There’s a contingent of personal finance obsessives out there who’ve branded themselves as FI/RE, which is short for Financial Independence and Early Retirement. They’ve cut their day-to-day living expenses to the bone, while earning and investing aggressively, all with the intent of retiring well before the average retirement age (which is 55.3 in Australia). For them, saving is more enjoyable and fulfilling than a big house, dinners out and lavish holidays.
Most people have a hard enough time envisioning retirement at all, much less early retirement. Despite that, many workers have managed to quit their jobs and achieve financial independence by age 40 or even younger. Sipping drinks on the beach all day at the ripe old age of 30 sounds incredible, but there's a downside to it, too.
Going down a path toward retiring early, whether you're in the middle of your career and looking to just shave a few years off or you're early in your career and looking to shave off a decade or two, is like running a very long footrace on uneven ground. You can see that amazing finish line in your head, but there's a lot of ground to cover first and some real potential for something unexpected to happen.
