I read this and figured I'd put it in this sneaky territory.
In 2010, Olson made a spreadsheet that showed that the income from their jobs left them able to save $4,000 a month after covering their living expenses, including their $330 monthly condo payment.He and Ali decided that every time they saved more than $25,000 cash, they would make a down payment on a rental property. When they bought a house, Olson would add to the rental property column on his spreadsheet and subtract from the cash column.
Olson said that at the time he and Ali retired, they had 15 rental units, all single-family houses, and downsized their possessions to what they could fit in two backpacks and a box. They were 29.
They lived a traveler's retirement until settling down.
Once they had their third child, Caitlyn, they decided to settle in Seattle near Olson’s family.
Then, sadly, divorced.
The divorce was finalized in 2021. The couple split their nest egg 50-50, with Ali taking the liquid assets, including cash, investments and retirement funds, and Joe taking the property and paying Ali the difference. They share custody of the kids.Olson said that while he doesn’t think money had anything to do with the divorce, retiring early gave them time to explore and realize that they wanted different things.“It very well could be the case that if we had just been going to our normal 9-to-5 jobs and…not really confronted with the existential questions that FIRE gives you of who am I, what do I want, what do I want out of life, we might have stayed together,” he said.