Yahoo! Finance had an article about early retirees and I thought it would be helpful to compare myself and see where I am.

1. Do you save for retirement outside of just your workplace plan? I save, most of my retirement fund is from my work though, because I’m trying to pay down debt first.

“69% of early retirees do this vs. 60% of those who plan to retire after 65 and 49% of those who say they’ll never retire.”

 2. Do you defer a high percentage of their salary into a retirement plan? No. I feel like I’m already failing at this article.

“Early retirees defer a median of 10% vs. 6% for those who plan to retire after 65 or don’t plan to retire.”

 3. Did you start saving at a young age? I started saving awhile back! This is something that I did not fail at.  I expect all of my debt (besides my mortgage payment) to be done in a couple of years, and then I will start heavily saving and investing.

“The median age early retirees begin saving is 25 vs. 30 for those who will retire after 65 and 31 for those who never plan to retire.”

4. Do you have a thought-out retirement savings strategy? No I do not.  All I’ve really thought about is that I want to retire.

“71% of early retirees have either a written plan (16%) or a non-written plan (55%), while just over half of those who plan to retire after 65 do and just one-third of those who will never retire do.”

5. Are you very involved in managing and monitoring your retirement accounts? I monitor them all the time. Nearly everyday.

“71% of early retirees say they are very involved vs. 58% of those who will retire after 65 and just 45% of those who say they will never retire.”

6. Have you saved the same amount or more since the recession began? I have saved more. Considering I was only around 18 when the recession started, of course it’s more.

“71% of early retirees are doing this compared to 61% of those who will retire after 65 and just over half of those who never plan to retire.”

How are you doing? What are your retirement plans?