When you think of your retirement what do visualize? Traveling the world visiting exotic countries, spending time chilling out playing golf or merely having more quality time to spend with your family. Many of us dream of being able to do the things that we don't have time to do when we are working but sadly the reality, for many, will be very different.
The real prospects will be having to work longer (which will involve covering for less productive colleagues for even longer) and having less pension than would have originally been predicted.
Not quite the rosy picture that we have in our dreams of retirement.
Is there any way that we can achieve our real retirement goals,namely to retire earlier and to be able to pursue our interests and ambitions?
Fortunately there are ways that we can achieve early retirement but they will all involve finding ways to earn more money to supplement our pensions.
Start Paying A Pension Early
In order to be able to retire early it is crucial that you start paying a pension as soon as possible as the younger you start paying a pension the sooner you will have sufficient funds to retire early. If possible try to enrol in a company pension but if that is not possible then make sure that you pay a private pension to a company that invests wisely to ensure that you achieve maximum returns for your contributions.
Also, try to ensure that you increase your pension contributions every year as this will make a big difference to the amount that you will eventually receive on retirement. It is surprising how much extra money you can create towards this even by reducing on little things like having takeaway meals.
Live Below Your Means
Write down a list of your current expenditures and cross out any that are work related e.g. travelling costs or business lunches.
The general rule of thumb is that if you want to continue to live your current lifestyle after you retire then you will need to have funds in the region of approximately 80% of what you are currently spending as work expenses equate to 20% of your expenditure.
Therefore if you want to achieve this goal you will need to live quite frugally to save adequate funds for your retirement. You could also consider ways of reducing some costs when you retire such as owning one car rather than two.
You will need to secure as high a paid job as possible and live BELOW your means rather than to your means. This will often include forgoing expensive houses, holidays, cars and designer clothes.
You will need to take into account any expenditure in order to stay focused in achieving your goals. Even Rockefeller carried a little red book with him to record everything that he spent his money on! This may sound harsh but achieving your dreams doesn't come cheap and will require some sacrifices along the way if your dreams are to become a reality.
Invest In Property
Another easy way to earn money towards your retirement is to buy and rent out properties. With house prices and interest rates so low there has never been a better time to invest in property. Eventually demand for housing will become so great that house prices are bound to increase again which will provide a nice nest egg fund for your retirement.
Create A Passive Income
What is a passive income you might ask? Passive income is an income created by assets namely things that put money in your pockets whether you work or not.
One great way of creating a recurring income is by starting a business working from home. There are many money making ideas to choose from to make money from home including starting an online business. Once you have successfully made the first sale you will create a passive income by continuing to make more sales especially when you gain the trust of your customers and they start subscribing to your products which results in consistent income going into your bank account every month whether you work or not.
Your passive income will then help to supplement your pension when you retire allowing you to live the life that you want both when you are still working and after you retire.
Working from home will give you more freedom of time to spend with friends and family or to pursue your interests. This will be great preparation ready for when you will be able to do this full time after retiring.
To close,if you want retire early to avoid being stuck on overcrowded trains or queuing in endless traffic jams on your commute to work, then you will need to take drastic action sooner rather than later. To achieve the retirement you dream of rather than the retirement you dread, you will need to find ways to earn more money and to save hard for as long as possible.
Saving for retirement is paramount to achieving your dream of being able to finish working younger. With the average person living much longer now you will need to be very disciplined and save very hard if you want to retire early as if you retire at 55 for example then you could need enough money to live on for another 30 years.
However, as well as preparing yourself financially for your retirement you will also need to make sure that also have enough interests to keep you occupied, or you could end up being very bored when you actually give up work. Therefore make sure that you plan wisely in every way for your retirement.
