The life decisions you make as a young professional will directly impact your later life. By the end of it, retirement could be a scary thing or something you welcome with gladness regardless of your age. That’s why it is important to think about retirement now. If you are wondering how to make money fast and retire early, you are not alone. The earlier you think about it, the better you plan, retire, and continue with life successfully.
While retirement could mean different things to different people, financial strain and stress is never part of the plan. Some people plan to stop working so as to start and run their investments. Others want to be eligible for social security benefits. And there is a group desiring to tour the world without financial concerns hindering their escapades.
What Age is Early Retirement?
What on earth is early retirement? In most jurisdictions, the set age for retiring is at 60 years, while others have it higher. Early retirement is retiring under the stipulated age. To afford early retirement, you need to be in a position where you are in full control of your financial status. And this happens with financial preparation and planning earlier on. The only difference between regular retirement and early retirement is the time. You can confidently retire in your 30s and lead a successful life afterward.
Who Qualifies for Early Retirement?
Whoever plans and prepares for their retirement early enough is a candidate for early retirement. In some places, to retire early will mean having the capacity to forego medical benefits because you’ll not have reached the acceptable age bracket to enjoy it.
So anyone willing to retire early and forget about social security kicks and other benefits until they reach the right age is another candidate to look forward to the retire early lifestyle.
What do you need to retire early? The decision to retire early will mean you get out your retire early calculator and plan for the future. And as you work towards your goals, you’ll realize changing the time frame to retire requires you to make the right life decisions. These will involve your general lifestyle and financials. Here are our retire early tips.
Choose Your Partner Carefully
The life partner you choose can destroy or build you. When it comes to retirement, you want to be with someone supportive of your idea.
Better still, pick someone that is financially stable so that when things don’t work out as expected, you don’t sleep hungry.
However, your partner doesn’t need to bring in money into your relationship to be the right person. A life partner should help point out areas you need to work on and advise accordingly. Don’t forget that this process will take a toll on your relationship at times. Therefore, you need someone who understands the circumstances at hand and is willing to stay through it all. It’s worth mentioning that you and your partner need to share ambitions to work towards the same goal.
Don’t Gubble All Your Income
Young professionals get excited when they finally land a well-paying job. That’s the moment you want to buy everything you ever desired. Given that most people start families a few months after securing work, you’ll need to spend a lot on your home and children. Getting the perfect balance between saving and spending will be a huge hassle. For every penny you save, it will feel like deprivation to yourself and those you love.
And pressure from society will not allow you to save peacefully either. Others will be buying new stuff and be looking better, while you deny yourself these privileges to set aside money for early retirement. After saving for a while, you’ll have enough money to purchase that new car you love but still be determined to drive the old one for a better future.
Your income shouldn’t be for parties and expensive gifts.
It’s called living lean. You’ll have to maintain a given lifestyle that will equip and set you up for a modest lifestyle when you retire early.
Live a Healthy Lifestyle
Look, you don’t want to work hard and save up only to use all your savings and assets paying your medical bills during retirement. So as you work hard, ensure your lifestyle encourages your well being. Otherwise, poor health will not allow you to enjoy what you’ve worked hard for in the future.
Some of the poor choices you might make are consumption of alcohol, lack of exercise, eating non-nutritious meals, among others. Maintaining a poor lifestyle like smoking packets of cigarettes every day will use money that you would otherwise save. Even worse, as you age, you’ll have to invest continually in your healthcare expenses.
Control the Size of Your Family
If you are the sole provider for your family, you don’t want to feed a lot of mouths. Having kids is great, but you need to know that children are expensive. Your first child will be costlier than those who come afterward. But the more you add, the more you’ll need to spend on toys, food, plus other necessities for them. When you include schooling fees, the more serious expenses to expect.
Some parents invest in their kids hoping that the youngsters will be well off in the future to support them when they are older. But that’s not a goal for someone who needs to retire early. Keep the people that depend on you to the minimum.
Choose Your Residences Properly
You don’t want to live in the city center that is expensive when you can affordably stay on the outskirts of the city. City life is costly compared to rural life and in smaller towns.
Another cost could involve transportation. You shouldn’t live far off your workplace to save on these costs. That way, you save more in the process.
Also, if you are forced to live in a city because you work there, look for affordable apartments or condos to stay. And when nearing your retirement target, moving to a rural settlement is a great strategy that will allow you to stretch what you’ve saved.
Monetize Your Skills
To retire early, ensure you find ways to get a lot of income in your initial years as a worker. If you are not in a lucrative career, you need to work out ways to sacrifice more of your time by doing additional work for extra income. That could mean doing overtime at work or taking on a second job.
Your skills and talents are the best things you can do for long hours without feeling oppressed. For instance, someone who loves writing can compose articles and blogs for websites at night and get paid for it. If you love to teach, you can take on a freelance opportunity to teach a language or math to foreigners in different timezones. With the internet at play, there are many tasks you can do online and get money in the comfort of your home.
As long as you are good at something and can meet the buyer’s expectations, make an additional income from it.
Bonus Point: Delay Taking Your Social Security
If you retire and it’s time to start collecting your social security, delay taking it as much as possible. It can be tempting to take what’s yours and enjoy it as you live your last days, but that should never be the inspiration. Even if you are in your sixties, you still have many years to live. Avoiding to take your social security immediately gives you an edge when it comes to saving and having the money when you need it.
Benefits of Early Retirement
Interestingly, some people assume that after they retire, they’ll spend their time to leisure like reading books, surfing, watching movies, playing games, and the like all the days of their lives. However, this is not often the case. Even though these are some of the benefits you’ll receive, such joys are only short-lived. Some of the things you’ll get from early retirement include:
● Decelerating your aging speed both physically and mentally due to reduced stress and strain from daily work
● Building stronger relationships with people close to you because you have enough time to interact with them
● Becoming a better husband, wife, father, or mother to your children while they are still young
● You become healthier with less bodily harm that results from strenuous activities at the workplace
● You enjoy self-sufficiency particularly when it comes to fixing stuff in your home
● Finding new streams of income that you enjoy (which could involve showcasing your talents)
Retiring Early is Worth the Effort
Having the urge to retire early is great, but you need to make proper plans so you don’t regret doing it. Find out how much you need to retire early to avoid stressing over finances when it’s due. At times you’ll feel as though it’s a far fetched idea when you are in the process of trying to realize it.
But don’t give up. No one said it’s going to be easy.
You are different from everyone else. Therefore, don’t do what worked for others as that doesn’t guarantee your success. Have a timeline that works for you and find strategies that will enable you to reach your goals. As you get away from your current job, run towards something else you want to do rather than leisure.
