Early Retirement

Early Retirement! How nice to have a choice of early retirement!

Early retirement is a dream for most office workers. Do you aim for early retirement? For most workers, early retirement is just a dream. They know that early retirement is not possible with their income and financial commitments. They do not really plan for early retirement. They cannot give you the ideal age for early retirement, because they have never thought of it.

Early retirement is only possible if, and when, they strike the lottery.

That is why people like to gamble. The risk of losing just one dollar a week is nothing compare to the dream of early retirement.

However, many people who are rich enough to opt for early retirement do not want to retire. In the minds of many rich people, early retirement is not an option. Many of them are business owners. They are reluctant to pass the business to anyone else. They enjoy their work and prefer to work as long as they can. The thought of early retirement simply does not come into their minds.

If given a choice, do you opt for early retirement? What do you mean by early retirement? What exactly are you retiring from? Supposing you are able to retire young and rich, in your 30s, how are you going to spend the rest of your time? Early retirement from work is not so rosy if you have nothing to do everyday.

I post the question in mylot discussion forum entitled “If given a choice, when do you want to retire?” I have in mind early retirement when I post this question. You can read the discussion here http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1987232.aspx

When I post the question, I thought that many people like early retirement. However, I am surprised to read that many people do not look towards to early retirement. And reading through the post, I can see that early retirement means different thing to different people.

One mylotter, Sophie, even declares that she wants to retire after the age of 80. Her family has very good genes. Her relatives are still very active in their 90s. Retiring at the age of 80 is not early retirement. It is not even regular retirement age.

It does sound scary if you live to 120 years old, and you opt for early retirement at the age of 40. Imagine 80 years of doing nothing, how miserable can life be!

Some people who opt for early retirement from the full time employment to look after children. They are finding their enjoyment in life by caring for their families. Even though housework and taking care of children are a lot of hard work, much more taxing than full time employment. They are happy to get out of rat race.

In this sense, early retirement means retiring from full time employment. They are not opting for early retirement to spend time on the beach. They will still find home based job or freelance assignments.

Some people define early retirement as retiring from working for others. That does not mean early retirement from the productive society. They want to start a business or do whatever they like. It is ironically that some people start business, so that they can opt for early retirement. Yet there are people who opt to start business, only after their early retirement from corporate world.

Some people do not want early retirements. They have no choice. Their employers retrenched them. They are unable to find any job. Early retirement is not welcome, but they have no choice. Those who have a lot of cash in the bank, can sit back and enjoy their early retirements. Those who do not have enough money, and have financial commitments, have to try means and ways to get another job. They are the ones that hate involuntary early retirement.

When most people think of early retirement, they have a vision of abundance. They have visions of unlimited cash in bank. They have visions of traveling round the world with their loved ones, without any worry about money. In reality, early retirement is often involuntary.

If you are retrenched at the age of 55, what is the likelihood of you getting a job again? It is not easy to get a job. However, that does not mean that you cannot have a regular source of income. Bear in mind that involuntary early retirement is not the end of the world.

Starting a business is one way to ensure you have income after that involuntary early retirement. You need to have a will to succeed. You need to make good use of all the skills that you have. You can rope in your children to help you in the business.

For example, you like to eat chicken rice. You do not know how to cook. However, you appreciate eating chicken rice by good cooks. Can you learn to cook chicken rice? Since you can be fussy over the chicken rice, you can experiment different ways of cooking chicken rice till perfection.

Once you master the secret recipe to cook the perfect chicken rice, you can rent a place to sell chicken rice. Do get your family to support you. Selling cooked food is a laborious job. It is harder than sitting in office from 8 am to 6 pm. Involuntary early retirement often make people look older than their actual age. Keeping busy after that involuntary early retirement can keep you young and active.

Bear in mind that nobody can force you to take involuntary early retirement when you are your own boss. Involuntary early retirement is a blessing when you discover your talent, and able to make good use of your talent. Involuntary early retirement is the time for you to re-think the topic of making money.

Early retirement is a goal for most employees. To turn the goal of early retirement a reality, you need to spend time for adequate planning.

Early retirement requires that you have enough money to live on for the rest of your lives. You have to decide how early is early retirement – is it 30 years old, 40 years old, 45 years old, 50 years old or 55 years old? Without a definite retirement age, you cannot calculate how much money you need for retirement.

Assuming that you start working at 20 years old, and aim for early retirement at the age of 30, you have only ten years to accumulate all the money for retirement. Assuming that your family has one of the coveted longevity genes, you can live till ripe of age of 100 years old. You need to have enough money to live for another 70 years.

Even though money wisely invested can generate passive income, you do need a large capital. Some people do make a lot of money in just ten years, and they can afford to opt for early retirement. Working for others is not the way to make enough money for early retirement. Most people who work for others are not able to afford early retirement.

Do read and learn from those who can afford to choose early retirement at the age of 30. Do learn how they make money so that they can enjoy an early retirement. Do learn how they spend their time after early retirement from their businesses.

Without the capital, you cannot reasonably believe that money can grow. Further consideration includes money for your loved ones. At the age of 30, you do have a chance to have a big family. Assuming that you have 4 children, are you able to support the lifestyle of a spouse and 4 children? What about your aging parents? Have you factored in the medical expenses for them?

Early retirement is a blessing only when you over budget for all likely expenses. Early retirement is a nightmare when you do not plan properly. Imagine you opt for early retirement at the age of 30, and run out of money at the age of 70, how on earth are you going to get more money at that age?

You have not worked for 40 years, and you are still in good physical condition to live for another 30 years. Yet your money runs out. It is too late to regret your decision of early retirement.

So folks, please be prudent in the financial planning for early retirement. Please double your expenses and half your expected income. If you rely on the dividends or rental income to fund your lifestyle after your early retirement, please half the expected income.

In a recession, it is not possible for most companies to meet your target. Your rental apartments and houses are not able to command your targeted rental income.

When you are able to choose early retirement, you can reasonably expect a few recessions ahead.

Nobody knows how much medical treatments will be in the future. It is prudent to over estimate the future medical cost. Early retirement means that the day of incurring medical expenses is still far ahead. That makes estimation more difficult.

Planning for early retirement is not just a monetary decision. Early retirement involves knowing how you are going to spend your time. If you are restless on a rainy Sunday, imagine all the days ahead of you with nothing to do.

Early retirement means you have time. All the years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds that are not spent in working. How do you spend your time after early retirement? Early retirement means you are still young and active.

You cannot reasonably spend a lot of time watching TV. If spending time watching TV is your idea of early retirement, you will get bored within a few months.

Early retirement does not mean all the time at the beach. Early retirement does not mean all the time cruising the world. Early retirement does not mean all the time in the pub. Early retirement does not mean all the time fish.

Early retirement is retiring from working life. However, you cannot spend all the time at the beach or traveling round the world. You have to find an activity that you are passionate about, so that you will not regret the choice of early retirement.

When you are able to afford early retirement, your children cannot. They have to attend school. They need you to watch their games. They need you around with them. They cannot let you spend all the time at the pristine beach after your early retirement.

You have to find something to do, that also allow you to spend time with family after your early retirement.

Before you answer yes or not to early retirement, please consider all the questions below:

Do you want early retirement? Do you plan for early retirement? What does early retirement mean? Do you mean early retirement from full time employment? Do you mean early retirement from business? Do you mean early retirement from society? What age do you considered as early retirement? If the retirement age is 62 years old, do you consider retiring at age 61 as early retirement? How much money do you need to support active lifestyle after early retirement? What if you face involuntary early retirement, how can you deal with it?

Early retirement is an interesting topic. Give some thoughts to it, you are able to choose early retirement with proper planning.