[quote=UCGal] . . . Lots of non-public employees retire at or before the age of the OPs neighbor. It’s a choice to be frugal and get out early.[/quote]
Although most tend to be 55-62 when they finally decide to retire, I’m acquainted with several public schoolteachers in this category. Because of their “casual” working conditions (often taking jobs in schools where most of the students are “disadvantaged”), they didn’t have anyone to “impress” during their working lives. They could use and wear hand-me-down clothes and accessories from thrift shops (or gravely ill or deceased friends and relatives) and drive 20-30 year-old vehicles to work. There was never any need to “keep up with their (co-worker) Joneses.” If they remained “stationed” in a “disadvantaged” school for many years, it was more convenient to buy a residence nearby (or move into one of their rental homes). All very quietly bought 3-6 rental homes, duplexes or triplexes (none with HOAs/MR) throughout their careers and spent school vacations in part working on them to ready them for tenants or the next tenant and they were none the wiser, IMO. In addition, they’re not averse to riding the bus or trolley for work or leisure.
I maintain my stance that the folks with the most “net worth” are usually the ones who took a “brown bag” lunch to work for decades and who give a current public “impression” that they are poor widows living in subsidized housing but nothing could be further from the truth :=]
