I didn’t even know you can visit pandas in Chengdu. I only knew about the pretty girls. 
I’m more of a sit down and enjoy the experience kind of guy versus the fast nature of the Express. 
I used to like simple pleasures too, like attending or throwing home bachelor parties where Playboy playmates attend. My Palo Alto buddy took a shower with one at his bachelor party. He still has a smile on his face to this day…
(48) close enough…
I retired before 40. Best decision ever.
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How can you retire early than me? Go get a W2 job and retire after 44.
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Ok, will they pay me for not listening to the manager, not going into office, and not doing any work? 
Plenty of such jobs in Facebook and Google. Rest vesting or something, forgot about the name.
If you are living only with investments alone, say stock and real estate rental income, you can consider retired as these are passive income and you have 24x7 free time for your self.
Your understanding on retirement is wrong. Business income earners are not considered retired.
If you run a business , even with flipping, you work flexible for your business, but you work mandatory ( and can not stop working). In this case, this is not retirement.
All I understand is that you are financially independent, but not retired from work/service.
How about staring at the computer screen watching your portfolio rise and fall. Is that also not considered fully retired? 
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Don’t be academic. You may be technically correct but the generally accepted meaning of retirement is no more W2 
Some people never get w2 income. Realtors are definitely working and not retired, they work harder than a w2 worker.
I think you can consider wqj retired since his flipping work is optional, it can be treated as a gainful hobby.
We can define a score of boss dependency. W2 worker is 100, realtor is 50, FIRE is 0. The lower your boss dependency score, the greater your freedom. Is freedom your #1 dream?
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My intelligence is recognized only when it is agreeable to others. We also need to understand the intelligence when it’s inconvenient
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Sometimes dumb is one form of exceptional intelligence. Einstein was considered dumb and robot at a time.
In that case I’m never able to retire. My wife always boss me around.
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Is that an Indian saying or you have a Chinese friend?
大智若愚
High intelligence can appear to be foolish (to fools, I added the last two words)
It’s called “dumb luck”