Are you burnt out from working and dreaming of an early retirement? You’re not alone. The traditional retirement age of 65 seems increasingly delayed and out of reach nowadays.
Fortunately, with careful planning and commitment, you can take steps to retire comfortably decades before 65. This article outlines 10 effective strategies to retire early, so you can leave the 9-5 grind on your own terms.
Table of Contents
Why Retire Early?
Before diving into the how, let’s examine the why. Here are some top reasons to aspire for an early retirement:
- Relieve stress and burnout – The pressures and monotonous routines of work take a toll over time. Retiring early provides a reprieve.
- Pursue passions – With 40+ more free hours per week, you can invest time into hobbies, volunteering, or launching a side business.
- Travel and adventure – Retiring early opens up opportunities to travel the world and cross items off your bucket list while still young and energetic.
- Spend time with family – Retiring early allows you to be more present with children and grandchildren during their formative years.
- Improve health – Leaving an intensely stressful job can immediately improve mental and physical wellbeing.
The appeal is clear. Early retirement provides the freedom and flexibility to live life to the fullest. Now let’s examine how to get there.
1. Track Your Spending
The foundation of any early retirement plan is getting your spending under control. To retire early, you need to:
- Understand where your money is going
- Identify areas to cut back and save
- Stick to a reasonable budget
Apps like Mint and Personal Capital make it easy to analyze your full financial picture. Link all accounts to track where every dollar is allocated across categories like:
- Housing
- Transportation
- Food
- Entertainment
- Debt Payments
Once you have 3-6 months of spending data, look for opportunities to reduce discretionary expenses. For example, cut out unused subscriptions and memberships. Cook more meals at home rather than eating out. Move to a cheaper living situation.
With diligent tracking and trimming, you can comfortably lower expenses by 10-20%. The savings really start to compound the earlier in life you build these frugal habits.
2. Increase Income
In tandem with reducing spending, the other critical piece is maximizing income. The more you can earn and save during your prime career years, the quicker you can retire early.
Consider these strategies to increase earnings:
- Ask for a raise – If you’ve been succeeding in your current role for some time, negotiate a pay increase. Come prepared with metrics and achievements illustrating the value you provide.
- Freelance – Use evenings and weekends to pick up freelance gigs that leverage your professional skills. This side income goes straight to savings.
- Monetize a hobby – Turn a hobby like photography or crafts into a part-time business for supplemental income.
- Rent out space – Renting out a spare bedroom or converting the garage into an accessory dwelling unit brings in rental income.
- Switch companies – Changing employers every few years is an easy path to significant pay increases over a career.
Saving aggressively is easier when you have more income. Maximize both sides of the equation.
3. Invest Wisely
To retire early, you need your money to work as hard as possible. Investing is the vehicle that makes early retirement feasible.
The key principles are:
- Start early – Thanks to compound growth, investing in your 20s and 30s is exponentially more powerful than later in life.
- Pick the right accounts – Prioritize tax-advantaged accounts like 401ks and IRAs to accelerate gains.
- Stay diversified – Mitigate risk by spreading investments across stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.
- Minimize fees – Choose low-cost index funds instead of expensive actively managed mutual funds.
- Automate contributions – Set up automatic transfers each paycheck to enforce disciplined investing.
Consistently investing 15-20% of gross income can help build a nest egg of over $1 million in 15-20 years. That capital base unlocks the freedom to retire early.
4. Pay Down Debt
Carrying high-interest debt is a major impediment to retiring early. Credit card, auto loan, and personal loan debt all weigh down your net income.
Make debt payoff a priority:
- Consolidate multiple debts into the lowest fixed rates possible
- Channel extra income from raises and bonuses directly to debt
- Maintain minimum payments on all debt except the account with the highest interest rate – attack that most aggressively
- Once the first debt is eliminated, snowball payments towards the next highest interest account
Becoming 100% debt-free supercharges savings and gives you flexibility to retire earlier.
5. Relocate Strategically
Where you live has a major impact on the income needed to retire early. Certain cities and states are dramatically more affordable than others.
Some effective relocation strategies:
- Move from high cost cities to affordable metro areas – Leave behind expensive coastal cities for reasonably priced ones like Atlanta, Nashville, or Austin.
- Consider downtown adjacent neighborhoods – Get just outside downtowns and you can save significantly on housing.
- Relocate to tax-friendly states – Moving from high income tax states like California and New York to no income tax states like Texas and Florida improves cash flow.
- Explore smaller cities – Mid-sized metro areas like Raleigh, Des Moines, and Boise offer big city amenities at small city prices.
You don’t necessarily have to move to rural areas to find affordable living. But strategic moves to lower cost of living locations make money stretch much further.
6. Minimize Housing Costs
Housing accounts for 30-40% of most household budgets. Downsizing your home can therefore be one of the quickest levers for maximizing savings.
To reduce housing costs consider:
- Downsize your home – Move to a smaller, more efficient home requiring less maintenance and utilities expense.
- Rent instead of owning – The mobility and lower monthly costs of renting may better fit an early retirement timeframe.
- Take on a roommate – Renting a spare room generates rental income to subsidize housing costs.
- Pay off your mortgage – Eliminating mortgage debt before retiring locks in housing at just the cost of taxes and upkeep.
Cut your housing bills in half and suddenly you need 50% less yearly income to retire early.
7. Negotiate Healthcare Costs
One major expense in retirement is healthcare. With no employer subsidized health insurance, this cost needs to be carefully managed.
Some tips to reduce healthcare spending:
- Choose a high deductible health plan – HDHPs offer lower premiums in exchange for higher deductibles, which are manageable if you have good health.
- Open a Health Savings Account (HSA) – HSA accounts are triple tax-advantaged for saving towards medical expenses.
- Look into Medicaid eligibility – Depending on income and state thresholds, early retirees may qualify for Medicaid.
- Move to a LCOL area – Relocating to lower cost cities and states makes insurance and out-of-pocket care cheaper.
Understanding all the options around healthcare will prevent this major cost from derailing early retirement plans.
8. Test Out Retirement First
Before fully committing to an early retirement, it’s wise to test out living on your expected retirement budget.
Try these practice runs to experience retirement ahead of time:
- Take a sabbatical – Use accrued vacation or negotiate an extended unpaid leave to mimic retirement for 1-2 months.
- Practice living on your after-tax, post-retirement income – For 1-2 years prior to retiring, strictly limit spending to what post-retirement income will realistically support.
- Test out major retirement goals – Take a long vacation to locations on your retirement destination list to evaluate if they meet expectations.
- Pursue retirement hobbies – Ramp up time spent on the hobbies and activities you plan to focus on, ensuring you enjoy them as much as expected.
Essentially, rehearse all aspects of retirement within your current context. This will provide assurance when you ultimately take the plunge.
9. Define Your Purpose
More free time in retirement provides a great opportunity to pursue meaningful goals and passions. But it takes introspection and planning to channel that time effectively long-term.
Think through how to find purpose in retirement:
- Take stock of what energizes you – Make a list of when you feel happiest and most motivated. Look for related themes that bring you joy.
- Brainstorm new business ideas – If starting a small business around a hobby excites you, research viability while still earning a paycheck.
- Map out a social routine – Schedule regular activities with friends and community groups to maintain social connections.
- Make a bucket list – Catalog the experiences and places that spark joy and purpose for your golden years.
- Give back – Identify volunteering opportunities at charities you care about to contribute your time and expertise.
Having a clear vision for meaningful daily routines, exciting new ventures, and ways to help others will enrich early retirement.
10. Delay Social Security
One final strategic move that boosts income in early retirement is delaying when Social Security benefits start.
Every year you wait to start taking Social Security from age 62 to 70 increases the eventual monthly benefit by about 8%. This permanent increase plus delayed taxes makes waiting very advantageous.
Bridge the gap until age 70 by withdrawing from savings early in retirement. Then let the enhanced Social Security sustain you later.
Make a Plan
The takeaway is that with diligent saving, investing, and planning, many people can retire comfortably in their 50s or 60s instead of 70s. Crunch the numbers, budget smartly, and relentlessly grow your nest egg over time.
With the freedom of early retirement, you can then focus on health, family, and pursuing what matters most to you. Stop just dreaming about not working – take tangible steps today towards making it a reality on your own timeline.