Early Retirement Planning it all starts with a dream

Early retirement planning, is what we did in 1990...we then retired in 1994...I was 49. 17 years later we have never regretted the decision. We have experiences you cannot put a price upon. It all started with a dream that became a plan.

Our experience gives us the confidence to help you accomplish the same. First we will not be giving any investment advice, we will focus on how to reduce your expenses, not increasing your income. We all have different ideas of how much money we need...All I will say about retirement planners is that they have consistently told us "you can't do this". When we told them of our early retirement planning...17 years later they are still working...we are not working, enjoying ourselves.

Early retirement planning is all up to you...it really is that simple. Your decision to continue swapping time for dollars is a deliberate one. Trust me early retirement planning is not what you are going to get from financial planners. Financial planners will spend about as much time encouraging you to retire early as West Point Cadets study how to surrender...it never crosses their minds, as an option you should consider.

For further information on:

How to retire early

For the top ten reasons to retire, see this list

How not to retire early

Self reliant retirement

How much money to retire

What to do after retiring

Five Important issues for early retirement

We have experience in the following ways of living cheap and well:

• Living aboard a sailboat
• Living in an RV
• Living overseas
• Living in small spaces
• Relocating

We realize that living aboard a sailboat is not for everyone. 5 years before we retired to boat life , neither one of us had ever been on one, we just knew we wanted to do it. We are not trying to sell you on anything, we are asking you to just stop and think of different ways to achieve your dream of retiring early.

It starts with a plan

If you have not gone there yet and looked at our lists of things we never want to do again and things we want to do, please take the time to see how we started.

After identifying what you want to do, you simply have to convince yourself that it is worthy for you to do so.

Never ask anyone else "When can I retire?"

There is one final checklist you should write out.

If you Fail...What is the worst that could happen to you?

If early retirement planning doesn't work out, for whatever reason, what happens?...You have to go back to work. That's it, that's the downside. It is a condition you have probably been involved with for 30 years or more...what is the big deal, you are working now.

I realize that this is more or less daunting depending on what your skills are. This is a no brainer for a carpenter, electrician, or other tradesman or woman, that work will always be available somewhere. It is probably toughest for a salaried worker for a corporation, I used to be in that category before I switched to commercial real estate brokerage...self employed. It can be done by anyone with a strong desire to retire.

My personal mind set has been I have earned money before, I can do it again, but I would rather stay retired by living frugally. If this is you, we can help, 17 years and counting of enjoying life; not earning ; and spending less.

Early retirement planning...you can do it as well.

It starts with a dream

Early retirement planning is nothing more than a simple plan. Once the dream of retiring to something else is in your mind write down things you want to do and things you never want to do again.

Have you ever heard "plan your work, then work your plan"...that is what it takes.

Your dream may be travel, it may be painting or photography, you could be a missionary or social service worker...whatever you want to do, plan out your dream and work your plan.That's your best retirement plan..

Put a time frame on your plan

Goals should be measured against a time frame. If you want to retire in 5 years, and you have certain steps to take, put a to be accomplished by date on each step.

For instance if you want to retire to Mexico, a worthy goal, in 2 years, learning to speak passable Spanish in 12 months would be a step with a time frame that you could measure. Without the self imposed deadlines things tend to slip and goals are missed. we had a five year plan to retire, and retired in four years.

On the other hand some steps you may think are really important turn out to be unimportant in comparison to actually retiring.

For instance, before we left for the Caribbean we wanted to be more accomplished sailors. We discovered you learn as you go and things that we were told were important before you leave weren't that important after all.

Remember, when you tell certain people you want to retire early, you cause some resentment, because you are taking action and they are still stuck in the rat race. On our dock before we left there was more than one boat who said we would never make it...You guessed it they are still on the dock 15 years later...trying to get just a little more money, a bigger boat, acquire more skills.

All "the above goals" are wrong and exactly what will keep them from early retirement or perhaps regular retirement.

Nike is right sometimes you gotta JUST DO IT

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