thought 60 was early when I was younger…now I realized I could potentially do it before 40 if I have a few more good years in a row with the market.

I simply view work like pulling off a band aid at this point. I could do it slowly and painfully. I could never work any overtime and still make enough to get by comfortably and save a bit…but I’m going to have to work many more years of my life. Alternatively I could just rip it off fast, be an overtime whore, invest heavily, and hit my retirement number much earlier in life. The way I see it if I work no overtime, maybe I make enough to invest 1000 dollars a month after my bills are paid. If I work a few overtime days…I’ll be able to invest 2000 a month because my bills for the month are already paid and all the overtime is just gravy. Effectively those few overtime days were the equivalent of an entire months worth of saving! Its also being invested and ideally will grow faster than inflation between now and the time I retire…so looking at the big picture its very possible a few extra shifts this month will save me a month or more of full time hours on the other end of my working life.

So big picture…no I haven’t gotten lazy or stopped chasing money when I realized essentially buying a pussy via marriage wasn’t worth it, but what has changed is how much money I’ll need over my life time. As a married man with kids and a wife maybe I’d have had to earn 6-8 million over my life time, and most of it would come from wages as I wouldn’t have been able to invest heavily until after the kids were grown and a divorce at any time would be a total f~~~ing. As a single guy, maybe I only need 3 million, but since I’m debt free and investing heavily relatively young, much more of that money will come from gains on investments rather than punching a clock. Collecting 4% a year in dividends on a million would be 40k a year, and moving to a country where 20k a year could afford me an upper middle class lifestyle essentially means I could still be banking 20k a year out of dividend payouts…which is more than the average working guy is setting aside while working. If I work hard and save hard for a few more years, I could be living on a tropical beach f~~~ing prostitutes whenever I feel like it before I’m 40 while still growing my nest egg faster than most people my age grow theirs while working. Total win.