{"id":592,"date":"2021-04-14T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-i-want-to-retire-early\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T17:05:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:05:17","slug":"why-i-want-to-retire-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-i-want-to-retire-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Want to Retire Early"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image-asset.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>This article is more than 2 years old, but it\u2019s a great time capsule: I wrote an updated version in December 2022 you can check out <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/blog\/how-to-care-less-about-your-financial-goals-in-the-new-year\" target=\"_blank\"><em>here<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">About once a week, I receive a message that goes something like this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cHey! I think all of this is super interesting, but I\u2019m curious. Why do you want to retire early? I love my job. In fact, it\u2019s the reason I get up in the morning. Hell, I\u2019d do it for no money. Actually, I basically make no money. Anyway, why do you want to retire early?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Just kidding. It doesn\u2019t go <em>quite<\/em> like that, but the general sentiment stands: People are confused. (Related: I wrote about why <em>everyone<\/em> should strive for financial independence, regardless of whether or not they intend to retire early, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneywithkatie.com\/blog\/why-everyone-should-strive-for-financial-independence-even-if-you-dont-plan-to-retire-early\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Before I dive into my own explanation, I want to include the opening paragraph from Scott Trench\u2019s \u201cSet for Life\u201d:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cLet\u2019s talk about the American Dream. Traditionally, for the majority of us \u2013&nbsp;at least for those of us in the middle class \u2013&nbsp;it means consistency. It means buying a nice home, in a nice neighborhood, and having a nice life. It means that after a thirty- or forty-year career, we plan to retire using a formula that historically hinges on having saved 10 to 15 percent of our income and having invested in a 401(k) or other retirement vehicle. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The problem with this formula is that the working person following it will be forced to work for wage income for <strong>the better part of his day, during the best part of his week, throughout the best years of his life<\/strong>. At best, he will retire with a modest amount of wealth, late in life, and be forced to hope it\u2019s enough to last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">F***.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">That sounds like a pretty dreary take on \u201cthe dream,\u201d huh? <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I\u2019ll never forget the first time I had this realization, way before I ever heard about \u201cFIRE\u201d (financial independence, retire early).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It was around 8 a.m. on a Tuesday about 6 months into my post-graduate life, and I was schlepping from the parking lot to the office building. Wobbling on a pair of pointy-toed heels that I thought made me look professional and balancing a lunchbox in one arm and an overpriced leather laptop bag on the other, I remember sweating through my dress and being struck by a horrifying thought:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>Holy shit. Is this it?<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Is this the dream I\u2019ve been chasing since I got my first internship and decided climbing the corporate ladder like a capitalist Alex Honnold was my life\u2019s work?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I have to carry these bags, in these shoes, into this building at 8 o\u2019clock in the morning, <em>every<\/em> morning, for the next 40 f***ing years?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Keep in mind, I <em>loved<\/em> my job. I was one of the uniquely lucky individuals who <em>actually somehow managed <\/em>to get her dream job right out of school. I was ecstatic, and yet\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">A panicked emptiness developed in the pit of my stomach. I felt trapped. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Not trapped by my <em>job<\/em> in particular, but by <em>working for a paycheck<\/em>. It launched me into a multi-month span of time where I felt overwhelmingly nostalgic for high school and college, when things were always changing, my sense of personal responsibility was an illusion, and the world was a blank canvas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I felt like I had finally arrived at the raging party everyone told me about for the last four years, and it was just someone named Pam\u2019s 40th birthday party with a couple of guys in button-down shirts standing around a punch bowl and talking about customer acquisition. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It had very little to do with my actual job and a lot to do with the fact that it felt like I had just entered into the longest expanse of \u201cgrind\u201d of my adult life: working 9-5 until you turn 65 and shut down the cubicle for good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It\u2019s probably no surprise, then, that when I heard about the financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement that I dove in headfirst. People were retiring in their <em>thirties<\/em>?! <em>How<\/em>? People who didn\u2019t create apps or invent the next unicorn were leaving their corporate jobs barely 10 years after starting them, and I was intrigued, to say the least.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Financial independence and retiring early offer another path that just makes more sense to me.<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I\u2019ve always had this working theory that most of the workforce in the United States is under-motivated and complacent. And why wouldn\u2019t they be? A lot of us are 20 years into a fairly unfulfilling slog&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;that person, 20 years into a data entry job, is probably not waking up every morning determined to change the world. For that reason, most employers are getting a half-assed, half-baked version of the amount of available energy and effort from any given individual. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">At that point, the goal is merely making it to the weekend. Every week. (That lame Gary Vee quote comes to mind: \u201c<em>If you\u2019re living for the weekend, your shit is broken.\u201d<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I\u2019ve always thought the concept of an economy wherein each person could support themselves by producing the thing, idea, or service that actually <em>lit them up<\/em> would be an overall more efficient one with a lot less lost productivity. But of course, <em>all<\/em> work has to get done, and not everyone can make a living doing the thing that they love. I\u2019m not a utopia apologist \u2013&nbsp;but I do think financial independence is the closest thing we have to a way out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">What if you could work hard enough, save aggressively enough, and invest early enough that your time in the traditional workforce could be a blip? A stepping stone on your path toward purpose?<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">My goal is to have $1M (give or take) invested as quickly as possible while not completely depriving myself<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">And as of this writing, I\u2019m clocking in around $230,000 at age 26, which means I\u2019m about 23% of the way there. (If you\u2019re curious, I wrote a post called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneywithkatie.com\/blog\/how-i-saved-100000dollars-by-age-25\" target=\"_blank\">How I Saved $100,000 by Age 25<\/a> a few months ago.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">And that million-dollar figure isn\u2019t arbitrary, though it may seem like it \u2013&nbsp;once I have $1,000,000 invested, I\u2019ll know I can withdraw 4% \u2013&nbsp;or $40,000 \u2013&nbsp;per year to \u201cpay myself,\u201d and \u201cretire\u201d from traditional work, if I want to. Because of how compound interest works and the average return that one can expect (6%, after inflation), the money will always replenish itself \u2013&nbsp;indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This post isn\u2019t intended to be a step-by-step guide to financial independence, but that\u2019s a pretty good summary. Right now, I spend about $32,000 per year. Allowing myself the ability to spend $40,000 bakes in some breathing room. (It also happens to be the maximum a single person can declare as long-term capital gains income from investment accounts without paying a single dollar in taxes, which wasn\u2019t coincidental in my planning. Mama likes to beat the system.)<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Financial independence isn\u2019t about whether or not you like your job. It\u2019s about having control over your time.<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Some people who reach financial independence leave their jobs pretty soon thereafter, because they know they no longer need the money. Others stay, because they realize they actually like their jobs and want to be there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>You approach things differently when you\u2019re actively choosing them<\/strong>. That\u2019s the spirit of FI \u2013&nbsp;when your time is truly your own, you get to make decisions based on what\u2019s actually best for you. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">To me, that\u2019s the definition of freedom: Having the power to choose for yourself. <\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">What I\u2019ll do when I retire<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Whatever the f*** I want!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Just kidding. Right now, my plan is pretty simple \u2013&nbsp;leave the traditional work force and work on Money with Katie full-time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Because while I\u2019ve toyed with the idea of trying to make this full-time <em>now, <\/em>I realized I don\u2019t want Money with Katie to become something I have to rely on for income (at least, not yet).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I love the idea of being in full control over my week, how hard I work, and what the outcome is. I love the idea of taking time off when I know I need to, instead of muscling through and dancing with the inevitable burnout that accompanies it. I love working for myself, by myself (which makes me sound like a weird loner, but if you\u2019ve ever had a project that\u2019s just <em>yours<\/em>, you probably know what I\u2019m talking about).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I love the idea of doing what I want, when I want, with who I want, for as long as I want \u2013&nbsp;and I trust myself to still produce, create, and contribute to society even without a W2 income. My job is not my identity, and I don\u2019t measure my worth in this world by how many promotions or raises I can stack on top of each other before my sixties. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Does that mean I dislike traditional work? No \u2013&nbsp;I love the people I work with, and generally get the privilege of working on pretty cool stuff. But <strong>a job is a job<\/strong>. Anything you <em>have<\/em> to do for money is ultimately an exchange of your time (your most precious resource) for a paycheck, and that exchange <em>can <\/em>be a trap if you live too close to the edge. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Push it to the other logical extreme: If you\u2019re living paycheck to paycheck (the opposite of financial independence), you don\u2019t have <em>any <\/em>options. You need your paycheck desperately just to sustain the next two weeks of your life. You want out? Too bad. You\u2019ve got a mortgage and a BMW payment. You don\u2019t get to press the eject button, because then the walls of the townhome come crumbling down. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">That\u2019s not my American dream.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">What that means for me now<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Wanting to live like nobody else in your thirties generally means you\u2019ve got to live like nobody else in your twenties, too. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This means that \u2013&nbsp;in the short term \u2013 there are some \u201csacrifices\u201d required (I\u2019m putting sacrifices in quotes because, ironically, I\u2019m happier now than I was when I had resigned myself to the standard path).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I know everything I buy delays freedom by a few days because of the power of compounding. Every purchase decision is weighed against that eventual outcome, and that means I generally live on \u201cless\u201d than most (don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m definitely not depriving myself \u2013 there\u2019s still a $23 dry shampoo on my bathroom counter).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It also means I can\u2019t just work one job. The savings from one job simply aren\u2019t enough to get me to $1M invested quickly \u2013&nbsp;right now, I have four sources of income, and I spend the better part of every day working. (I\u2019m convinced this is something you get used to, and working from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. isn\u2019t so bad when you mostly like your different gigs.) <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">If I were working four jobs to sustain a high-consumption lifestyle, I\u2019d probably tell you it wasn\u2019t worth it and quit at least two of them \u2013&nbsp;supporting a bedazzled designer jeans habit is a little less psychologically fulfilling than working toward your eventual emancipation from Corporate America.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Final thoughts<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I\u2019m not a fortuneteller, and I\u2019m not foolish enough to think that a plan I set for myself when I\u2019m 26 years old will function like an inevitable roadmap for the rest of my life. Things change, people change, <em>economies<\/em> change. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">But I\u2019m making decisions in my present-day life with the intent to provide Future Katie options \u2013&nbsp;so she can stay at work, if she wants, or stay at home with a kid, if she wants. So she can make decisions based on what\u2019s best for her, not what\u2019s going to pay for the Mercedes lease. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">And maybe by the time I get there, Money with Katie will be a distant memory \u2013&nbsp;but if I know myself at all, something will have certainly taken its place. Someone who achieves FIRE after hustling their ass off for the last decade usually doesn\u2019t decide to permanently kick back and drink shower beers forever once they hit FI (though that\u2019s also an acceptable alternative, if you so choose).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is more than 2 years old, but it\u2019s a great time capsule: I wrote an updated version in December 2022 you can check out here. About once a week, I receive a message that goes something like this: \u201cHey! I think all of this is super interesting, but I\u2019m curious. Why do you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-taxable-investing.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-independence","tag-taxable-investing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why I Want to Retire Early - Money with Katie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-i-want-to-retire-early\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Want to Retire Early - Money with Katie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article is more than 2 years old, but it\u2019s a great time capsule: I wrote an updated version in December 2022 you can check out here. About once a week, I receive a message that goes something like this: \u201cHey! I think all of this is super interesting, but I\u2019m curious. 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About once a week, I receive a message that goes something like this: \u201cHey! I think all of this is super interesting, but I\u2019m curious. 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