#Shockingly simple math for how to#
#Shockingly simple math for full#

The truth is that there’s no direct correlation between your working salary and retirement needs. Like the 65-year-old retirement age, the reasoning behind that number is arbitrary at best. Traditional financial wisdom says that you’ll need 80% of your working income to support yourself in retirement. 📘 Want to learn more about where you should put your retirement funds? Take a look at our guide to retirement accounts: An Introduction to Tax-Advantaged Retirement Accounts. Thanks to the internet, it’s never been easier for the average citizen to create a portfolio of income-producing assets. Fortunately, it’s entirely possible to do so without Social Security. You can retire far earlier as long as you can fund your lifestyle without working. It’s no safer or riskier mathematically than retiring at any other age.

#Shockingly simple math for full#

Other than gaining full access to Social Security, there’s no tangible reason you need to work into your 60s.

The American government decided to let people access Social Security at 65, and it’s been synonymous with retirement ever since. The majority of existing pension plans and social benefit plans at the time (in America and the rest of the world) began paying out at age 65. Traditional retirement is also a good way to get rid of the expensive older workers and make room for younger, cheaper labor.īeyond those cynical notions, the number is arbitrary. Only 54% of adult men in the 1940s would live to see their 65th birthday. Have you ever wondered where the traditional American retirement age of 65 comes from? My inner hippie suspects it was one way for “the Man” to minimize costs back when Social Security was established. What Should Your Investment Portfolio Look Like?.

#Shockingly simple math for how to#

How to Retire Early by Increasing Your Income.How to Retire Early by Reducing Your Expenses.To Retire Early, Keep More of Your Paycheck.This guide will help you start down the surprisingly simple path to financial independence. Once you no longer need a paycheck, you can afford to be much more selective about your employment (or say goodbye to it altogether). All it takes is some knowledge and the discipline to stay the course. However, you can learn how to retire early in a reliable and responsible way even without it.Įven with an average income, you can shave decades off your working career. You know as well as I do that the lottery probably isn’t going to work out in your favor. Even if you’re lucky enough to be satisfied with your career, long commutes, incessant meetings, and controlling managers can cause burnout long before your 60s. I’d be willing to bet you’ve fantasized at least once about winning the lottery and quitting in spectacular fashion years before the typical retirement age (there’s got to be a Dilbert comic strip about this somewhere). Have you ever spent a Sunday night in despair at the prospect of another round of office-related drudgery? Most of America can relate.

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