You may not think an early retirement isn’t for you. This is especially true if you got a late start to saving up for those golden years. Not having enough money can make retiring earlier a bit of an obstacle. Sure, it sounds nice, but being fully prepared is a hassle. The truth is, taking the dive earlier does have many more benefits than you might think
Let’s look at 5 reasons why you should consider retiring early:
1) Waiting for Retirement Can Cause More Risk
The reality that’s tough to handle about retirement is you don’t know how long you’ll life. Will you stay active and healthy? As people get up in age, they start to slow down. They have no choice but to retire earlier than they wanted. And the economy isn’t so straightforward. Employers might start looking to cut their workforce and the older folks and new hires usually go first. This is why you should be more aggressive about your retirement strategy and retire sooner rather than later.
2) Your Job Sucks
It’s not uncommon for people to hate their job. Maybe you even enjoyed it, but the same thing, day-after-day, can be tiring and frustrating. You’ve been working longer than most people, so you have more of a right to just be plum exhausted. People who hate their job often find that it impacts their physical health. They’re more likely to be overweight, suffering sleep problems, have more stress and depression. If you’re miserable and your job is making you that way, it’s time to get some rest and retire.
3) Retirement Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Be Productive
Retirement isn’t about vacations and lounging around the couch all day. You can still be very active in your retirement. Instead of working full time, cut back a little bit. Work part-time hours. You’ll have more free time and won’t have nearly as much stress. You can even take up hobbies you’ve been meaning to get into for a long time.
4) You Won’t Necessarily Run Out of Money
Having enough retirement funds to live on is the main reason why people work longer than they have to. They are afraid they won’t make it, especially as our lifespans keep growing. There are ways to invest money, like in fixed annuities, that have a great payout. It’s worth doing research on other options you might have.
5) Delaying Social Security May Be a Bad Idea
Social security is running out in the next however many years. They keep changing the story, but people are living longer and it’s draining the program. They say that if you delay collecting, you’ll have more saved and the checks will be larger. Collecting too early and your checks are smaller, making life more difficult. But that’s not always the case.
As the Social Security Administration has explained, “If you live to the average life expectancy for someone your age, you will receive about the same amount in lifetime benefits no matter whether you choose to start receiving benefits at age 62, full retirement age, age 70 or any age in between.” Yes, your checks will be smaller, but overall, you’ll get more of them to last the rest of your life. Again, it can be difficult to get past having smaller checks, but there are many other benefits that can outweigh this one potential con.
