I didn’t realize this but there are some major drawbacks to retiring early! So the question of How Can I Retire At 55, or younger, really is a very serious question, in more ways than one. Evidently, detailed planning for early retirement is even more important that it appears at first glance!
Table of Contents
Why Do I Say That?
A quick Google search showed me that these are the things you can expect if you decide to retire early:
- There will be a 7-year wait for Social Security
- Expect Penalties & restrictions for accessing retirement funds early
- There’s a 10-year wait for Medicare eligibility
- Leisurely activities and vacations may be financially out of reach
The above points were taken from an article entitled “3 Things to Consider Before You Retire at 55” from the balance.com.
Scary stuff! The above four points mean that you will need even more money than the average person retiring at 65. Looking at that brief list, an early retiree is penalized for leaving work before the official retirement age! How rude!
Investopedia.com goes even further, giving 8 reasons to not retire early in their article entitled “Want To Retire Early? Think Again”:
- Not Enough Savings
- Living Longer Than Expected
- Increased Mortality
- Bye Bye Bucket List
- Reduced Social Security
- Reduced Spousal Benefits
- Unfulfilled Needs
- The Point Of No Return
The first and second points work closely together and make sense. Point 3 is a bit of a shocker to me. What? I will die sooner if I retire early? That’s an area for concern. Point 4, states that an early retiree will not have the money to do all the things on their bucket list. 5 and 6 are in keeping with the article from the balance.com. Number 7 is about delving into your 401(k) too early and limited medical cover too. Number 8 speaks to the reality that early retirement could present challenges should you decide to return to the workforce
What all the above discussions and points have in common is that they refer to people who are employed in the traditional sense. Working for large companies, earning benefits, such as medical insurance, putting money away in the 401(k) etc.
What if there is another option?
What if there is a way to work toward an early retirement without having to be restricted to the “traditional employment model”? What if there is a way you could even work in retirement, should you choose?
I am very happy to tell you that there is a way, in fact, more than one way that you could do exactly that.
You could go even further than speaking about the benefits of early retirement or choosing to work in retirement at your own pace. You could live life completely on your own terms, here are just a few of the advantages:
- You could work from home (with a view of mountains and a gorgeous fire in the hearth, or alongside your sparkling blue swimming pool)
- Work your own hours, no more 9 to 5 grind – you choose
- Avoid the dreaded daily commute – no more hours on the highway, in the tube or on rail
- Spend more time with your loved ones, when you want to
- Take the time you need to attend important events: children or grandchildren’s school awards, athletics days or swimming gala’s, music recitals, etc
- Take leave more often than once a year – as often as it suits you
- Work and travel simultaneously – exactly, travel when it suits you and work as you go!
Sounds appealing? Could you see yourself challenging the status quo and living life on your terms? Yes? Great, I have some wonderful news for you! Allow me to introduce you to the world of online marketing and internet marketing. This is no scam – in fact, to put your mind at rest, I have written an article to help you identify scams. It’s entitled “How To Avoid The Scams Online” and you are more than welcome to read it before going any further with this article.
I want you to be comfortable, though some scepticism is to be expected; we have all been raised in the same world with the patterns of going to school, college and or university to get our education in place. Applying our education in the workplace and putting in the daily grind to climb the corporate ladder, working for however many years it takes until retirement.
To really put you at ease I sharing some secrets which you, some of the success stories within the community. There are a lot of them, so make sure you have the time to read them all – these stories contain hard evidence for you!
Now we have covered evidence that this can be a highly lucrative and feasible way to generate an income and live the lifestyle of your choice. there are two questions I better answer:
- Have I retired at age 55? No, have a look at my site name Late Bloomer – I only started this at age 55! But, I do expect to be comfortably retired within 5 years – and that is without a massive retirement plan already in place, I am starting from zero here. That is how much confidence I have in this opportunity.
- Is it easy? Well, it’s not complicated in that you do not need to be a genius to get it right. But it does take:
- Hard work
- Consistency
- Dedication
- Perseverance
- Commitment
- Training
Being an entrepreneur of any kind does not come easy – you do need to work and have the tools to “ply your trade” at the very least. A brick and mortar business does not allow for the freedoms that an online business does, that is the biggest difference between being an offline or online entrepreneur! Here are another two big differences to take into account:
- A brick and mortar business rarely (if ever) scales the same way that an online business does (by that I mean that the exponential growth in the online business world)
- A brick and mortar business rarely continues making you money whilst you sleep (if ever)
The Answer to “Can I Retire at 55?”
Absolutely, yes, you can! How? The answer has been given above – start an online business! Yes, that is right. To retire at the age you choose – not only at 55 – is possible with your own online business.
What Will You Need To Start Your Online Business?
The following are essential for your online business:
- A computer
- Internet connection
- Training
- A community of like-minded entrepreneurs.
That’s it? Yes, that’s it! What about products, manufacturing, storage, logistics, sales, HR and all of those essential items?
You do not need all of those things. The business model that I am talking about literally requires the four items listed above!
Your online business will not need products, not your own anyway. Your online business will promote the products of other organizations, so there is no need for any of the typical business essentials.
Sounds like a load of nonsense? Allow me to lead you to another article I wrote, “What is Internet Affiliate Marketing?” When you read that, you will have a much fuller understanding of one of the online business models. There is more than one opportunity available to you in the online business world, but let’s keep it to one for now.
Where To Find Training & Become An Online Marketer
I really searched and tried out different things before I found this amazing Internet Marketing University! Hopefully, this article will help you to avoid some pitfalls I have encountered along the way.
The Wealthy Affiliate opportunity can be explored at absolutely no cost to you. That is correct, completely FREE! No need to even share your banking details. You get to experience the training without spending a dime. Have a look by clicking on the image below, you have nothing to lose (ok, ok, maybe a bit of time, but the thing to consider is this – what you are doing now, will that enable you to retire early; to live a life of freedom on your terms; to spend time with family or travelling?). Now that we have established that, I encourage you to have a look – there is honestly nothing to lose:
Once you have explored the platform and decided this is for you, the option to join as a Premium member is available too. The first month is only $19, thereafter it is $49 per month – if you decide to pay monthly. There are other payment options available, i.e.
- if you pay for 6 months in advance the amount is $234 and that equates to $39 per month or
- you could go with the yearly payment which is $359 and equates to $29.92 per month.
What university do you know charges that little? Exceptional value for money!
My suggestion is that you take advantage of the free option until such time as you are 100% happy. Then sign up as a Premium Member. If you have the cash available, it only makes sense to pay for the 6 months or year in advance. But only do that when you are ready.
Not Convinced That The Online Business Model Is For You?
No problem, there is more to tell you about this beautiful world of online business.
One of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs and especially online business entrepreneurs is that they are working alone. That can be isolating (no people interaction) and also limiting (personal growth and industry knowledge).
Not so with Wealthy Affiliate, we have a vibrant community of online entrepreneurs all working together. We work on our own businesses and have access to each other at the same time. There are approximately 1.4 Million members within this community and the biggest difference between the online and offline business worlds is that the generous sharing of expertise amongst online marketers. We have access to information from each other (and within the incredible training videos) literally 24/7.
It is an international platform so no matter where you are based in the world, there will always be someone online to greet and assist you Quite incredible! I absolutely love being a part of this community. Having joined in October 2018, I have enough experience and training to be able to share how wonderful this truly is!
Since joining in October 2018, I have learned how to build my website, what SEO is and how to do it, create content, search keywords, create videos, generate organic traffic (that means I have not spent a cent on paid advertising), promote via social media …. oh, this list is extremely long.
The knowledge I have gained has been the result of the training available to me at Wealthy Affiliate and the interaction with other online entrepreneurs.
I have written a detailed review of this platform entitled “Online Business Opportunity” and invite you to have a read of it.
What About Other Online Business Opportunities?
Part of what I do as an online marketer is conducting reviews of the different opportunities, and there are many! I am more than happy to share these reviews with you. Take your time, read them through – this is the reason I do the reviews, to share them with you:
- The Six Figure Mentors – my first introduction to the online business world. This review will tell you how I loved them but left them too. You definitely can make money with SFM, but need to spend a lot of money before you do!
- Click Funnels – An exciting opportunity to make money online.
- Legendary Marketer – sharp training, go-getter crowd – another great opportunity right here.
None of the above opportunities is a scam, they are all legit ways to make money – I encourage you to have a look at the reviews I have written, even take the free trials offered if you need to, and then make your decision.
Bottom Line –
My Number One Recommendation remains, you are welcome to compare it with the three top options listed above. Or, if you are happy to take my word for it, you are welcome to dive straight in and sign up for your FREE Starter Membership!
If you need more time and would like to walk through the journey step by step with me, I am more than happy to take you through a FREE 7-Day Training Series. I have put this together especially for you and you will have access to me and all the other members to guide you through the process. By the way, the owners, Kyle and Carson are also available to us as a community! Amazing place!
Sign up for the FREE 7-Day Training Series and it will be my pleasure to take you through the process! I will also have some special offers and lovely surprises for you along the way!
Look forward to seeing YOU on the inside!
Blessings always
PS Yes, that is me, still waiting for you to join me on my FREE 7-Day Training Series …
Hi Louise
What a great article – as someone who retired (unintentionally – read as struggling to find work) at about that age in a new country I can fully endorse everything you say here.
I sure needed money at that age and still had children at high school. It was pretty scary to be honest.
Like you though I also started looking around and came across Wealthy Affiliate – liked them from the start because of the open and honest approach. When I joined there was a very active forum and friends were easily made. Birds of a feather and all that.
What I have found amazing about so many of the successful members at Wealthy Affiliate is how young they are! The mind boggles to think what these “kids” will be earning when they are 25.
Keep up the great articles – people need your advice if they intend changing their lives for the better.
All the best
Hey Lawrence
Thank you for sharing your retirement experience, albeit unintentional. Just goes to show though, even when we retire unintentionally, the Wealthy Affiliate opportunity is there for us! 🙂 As you rightly say though, the youngsters are also rocking it with their online businesses! Their lives of freedom are going to completely change the world and life as we see it!
Blessings always
Louise
Hi Louise, I like what I am hearing if I wasn’t a WA member already I would join in a heartbeat.
Let me tell you a bit about why I joined WA. At the time I wasn’t looking to join an online community because had been there and they were not all they said they where.
I joined one and made my first Website I thought back then all I had to do was publish it and the rest would take care of itself. I had no idea about Google indexing. So here I was adding content and publishing. 6 months went by and nothing. I looked for help and couldn’t find it.
You see it was very easy to build a site but without training, what I thought was very professional looking turned out to be just the same as many out there, all boxy looking.
I never got the help I needed although they told me all I needed to was ask. Never got any answers and one year down the road. Ya wasted a year. Everywhere I looked for help I was going to have to dish out buckets of money and I wasn’t about to do that.
You see I am like a lot of people I just don’t have the money to invest in myself. There are a lot of people out there that don’t have the money but dish it out because they are drawn in my these gurus. I know a person that was into a website for over 17 thousand before she stopped because that company was asking for another 5 grand.
What has any of this to do with me joining WA. Well, it does. I was looking for some information on the web and found what I was looking for. Something caught my eye on the sidebar. I liked what this person had to offer so I click on the widget on the sidebar and it took me to another site much like this one.
So I thought I would go have a look, for me “free” was good and I had to see if what they were saying was true. I went through everything and a walkthrough everything sounded so perfect and all the help they said I would get. but you see I already went through that. So I wasn’t convinced. But, I thought I would give it a try.
Guess what happened the platform was all they said it would be. better than a university degree. Here I am, know three years down the road. I was indexed by Google within the month and joined WA as a premium member.
Am I happy I did, darn right I am?
Always a better Way
Linda
Hi Linda
Thank you so much for sharing your online business experience. I had a similar experience – thankfully because I found something I love to do, but it also cost me way too much money! Hopefully, by sharing the Wealthy Affiliate opportunity I will help others avoid shelling out too much money before they can make a profit.
This is the best way ever to make money and live a life of freedom, how blessed we are!
Blessings to you as always
Louise x
Hello Louise
I am part of Wealthy Affiliate as well.
I stumbled on this platform in early March, 2019.
For years, I was paying $65 per month for a VPS, a (virtual private server) because all the “gurus” said that I needed one.
I needed a fast responsive headache free hosting service, where I could grow my online business.
They were right. It was an excellent service with no down time, so I never thought of switching to anyone else.
Then one day, I stumbled upon Wealthy Affiliate on Google.
I had no clue what it was.
I thought it was just another high priced, Affiliate Marketing program which can now run into the $1000’s.
So I continued my search, kept reading reviews but suddenly, I started running into WA everywhere, so I decided to look into it further.
The package that they offered was difficult to believe. It was too comprehensive, too complete.
They offered all this training, on how to start your own affiliate marketing business, with support, an active community, which also included world class WordPress hosting.
What?
I was extremely skeptical, I was wondering what the catch was,
I was paying $65 per month for a VPS, so how could WA offer this entire package, including hosting, for less than $50 per month?
What’s included, is Affiliate Marketing training for those who fell out of the 9 to 5 turnip truck, to seasoned marketers looking for a place park all their WordPress sites.
The training is excellent, but for me, WA’s promise of world class “cloud” hosting for all my WordPress sites, is why I signed up.
If the hosting is poor, if the sites are constantly down, then because of the community forum on WA, there would be plenty who would be complaining about it.
Since the hosting is part of the WA package, it’s their obligation to live up to the promises that they make on their sales page, which for me, among others, was the closer.
Your websites are the lifeline of your online business.
So if your blogs doesn’t live up to and meet industry standards, it’s pointless.
What it comes down to, is the hosting.
it needs to be fast and as modern as possible.
The WA support team does an excellent job, and is doing everything they can to live up to their promises, in this imperfect electronic world that we live in .
This is the reason why I joined WA.
Hi Mick
Thank you so much for sharing your rationale for joining Wealthy Affiliate and your experience so far too! I cannot fault Wealthy Affiliate, their offering has been exceptional value for me and I am grateful to have found this awesome platform. I am learning so much, the support has been exceptional – from the co-owners, to the trainers to site support to the community. I do not know of another platform which offers as much and this is why Wealthy Affiliate is the Number 1 Platform.
Thank you so much again for adding your voice to this conversation.
Blessings always
Louise