The people I know who retired or are scheduled to retire the quickest
Cops.
These are my goals, as well.
So, this looks to be a common aspiration, but it strikes me as woefully underspecified :-) A lot of retired people spend their day extending minor tasks to take a lot of time and spend the rest of it staring into the idiot box.
Are all y’all quite sure you have enough internal motivation to do interesting, challenging things without any external stimuli? What will prevent you from vegging out and being utterly bored for the rest of your life?
Oh, and a practical question (for the US people) -- once you retire at, say, 40, what are you going to use for health insurance and does your retirement planning cover the medical costs?
A life of just everyday minor tasks plus internet/videogames seems perfectly adequate and I don’t understand why the emotional response would be “boredom” rather than “content”, except for the fact that television is vastly inferior to an internet-connected gaming PC.
I’d probably prefer to do “interesting, challenging things” than just veg out the time (which surely should be enough motivation in itself, unless you’re specifically talking about work-like projects and assuming those are necessary to happiness), but if I have a motivation failure and spend all my time doing inconsequential things at home, that’s hardly going to be such a bad outcome that it would be preferable to have to go to work.
The people I know who retired or are scheduled to retire the quickest Cops.
Also military. Defined pension benefits and health care (such as it is) for the rest of your life. Of course, you must be in the military for 20+ years, which I’m guessing is not what the OP is looking for based on his/her other comments. :-)
Oh, and a practical question (for the US people) -- once you retire at, say, 40, what are you going to use for health insurance and does your retirement planning cover the medical costs?
I experienced this to some extent (a long story I won’t go into here). For a while, we paid for a high-deductible plan on the state exchange since we were both relatively healthy and mainly looking to not be bankrupted should we experience a medical emergency or suddenly fall ill. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), our other income was just high enough that we didn’t qualify for federal subsidies so we were paying over $400 per month for a bare-bones plan for my husband and me. Doable, but not ideal....definitely something people need to plan and budget for when considering early retirement.
Cops.
So, this looks to be a common aspiration, but it strikes me as woefully underspecified :-) A lot of retired people spend their day extending minor tasks to take a lot of time and spend the rest of it staring into the idiot box.
Are all y’all quite sure you have enough internal motivation to do interesting, challenging things without any external stimuli? What will prevent you from vegging out and being utterly bored for the rest of your life?
Oh, and a practical question (for the US people) -- once you retire at, say, 40, what are you going to use for health insurance and does your retirement planning cover the medical costs?
A life of just everyday minor tasks plus internet/videogames seems perfectly adequate and I don’t understand why the emotional response would be “boredom” rather than “content”, except for the fact that television is vastly inferior to an internet-connected gaming PC.
I’d probably prefer to do “interesting, challenging things” than just veg out the time (which surely should be enough motivation in itself, unless you’re specifically talking about work-like projects and assuming those are necessary to happiness), but if I have a motivation failure and spend all my time doing inconsequential things at home, that’s hardly going to be such a bad outcome that it would be preferable to have to go to work.
Ah. OK, then.
Also military. Defined pension benefits and health care (such as it is) for the rest of your life. Of course, you must be in the military for 20+ years, which I’m guessing is not what the OP is looking for based on his/her other comments. :-)
I experienced this to some extent (a long story I won’t go into here). For a while, we paid for a high-deductible plan on the state exchange since we were both relatively healthy and mainly looking to not be bankrupted should we experience a medical emergency or suddenly fall ill. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), our other income was just high enough that we didn’t qualify for federal subsidies so we were paying over $400 per month for a bare-bones plan for my husband and me. Doable, but not ideal....definitely something people need to plan and budget for when considering early retirement.