Latest news with #earlyretirement
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The 10 Best States To Retire at 40 That Don't Require You To Be a Millionaire
Many Americans dream of living the retirement lifestyle. They may envision lives full of travel and enjoying drinks with tiny umbrellas on secluded beaches. Early retirement flips the mentality of working for decades in an office, with fewer years to enjoy life. The financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement epitomizes that desire through aggressive investing to enable aspirants to retire as early as 40 years old. Discover More: Check Out: FIRE devotees often use the 4% rule to determine if they can retire early. The rule is simple: You add all your investments together and withdraw 4% of the total in your first year of retirement. That amount is adjusted for inflation in the following years and assumes the likelihood of not outliving your resources for the following three decades. Additionally, early retirement requires increasingly purposeful spending and saving in early years to achieve the goal. Retiring at 40 is seemingly impossible, but it's achievable with purposeful actions, notably finding a low-cost-of-living place to live. A recent study from Falcon Funded reveals the best states to retire at 40, and none of them require millionaire status. The study looks at monthly cost of living for one person without rent, average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment, annual healthcare costs and annual cost of living with rent. The annual amount was multiplied by 25 to determine the required retirement savings. Also find out how much you need to save monthly to retire comfortably in every state. Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $807 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $973 Annual healthcare cost: $9,394 Annual cost of living with rent: $30,754 4% rule for withdrawals: $768,850 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $863 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $955 Annual healthcare cost: $9,789 Annual cost of living with rent: $31,605 4% rule for withdrawals: $790,125 Trending Now: Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $1,138 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $943 Annual healthcare cost: $9,408 Annual cost of living with rent: $34,369 4% rule for withdrawals: $859,230 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $1,047 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $1,139 Annual healthcare cost: $8,902 Annual cost of living with rent: $35,132 4% rule for withdrawals: $878,305 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $1,146 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $1,010 Annual healthcare cost: $9,444 Annual cost of living with rent: $35,318 4% rule for withdrawals: $882,960 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $1,087 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $935 Annual healthcare cost: $11,301 Annual cost of living with rent: $35,566 4% rule for withdrawals: $889,158 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $990 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $914 Annual healthcare cost: $12,769 Annual cost of living with rent: $35,612 4% rule for withdrawals: $890,308 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $1,095 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $974 Annual healthcare cost: $12,495 Annual cost of living with rent: $37,328 4% rule for withdrawals: $933,201 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $1,162 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $1,200 Annual healthcare cost: $9,280 Annual cost of living with rent: $37,628 4% rule for withdrawals: $940,690 Monthly cost of living per person (without rent): $1,083 Average monthly rent (one bedroom): $1,276 Annual healthcare cost: $9,338 Annual cost of living with rent: $37,639 4% rule for withdrawals: $940,970 Risks aside, retiring at 40 is possible with committed action. 'A person aiming to retire at 40 needs to think far beyond lifestyle goals — they need to think geographically. Housing remains the biggest driver, but healthcare and quality of life metrics also shift the savings target dramatically from state to state,' said Nathan Nolan, a spokesperson from Falcon Funded. 'Even small differences in monthly expenses can add up to hundreds of thousands in retirement savings over time.' Before beginning a journey towards early retirement, analyze the risks to create a plan to guide your decisions. More From GOBankingRates Surprising Items People Are Stocking Up On Before Tariff Pains Hit: Is It Smart? 6 Popular SUVs That Aren't Worth the Cost -- and 6 Affordable Alternatives This article originally appeared on The 10 Best States To Retire at 40 That Don't Require You To Be a Millionaire Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Social Security: 4 Steps To Take Now If You Want To Retire Before Age 67
If you're a younger worker, or know someone who is, early retirement may be part of the plan. After all, lots of workers now want to retire at 40, 50 or 60. Check Out: Read More: As you're probably aware, when it comes to Social Security, the full retirement age is 67 for those born in 1960 or later. As noted by AARP, the changes in age requirements come from legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan. When it comes to waiting, age can make a big difference in how much you'll qualify for when it comes to Social Security. If you want to retire before you reach 67, here's a look at some steps to take now. According to Ramsey Solutions, one of the first things you need to do is to determine your goals for early retirement. Those goals will help guide your plan and financial strategy. In addition, you can create a mock retirement budget. This will give you a better idea of how much money you'll need each month to make the early retirement dream a reality. Learn More: Healthcare and taxes are two areas you specifically need to consider as you plan for early retirement. You want to determine how you're going to pay for health care after you leave full-time work. In addition, per Fidelity, you should also look into withdrawal strategies to help reduce the effects of taxes on your finances in retirement. In this case, 'get to work' means figure out how you're going to achieve your retirement goals and then taking action. According to Ramsey Solutions, you need to figure out ways to get out of debt and invest consistently. You may consider investing in a bridge account and real estate to help fill in the gap between early retirement and when you're able to start taking out money from retirement accounts without penalty. A brokerage account is an example of a bridge option to help with that gap. You don't need to do all of this by yourself. You may find it helpful to meet regularly with a financial advisor. This professional can help you make decisions that'll take you in the direction of your goals for early retirement. You may also find it helpful to look at online resources and apps designed for personal finance. More From GOBankingRates 7 Luxury SUVs That Will Become Affordable in 2025 This article originally appeared on Social Security: 4 Steps To Take Now If You Want To Retire Before Age 67 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Independent Singapore
6 days ago
- General
- Independent Singapore
Man hesitates to date a 30 y/o Singaporean woman who wants to retire and live off her millionaire parents
SINGAPORE: A Singaporean man is having second thoughts about his relationship after finding out that the woman he's dating wants to retire early and live off her parents' wealth. In a recent anonymous post on Reddit's 'Ask Singapore,' he shared his situation, revealing that his date, a woman in her mid-thirties, has been struggling at work and is seriously considering quitting her job for good. According to him, the woman comes from a wealthy background, with parents who are 'millionaires.' 'She has the option to quit and live out the rest of her life without financial issues. She lives simply and has about S$5,000 stipend per month,' he wrote. 'She doesn't want children and has future private housing settled.' He also admitted that the arrangement isn't a dealbreaker on its own, but it has left him with some unease. 'It's more about the social stigma and shame of living off parents, even though realistically, if she doesn't spend the money now, it would just become her inheritance when she's old.' Looking for perspective, he turned to fellow Redditors and asked, 'Would you date a Singaporean woman in her 30s who retires and lives off her millionaire parents?' 'It's about a person's character, not wealth or retirement status.' In the thread, many commenters defended the woman, saying there's nothing wrong or shameful about choosing to retire early. 'There's no shame in quitting and retiring early, but the more important question to ask is, what does she plan to do with her time?' one comment read. 'Why not? It's about a person's character, not wealth or retirement status,' another chimed in. A third added, 'Nowadays, I think there is no longer any social stigma of living off parents. There are a number of social media influencers whose only job is to be a 'stay-at-home daughter/son,' etc., and everyone is envious of them. You should love her for who she is and her character, and whether both of you complement each other, and not whether she has a job.' Still, others said they could understand why the man was hesitant about continuing the relationship, with one commenter even admitting that he wouldn't consider marrying someone like her. He said, 'I won't. The reason is that if she already has the mindset of living off her parents, she probably doesn't see the need to work. That would mean that she might not be interested in a relationship and won't take it seriously even if she is in one.' In other news, a Singaporean woman recently took to Reddit to ask if she should break up and move on from her boyfriend of two years, who continues to 'like and follow random girls' on Instagram despite knowing how much it hurts her. According to her post on the r/SGexams subreddit, they've had multiple arguments about the issue. He dismisses her feelings whenever she opens up about how his actions affect her self-esteem and make her feel insecure in the relationship. He accuses her of being 'immature' or 'overreacting.' Read more: 'Should I break up?' — Woman upset that her boyfriend keeps 'liking and following random girls on Instagram' because 'they're pretty' Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only)
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I retired from my six-figure banking job to be a tour guide'
This is the first in a series about early retirement: how our readers did it, and what they are doing now. Would you like to take part? Get in touch at money@ The only word on the exterior of St Paul's Cathedral is 'resurgam', meaning 'I shall rise again' in Latin. The discreet reference to the second coming of Christ is one David Harry is keen to point out to guests on his walking history tours of London. But Harry feels the motto also reflects a second coming of his own. 'It's a symbol for my ongoing change in career; my own rebirth, as it were.' For the past five years, the 61-year-old has been one of the capital's most prominent tour guides. Donning a stripey blazer, Hawaiian shirt and a Panama hat, Harry leads guests through London's forgotten back alleys and ancient landmarks to reveal a history 'you can't Google,' he says. His evenings are spent combing through his own extensive archive of old magazines, books and sundries to unearth forgotten chapters in London's storied past that can be related to his guests. This second career came after an early retirement from a stressful job in a bank. 'I can't believe how happy it makes me,' says Harry of his new role. 'I just love every minute of it. I am glad I made the decision to retire when I did and I can't believe how lucky I am.' 'I gave up a six-figure salary willingly' Harry's life is unrecognisable from what it was before the pandemic. After almost 25 years in a corporate job, he retired in 2020 aged 55 and gave up his comfortable six-figure salary. Most people can only dream of doing this. Just 5pc of workers retired when they turned 55 last year, normally the earliest someone can access their pension pot, according to analysis by cash deposit firm Flagstone. The majority of workers retire at state pension age, which is 66 for both men and women and expected to rise to 68 by the middle of the 2040s. About one million people have continued to work full-time after hitting the current pension age, according to official figures last year. Fortunately for Harry, when he began his career in 1996 he signed on with one of the last remaining gold-plated private sector pension schemes. It meant the former Deutsche Bank vice president – who joined the German financial giant as a photocopy operator and worked his way up – retired with about £40,000 a year. 'I knew you could retire at 55 and I was in the final salary pension scheme, so I was very lucky indeed,' Harry says. 'My friend left [his job] and told me how much better life was outside the bank too. I realised I could afford to do it and if I did well as a tour guide I could live comfortably.' It was then that he decided to take the leap and hand in his notice. The money would serve as a safety net, Harry planned, allowing him to turn a hobby into a second career. Shortly after retiring, Harry's mother died, leaving him with a modest inheritance that allowed him to further cushion himself during the transition. He says she would have backed his decision to quit, having given him plenty of encouragement when he trained to become a magician. 'My mother had always been very supportive of me and she passed away between when I made my decision to leave the bank and hand in my notice.' He had qualified with the City of London as an official tour guide while working at Deutsche Bank and steadily built up his confidence in the role. 'I was moonlighting in the last few years before I made the jump,' Harry says. Years performing as a Magic Circle magician under the pseudonym 'the Delusionist' at corporate events in his spare time had also convinced Harry of his ability to hold an audience. 'I was already a performing magician so I had those presentation skills,' he says. 'I used to wake up in terror every morning' Looking back on his time in the corporate world, Harry says he was 'institutionalised'. He adds: 'I had been there for 25 years, I didn't understand how much freedom could come from being self employed.' He says that overall he enjoyed his time with Deutsche Bank. 'They trained me up and paid me reasonably well.' Yet he recalls how the 'pressure from deadlines and enormous decisions' that came with his senior position 'wears you down' over time. 'Every morning I would wake up in terror before having to look at my inbox thinking what's the next thing I am going to be asked to do or look at.' The father-of-two soon saw a steady trickle of interest in his tours of London, building out a small following from his existing work tour guiding in the Square Mile. Despite losing 'about 60pc' of his salary, he soon qualified as a tour guide with the City of Westminster, receiving hundreds of positive reviews on travel website TripAdvisor. His first tours took guests to filming locations from the Harry Potter franchise, following the young wizard's journey through London from being dropped off by the purple Knight Bus in Borough Market to the Ministry of Magic entrance in Westminster. 'I started doing Harry Potter tours straight away,' says Harry. Other tours led by Harry focus on London's espionage history, following the footsteps figures like Ian Fleming and notorious Cambridge Five member Kim Philby. He says his success as a guide has matched the income from his pension, while he also sees healthy demand from corporate clients, for whom he creates bespoke tours, as well as occasional viral hits on TikTok. 'Two and a half years ago I posted a random video on TikTok and it went viral. Now I post every day about London stories, so TikTok pays me and I sometimes get recognised in the streets.' His best ever month on the video sharing platform earned him £1,000, after signing a monetisation agreement which pays content creators a small fee per 10,000 views they receive. A recent video of Harry's on the site attracted almost 200,000 views and delves into how an IRA bomb explosion in 1992 at the foot of the City's Gherkin had the effect of revealing the remains of a teenage Roman girl. A Latin inscription now marks her final resting place. 'Now I have got more work than I need and I have to turn it down,' says Harry. He is kept busiest in the summer months, when tourists flock to London. 'It's seasonal,' he adds. 'In the winter I can do two or three tours a week, and in the summer I have done up to three tours a day. But that's quite tiring.' Some of his favourite guests are Londoners. 'I love guiding Londoners because they've already got quite a lot of knowledge.' He adds he only wishes his mother could have seen how he has spent his retirement because he knows it would have won her approval. 'It's the one regret I have that she wasn't around to see what I have done with my career.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
We retired early from our jobs in oil and gas to travel. Starting over again in new places has been terrifying.
Last year, Kelly Benthall, now 54, and her husband quit their jobs and retired early to travel the world. She found the idea of starting over again in new places terrifying. Learning how to manage fear made it doable. Last year, at 53, my husband and I quit our jobs in oil and gas and retired early to travel the world. Many friends assumed we were fearless — that anyone who leaves behind home, routines, and everything familiar must be chasing adventure The truth? I'm not fearless. I'm a total scaredy-cat. I didn't grow up traveling. We didn't hop on planes or dream about faraway places. Our family vacations were road trips to Ohio to visit relatives — reliable, predictable, safe. Most of my family still doesn't have a passport. If you'd asked me in my 20s whether I'd ever sell everything and move from country to country, I would've shaken my head no, probably while breaking out in a cold sweat. It sounded terrifying. Turns out, it is terrifying sometimes. And I do it anyway. For years, I built my life around managing risk. Raising kids, climbing the corporate ladder, and running my own consulting business all required careful planning and staying one step ahead. But nothing prepared me for the emotional risk of walking away from that life. The moment my husband, Nigel, and I got serious about early retirement, the what-ifs flooded in: What if we ran out of money? What if something happened to our kids or grandkids while we're gone? What if we hated it? I've spent my life tuned in to everyone else: clients, kids, even my husband. Somewhere along the way, my empathy turned into a constant state of alert. I was always scanning for what might go wrong. The idea of giving up control, dropping into unfamiliar places, and starting over again felt like a nightmare wrapped in an Instagram filter. Learning that I didn't have to be fearless and just needed a plan for the fear changed everything. I discovered fear-setting in 2022, and it's the single most useful tool I've carried into this chapter of life. Instead of setting goals, you define the nightmare. Then you ask three questions: How could I prevent it? What would I do if it happened? What's the cost of doing nothing? That last one stopped me cold: What would it cost us to stay stuck, too scared to try? It turns out I'd been using versions of fear-setting long before I even knew what to call them. I used them to calm my son after watching Hurricane Katrina coverage, walking him through every worst-case scenario. Later, I relied on them to manage my own spirals over work deadlines, breaking fear into manageable pieces. Fear-setting works at any age — and for almost anything. It's simpler than it sounds. You don't need a course or a coach. You just need a pen, a few quiet minutes, and the willingness to name what's scaring you out loud. I start by writing the absolute worst-case scenario at the top of the page, even if it feels dramatic. Then, I answer the three questions honestly. I learned that getting honest about the worst case doesn't make it more likely, it makes it less terrifying. Even now, after a year of traveling, every time we step off a plane into a new place, I still get anxious: Will I find my way back? Will I belong here? It's rarely the big things. It's the tiny moments of unfamiliarity. It's the ones no amount of planning or money can solve. Where's the grocery store? Did we pick the wrong Airbnb? Will I meet anyone here, or will I feel completely alone? I'm not fearless. I'm not naturally adventurous. I'm just someone who finally got tired of letting fear drive every decision. Fear-setting gave me a way to name the scary stuff, stare it down, and ask: Is this really going to stop me? If there's one thing I wish people understood, it's this: You're not supposed to feel ready. You don't need to wait until the fear goes away. You just need to know that fear is part of the deal — and that you're capable of walking through it. It has been through managing fear — instead of waiting for it to disappear — that I've changed everything. And that's the real adventure. Read the original article on Business Insider
