Most of us have been taught that you work for 40+ years, save a portion of your income (10-15%?) and then you retire sometime in your mid to late 60s.
But why? What if it didn't have to be this way? What if you only worked for 20 years and retired at 45? Is this possible?
Financial independence: having a certain amount of money saved so that you could afford everything you want/need using the money you saved (and its future returns) thus freeing you from needing to work.
Financial independence often goes hand in hand with the concept of early retirement. We'll define early retirement as retiring before benefits become available to you. These include:
In this section, we will discuss important concepts like