TEN EARLY RETIREMENT TIPS
1) SAVE – SAVE – SAVE! Compound Interest is how many millionaires started
Put $50 a week into your savings account (get a 4.5 Internet interest account, if you can find one these days).
Toss that loose change into piggy banks or jars (we found $10,000 in change in tins and jars in my grandfathers house when he died..he didn’t like banks) then cash it in at the end of each year or 6 months and put into a saving account.
2) DIVERSIFY your investment holdings. Buy gold and silver, when paper money deflates, you can always take gold to the bank! It is also a good time to invest in non-renewable limited resources like cooper, silver.
3) GET DEBT FREE (Use the Dave Ramsey Plan, if you have to, just do it NOW!)
4) DOWNSIZE YOUR LIFESTYLE Now. Bigger is not always better. If, you want to play at
55, when you still can enjoy life, Downsize! Get a smaller house (who needs 5,000 square feet). Let Ebay help you reduce your unneeded and unused inventory of American Collectible Stuff/Nicknack’s/Junk. Take those clothes you never wear to the resale shop. Live Smaller and Smarter in your 30’s and 40’s, so you have money to put away for your retirement.
5) Look into Portfolio Insurance!? Now! Get rid of Whole Life Insurance and get Term Life. Review your insurance portfolio. You are probably over insured and paying too much. More money for savings! Raise your Automobile and Health Insurance deductible to $1,000 and see your premium go down. More money in your pocket to save not spend.
6) EAT LESS! Do you think I am joking? I am not, change your diet and save money. Bank the extra savings.
Stop being a “junk food junkie” and add up in one week how much at fast food places.
Stop eating out weekly or 2 – 3 times a week. Start cooking again and eating casseroles. Learn to have one meal a week of leftovers creatively called a “dutch smorgasbord”. Add up those $5 -$10 lunches at fast food restaurants in one month and see what you spend($300 -$500 a month on lunch ouch)! Now save the receipts for just one month every time you eat out for dinner. I believe you will be very very surprised what you are spending. Think how that money will add up in a year. Get a coupon book and eat out 2 for 1 specials! This is how and why millionaires are rich-they are frugal folks.
7) RECYCLE – REDUCE – REUSE many household products, then put your monthly savings in the bank in a savings account for emergency use. When we began to practice the 3 R’s we saw our monthly saving to be around $150. Now we are saving around $200 monthly and that adds up to $2400 a year in our bank. It has become our cash Christmas fund! We only spend cash at Christmas and never touch our savings, that is for early retirement.
8) CREATE MULTIPLE STREAMS of LIFE TIME INCOME – I know you are thinking about all the Internet Scams
and late night TV Info Commercials. BUT most people who retire
early HAVE Multiple Streams of Income, not just a retirement pension or Social Security!
How do you do it? Write a Book or Blog (Helium for example)….Start a Home
Business (Remember The Colonel started Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was
over 50). Turn a hobby into a second income stream.
9) Real Estate.Hmmmmmmmmmm lots ways to reap additional income in retirement! Rent that room over the garage. It doesn’t always mean to buy more property. Convert present real estate into a money making venture or join with friends or family members to create a co-op real estate business. If you have extra land rent space for gardens (during WWII Victory Gardens fed many.
10) INVEST IN DEFERRED ANNUITIES. This type of retirement vehicle does no replace other retirement programs it only enhances your savings and helps you play catch up if you are behind on a retirement plan. It also diversifies your portfolio and allows you to choose how and when to receive income payments.
Remember the essential way you can retire early is to have a PLAN and FOLLOW IT!
Many self-made millionaires reached that goal by investing wisely – pinching pennies – and living a modest lifestyle – driving late model cars – and remembering that you reap what you sow! Being frugal and simple will reward you in retirement and perhaps keep you from having to work at 65.