When perusing the usual articles over at Yahoo!, I came across a fascinating headline on the front page: “How to Retire in your 30s” it read. Now typically I see things like “retire early on $2 million dollars” or “Retire early at the oh-so-young age of 50!” So needless to say this got my attention.
Amazing but true, early retirement (Being in my mid 20s I would define early as mid 30s) is not just for crazy people anymore, it seems. More and more (particularly those in my age group, are you listening Iwillteachyoutoberich?) people are entertaining the idea of getting out of the rat race sooner rather than later. How do they do it?
It’s not nearly as exciting as you might think: Save everything and cut down your expenses so that you can live comfortably. I know that’s what you read everywhere right? Except these individuals put it into some serious practice! One of the couples mentioned in the article, the Kaderlis family, lives on $24,000 a year. Now, I can live happily on that, but most of my siblings/friends would equate that to living in poverty. Where does that fall on your scale for standard of living?
The thing to take away from this article is to understand the power of persistence and determination and what you can accomplish if you focus on your goals and don’t listen to the inevitable naysaying others will impose upon you. I’ve written about the power of peer pressure and personal finance, and its important not to let that affect your judgment when planning your future.
-Xias