3 Reasons to Retire As Early as Possible – The Motley Fool

The early bird gets the worm – advice that may seem meaningless to former retirees (unless they plan to fish). But they get more time to enjoy hobbies, travel or other activities they do not have time to work while working.

Here's a closer look at the reason – and two others – to consider retiring early. See if any of them makes sense to you.

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1[ads1]. You only live once

It can be a good thing to say – appear on hats and T-shirts like YOLO – but that doesn't make it any less true. Working as long as possible can give you a relatively short pension, which can be good if you are woefully behind in retirement savings or if you just love to work. But that's not what many of us want.

Check out this life expectancy information from the Social Security Administration:

• A 65-year-old man can expect to live on average at 84.
• A 65-year-old woman can expect to live to 86 1/2.

Although it is good to know that you have a 50/50 chance of reaching 84 and beyond, keep in mind that they are average, which means that about half of Men will not reach 84, and more than half The women are not going to beat 87. So it's worth trying to get the most out of your time.

Retirement while still relatively young means you will probably be able to enjoy a more active lifestyle for some years. It will probably be easier to travel, to take up tennis or golf, and to the garden. And even better, if you are active in retirement, it can help you stay better, keep your health costs down and your mood higher.

2. You Can Afford

Of course, it's easy to imagine how nice an early retirement would be, but can you actually afford it? Many cannot, but maybe you can!

Spend some time estimating how much income you need in retirement. Then use the figure to find out how much you need to save on retirement. How to do it: If you find that you need $ 65,000 annually in retirement, you may see that you will receive $ 25,000 from Social Security, so you have to come up with the difference: $ 40,000. Use 4 % rule as a tough guide, multiply it by 25 (the inverse of 4%), and you get a necessary second-hand item of $ 1 million. Do you have so much now? You probably won't, but you may be able to collect that sum faster than you think. How to Make Ordinary Investments Grow: