what is the secret to retiring early?

please feel free to share your story or include examples.

Public Comments

1. saving money and investing it wisely---get an accountant
2. Getting a job at a young age and keeping it. The farther of my child started working at his job at 21, so he will retire at 51. But if he saves enough money up he can retire before then. It's about saving money and investing it. Think about it you can get a job legally at 16, it takes 30 years at a job to retire, you can then retire at the age for 46.
3. Dont get married.
4. living under your means. you don't need the latest gizmo, the flashiest car. Buy a house, pay more than is due on the mortgage each month because every extra dollar you can put toward a 30 year mortgage will be worth so much more in the long run. Just do some of the math yourself! www.dinkytown.net has 250 different financial calculators, you can see the effect of paying more toward principal. I am an example. I took out a mortgage 5 years ago (30 years) and I am just now to the point where a little over half of each payment is going toward principal. According to dinkytown.net, That should be payment # 230 on a 30 year mortgage, but I got there by payment #60. That means I am about 15 years ahead of where I would be just paying the balance due on the loan each month. It takes forever to start seeing results, but now it's just going to snowball for me. I expect to have my house fully paid for in the next 3 years. good luck to you!
5. THERE IS NO SECRET IN RETIRING EARLY. INHERIT THE MONEY, OPEN A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS, SPEND MANY YEARS IN COLLEGE AND GET A GREAT JOB, BE A GENIUS AT THE STOCK MARKET, THESE AND MORE ARE SOME OF THE WAYS TO RETIRE EARLY......THEN WHAT? JUST HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND YOUR TIME, ME I GOLF, PLAY IN THE GARDEN, WORK ON THE HOUSE....BUT IN THE WINTERTIME. SEE I HAD ENOUGH TO RETIRE EARLY BUT NOT ENOUGH TO SPEND WINTERS DOWN SOUTH, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID AM I. MAKE SURE YOU CAN HANDLE IT. BEFORE LEAPING,
6. I started working in a job with a good pension plan and a good retirement schedule when I was 17, and I retired at 50 with a full pension. I completed my education, including a masters degree during those years as well. I did not save a lot of money - I couldn't as a single parent. But I became quite accustomed to a frugal and sensible life style. Actually, I find that I have more money since I retired than I ever had - no longer need work clothes, spend less money on gas, coffee shops, lunches out, etc. Anyone can retire early - there are lots of ways to do it. Mostly, you have to want to. I loved my work, but work was what I did so that someone would give me money every week so that I could do the things I wanted to do - it was not my life. An old salt once said to my husband when he was planning a sailing trip around the world, "Sonny, if you wait til you're ready, you'll never go." Keep that in mind too.
7. 30 years doesnt mean anything unless you have enough money saved up to retire, and to make it from early retirement until you can qualify for medicare or have enough money to pay for insurance for those years you cant just work at mcdonalds for 30 years and retire edit: so someone came here and gave all the posts a thumbs down but one? kind of wastes the idea of what those thumbs up and down are for heh, that molina guys says he gets 400% interest, just think, put 5 dollars in the account,wait ten years and have 50 million, rediculous,
8. INHERIT A ROCKEFELLER TRUST FUND WITH ACCESS TO UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF MONEY/RESOURCES.. PROVEN FORMULA..NO KIDDING.
9. Early Retirement should be Treated In a Similar Way to Your Past Work Experiance...The Harder You Work at It the Better and Far satisfying it gets.All The Interests You Find You Never Had Time For are now at Your Disposal , Yet , Without the determination [Bums of Seats] and Hard work these things will never come to Fruition. Try and sample many things at first allowing a month or so to allow for re-training [For Thats What It Is !] You Will Find Your Own Best Stimuli , and The Trick is The Ones You Like , Is the ones You keep, hopefully into months & years of Joy ...Good Luck.
10. The secret to retiring early is planning how you will achieve this, and diligently working towards it (boring, huh?) First is money. How are you going to amass enough money to retire? Did you know that if someone were to put $2,000 in a savings account and never touch it, they would have more money at age 65 than if they waited until they were 40 and put in $2,000 each year? I know, you want to retire early, the point of that story is the benefits of long term savings. So, what is your savings strategy? You need to have one. A no load mutual fund is a great way to get started. What do you value in day-to-day living? Do you buy a new car (on time payments) every few years? Do you take expensive vacations on your credit card and worry about paying it off when you get back? What I'm basically asking you is, are you a "spend today - deal with it later" person? If so, you're going to have a hard time sticking to a savings plan that will result in a diversified investment portfolio that will allow you to retire early. You would also need to re-think the way you spend. I have never bought a car on payments in my life. I pay cash. I saved and drove beaters until I could pay cash. I have no desire to pay for a vehicle 3 or 4 times as happens with payments. It took a few years until I was able to buy new cars with cash, but, I got there. Here are some words to live by: Never buy something on time payments that is depreciating. Only buy things on payments that are appreciating! Repeat this about 9 zillion times! What about health coverage? How are you going to acquire, or maintain health coverage? This becomes more important the older you get. Who wants to spend retirement worrying about health costs? Not me! I don't know if any of this helps you. I'm not going to broadcast my net worth over the net, but the advice I have given you is sound and will work. It just takes a while (I know, groooooan). GL!
11. Most people do not dare to embrace the possibilities they are offered. I get 250-400% interest of my money a year, and when people hear it, they refuse to believe it and continue getting 2-4% in their bank, allthough everything can be proved. How do you explain that ?
12. Do what I did and start your own business right from home. No surveys,No collections ,No inventory, No scam. I make my money by educating families on safe homes and setting up accounts all from my living room interested? well visit www.lmiranda.fourpointconsultants.com or e-mail me No Experiance needed.
13. There is no secret. All you have to do is save half your salary and get rid of all your credit cards. NOTE: I asume you are employed. If you are a businessman then you need more credit cards.
14. Work hard, live without credit cards and save whatever you can. The problem with early retirement that I have been worried about is health insurance. It is so expensive to purchase on your own and going without could wipe out your entire savings in no time. Make sure you plan insurance!