July 21, 2025 • 17 mins
Ready to feel more motivated about retiring early? These five research-backed stats reveal how early retirement can positively impact everything from health to relationships—and might be the nudge you need to take your financial independence plan more seriously. The benefits go well beyond just having more free time.
While many people delay retirement out of fear or uncertainty, the data shows that stepping away from work earlier can lead to greater satisfaction, improved well-being, and more meaningful use of time. But getting the timing right means understanding your financial picture and knowing when enough is truly enough.
Early retirement isn’t about escaping work, it’s about creating space for the things that matter most. If you're serious about building a life with more energy, freedom, and fulfillment, this is your sign to start planning intentionally.
-
Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.
The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.
Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements
Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.
Create Your Custom Early Retirement Strategy Here
Get access to the same software I use for my clients and join the Early Retirement Academy here
Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Most of you do not need a pep talk or a
motivational speech from me totell you the benefits of
retiring early.
You want to retire early.
You want to spend more time onwhat you care about most.
There are some statistics thatmight surprise you, though.
So if there was any moremotivation you needed, this
hopefully will be insightful foryou, to give you some more
firepower, so that every timeyou add more money to your 401k
(00:23):
or to your Roth IRA or to yoursuperhero account, which is what
I call a brokerage account youknow exactly why you're doing it
.
So this is less of an episodeof hey, I'm gonna learn a really
specific tactic and I'm gonnago save 10% of taxes on my
future year's earnings.
That's not what this is.
These are just some statisticsthat I have gathered from my
(00:45):
research, in addition to take infrom my clients who have
actually retired.
Now a quick story before we hopinto the five statistics.
When it comes to an earlyretirement, there are a lot of
people who are really excited toretire, but they're also
hesitant to spend in the earlyyears of retirement because
they're worried if theyoverspend from, let's call it,
(01:05):
55 to 60, which I call an earlyretirement anytime before 65.
So if they overspend from 55 to60, that they're going to be 80
regretting and wishing they hadmore money.
At the same time they haveanother thought in their head of
hey, I don't want to be 80 with$7 million.
I wish I would have spent morewhen I had my energy and my
health.
So, in a weird way, there are alot of people that I talked to
(01:28):
who are on track for retirementI'm going to say it again, on
track for retirement, who Idon't advise retire and you're
like that doesn't make any sense.
You can be on track forretirement, which means lifetime
income from, let's call it, 65to 95.
But it doesn't mean you shouldretire if you have not really
(01:49):
dreamt of what you want thoseearly years of retirement to
look like.
If you want to spend,hypothetically, $100,000 a year,
after taxes, adjusted forinflation, for the rest of your
life, you, if you're followingthe right rules, if you want to
use the withdrawal approach Iuse, which is called John
Guyton's guardrails approach,where you shift income based off
(02:09):
of market conditions, whathappens is you start at $2
million.
5% of 2 million is a hundredthousand a year.
So if you had $2 million andyou wanted to retire early and
you were hypothetically 55 going, I'm ready to walk away.
It doesn't necessarily mean youshould.
Now I'm the first person to asksomeone hey, do you want to
retire early?
Are you in a good spot?
(02:29):
I want you to prioritize health, family, friends, travel, all
the good stuff, but I don't wantyou to retire too late and be
mad at me because you wish thatyou had spent more along the way
.
I don't want you to run out ofmoney and retire too early.
There's balance there.
Why do I bring this up?
I really do not want you toretire too early and have to go
back to work, and I have seenthat where people retire at 55.
(02:53):
They're like I'm going to spenda hundred thousand a year.
Wait a second.
Kids college just came up.
Yep, that's a significantexpense.
And I thought they were goingto get a scholarship.
It turns out my child isn'tinvesting to the degree.
Get a scholarship Turns out mychild isn't investing to the
degree I hope they would.
I want to give them more moneyfor their Roth IRA or I want to
help with a down payment or awedding, so that 100,000 a year
just became 150,000 a year,which just became 175,000 a year
(03:15):
because of healthcare and extratravel.
And when you're not working youhave more time to spend money.
So maybe 100,000 is the realityof what your base expenses are,
but you have way more thingsthat come up in the early years
of retirement, which now youhave a lot of pressure on your
portfolio.
Imagine you retire at 55 andnow all of a sudden markets go
(03:37):
down and your 2 million is worth1.8 and you want to take let's
call it $175,000 so that you canexist.
Well, if you do that, thatwould be a 9.7% withdrawal rate.
That's way too high.
$175,000 out of $1.8 million.
That is something that wouldmake me uncomfortable as an
(03:58):
advisor.
So I'm bringing this up not toscare you but say this is real
life stuff.
Does it make sense to plan forextra buffer?
Yes, but I see too many peoplemake the following mistake of I
don't know when I'm going tohave enough.
I'm going to keep working.
And they keep working and keepworking.
And I have a phrase for thatthat I call goalpost planning,
where you're just pushing backthe goalposts, just pushing it
(04:19):
back one more year, one moreproject.
Then I'm going to retire.
Now you're 60 and you have $3million and you didn't need 3
million, you just needed alittle bit more.
So, with that being said, hereare some statistics that will
hopefully make you even moreexcited to retire early, because
retiring early is very simple,but it's not easy.
It's really simple.
(04:39):
I know what a 401k is.
You probably know what a 401kis.
I save more.
I'll have more for retirement.
That doesn't mean it's easy.
There's a trade-off.
Every dollar that doesn't go toyour 401k could be used for a
tutor for your child.
It could be going to travel.
It could allow you to quit yourcurrent job to go start another
career.
That sounds way more exciting,even if it pays less.
Every dollar has a trade-off.
(05:05):
Now I am a certified financialplanner.
I'm the host of the EarlyRetirement Podcast, and I love
what I get to do, which is I getto help people retire early and
understand truly when work isoptional so they can spend more
time on what they care aboutmost.
So I'm going to go throughthese statistics now.
All I ask tell me which one isthe most surprising.
I love hearing from you guys.
If you're listening on thepodcast app beautiful, send me
an email.
You can literally email me andmy team, ari at rootfinancialcom
(05:30):
.
That's ari at rootfinancialcom.
That could be regarding thisepisode, that could be regarding
working with us, that could bewhatever you want.
I love hearing from you guys.
So if you've been listening fora year or more and you just go,
hey, I just want to say thanksfor all the work, or you know
what?
You talk way too fast and yourstories are going on and on and
you just really got to condensewhat you're doing.
Guys, this show is for you.
(05:51):
I tweak all the feedback.
So, as you notice the showshifts, that's because of things
you're telling me.
One of you sent me a verytransparent note, which I love,
saying hey, ari, I don't want tobe mean here or anything, but
sometimes that you'll say, hey,I'm starting to tell a story and
you'll get so excited duringthat story that you'll tell
another story and forget themain story and it's really
(06:12):
making us confused and I'll say,oh my gosh, that's the last
thing I want to do.
Let me understand.
So, for those of you guys whoare thinking, hey, the show has
gotten worse or gotten better orshifting, I'm shifting
everything based off yourfeedback.
You have not seen the amount oftimes I will practice making
these episodes where there isnot a record button on the
camera, and I even love gettingto do that.
(06:34):
Sometimes I'll even recordthose and I'll post them just to
show not, hey, I'm practicing,but to show you guys.
Hey, there was one thought Ithink I explained really well
there while practicing it.
I'll take that clip and I'llsend that out as a clip so you
don't have to see the wholething.
But you get a little tidbit andsome of you go it's that one
tidbit that click's it.
Let's hop into it.
So the first statistic Now thiswas from a 2020 study in
(06:56):
Frontiers in Psychologycreativity peaks after leaving
work.
Just think about this for asecond.
Okay, creativity peaks afterleaving work.
(07:17):
It's a cliche saying, but a lotof people say if you need a new
idea, go into the shower orwhatever it is that brings you
creative thinking.
Go on a walk.
I find myself I get my bestideas when I'm in savasana or
shavasana I think it's shavasanaof yoga.
At the end I'm not asleep, butI'm kind of in like a dazed
(07:39):
state and I'll get ideas thatjust come to me.
I don't know why, but sometimesI'll go to yoga and I'm doing
all the exercises and breathingand then I'm thinking at the end
I really need a good idea.
And if I try to go I need agood idea, I never get that.
It's only when I'm in totalbliss I'll get an idea that,
just like floats to me, I gowhat a magical thing, what a
cool brain that I can just dothat.
(07:59):
And this is the same conceptthat you guys.
There are creative thoughtsthat you're probably just not
receiving because you're workingso hard, you're saving so well,
you're working to the nthdegree so that you can retire
early one day.
You're busy with kids and lifeand I get it.
The reason I'm bringing this upis that's not why you should
retire early, but some of youwant to write when you retire.
(08:22):
Many of you have shared in ourfree community, the Root
Collective hey, I'm going tospend more time volunteering,
but I'm going to spend more timewriting and reading and maybe
I'm just going to kind of seewhat comes to me.
Awesome.
You can literally see in thisstudy retirees who left work
before 60 reported a 33%increase in creative engagement
writing, art, music compared tothose who continued working.
(08:45):
Now is that a no-brainer?
No, it doesn't apply to everysingle person, but it's a cool
thought to go that wow, what ifyou could get more creative when
you're not working?
I've seen this my fiance Alice.
She's a teacher.
She has summers off.
When summers are off and she'sreading, she's more creative.
Her jokes are better.
If she heard this, she'd go myjokes are great all the time.
(09:05):
But she is literally a funnierperson when she's not working,
because she might say a joke butactually is thinking about I
got to plan that lesson fortomorrow.
Might say a joke but actuallyis thinking about I got to plan
that lesson for tomorrow.
So it's something to consider.
The next one Early retirees, ofcourse, are more likely to
volunteer, but that's not thereason to only do it, although
that's very nice Live longer.
(09:25):
People who retire before age 60,according to a 2013 Carnegie
Mellon study, before age 60 are40% more likely to engage in
regular volunteer work, whichhas been associated with a 24%
reduction in mortality risk.
Don't let that statistic be thereason you go retire early.
Some of you are like, oh mygosh, that's going to save me.
(09:46):
I got to go retire.
Don't do that.
Okay, volunteer because youwant to volunteer, but know if
you volunteer and you do livelonger because you enjoy life
and there's purpose andfulfillment.
A lot of people retire and justdon't know what they're going to
do, and so they start to findtheir health decreases because
they don't have motivation andthey're not creative anymore.
They're not using that musclewhich, yes, as you know, you
(10:07):
need to be honest.
Okay, this was in the journalsof Gerontology found that early
retirees report a 17% boost inrelationship satisfaction,
especially among men who retirebefore their spouses.
Okay, this I struggle with,because a lot of people are very
(10:30):
close although they don't thinkso in the moment with their
coworkers.
Then they retire and they'renot hanging out with their
coworkers because there's notactivation energy.
You don't have to plan it withyour coworker.
You know you're going to seethem at the meeting, you know
you'll see them on Zoom, youknow that you might just run
into them at the quarterlymeeting and there is a sense of
connection there.
When that stops and you have tonow be the initiator, there are
(10:53):
a lot of people who strugglewith that community sense and so
it can be weird to, after youretire, if your coworker is
still working, to go hey, can wego to lunch?
They're like I'm working, sowhat I have clients do is I have
asked them.
I go hey, there's a fewcoworkers you've told me about.
They sound really cool.
I encourage you to invite themto lunch.
(11:14):
Don't do it in like adebilitating way where it's hey,
I retired and you didn't Justsay hey, I really would love to
connect.
I feel like we used to get tosee each other way more.
I'd love to take you to lunchand say it like that.
So there's a very clear who'spaying.
And I have clients that arereally grateful that I brought
up that idea, because nowthey're seeing coworkers they
otherwise wouldn't have and theyare planning financially for
(11:36):
that as a expense that's worthpaying for of hey, I'm going to
pay to be able to hang out withmy friend.
I talk about this a lot, but Ihave a friend that I love.
He's one of my closest friends.
He does not make a lot of money.
I love going on vacation withhim.
I will pay for him to come onvacation.
I don't expect anything inreturn.
He doesn't act a certain way.
(11:56):
Now, if he were the type ofperson that would act weird
because I'm paying, then I wouldnever do it because it would
make it too weird on the trip.
But it is not that type ofrelationship and it's not that I
have so much money I can payfor his trip.
What I'll do is, if I'm buyinga plane ticket, I'll buy his
ticket and go hey, I bought it,you're now coming.
I'm not paying for every singlething, but it's initiating that
(12:17):
and sometimes not all the timehe will go hey, man had a good
month.
I got this bonus from sellingthis.
I'm happy to pay you back forthis because our relationship is
that good.
I'm not concerned on whether hedoes it or not and I'm
confident if he has the money hewill pay me back.
But imagine I didn't pay for it.
Well, do you know how manyexperiences I would lose with my
friend?
It's not worth it to me.
(12:37):
The fourth one here retiringearly may improve sleep by up to
50, five zero minutes per night.
Research from the University ofTurku showed retirees,
especially early retirees, getan average of 46 to 50 minutes
more of sleep per night,improving cognitive function,
emotional resilience.
Now I've seen that go the otherway.
(12:58):
Where people stay up late,they're having more fun, they
don't have to go to bed, they'redrinking more wine, they're
doing whatever it is they'redoing.
So this is not like a hard andset rule, but I thought it was
interesting.
And then the final one, whichis my favorite.
This is a survey by Age Wave andMerrill Lynch found that only
8% of early retirees now earlyretirees, they are saying is
(13:20):
before age 55, reportedsignificant regrets about
retiring, compared to 32% oflate retirees after what they
said age 67.
So what they're saying here is8% of early retirees regretted
it, versus 32% of late retireesregretted it.
(13:40):
Now here's where this isconfusing the people who are
retiring later.
They likely are regretting itbecause they just had to work
longer.
If both people had the optionof retiring early, I bet they
would equally enjoy it.
But I didn't go to the nthdegree when reading the study.
What I found interesting isthat 8% number 8% very few
(14:02):
people retired at 55 and went oh, I should have kept working.
Even if financially they werein a position where it was tight
, they still were grateful theymade that decision.
Maybe they did part-time income, maybe they were planning on
working until 60, retired at 55,making an assumption here and
then just said you know what?
I'd rather spend less money Ifthat means I don't have to go
(14:24):
back to work.
That's more important to me.
They might go I'm going todownsize or that inheritance I
wasn't planning on.
I went and had a conversationthat I would have never had with
my parents to see if that'ssomething, realistically, I
could count on.
And I've had clients whoretired early in a comfortable
position now because they havetime and they are comfortable
with their decision retiring.
(14:45):
Go speak to their parents andsay hey guys, I want to make
sure you're enjoying yourretirement to the fullest.
But it would be more helpfultoday if I were to receive more
money than inheriting it in thefuture as a big lump sum because
I have kids in college.
I have kids that want to hangout with you guys.
Don't even spend it on me.
Take us all out to dinners, payfor more family trips.
(15:06):
I value that way more thaninheriting $800,000 in 15 years.
Like I don't want you guys tonot be okay.
I want to make sure you're setup for your long-term care and
that you're not worried.
But beyond that, if there'sextra, can we have a
conversation about it?
That's very difficult to do andI recognize many of you go look
, I don't have that relationshipwith my family.
(15:27):
All good.
Just wanted to give an exampleon this.
Those are five statistics.
Maybe they make you moremotivated.
If there was one that kind ofsparked your interest, let me
know in the comments below.
I love making these videos andpodcasts for you guys.
If you want to work with Rootdirectly so that we can help you
optimize as much as possible,well, you can go to our website,
rootfinancialcom.
(15:47):
In the upper right you'll see alittle button.
It says click here to see ifyou're a fit.
It'll ask you some questionsand we'll take it from there.
See you guys next time.
Thank you all, as always, forlistening to the Early
Retirement Podcast.
I love getting to host theseshows and make different content
for you guys every single week.
(16:07):
I've not missed a single weekin years and that is because I
love getting to do this.
Now, please be smart about this.
Before you actually execute anystrategy that you see me talk
about or hear me talk about,should I say Please talk to your
financial advisor, your taxpreparer, your estate attorney,
please be smart about this.
None of this should beconstrued as financial advice.
(16:28):
This is for fun, educational,informational purposes only.
Once again, just quickdisclaimer here.
Guys, please be smart aboutthis, appreciate you listening,
as always, and you can, ofcourse, submit a question on my
website,earlyretirementpodcastcom.
If you, of course, want me toaddress a specific case study or
topic.
I will not promise I can get toit, but I respond to every
(16:50):
single person and if I find itwill be helpful for a lot of
people, I will absolutely makean episode on it, at the very
least give you some insight.
That's it, thanks, guys.
Most of you do not need a pep talk or a
motivational speech from me totell you the benefits of
retiring early.
You want to retire early.
You want to spend more time onwhat you care about most.
There are some statistics thatmight surprise you, though.
So if there was any moremotivation you needed, this
hopefully will be insightful foryou, to give you some more
firepower, so that every timeyou add more money to your 401k
(00:23):
or to your Roth IRA or to yoursuperhero account, which is what
I call a brokerage account youknow exactly why you're doing it
.
So this is less of an episodeof hey, I'm gonna learn a really
specific tactic and I'm gonnago save 10% of taxes on my
future year's earnings.
That's not what this is.
These are just some statisticsthat I have gathered from my
(00:45):
research, in addition to take infrom my clients who have
actually retired.
Now a quick story before we hopinto the five statistics.
When it comes to an earlyretirement, there are a lot of
people who are really excited toretire, but they're also
hesitant to spend in the earlyyears of retirement because
they're worried if theyoverspend from, let's call it,
(01:05):
55 to 60, which I call an earlyretirement anytime before 65.
So if they overspend from 55 to60, that they're going to be 80
regretting and wishing they hadmore money.
At the same time they haveanother thought in their head of
hey, I don't want to be 80 with$7 million.
I wish I would have spent morewhen I had my energy and my
health.
So, in a weird way, there are alot of people that I talked to
(01:28):
who are on track for retirementI'm going to say it again, on
track for retirement, who Idon't advise retire and you're
like that doesn't make any sense.
You can be on track forretirement, which means lifetime
income from, let's call it, 65to 95.
But it doesn't mean you shouldretire if you have not really
(01:49):
dreamt of what you want thoseearly years of retirement to
look like.
If you want to spend,hypothetically, $100,000 a year,
after taxes, adjusted forinflation, for the rest of your
life, you, if you're followingthe right rules, if you want to
use the withdrawal approach Iuse, which is called John
Guyton's guardrails approach,where you shift income based off
(02:09):
of market conditions, whathappens is you start at $2
million.
5% of 2 million is a hundredthousand a year.
So if you had $2 million andyou wanted to retire early and
you were hypothetically 55 going, I'm ready to walk away.
It doesn't necessarily mean youshould.
Now I'm the first person to asksomeone hey, do you want to
retire early?
Are you in a good spot?
(02:29):
I want you to prioritize health, family, friends, travel, all
the good stuff, but I don't wantyou to retire too late and be
mad at me because you wish thatyou had spent more along the way
.
I don't want you to run out ofmoney and retire too early.
There's balance there.
Why do I bring this up?
I really do not want you toretire too early and have to go
back to work, and I have seenthat where people retire at 55.
(02:53):
They're like I'm going to spenda hundred thousand a year.
Wait a second.
Kids college just came up.
Yep, that's a significantexpense.
And I thought they were goingto get a scholarship.
It turns out my child isn'tinvesting to the degree.
Get a scholarship Turns out mychild isn't investing to the
degree I hope they would.
I want to give them more moneyfor their Roth IRA or I want to
help with a down payment or awedding, so that 100,000 a year
just became 150,000 a year,which just became 175,000 a year
(03:15):
because of healthcare and extratravel.
And when you're not working youhave more time to spend money.
So maybe 100,000 is the realityof what your base expenses are,
but you have way more thingsthat come up in the early years
of retirement, which now youhave a lot of pressure on your
portfolio.
Imagine you retire at 55 andnow all of a sudden markets go
(03:37):
down and your 2 million is worth1.8 and you want to take let's
call it $175,000 so that you canexist.
Well, if you do that, thatwould be a 9.7% withdrawal rate.
That's way too high.
$175,000 out of $1.8 million.
That is something that wouldmake me uncomfortable as an
(03:58):
advisor.
So I'm bringing this up not toscare you but say this is real
life stuff.
Does it make sense to plan forextra buffer?
Yes, but I see too many peoplemake the following mistake of I
don't know when I'm going tohave enough.
I'm going to keep working.
And they keep working and keepworking.
And I have a phrase for thatthat I call goalpost planning,
where you're just pushing backthe goalposts, just pushing it
(04:19):
back one more year, one moreproject.
Then I'm going to retire.
Now you're 60 and you have $3million and you didn't need 3
million, you just needed alittle bit more.
So, with that being said, hereare some statistics that will
hopefully make you even moreexcited to retire early, because
retiring early is very simple,but it's not easy.
It's really simple.
(04:39):
I know what a 401k is.
You probably know what a 401kis.
I save more.
I'll have more for retirement.
That doesn't mean it's easy.
There's a trade-off.
Every dollar that doesn't go toyour 401k could be used for a
tutor for your child.
It could be going to travel.
It could allow you to quit yourcurrent job to go start another
career.
That sounds way more exciting,even if it pays less.
Every dollar has a trade-off.
(05:05):
Now I am a certified financialplanner.
I'm the host of the EarlyRetirement Podcast, and I love
what I get to do, which is I getto help people retire early and
understand truly when work isoptional so they can spend more
time on what they care aboutmost.
So I'm going to go throughthese statistics now.
All I ask tell me which one isthe most surprising.
I love hearing from you guys.
If you're listening on thepodcast app beautiful, send me
an email.
You can literally email me andmy team, ari at rootfinancialcom
(05:30):
.
That's ari at rootfinancialcom.
That could be regarding thisepisode, that could be regarding
working with us, that could bewhatever you want.
I love hearing from you guys.
So if you've been listening fora year or more and you just go,
hey, I just want to say thanksfor all the work, or you know
what?
You talk way too fast and yourstories are going on and on and
you just really got to condensewhat you're doing.
Guys, this show is for you.
(05:51):
I tweak all the feedback.
So, as you notice the showshifts, that's because of things
you're telling me.
One of you sent me a verytransparent note, which I love,
saying hey, ari, I don't want tobe mean here or anything, but
sometimes that you'll say, hey,I'm starting to tell a story and
you'll get so excited duringthat story that you'll tell
another story and forget themain story and it's really
(06:12):
making us confused and I'll say,oh my gosh, that's the last
thing I want to do.
Let me understand.
So, for those of you guys whoare thinking, hey, the show has
gotten worse or gotten better orshifting, I'm shifting
everything based off yourfeedback.
You have not seen the amount oftimes I will practice making
these episodes where there isnot a record button on the
camera, and I even love gettingto do that.
(06:34):
Sometimes I'll even recordthose and I'll post them just to
show not, hey, I'm practicing,but to show you guys.
Hey, there was one thought Ithink I explained really well
there while practicing it.
I'll take that clip and I'llsend that out as a clip so you
don't have to see the wholething.
But you get a little tidbit andsome of you go it's that one
tidbit that click's it.
Let's hop into it.
So the first statistic Now thiswas from a 2020 study in
(06:56):
Frontiers in Psychologycreativity peaks after leaving
work.
Just think about this for asecond.
Okay, creativity peaks afterleaving work.
(07:17):
It's a cliche saying, but a lotof people say if you need a new
idea, go into the shower orwhatever it is that brings you
creative thinking.
Go on a walk.
I find myself I get my bestideas when I'm in savasana or
shavasana I think it's shavasanaof yoga.
At the end I'm not asleep, butI'm kind of in like a dazed
(07:39):
state and I'll get ideas thatjust come to me.
I don't know why, but sometimesI'll go to yoga and I'm doing
all the exercises and breathingand then I'm thinking at the end
I really need a good idea.
And if I try to go I need agood idea, I never get that.
It's only when I'm in totalbliss I'll get an idea that,
just like floats to me, I gowhat a magical thing, what a
cool brain that I can just dothat.
(07:59):
And this is the same conceptthat you guys.
There are creative thoughtsthat you're probably just not
receiving because you're workingso hard, you're saving so well,
you're working to the nthdegree so that you can retire
early one day.
You're busy with kids and lifeand I get it.
The reason I'm bringing this upis that's not why you should
retire early, but some of youwant to write when you retire.
(08:22):
Many of you have shared in ourfree community, the Root
Collective hey, I'm going tospend more time volunteering,
but I'm going to spend more timewriting and reading and maybe
I'm just going to kind of seewhat comes to me.
Awesome.
You can literally see in thisstudy retirees who left work
before 60 reported a 33%increase in creative engagement
writing, art, music compared tothose who continued working.
(08:45):
Now is that a no-brainer?
No, it doesn't apply to everysingle person, but it's a cool
thought to go that wow, what ifyou could get more creative when
you're not working?
I've seen this my fiance Alice.
She's a teacher.
She has summers off.
When summers are off and she'sreading, she's more creative.
Her jokes are better.
If she heard this, she'd go myjokes are great all the time.
(09:05):
But she is literally a funnierperson when she's not working,
because she might say a joke butactually is thinking about I
got to plan that lesson fortomorrow.
Might say a joke but actuallyis thinking about I got to plan
that lesson for tomorrow.
So it's something to consider.
The next one Early retirees, ofcourse, are more likely to
volunteer, but that's not thereason to only do it, although
that's very nice Live longer.
(09:25):
People who retire before age 60,according to a 2013 Carnegie
Mellon study, before age 60 are40% more likely to engage in
regular volunteer work, whichhas been associated with a 24%
reduction in mortality risk.
Don't let that statistic be thereason you go retire early.
Some of you are like, oh mygosh, that's going to save me.
(09:46):
I got to go retire.
Don't do that.
Okay, volunteer because youwant to volunteer, but know if
you volunteer and you do livelonger because you enjoy life
and there's purpose andfulfillment.
A lot of people retire and justdon't know what they're going to
do, and so they start to findtheir health decreases because
they don't have motivation andthey're not creative anymore.
They're not using that musclewhich, yes, as you know, you
(10:07):
need to be honest.
Okay, this was in the journalsof Gerontology found that early
retirees report a 17% boost inrelationship satisfaction,
especially among men who retirebefore their spouses.
Okay, this I struggle with,because a lot of people are very
(10:30):
close although they don't thinkso in the moment with their
coworkers.
Then they retire and they'renot hanging out with their
coworkers because there's notactivation energy.
You don't have to plan it withyour coworker.
You know you're going to seethem at the meeting, you know
you'll see them on Zoom, youknow that you might just run
into them at the quarterlymeeting and there is a sense of
connection there.
When that stops and you have tonow be the initiator, there are
(10:53):
a lot of people who strugglewith that community sense and so
it can be weird to, after youretire, if your coworker is
still working, to go hey, can wego to lunch?
They're like I'm working, sowhat I have clients do is I have
asked them.
I go hey, there's a fewcoworkers you've told me about.
They sound really cool.
I encourage you to invite themto lunch.
(11:14):
Don't do it in like adebilitating way where it's hey,
I retired and you didn't Justsay hey, I really would love to
connect.
I feel like we used to get tosee each other way more.
I'd love to take you to lunchand say it like that.
So there's a very clear who'spaying.
And I have clients that arereally grateful that I brought
up that idea, because nowthey're seeing coworkers they
otherwise wouldn't have and theyare planning financially for
(11:36):
that as a expense that's worthpaying for of hey, I'm going to
pay to be able to hang out withmy friend.
I talk about this a lot, but Ihave a friend that I love.
He's one of my closest friends.
He does not make a lot of money.
I love going on vacation withhim.
I will pay for him to come onvacation.
I don't expect anything inreturn.
He doesn't act a certain way.
(11:56):
Now, if he were the type ofperson that would act weird
because I'm paying, then I wouldnever do it because it would
make it too weird on the trip.
But it is not that type ofrelationship and it's not that I
have so much money I can payfor his trip.
What I'll do is, if I'm buyinga plane ticket, I'll buy his
ticket and go hey, I bought it,you're now coming.
I'm not paying for every singlething, but it's initiating that
(12:17):
and sometimes not all the timehe will go hey, man had a good
month.
I got this bonus from sellingthis.
I'm happy to pay you back forthis because our relationship is
that good.
I'm not concerned on whether hedoes it or not and I'm
confident if he has the money hewill pay me back.
But imagine I didn't pay for it.
Well, do you know how manyexperiences I would lose with my
friend?
It's not worth it to me.
(12:37):
The fourth one here retiringearly may improve sleep by up to
50, five zero minutes per night.
Research from the University ofTurku showed retirees,
especially early retirees, getan average of 46 to 50 minutes
more of sleep per night,improving cognitive function,
emotional resilience.
Now I've seen that go the otherway.
(12:58):
Where people stay up late,they're having more fun, they
don't have to go to bed, they'redrinking more wine, they're
doing whatever it is they'redoing.
So this is not like a hard andset rule, but I thought it was
interesting.
And then the final one, whichis my favorite.
This is a survey by Age Wave andMerrill Lynch found that only
8% of early retirees now earlyretirees, they are saying is
(13:20):
before age 55, reportedsignificant regrets about
retiring, compared to 32% oflate retirees after what they
said age 67.
So what they're saying here is8% of early retirees regretted
it, versus 32% of late retireesregretted it.
(13:40):
Now here's where this isconfusing the people who are
retiring later.
They likely are regretting itbecause they just had to work
longer.
If both people had the optionof retiring early, I bet they
would equally enjoy it.
But I didn't go to the nthdegree when reading the study.
What I found interesting isthat 8% number 8% very few
(14:02):
people retired at 55 and went oh, I should have kept working.
Even if financially they werein a position where it was tight
, they still were grateful theymade that decision.
Maybe they did part-time income, maybe they were planning on
working until 60, retired at 55,making an assumption here and
then just said you know what?
I'd rather spend less money Ifthat means I don't have to go
(14:24):
back to work.
That's more important to me.
They might go I'm going todownsize or that inheritance I
wasn't planning on.
I went and had a conversationthat I would have never had with
my parents to see if that'ssomething, realistically, I
could count on.
And I've had clients whoretired early in a comfortable
position now because they havetime and they are comfortable
with their decision retiring.
(14:45):
Go speak to their parents andsay hey guys, I want to make
sure you're enjoying yourretirement to the fullest.
But it would be more helpfultoday if I were to receive more
money than inheriting it in thefuture as a big lump sum because
I have kids in college.
I have kids that want to hangout with you guys.
Don't even spend it on me.
Take us all out to dinners, payfor more family trips.
(15:06):
I value that way more thaninheriting $800,000 in 15 years.
Like I don't want you guys tonot be okay.
I want to make sure you're setup for your long-term care and
that you're not worried.
But beyond that, if there'sextra, can we have a
conversation about it?
That's very difficult to do andI recognize many of you go look
, I don't have that relationshipwith my family.
(15:27):
All good.
Just wanted to give an exampleon this.
Those are five statistics.
Maybe they make you moremotivated.
If there was one that kind ofsparked your interest, let me
know in the comments below.
I love making these videos andpodcasts for you guys.
If you want to work with Rootdirectly so that we can help you
optimize as much as possible,well, you can go to our website,
rootfinancialcom.
(15:47):
In the upper right you'll see alittle button.
It says click here to see ifyou're a fit.
It'll ask you some questionsand we'll take it from there.
See you guys next time.
Thank you all, as always, forlistening to the Early
Retirement Podcast.
I love getting to host theseshows and make different content
for you guys every single week.
(16:07):
I've not missed a single weekin years and that is because I
love getting to do this.
Now, please be smart about this.
Before you actually execute anystrategy that you see me talk
about or hear me talk about,should I say Please talk to your
financial advisor, your taxpreparer, your estate attorney,
please be smart about this.
None of this should beconstrued as financial advice.
(16:28):
This is for fun, educational,informational purposes only.
Once again, just quickdisclaimer here.
Guys, please be smart aboutthis, appreciate you listening,
as always, and you can, ofcourse, submit a question on my
website,earlyretirementpodcastcom.
If you, of course, want me toaddress a specific case study or
topic.
I will not promise I can get toit, but I respond to every
(16:50):
single person and if I find itwill be helpful for a lot of
people, I will absolutely makean episode on it, at the very
least give you some insight.
That's it, thanks, guys.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com