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.
