Nov 17 2008
How to retire when you are young.
Retiring young really isn’t a secret, though from an e-mail I got from the Motley Fool this morning, I could buy a whole bunch of advice on how to do it. There are many ways in which you can secure an early retirement, or even a good retirement at that. It’s not really a secret, it’s just that you have to do all the right things to make it happen.
First, you can invent something and it can go big. Think of Micheal Dell or Bill Gates and you’ll understand this concept immediately.
Not your thing? Well, you can start a business that everyone needs. I have a good friend who did just that and could have retired at 35 with lots to spare. Why didn’t she retire? She had no idea what she would do with her day if she did! So, she still works part-time there, but plays around with the idea of giving it all up.
Is that still not for you? Not a problem. Get a job, cut up your credit cards, and do nothing but put hundreds away a month into your Roth IRA and 401k (or 403b for the public sector employees.) Keep an eye on it, and if all goes well and your investments are good, you should have an excellent return to take care of you.
So does that mean you have to be in a well paying job? Not necessarily. You can also use small amounts of money to pick up undervalued properties, especially now, and rent them out to make a portfolio of a million or so by the time you retire. The key is to start young, be handy, let your renters pay down your mortgages, and when you get older and times are good, real estate is up, then sell and put your cash in some good paying monthy investments.
These are the easy ways to do it, but the trouble is, not everyone can take the money out to do just exactly what is required to fund their future. The good news is, especially with real estate, you can even get started in your fifties and make that dream come true.
It’s not tricky to be successful, but bad health, big unexpected bills of any kind, problems with family or unexpected disasters can derail any successful plan. That’s a part of living. But it’s critical to plan out that future, to give it the best shot possible, because a comfortable retirement is what we all want.
