The best early retirement planning? Nike has it right on this one...just do it.

Overcoming inertia is very difficult when discussing the best early retirement planning.

When discussing early retirement you might as well anticipate the reaction of certain people.

Get ready for the following similar reactions from your friends, your family, your co-workers, and for sure your financial planner.

• Your friends say you are nuts
• Your family say you are nuts
• Your co workers say you are nuts
• Your financial planner says you are really nuts

Why am I so sure this will happen. It happened to us 14 years ago. Most of all the above are still working. We are still retired and loving every minute.

Jealousy/Envy

This is the driver behind your friends, coworkers and family saying you can't retire early. Your financial planner is losing a client, he or she has money motives.

They think they cant retire so why should you. They may unfortunately have overextended themselves and are drowning in credit card debt. If you have been prudent and have zero credit card debt, you can reward your good behavior.

Your coworkers especially will poo, poo any talk of early retirement.

They are miserable you should be too.

They can only see the opium of a check every 2 weeks .

They can't imagine leaving that security.

I offer that it is a false sense of security these days with massive cutbacks and downsizing a fact of life for most corporate workers.

The best early retirement planning means looking out for yourself...no one else will.

The biggest lie

The flaw in most peoples thoughts about retiring early is they think they are going to continue spending like they are while working. Wrong. If it means the difference between staying retired and having to go back to work, you will find a way to stay retired and spend much less than when you worked.

Why am I so sure of this...because of the money you waste keeping up with the neighbors and coworkers. Think about it, at work how much money you spend on clothes and cars to keep up appearances. You need to recognize this for the best early retirement planning for you.

The thinking goes like...well Mary and I are both at the same pay grade. She is shopping at Macy's. I'll show her, I'll get that dress I've wanted at Nordstrom's.

Sound familiar...that stops when you retire.

Your old clothes fit just fine...besides you need money for fuel to take the RV to Yellowstone...now thats the way to think and prioritize.

Think of the times you have bought new cars that you didn't really need. And I am not saying I haven't done the same thing....but I learned and our current car is 11 years old with 153,000 miles on the odometer. Runs and looks good thank you.

Your health

The best early retirement planning assumes you are doing everything you can to stay healthy. The cheapest insurance is exercising and eating right.

This may shock you but eating right, at home with goods from the perimeter of the grocery store, is much cheaper than eating out or fast food that is not good for you.

This is a win win folks...exercise is cheap to free and eating right is much cheaper than eating unhealthy food.

If you are not exercising and eating right, start doing so right now. It will increase your confidence about not needing to spend a lot on doctors when you retire.

You need a catastrophic health insurance policy, just don't overpay a penny.

Your health and its costs should be given a high priority, without good health the best early retirement planning will be made unnecessarily difficult. You are smart you are healthy.

Your age

Everyone of us is a day closer to our obituary. Keep this in mind and realize that as you age you will be less and less able to do the things you enjoy.

No one retires and discovers he or she can run faster than they could 5 years ago.

So retire now while you are physically able to enjoy yourself.

I don't understand why this is not discussed more often when planning to retire.

Supplement your income

Another way to give yourself more confidence to retire early is to have another source of income that goes with you anywhere you happen to be.

If you enjoy this site I can assure you that you can build one that will probably be a lot better. See how I did it...so can you.  

I am amazed that this site is only 4 months old and doing so well...you can do this too.

Summary

Hopefully you have enjoyed this guide to best early retirement planning.

• You are prepared to hear why you cant retire.
• You are more aware that the spending habits you have now will change when you retire.
• You understand how important health is to retirement.
• You know you are getting older each day you wait to retire.
• Take a look at how you can supplement your retirement income.

Lastly...just do it.

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