Yesterday I read a fellow blogger's comments on them handing in their retirement paperwork.

Analise said, "My retirement paperwork was completed yesterday. Now I just have to take a form to HR to sign off on the information about the number of sick leave days I have accrued. I learned I have enough days that it gives me an additional year of credit. This is good because since I am taking early retirement, my defined benefit amount will be reduced by 33% of what it would have been in three years. Still, it is WORTH IT considering the amount of stress I am leaving behind. I have seen too many people work longer just to hold out for a higher pension, only to die within a year of retiring. Last year, two of my coworkers died before even being able to retire. By saving and planning in the early years of my career, I now have more choices."

This just continues to remind me to save, save, save, because you never know in 10, 20, 30 years what life circumstances you'll be in that you may want the option of getting out. When I first started working at a computer manufactoring plant I saw tons of people in their 60's, 70's, and even 80's working the factory line - the whole while looking miserable. I bet none of these people wanted to be spending the twilight of their years shoving screws into a computer when they could be soaking it up on the beach in a mini-retirement community in Miami! This all gets back to a major reason why I'm frugal, and I save a lot. Some people think people that are frugal or that save for retirement are very matterialistic and have a worship of money. Only (at least for me) the opposite is true. I'm frugal and save a lot because I want the flexibility to someday get out of a circumstance just like Analise did!! Its not about the money its about the flexibility that saving creates! So get out there and SAVE!

Subscribe to frugal tips to retire early by e-mail.

Check out my blog at Frugal Retirement for other money saving tips.

Yesterday I just got the Kiplingers 2008 Retirement Planning magazine and as you'd expect it had many articles about planning for retirement. It got me thinking...I wonder what age most of the bloggers are hoping to retire at? So I created a poll. Check out Frugal Retirement Poll

Within a week I'll posts the results. Enjoy!

Lately while I've been reading the book "Semi-retirement: Work Less, Live More" I got to thinking. What scenario would I need in order to retire with 1) Savings(i.e. 401, Roth, Bonds) 2) Supplemental Income(Tax lien interest, Part-time selling things online, house paid off) and 3) Part time work. Here are the three scenarios I laid out for our family on what it would take to retire.

Savings Supplement PT Work
1. $225,000 x 3 - House Paid - $20,000
2. $225,000 x 2 - $20,000 - $20,000
3. $225,000 x 1 - House paid - $30,000

I basically laid these out as a starting point of what would it take for our family to semi retire. I used the $225,000 x 3,2, or 1 to indicate for each $225k it would provide $10,000 worth of income to our family. I realized at the end that each scenario averaged out to about $50-60,000 per year in income from all these streams. It also showed me that retirement doesn't have to be that far off. I could be a lot closer then I think and I don't necessarily have to have $1-2 million saved up.

Do these scenarios seem realistic? Has anyone else had experience with an actual semi-retirement like this?

Subscribe to frugal tips to retire early by e-mail.

Check out my blog at Frugal Retirement for other money saving tips.

Here's a short list of 5 things you can start doing today to help you put money away for the future:

Create a "loose change" jar for all your coins and at the end of each month, deposit the collection into a stock that you believe has hit "bottom" and has growth potential. Sit on it.
Decide today that you will eat out only once (twice at the most) a week. This may be hard for those coffee/latte folks out there.

Do all your bill payments online - as well as set up automatic payments direct from your checking/savings account. This will eliminate any late fees you may encounter, plus any postage fees.
Instead of going out for a movie - or renting a movie, borrow movies from your local library. You can't go wrong with a classic movie - especially a Hitchcock!
With gas prices shooting up, find out if any of your co-workers would be willing to ride-share. This is a great way to get to know people - and save money!

What are some of your tips?

Check out my blog for other money savings tips to get to retirement early at frugal retirement.

Subscribe to frugal tips to retire early by Email

Well the challenge is over! Here are the official results of “What % do you save?” It looks like on average people save 15% or more! That is astounding!!! Compared to the national average of 1% or less. Saving 10% or more is a key getting to retirement early and a lot of the poll respondents show that they realize this too.

Check out the poll results

Today I took the plunge and ordered Work Less, Live More: The Way to Semi-Retirement by Bob Clyatt. I bought it used on Amazon used books and I’ve been reading it every time I go to Borders or Barnes and Noble. As a person that is actively seeking to someday have the option of not having to work I thought this would be a great addition to my collection and give me some great advice. The book takes the perspective of perusing a semi-retirement, which is something I haven’t considered before.

Subscribe to Frugal tips to retire early by Email

About 6 months ago I came across igoogle and have since fallen in love with it! I can create my very own dashboard as to the feeds or things that interest me. Take a look.

It allows you to add different gadgets and RSS feeds to your homepage so that you had have one desktop for all the things that interest you. As you can see from mine I have dating tips to jokes to blogs to financial tips. It really has a lot of great features that can make organizing information for you easier and quicker.

Along with that you can add my RSS gadget feed to your igoogle homepage by clicking on my +google icon in my “About me” description.


Check out how easy it is to do and find other things to add to your igoogle page!