Do you want to retire early? Do you have what it takes to retire early? Can you live (extremely) frugally while preparing for retirement? If so, and beans and rice for dinner 5 out of 7 nights a week seems acceptable for such a cause, then read on.

This “frugal” lifestyle can be best summed up as a minimalist lifestyle. If you don’t have a lot of possessions and/or expenses when heading into retirement, then your overhead (or cost of living) in retirement should be pretty minimal as well. Stated another way, if your household expenditures heading into retirement are around $100K annually, then your retirement investment portfolio may need to be somewhere between $1M and $2M to support your lifestyle (assuming a 4% withdrawal rate). However, if you overhead heading into retirement is $40K per year, then you may be able to retire with a nest egg of less than $1M and some intermittent part-time work sprinkled in throughout the year. This may not be an ideal retirement for everyone, but for some, it sure beats putting in 2,000+ work hours a year, in addition to their commute.

Here are some ideas for achieving such a goal:

1) Cut existing expenses to a bare minimum (no cable TV, streaming services, lattes, new clothes, etc.); during this phase your debt should decrease while your savings increase; utilize budget tracking software to help find unnecessary expenses and to help track your newly growing savings.

2) Now that you have cut all unnecessary expenses (and I mean ALL), you will need to find a second job or additional sources of income (added bonus, since you will have even less free time with your second job, you will probably spend less money); also, as you make more money, do not spend it, but save it (this part is key)!

3) Continue to learn as much as you can about the “FIRE” modus vivendi and join one or more groups that espouses such a lifestyle, as you may need their support and/or knowledge at some point.

Above all persevere. It won’t be easy and there will be some tough times but if it truly resonates with you, it can be done. A minimalist lifestyle is not for everyone, but for those individuals that it does appeal to, it is a way to financial independence and early retirement.

If you have questions about retirement or the minimalist lifestyle, please feel free to contact Intelligent Investing at www.mynmfp.com/new-clients.

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