💥 How to Retire Early

The Retirement Planning Guide

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📬 In today’s issue, you’ll learn about retiring early. We’ll discuss:

PART I:
1. The Math of Retirement
2. Learning from History
3. Retirement is a Number, Not an Age

PART II:
4. The FIRE Movement
5. 12 Steps to Financial Independence
6. The Financial Freedom Ladder
7. Accelerate Your Journey: Micro-Habits 

PART III:
8. Overcoming Psychological Barriers
9. Common Myths
10. Questions to Test Your Retirement Readiness
11. The Mindset Shift Challenge 

PART IV:
12. From Theory to Action
13. Things I Wish I Knew 10 Years Ago
14. Final Thoughts: Retirement Is Not Age

PART V:
15. Important Points to Remember
16. Actionable Advice
17. Commonly Asked Questions

For generations, we've accepted the notion that retirement begins at 67. But why?

Working until 67 means spending 85% of your adult life working. With the average American living to just 77, that leaves only 10 years to enjoy retirement. Does this math make sense to you?

For decades, we've accepted retirement at 67 as normal. But what if retirement isn't about age at all? What if it's about reaching a specific financial number instead?

In this issue, we'll explore how to break free from the "work until 67" mindset and build a path to financial independence that could let you retire years—or even decades—earlier.

🤔When will you retire?

Picture this: It's 7 AM on a sunny Tuesday and your alarm clock doesn’t ring – because you don’t need to go to work.

At 45 years old, you’ve already retired. While your friends and neighbors are rushing through their morning commute, you’re sipping coffee and planning a day on your own terms.

This scenario might sound like a dream or something only millionaires can do, but it’s becoming a reality for many ordinary people. Early retirement—quitting full-time work before the traditional age of 65— is gaining popularity as people pursue financial independence.

1. The Math of Retirement

Think about this: if you start working at 22 after college and work until the standard retirement age of 67, you'll spend 45 years working for just 10 years of freedom.

That means spending over 80% of your adult life working, only to enjoy less than 20% in retirement. Even worse, those retirement years often come when health problems may limit what you can do.

Does this seem fair to you?

Most of us grow up hearing that 65 is the “normal” retirement age. But have you ever wondered why 65 became the magic number? It turns out, the idea of retiring at 65 is a relatively modern concept – and it was based on conditions that no longer apply today.

The traditional retirement age was first set over a century ago for reasons that might surprise you. In 1881, Germany’s Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced one of the world’s first state pension programs, and he picked age 70 as the age at which people could retire with government support​. A few years later, 70 was lowered to 65. But here’s the catch: back then, hardly anyone lived that long. In the late 19th century, the average worker died before reaching 65​. Bismarck knew the pension program wouldn’t cost much because most people wouldn’t live long enough to collect many years of benefits​. It sounds a bit cynical, but it’s true – 65 was chosen because it was beyond most people’s life expectancy at the time.

Fast forward to 1935 in the United States, when Social Security was introduced and set 65 as the official retirement age. Again, the average American back then wasn’t expected to live past about 61 or 62 years​. That means the system assumed many workers would never actually get to retire and collect benefits for long. Retirement was meant for the minority who lived an unusually long life.

2. Learning from History

In ancient Athens, the philosopher Epicurus established a community called "The Garden" where members lived simply to achieve what Greeks called "autarkeia"—self-sufficiency and freedom from financial worry.

Unlike our modern work-until-67 model, Epicurus believed people should work to establish "enough" as early as possible, then dedicate the rest of life to friendship, learning, and simple pleasures. His community members pooled resources, grew their own food, and minimized expenses—creating financial independence thousands of years before the FIRE movement was named.

"Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little," Epicurus warned, highlighting how endless desire for more wealth can trap people in perpetual work.

Jumping forward, consider one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin did something extraordinary for his time: he retired from his business in his early 40s. At age 42, Franklin was running a successful printing business in Philadelphia, but he had accumulated enough wealth to step back. In 1748, Franklin essentially achieved financial independence and stopped working for money at 42.

What did he do with that freedom? Franklin spent the next years pursuing science, inventions, and statesmanship. He experimented with electricity, helped found universities and libraries, and later played a key role in the American Revolution. Franklin’s early “retirement” from business gave him the freedom to focus on projects he was passionate about. This historical case shows that if you prepare financially, you can have a “second life” career or adventure after quitting your main job.

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3. Retirement is a Number, Not an Age

Here's the mindset shift that changes everything: Retirement has nothing to do with being 65 or 67 years old. As Robert Kiyosaki puts it: "Retirement isn't an age. It's a financial number."