(InvestigateTV) — For a lot of people early retirement is the dream and more people are finding ways to retire earlier than 65.
Joel O’Leary, a personal finance expert for Motley Fool Money, said on a basic level it just means you’ve saved enough money, so work becomes optional.
“To some people they want to fully quit their jobs and not work anymore in their 40s, 50s or really any age under traditional retirement age. But other people want to keep working. Maybe they want to downshift or do it on their own terms or have more flexibility. The main idea is just that, once you’ve achieved financial freedom, at whatever age that is, you get to choose how do you want to spend your time going forward,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary said to reach a goal like this you have to know your numbers, meaning exactly how much you spend each year.
He said a general rule for a nest egg is the 25X rule, which is basically saving up 25 times whatever your yearly expenses are.
“It’s a good idea to build in some contingency plans or maybe inflate those numbers just a touch, because your money is going to need to last longer than what a traditional retirement would need to fund. Adding that extra buffer gives you flexibility when some bigger unknowns like health care taxes, longer periods of high inflation,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary said trying to retire early isn’t only about being super frugal and not spending any money and routing every cent possible into savings and investments.
He said you can still have fun, but it’s also about spending money on things you value and cutting back on the stuff that you don’t.
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