To spend little, move to a country or region with low living costs. To earn much, work in a country or an industry with large salaries. For best effect, combine these via remote work, or work for a global company which (like some giants) offers US-competitive salaries outside the US. Some companies also help existing workers with relocation.
In many industries and careers, early retirement can be very hard to reverse if you decide to return to work many years later. Your knowledge and skills won’t be up to date, your resume will be suspicious, and some professional licensing boards (eg medicine) may revoke your license after some years of unemployment.
The future is hard to predict. Your assets may lose value. Your cost of living may rise (eg more expensive housing, new medical costs, changes to housemates). You may want to spend more money on new products invented after your retirement (eg the Internet, flying cars). You may just want to change your lifestyle, or go on more vacations.
In such cases, it will probably be easier to increase your income (or reduce your expenses) if you’re still working, compared to returning to work after having retired. And so, when planning to retire on $X savings, it’s dangerous to set X to exactly what you calculate you’ll need. It’s safer to save more, perhaps much more, than you think you’ll strictly need, before retiring.
Re: 1., I’m personally unwilling to move outside the U.S. but agree it could make sense if you can make it work for you while maintaining a high salary.
Re: 2 and 3, I completely agree. I think in particular about longevity medicine as a potential future expense. You can certainly build up support for higher-than-current expense levels to address these risks. You might also retire to less profitable or more risky activities that you find more enjoyable (but that supply >0 income), or simply stay in your current profession—but with the advantage of having higher option value.
Some notes:
To spend little, move to a country or region with low living costs. To earn much, work in a country or an industry with large salaries. For best effect, combine these via remote work, or work for a global company which (like some giants) offers US-competitive salaries outside the US. Some companies also help existing workers with relocation.
In many industries and careers, early retirement can be very hard to reverse if you decide to return to work many years later. Your knowledge and skills won’t be up to date, your resume will be suspicious, and some professional licensing boards (eg medicine) may revoke your license after some years of unemployment.
The future is hard to predict. Your assets may lose value. Your cost of living may rise (eg more expensive housing, new medical costs, changes to housemates). You may want to spend more money on new products invented after your retirement (eg the Internet, flying cars). You may just want to change your lifestyle, or go on more vacations.
In such cases, it will probably be easier to increase your income (or reduce your expenses) if you’re still working, compared to returning to work after having retired. And so, when planning to retire on $X savings, it’s dangerous to set X to exactly what you calculate you’ll need. It’s safer to save more, perhaps much more, than you think you’ll strictly need, before retiring.
Re: 1., I’m personally unwilling to move outside the U.S. but agree it could make sense if you can make it work for you while maintaining a high salary.
Re: 2 and 3, I completely agree. I think in particular about longevity medicine as a potential future expense. You can certainly build up support for higher-than-current expense levels to address these risks. You might also retire to less profitable or more risky activities that you find more enjoyable (but that supply >0 income), or simply stay in your current profession—but with the advantage of having higher option value.