Short Version – Welcome to 1 Engineer On FIRE. My goal is to help others reach their financial potential by sharing our experiences achieving and enjoying Financial Independence.
As an engineer I have always followed a data driven approach to investing. Hopefully I can inspire you to find your own path to FIRE.
We hope you find this blog informative, thought inspiring and maybe even entertaining😊. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at EngFI2022@gmail.com.
Long Version – Born the son of an architect and bookkeeper I always had I eye for design and numbers. Since my father was self employed (no big corporate pension) he had to learn to save and invest on his own. My parents were savers but knew investing was going to be key to their long term financial success. At an early age I found finance and investing interesting and my parents were open and brought me along their journey. While in the 8th grade other students were doing book reports about a movie they just saw or their new dog. I got up and talked about visiting our friend the stock broker. Yup, Investing Nerd!
When I started working in the engineering field the old school pension was on it’s last leg. I had already invested in a mutual fund when my pension fund was closed down and a 401-k replaced it. I maxed out my contribution, collected the full matching funds and picked the most aggressive stocks. Outside of work my wife and I maxed out our IRA’s every year. I built my own house with the help of my father (remember the architect?), my wife and friends when they could help. At the age of 24 I had a brand new house and a mortgage 1/3 the size of most of my work friends 10 years my senior.
I loved cars, snowmobiles, boats and anything with an engine. I wanted so badly to have all the latest toys but continued to pay myself first and kept my old toys running. Buying used cars and doing the mechanical work myself saved us a fortune. All saved money was invested.
As my parent’s portfolio grew so did their investment sophistication. They dabbled in real estate and some non-conventional investments. Some of it payed off, but the good old buy and hold stock strategy proved powerful and I learned from that. I stuck to stocks in my 401-k and IRA’s. I tracked their growth in good times and let them be in bad times. I took my company bonus’s pre tax, invested until tax time then payed the tax with the growth.
I wouldn’t say we lived frugally but we always had a budget and stuck to it. Looking back we certainly had lifestyle growth but our investing kept pace as well. The Camaro I restored during my high school years was sold to finish my new garage. It eventually came back as a Corvette (It’s the red one in the gallery!). My wife longed for spring break vacations so we put them in the budget but kept investing.
My career began to take off and I changed jobs looking for more opportunity. The small company (<1 billion) I started with was great because you learned all the inter-workings of a manufacturing company. The large company (>90 billion) had endless opportunities if you understood the system. As an engineer sometimes you just want to develop your product and see it to production but to maximize your career growth you had to play the game. This game was not for me! I ended up retiring as the engineering department head responsible for North America development, application and testing of a fairly complex automotive product. I loved my job and my team but the commute and politics I could do without.
I planned retirement for April 2020 after managing a year long reorganization of my department. My investments were well above my financial independence number. I had already moved some stock to bonds just before Covid-19 hit. I officially retired June 30 2020.
The plan was to get in a Corvette and drive Route 66 from Chicago to L.A. Covid put the breaks on that idea since we didn’t know if we could get a hotel or a meal. We postponed the trip to 2021 and stayed a bit closer to home. We just enjoyed the things we always enjoyed, boating, skiing, Jeeping, car tours, camping and family. 2021 came along and we made the trip to LA. Retirement has been great!
I’m an avid reader and reading financial blogs are a daily routine. People have always asked me for advice on money and investing. I’m often surprised on the lack of basic financial knowledge but then I realize my parents were not typical by openly teaching me about finance. For years I’ve been wanting to give back by helping people with their financial education. So in February 2022 I started this blog.
Hopefully you find this blog informative, thought inspiring and maybe even entertaining😊. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at EngFI2022@gmail.com.