If you have ever thought about retirement, I am sure the question of whether you can retire early has accompanied it. With the financial difficulties that this economies brings, many people are forced to work longer than generations before them. While people are forced to postpone retirement, I am planning my early retirement. In fact, I have a crazy goal of retiring by the age of 27. I am 24 right now, so that only gives me about 2.5 years to establish financial security. I want to explain not only how I plan on achieving this, but why it is so important to me.
How I Plan to Retire Early
I know what you are thinking: “If people take 40 years to save for their retirement, how is it possible that a person such as yourself could do it in such a short period?” Before you assume that I have a high paying job or wealthy family, I can assure you that neither of those are true. Instead, I plan on retiring early by shifting the goal of retirement.
Many people in planning for their retirement, save a percentage of their income throughout their long careers. Between the money put away and the compound interest, over the course of their life they are able to save up enough money to live off of during their retirement years. As a result, what happens is that people who are motivated to retire a few years early, make sacrifices in order to get out of their job. This often results in the connected idea that you have to wait until you are retired to do what you really desire to do.
When I started thinking about my retirement, I realized that I didn’t want to wait that long and I didn’t want to have to sacrifice too much in order to retire early. For example, I knew I didn’t want to live on the street just so that I didn’t have to work. Instead of trying to build up a lump sum to live off of, I hope to go about it a different way. I plan on creating passive income streams that will generate enough income to replace my day job. If I can generate enough income from my investments, I won’t be forced to work to earn a regular salary. I am starting by creating an online portfolio of blogs that are earning money. Once I have enough money saved, I will invest this money into real estate for a longer term investment. By focusing on cash flow instead of a lump sum, I am able to retire much earlier.
I recognize that maintaining these efforts will take some time, but I should be able to manage it in 3 days a week. Because I don’t see retirement as sitting around doing nothing, I am perfectly okay with this. Plus, I would rather work 3 days a week sustaining my income than stay in the rat race, working 40-50 hours per week.
Why I Want to Retire Early
If there is anything that I have now become passionate about, it is about my goal to retire early. My early retirement plan isn’t just about making lots of money and sitting around. Instead, it is about so much more. My plan to quit my day job and sustain my income from online efforts and real estate is ultimately about giving myself the freedom to make a significant change.
I don’t just want to be as wealthy as possible or have all of the newest things. I don’t see fulfillment in these things. Instead, I see my goal as a way to give myself two more days each week to volunteer for worthy causes. There is a lot of change that I would like to see in this world and if I can contribute to changing for the good, it is worth every effort to make this happen.
Too many people are stuck in 9-to-5 jobs and can’t be a part of anything meaningful because of their life commitments. I have been in college and now graduate school for the past 7 years and I know the feeling of constantly being busy all too well. Because I don’t want to the person who can’t help with anything, I am working towards financial freedom in order to free up my time while I am still young.
What would motivate you enough to retire early?
(This was a guest post from Corey at Passive Income to Retire and 20’s Finances. He writes to provide important information for young people while generating an income that will allow him to retire by the age of 27.)
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