Katie and Alan Donegan retired early at ages 35 and 40. The couple emphasizes the importance of self-development and communication for successful relationships in retirement. Alan's early life experiences with financial insecurity drove him to pursue financial stability. Katie initially struggled with feelings of guilt regarding their financial independence goals but ultimately recognized their importance. Despite aligning on financial independence, they faced challenges in their relationship, including disagreements over spending priorities, highlighting the complexities of navigating finances together in retirement.
When I was growing up in the nineties, my dad went bankrupt for 5 million pounds and gambled away our family home. The years we spent fighting in court to keep a roof over my family's head taught me that I never wanted to be financially insecure.
It was the first time we learned about investing and setting an early retirement target. It all sounded really good at first, but then I got weird about it. I started feeling a sense of guilt and thought, 'Why do I deserve this?'
The years that Katie was not fully on board were quite painful. Life as a couple is terrible when you are rowing in opposite directions.
Even when we got on the same page about FI, things did not automatically fall into place. Some of our biggest disagreements were over purchases.
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