How about the headline in this post, huh?
It’s all true. And it’s a pretty amazing story of how one simple suggestion can make a HUGE financial difference.
It’s also an illustration of the value members get from the Millionaire Money Mentors (MMM) forums. Talk about being “worth it”!
This past April we had an in-person get together for forums members and their partners. During this time, the following story was shared with the group by a once member and now mentor in the forums.
Here’s the story in her own words:
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I became aware of FIRE movement four years ago, when my news feed showed me one of the retirement updates from ESI Money. That article was eye-opening for me and led me down the path of discovering FIRE by reading blogs of many prominent FIRE bloggers – ESI Money, Can I Retire Yet?, GoCurryCracker, Retirement Manifesto, Our Next Life, and 1500 Days, to name a few . That鈥檚 when I asked myself – can we retire early and if yes, how soon? The answer was – four to six years.
Since then Early Retirement became our goal. The main focus was to beef up our cash reserves and the brokerage accounts, since they would be the bridge to getting access to IRA funds before we hit 59.5 years old through Roth IRA conversion ladder. With the market growth we鈥檝e seen in 2019 through 2021, the wait time was shortened to four years. So, in May 2022 I started the one year countdown to early retirement.
The last year was an emotional roller coaster:
- The markets declined by 20%.
- I got a new boss, who was driving me crazy with his micromanagement.
- I got a severe case of senioritis. 馃槈
My retirement day started moving up, reflective of my desire to be done with the corporate world sooner than originally planned. Throughout the last year we stayed the course, squirreling every available dollar into our liquid funds. We even stopped extra mortgage payments, figuring that with a 2.5% interest rate we will pay off the remaining mortgage in the next five years after the retirement (or sooner if the market takes off again in the near future).
Of course, we did not put our lives on hold in that last year. We travelled a lot: Turks and Caicos, Hawaii, a road trip to Glacier and Banff National parks, Turkey, and Mexico. The trips have been heavily subsidized by my new hobby – credit card travel hacking, which made it easier to travel without jeopardizing our finances and break the waiting for the retirement in smaller chunks.
In September 2022 our group at work was re-orged into a different department, and in January 2023 the director of our group and his leadership got together for an entire week. We knew something was coming, and there was a lot of speculation on how the new leadership would restructure our group further. There were multiple scenarios of how things could pan out, including one where my job would be eliminated. That would mean a severance package, which would come in very handy with my final retirement date being set for early April. However, as time went by, the leaders kept their quiet, and it wasn鈥檛 clear if I was going to get laid off (if that scenario was real) before I submitted my resignation.
So, I posted on the MMM forums, describing my situation and the decision that I was considering at the time. I planned to submit my resignation on March 13th if I didn鈥檛 hear from the leadership before then. And this is when I got the great advice from one of our MMM mentors – why don鈥檛 I ask for an unpaid leave and increase my chances of being laid off? That鈥檚 exactly what I did on March 6th. When my boss got back to me about my request, he didn’t allow me to take unpaid time off. But instead he said he’d have to lay me off — along with a nice severance package!
That advice brought me $100K worth of value in my severance package! Without the advice from a mentor, I wouldn鈥檛 have even considered the possibility of asking for the unpaid leave (and thus would have likely missed out on the extra $100k). That鈥檚 the kind of value the MMM forum provides to its members and mentors alike!
As a result, as of April 1st, 2023 I was done with the corporate world and started enjoying my early retirement. It began with a bang – a trip to Florida for the in-person MMM conference with a few days at the beautiful beaches afterwards. And 2023/2024 is already packed with planned activities and trips – the future is bright!
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It was so great to hear her tell this story in person as it’s truly an amazing series of events. She was done with work and willing to retire with nothing when a comment from someone who had been around the block a few times offered her an alternative — which turned out to be a very lucrative suggestion.
Hearing the story was also very personally rewarding for me as this is what I want from the forums — people with successful, practical experience managing their own money offering suggestions to others with real-life money challenges — with huge payoffs!
It was also a very funny story as she talked about the meeting where her boss told her he couldn’t allow the unpaid time off, would have to lay her off, and then began listing the various parts of the severance package she would receive. She said she had to keep from laughing with joy as he kept listing one benefit after another!
The feedback you get from the forums might not be enough to earn you an extra $100k, but if you read our testimonials you’ll see stories where someone earns thousands of extra dollars from a comment or two are not uncommon at all.
I would like to know if she told him at a later date like 1 day before her last day that she was planning on retiring anyway and thanks for the 100 large.
I would wait until I had all the money in hand…though even then I probably wouldn’t say anything. LOL!
No, I haven’t told him the full story. I did tell him that I would be fine without a job for a while as this was something I was essentially asking for with the unpaid leave. I did not indicate that “for a while” may be a looong time… 馃檪
Loved the story. Related tale here.
When we started our consulting firm in 1987, rather than resign my business partner volunteered for a layoff, which was granted as his employer was foundering. Due to longevity, his severance was about six months of pay.
But there was a catch. The payout was made every two weeks, and would cease upon new employment. What do do? Our attorney said, “It’s your company, guys. Why not delay putting him on the payroll for six months, and then pay a “bonus” for extra efforts?”
Which we did, sticking it to the corporate jerks who tried to stick it to my partner. It has been eight years since losing him to cancer, and I still miss my old co-conspirator. We had great fun, did some good, and made a nice pile of $$$.
Good for you guys! And sorry for your loss…
As much as people love to go to the hot tech companies to work, I’ve seen friends at the traditional, old-money firms that give out generous severances for “voluntary” separation plans. Negotiation of these severances is key and can make for a large payout!