Comments on: Want to retire early? Do this one thing.

By: Will @firstqfinance

Will @firstqfinance — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:17:37 +0000

Hey, man. Great site. I read your recent article in the OWH. I live in Lincoln.

Right now I save 85% of my income so I can retire ASAP. Financial freedom before 30 is my goal. I’m 24 now.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 03:19:06 +0000

Hi Joe,

Parkinson’s Law … hard to fight. I slip sometimes. But, living in the now, “steering” one’s destiny is the only way to go -a good “kick in the butt” in the face of reality if you have full awareness of your own mortality. (I cherish poignant movie lines) Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living or get busy dying.” So, …follow suggestions on the order of nut “squirreling”: I’m lucky enough to fully fund my 401k, Roth IRA and HSA (a powerful supplement for post-retirement health funding) -and as you suggest, do it early. I think of it as everybody’s personal snowball rolling along collecting “snow”: different sizes, the rate of rotating is the same (assume), but HUGE differences depending on when you started and what the size of your “snowball” is now (the “um-teenth” compounding analogy). -Mark

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 00:12:16 +0000

i also recommend that anyone who is thinking about early retirement read The Retirement Maze by Rob Pascale, Louis H. Primavera and Rip Roach (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012). Their research shows that most early retirees plan for retirement financially, but don’t plan for it socially or psychologically. As the reader of my blog who recommended this book to me put it, “I assumed that the quality of life would take care of itself; it didn’t.” Pascale et al.’s research shows that early retirees have a more difficult time with the transition to retirement and become less happy with their retirement decision over time. The lesson here: Especially for early retirees, retirement planning is not just financial planning.