Retirement Archives - Page 2 of 10 - Making Sense Of Cents

How Elizabeth Reached Financial Independence by 32 And Moved To A Homestead

February 28, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 93 Comments

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How Elizabeth Reached Financial Independence by 32 And Moved To A Homestead #FinancialIndependence #frugal #frugalwoods #earlyretirement My monthly Extraordinary Lives series is something that I'm really enjoying doing. First up was JP Livingston, who retired with a net worth over $2,000,000 at the age of 28. Today's interview is with Elizabeth, who reached financial independence at the age of 32.

Elizabeth Willard Thames, better known as Mrs. Frugalwoods, is the creator of the award-winning personal finance blog, Frugalwoods.com. At age 32 she “reached financial independence and left a successful career in the city to create a more meaningful, purpose-driven life on a 66-acre homestead in the woods of Vermont” with her husband and young daughter.

Thames is the author of the book, Meet The Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living. Before becoming a writer and homesteader, she worked for 10 years in the non-profit sector as a fundraiser and communications manager. [Read more…]

Retiring Early: Is Early Retirement For The Crazy and Boring?

February 5, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 25 Comments

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For most people, retirement means something that only older people do after decades and decades of working. However, more and more people are thinking about early retirement. And, when I say early retirement, I mean being financially secure enough that you don’t need to work unless you want to.

Even though it takes a lot of work and planning to retire early, some people seem to think that early retirees aren’t very smart, are lazy, or even boring.

I see this a lot when I read articles about people who have retired early. I always scroll down to the comments of these articles because I find it interesting to see what people have to say about early retirement. I’m always shocked, and saddened, when I read comments that say these early retirees are being careless and won’t be able to live exciting lives after they retire.

Some people assume these people haven’t saved enough and are naively thinking their money will last forever. Some assume early retirees just want to stop working because they are lazy. Others think that early retirees just sit around all day and do nothing in order to save money. [Read more…]

How to Take a Mini-Retirement And Love Your Life

January 1, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 45 Comments

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Today, my friend Jillian, from Mini-Retirements Mastered course and Montana Money Adventures, is sharing a guest post about mini retirements. This subject is something I find to be super interesting and she is definitely the expert at it! Below is her story and advice.

Fifteen years ago, I fell in love with my husband and we started planning our life together. But I had this crazy idea. What if we took mini-retirements? Mini-retirements go by many names: Sabbaticals, Gap Years, Time Off.

Essentially, it's all the same idea: taking time away from the 9-5 to focus on things that really matter to us. It could be for a year or two, or just a month off.

The problem? We were in NO place to be thinking about mini-retirements! That first year we had over $50,000 in debt and only earned 12k. The next year was a little better, but not by much. Still, I held on to that dream. [Read more…]

Change Your Life By Saving Just $1 More Each Day – How Much Should A Person Save Each Month?

December 4, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 38 Comments

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We all know that saving money is important, and asking yourself “how much money should I save?” can be a difficult question to answer when beginning. Being a personal finance expert, I am asked this question a lot.

How much money should I save each month? How much do I need to retire? These are common questions I receive and you will finally receive an answer! #howmuchmoneyshouldisave #howmuchmoneyshouldyousave #howmuchdoineedtoretire Between saving for emergencies, retirement, vacations, etc. there are a lot of things to consider. And, knowing how much to save is something that many people don't often talk about. When it does come up, it can seem like there is no straight answer.

I’ve talked a lot about savings on this blog, and in my post 56% Of Americans Have Less Than $10,000 Saved For Retirement, I stated that 56% of Americans have less than an average of $10,000 in retirement savings and 33% have no retirement savings at all. This is something incredibly important to address!

Other interesting statistics mentioned in this article include:

42% of millennials have not begun saving for retirement.
52% of Gen Xers have less than $10,000 in retirement savings.
About 30% of respondents age 55 and over have no retirement savings whatsoever.
Nearly 75% of Americans over 40 are behind on saving for retirement.

[Read more…]

How I Retired In My 30s – From Ugly Crying To Retiring Just 10 Years Later

October 27, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 42 Comments

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Hello! Today, I have a great article from JT. JT has a great story about how he was down to his last dollars living in a hostel, to hitting his retirement number just a little over a decade later. If you're looking for another great retirement article, I also recommend How This 28 Year Old Retired With $2.25 Million. Below is his article on how to retire in your 30s. Enjoy!

Have you ever seen a grown man ugly cry? Our faces scrunch up like a squeezed sponge, wringing the water from our eyes. Our shoulders shake uncontrollably. We gurgle out a noise that’s a cross between a laughing hyena and a grunt. We’re not pretty.

It was 2000. I was ugly crying on the bed of the Spanish Harlem hostel where I was living, down to my last dollars. Months earlier, I graduated college, sold my car, and drove from Los Angeles to New York City with sunny West Coast optimism. Then after months of getting rejected from job after job after job, reality blew in like an East Coast blizzard.

They say, “New York City: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” For those of us who have tried, it can feel more like, “Since I can't make it here, I can't make it anywhere.”

I wasn't crying because I failed. I was ugly crying because I thought I was a failure.

And yet, a little over a decade later, I hit my retirement number. So what happened between the tears of sadness and the tears of joy? I'll tell you exactly what I did to hit my retirement number in my 30s. [Read more…]

Here’s What I Learned From Working For Millionaires

October 9, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 42 Comments

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Before I became a full-time blogger, I spent a little over three years working as a financial analyst at a small valuation and investment banking firm. We handled situations related to M&A, business valuation, estate and gift tax, and more.

Due to the nature of my job, many of our clients were very wealthy.

Very wealthy.

I saw kids who had millions, successful business owners, and one of our clients was a very famous celebrity.

The majority of our clients were, I say this again, very wealthy – wealth that I could never even dream of.

Back then, I was fresh out of college and struggling financially. I was living paycheck to paycheck and working for clients who had millions – it was an interesting time.

And, I had never really met anyone with the type of wealth that my clients had. Before this job, I always thought these people didn't really exist. Or, at least, I never thought I would meet them.

However, I regularly met with these types of clients, and surprisingly, a lot of them were very “normal.”

Quick note: I recommend reading the book The Millionaire Next Door. It's a great book that talks about this subject!
[Read more…]

Reaching Early Retirement Through Dividend Growth Investing

September 22, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 17 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! Dividend investing is a very interesting topic. Today, I have an expert who has appeared on Forbes, Motley Fool, MSN Money, TheStreet, and more, and he is going to share tons of great information on this subject. You may remember him from his previous contribution How I Became A Successful Dividend Growth Investor. This is a guest contribution by Ben Reynolds. Ben is the CEO of Sure Dividend. Sure Dividend helps people build high quality dividend growth portfolios for the long run.

Early retirement is the financial state of being where you don’t have to work. You only work if you want to.

Early retirement is reached when your passive income exceeds your expenses. The average retirement age in the United States is 63.

Retiring at any age is an accomplishment, but I think you will agree with me when I say that the earlier you retire, the better.

There are 6 key factors that determine how long it will take for you to reach retirement:

Your income (how much money you make)
Your savings rate (the percentage of your income you save)
Your expenses (how much money you spend)
The size of your investment account (how much you already have saved)
Your investment returns (how fast your investments are growing)
The yield on your investment portfolio (how much your investments pay you)

[Read more…]

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