Retirement at age 43...
Early Retirement
"How did you do it?" This is a question we've been hearing a lot lately!
Here are a few of the things we did that helped us achieve our goal:
 | | First, get out of debt. Obvious but essential. Pay off credit cards, car |
| | loans, etc. so the only debt you have left is for your home mortgage.
|
| | Start saving early. We started saving in earnest at age 31. The earlier |
| | the better, since it gives your investments more time to compound.
|
| | Try to do a 15-year home mortgage instead of a 30-year. You'll save a |
| | lot on interest, and the 15 years matches up nicely with an early
retirement goal. You'll want to pay off your home before you retire.
|
| | Pay an extra $100 towards the principal on your home each month.
|
| | Consider renting out part of your home to help offset mortgage costs. |
| | We owned a bi-level home and rented out the bottom half.
|
| | Don't try to keep up with the Joneses. Until retirement, we drove the |
| | same cars and remained in the same starter home we started in. Keep
your biggest costs (home and cars) as low as reasonably possible.
|
| | Figure out what you care about most in life and spend more freely in |
| | that area. For us, that means spending more on travel and less on
material possessions (other than camping equipment!). If you feel
you're depriving yourself of something you really love, you'll never be
able to stick to your plan over the long term.
|
| | Settle on an amount you can invest every month and make sure you |
| | invest regularly, regardless of how the market is performing.
|
| | Try to put at least 10% of your paycheck into a 401(k) or equivalent. |
| | This is a no-brainer -- usually there's a company match; it comes out of
your paycheck automatically; it's pre-tax money so you hardly notice
it's missing from your paycheck; AND you save on taxes each year.
|
| | Open a Roth IRA and begin socking away as much as you can each |
| | year. You invest already-taxed income but never pay taxes on the
money you take out, including the earnings. Great for the long term!
|
| | If you plan to retire before age 60, you also need a TAXABLE account |
| | that you can draw from without penalty. In a sense, you need to save
for two retirements -- the near-term one and the post-age-60 one. Half
of what we have invested is in taxable Vanguard Index Funds for use
over the next 15 years. The other half is in 401K and Roth IRA
accounts and will remain untapped (continuing to grow) until age 60.
|
| | Put together a 15-year plan of how to get where you're going. We use |
| | an Excel spreadsheet (see below) that tracks our taxable, 401(k), and
Roth IRA investments, with a "Grand Total" column at the end.
|
| | Assume an 8% to 9% annual return if you are investing in the stock |
| | market. This represents the long-term annualized return of the stock
market as a whole (6% to 7% adjusted for inflation).
|
| | At the end of each year, assess how you are doing against your plan. |
| | We plug in actual results at the end of each year so we can plan for
future years using actual results rather than estimates.
|
| | Forget about timing the markets. We recommend picking a handful of |
| | Vanguard Index Funds and investing regularly in those. Vanguard
expenses are the lowest in the industry, the funds are tax-friendly,
and your investments are spread over a wide range of asset classes.
|
| | Specifically, we recommend Vanguard Index Trust 500 Fund (VFINX), |
| | Index Trust Extended Market (VEXMX), and Total International Stock
Market (VGTSX). We put 1/3 of our investments into each of the three
stock funds -- simple as that. This provides incredible diversification.
|
| | We also own Vanguard Total Bond Market Fund (VBMFX). When we |
| | sold our home, the equity went into this bond fund, not into stocks.
|
| | Don't get discouraged if (I mean when!) the stock market goes down. |
| | We did our best investing during the bear market of 2000-2002. We
bought stocks "on sale" and reaped the rewards afterwards.
|
| | Get buy-in from your spouse (if you're married). There's no way to |
| | accomplish these goals if the two of you aren't on the same page.
|
| | Balance "living for tomorrow" with "living for today." You HAVE to be |
| | an optimist to plan 15 years into the future for an early retirement!
But you also have to enjoy life along the way. Both are important.
|
| | Read "Your Money or Your Life" by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. |
| | It gives good advice on achieving financial independence. We also
recommend www.retireearlylifestyle.com if you like the idea of
retiring early in order to do lots of traveling!
|
In Egypt just before retirement at age 43
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In New Zealand (after rolling downhill in a Zorb) just after retirement
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“What makes this book different from all the other books out there on
early retirement? We think it's the amount of personal financial detail we
provide. We don’t hold back! You can use this information as a kind of
financial yardstick to measure what you can achieve in your own life...”
