To retire early, you’ll need a nest egg that is large enough to cover your expenses for the rest of your life. The general rule is that you’ll need to save 25 times your annual expenses. To make this happen, you’ll need to plan ahead and the earlier you start, the better.
Here are 5 things you can do now to ensure an early retirement.
Increase Your Savings Rate
You’ll need to be an aggressive saver if you want to retire early. The more you can save, the sooner you’ll be able to retire. If you save 50% of your income, you’ll need to save for nearly 20 years. Want to retire in 10 years? You’ll need to save 65% of your income. A good retirement planner tool can help you calculate how much you need to save.
But don’t be discouraged if you can’t save half your income right now. Start where you can and grow your savings rate over time.
Use an HSA
An HSA is a health savings account, and it has quite a few benefits for those looking to retire early. To qualify for this account, you need to pair it with a high-deductible health insurance plan. If your company offers this as an option, you may want to consider it.
The benefit of the HSA is that you can contribute up to $8,300 for a family ($4,150 if you are single) per year. The contributions are tax deductible, and you can use the money tax-free if you spend it on qualifying health care costs. So you don’t pay income taxes on the contributions or when you spend the money. You can pay for healthcare costs directly with your HSA, or pay out of pocket and submit for reimbursement from the HSA. There is no time limit for submitting for reimbursement, so you can spend now and request reimbursement after you retire as a form of tax-free income.
If you contribute more than you spend, your balance will grow. Once it reaches a certain threshold, you can begin to invest the balance. When you reach 65, you can spend from your HSA for any reason and pay regular income tax.
Cut Expenses
Cutting expenses helps you retire early in two ways. First, it leaves more of your income for savings, which means you can increase your savings rate. Secondly, the less money you need to fund your lifestyle, the smaller your nest egg needs to be. A budget can be a useful tool to help you understand where you can cut and conserve.
Consider moving to a smaller house, sharing a car with your spouse, buying used, negotiating your bills, cutting subscriptions, etc.
Invest Wisely
Part of retiring early is getting your money working for you. Investing in a low-cost total stock market index fund, such as Vanguard’s VTSAX or Fidelity’s FZROX, can ensure you get market returns with low (or no) fees.
Real estate is another popular investment for those looking to retire early. Not only do you get market appreciation from the house and land, but you’ll also get an income from rent, which means you won’t have to rely solely on your stock portfolio to provide your income in retirement. The less you need to draw from your portfolio, the smaller it can be when you retire, meaning you can retire that much sooner.
Get a Side Hustle
A side hustle can help you save more now and provide some retirement income if you choose to continue it. If it’s something you enjoy doing, such as pet sitting or tutoring, you can keep it up in retirement to provide some income. Like real estate, this can decrease the demands on your portfolio, allowing you to build a smaller nest egg and, thus, retire sooner.
If you want to retire early, you’ll need to watch your expenses and save aggressively. If you can accomplish this, you’ll be surprised how quickly your net worth will grow.
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About Ashley Barnett
Ashley Barnett was born with a passion for personal finance. Even as a kid she would read anything she could find about money. When personal finance blogs started popping up on the internet she jumped on board, starting a personal finance blog in 2008.
In 2013, she pivoted to freelance editing where she spends her days trying to create the best personal finance content on the internet.
She lives in Phoenix with her husband and two children and you can usually find her sitting in her backyard re-reading Harry Potter for the millionth time.
