“Early retirement is just for lazy people.”
“I don’t want to save money and retire early, because I’ll be bored.”
The two myths above, along with many, many others, are things I often hear people say when they talk about retiring early.
I’m not sure why there are so many negative feelings about early retirement, because I personally love the idea of people striving to retire early and not be “normal.”
I mean, just think about it: Don’t you want to retire early, so that you can have the financial freedom to do whatever you want to do?
What’s bad about that?
Whether you want to travel, continue working, spend more time with family, or whatever else, retiring early gives you the ability to choose.
Plus, early retirement can be whatever age you want it to be, it doesn’t have to be that you retire early at age 30. If you are able to retire at age 60, that’s awesome! The point is just to beat the “norm.”
Sadly, there are many out there, who do not save enough money when preparing for retirement. According to Zacks Investment Research, 72% do not save enough for retirement each month. Also, according to a different survey done by Bankrate.com, 36% of people in the U.S. have absolutely nothing saved for retirement.
Due to the above, I think it’s obvious that more people should make saving for retirement a priority.
While I have not retired early (yet!), it is a goal of mine.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I absolutely love life and my online business. However, I would rather be safe, because you never know what may happen later in life. As you know, I’m a worrier and I would much rather be safe than sorry. Something medically may occur, the industry may change, I may change, and so on.
You just never know what may happen in the future!
To me, having the ability to retire early is all about freedom and flexibility.
This is why others may want to reach early retirement (or financial independence) as well. Reaching early retirement may mean that you have the option to do what you want to do and not feel as bound by your financial situation. You can, therefore, feel free to seek whatever it is in life that you want to seek out.
Related: Reaching Financial Independence IS Possible And Here’s How You Can Do It
Now, I’m not going to automatically assume that extreme early retirement is for everyone. However, the majority of the population does not seem ready for retirement at any age, so to discount early retirees altogether just seems crazy to me.
If you are new to the topic of early retirement, here are three great articles on other websites that I highly recommend:
- Meet Mr. Money Mustache, The Man Who Retired At 30
- My Name Is Jeremy, And This Is How I Retired In My 30s
- How A Couple Of ‘Frugal Weirdos’ Are Saving 71% Of Their Income, So They Can Retire At Age 33
Below are several early retirement myths I have heard along with why I don’t agree with them.
1. Myth – “You can’t have fun, while saving for early retirement.”
Most of you know that this is a myth I despise.
Just because you are saving for retirement aggressively doesn’t mean you are eating Ramen noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, this is a myth that is often associated with early retirement.
Sure, a person who seeks early retirement or who has already retired early may be frugal, but I highly doubt that the majority of early retirees live boring and uneventful lives.
There are plenty of ways to have frugal fun, eat on a budget, and so on. You can even see the world, while saving for early retirement, too. We currently live in our RV, while traveling North America (yes, I know that’s not the world), and our budget is the lowest it has ever been.
Remember, the best things in life are free. The outdoors, spending quality time with those you love, laughing, and more are all FREE.
Related: What Is Financial Independence, Retire Early? Answers To FAQs About FIRE
2. Myth – “Early retirement is for the lazy.”
Yes, this is a myth I’ve heard as well. I would think that people would have a completely opposite view of those who aim for early retirement, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Those who strive for early retirement are not lazy. I believe early retirees are hard workers who want to live life on their own terms.
3. Myth – “A person will be bored if they retire early.”
I don’t know how much fun the average person has while working, but I’m fairly positive that the average person is not in love with their job. Yet, I still hear this myth all the time.
An early retiree isn’t just going to sit around all day. Even if that’s what they want to do, who cares?! That doesn’t mean if you were to retire early that you have to be bored.
You could volunteer, pursue a passion, find fun things to do, take up multiple hobbies, and more with all of the extra time you would have after retiring early.
Heck, you could even continue working, if that’s what you truly desire. Early retirement just gives you choices in case something changes in the future.
4. Myth – “You’ll hate your spouse, if you spend all day with them.”
This is a huge myth. I spend all day with my husband, because we work from home, and I can tell you that I don’t hate him (haha!). Plus, we even live in a small RV and I still don’t hate him!
If you do end up getting sick of spending 24/7 with your spouse, you can always find ways to have time to yourself. You could volunteer somewhere, do some solo traveling, go on a daily walk by yourself, and so on.
5. Myth – “Early retirees don’t plan for the future.”
This is a weird myth that I hear all the time about early retirees. Many like to assume that early retirees haven’t thought about possible future expenses, such as from having children, health insurance costs rising, inflation, and more.
However, if someone has planned for early retirement, why would they just skip over planning anything else?
A person, who is planning for early retirement, is thinking about these things. While no one’s calculations are going to be exactly correct down to the penny, it is possible to factor in possible future expenses.
6. Myth – “Early retirement isn’t possible.”
There are many people out there who don’t believe that early retirement is possible. I believe this has a lot to do with how everyone thinks you should only save 5% of your income so that you can retire between the ages of 65 to 70. However, this is a huge problem, because many people aren’t even saving that amount!
Early retirement IS possible.
By saving enough of your money and living off a designated percentage of your savings or invested income each year after you retire early, you will find that early retirement is possible.
Before throwing the whole idea out, you may want to look into how it may be possible for you.
I recommend checking out the article on Mr. Money Mustache (this blog is a MUST read, if you want to retire early) The 4% Rule: The Easy Answer to “How Much Do I Need for Retirement?”
Here are some articles that may help you save more money, so that you can retire early:
Are you interested in early retirement? Why or why not? When do you think you’ll retire?
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Perhaps financial freedom or financial independence would be a more captivating term instead of early retirement? I totally agree with everything you said. I just think that most people don’t even think about a)saving for retirement and b)believing they can retire early. I think a shift in mindset can really change people’s beliefs about those myths and empower them to achieve financial independence.
Retirement is not only for people who worked 30 or 40 year careers but also for people who ran their own businesses. Retirement has no age cap on it.
‘you have the option to do what you want to do and not feel as bound by your financial situation’ –
I tried early retirement for one year and the isolation was too much to bear. Plus, going from 100 to 0 was very hard to get used too…I realized that I just needed to pursue on interest based work..on my own terms!
I’ve heard all of these myths from either current retirees or those planning for early retirement. At the end of the day, retirement should afford you the time to do what YOU want. That’s the beauty of it. So for all of the concerns or reservations about what’s on the other side… you’ll have the time and availability to determine what you want to do each and every day!
“The point is just to beat the “norm.” <—- I respectfully disagree. The point is to do what allows you to get the most enjoyment out of life. Even if I achieved total financial freedom by saving, winning the lottery, or whatever…..I'd show up for work the next day. Why? Because I absolutely LOVE my career. If I quit my job, I'd be looking for something cutting edge in the technology field that stimulates my brain. OR….I could just not quit my job!
Ha, I think we are actually talking about the same thing. 🙂 This is exactly what I said in the post and I definitely agree with you. I was referring to something else when I said “the point.”
We’re still paying off debt, so retirement isn’t in the near-future.
To me, early retirement simly means freedom and flexibility, and that sounds pretty darn appealing!
God what I wouldn’t give for an early retirement lol. But at the same time I know that I might be okay pushing my retirement if I was more happy with my job. I know a lot of people save traveling the world for when they’re older but I want to be able to go and see everything while I’m young! If you’re shelling out a couple thousand dollars to travel how are you supposed to retire early?
Who would want to retire in online marketing and side hustling their way to “side hustle millionaire” status? It’s not time to get lazy when a person becomes a [side hustle millionaire]. That’s the time to quit their day job if they have one and or NEVER go back to working for any daytime employer again and rely solely on making the “online side hustle affiliate marketing” work for you full-time, whereas your “affiliate side hustle millionaire business” is making money for you 24 hours a day. 🙂
Great post Michelle
What most people don’t realize is that retirement is not a case of “sit at home and get bored”. It’s a case of being able to pursue the interests, hobbies and activities that you wish to without having a noose around your neck that ties you to a regular 9 to 5 job.
I spent over 30 years in my own financial planning business – with a strong focus on retirement planning before I started to blog about it and it’s saddening to see the sheer plethora of misguided information on the internet.
I wish more people would see the benefit of an online business as a means to build serious passive income streams, which could supplement one’s retirement savings, enabling people to start enjoying a rich life an retirement.
Again, great post!
Just retired at 53. I’ve studied my early retirement since the early 90’s before it became a buzz word. What kills me are the countless miss information articles about it and how much one needs to successfully pull it off. I’ve read some articles that say for a $60k per year income, you need $3 – 5 million saved and others say 25 times your last income. While there is no crystal ball, it’s best to tune out all the naysayers, apply the math and enjoy!
I love this! There are a lot of myths out there about early retirement. I too plan to retire early, but sometimes I do worry I won’t have enough saved, or that I will get bored. I know that Myth 3 is a real myth, but I know for me personally, that is the case. I do love what I do, but I realize that I’m the minority there, and that not many other people can relate. I also realize at some point I won’t be able to keep up with a 40 hour work week no matter how much I want. One comment mentioned semi-retirement earlier. I’ve read a few things online about it. Honestly, I feel like that’s my best plan for early retirement.