👼 Early Retirement
I have given a lot of thought into this: What do I want? Freedom. Freedom to do things without worrying about money. And the logical conclusion follows: Earn enough money and get an early retirement!
I discussed this with a lot of friends and ran some numbers. I’m 25 right now, and 40 seems like a good age to retire, which leaves 15 years to make enough money. But how much is enough?
Here are the calculations (all numbers are in USD):
Monthly expenses: $1000
Life expectancy in my country: 68
Need to save: (68 - 40) * 1000 * 12 = $350k
This doesn’t include dependents. Factoring in the education costs, a reasonable estimate becomes $700k.
Finally, adding some one-time costs like buying a house, etc. makes the final number roughly around $850k.
I had an illusion that I was saving enough in the last few years but it looks so small now compared to $850k! I have not even made a dent in it.
I don’t see a clear path to make that amount of money anytime soon, and that unfortunately means no early retirement for me. Also, it’s too large to even slice-and-dice. So I’m thinking of an alternate way. Instead of taking a long break after the age of 40, I plan to take multiple short-breaks in between and keep working till the very end. This seems like a sustainable way to get freedom to spend time on things you love while keeping a nice change-of-pace in life as well.
On an unrelated note, here’s a feel-good video:
Until We Meet Again…
🖖 swap