{"id":1516,"date":"2017-07-07T19:18:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidwithington.com\/?p=1516"},"modified":"2018-03-01T18:08:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T18:08:46","slug":"when-can-i-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidwithington.com\/when-can-i-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"My British 4th July"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Independence<\/a><\/p>\n

4th July.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, what a day!<\/span><\/p>\n

“Hang on a minute, David…<\/span><\/p>\n

“You’re a Brit, for goodness sake!<\/span><\/p>\n

“So why were you celebrating 4th July?”<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll tell you why.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because it’s my Personal Independence Day<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You see…<\/span><\/p>\n

Exactly one year earlier – on 4th July 2016 – I handed in my notice at work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Handed<\/a>
I handed in my notice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I hadn’t planned it to be on Independence Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it certainly didn’t go unnoticed.<\/span><\/p>\n

And one month later, I was gone. <\/span><\/p>\n

I’d taken early retirement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Should You Take Early Retirement?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I took early retirement for two reasons:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Because I could.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Because I wanted to spend my time doing something else.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Simple!<\/span><\/p>\n

    OK. I’ll not leave you wondering. <\/span>Let me flesh that out a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I’d been saving into pensions since just after starting work at age 17.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So I decided to find out if early-retirement was a viable option.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I discovered it was. So I went for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But listen…<\/span><\/p>\n

    I had plenty to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

    And that’s important!<\/span><\/p>\n

    No putting my feet up on a beach 24-7 and doing nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"beach\"<\/a>
    Maybe a week here. But I’d be bored after too long.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Even though a nice relaxing cruise was one of the first things on the cards to get me out of the night-shift work mode, I took along a good book to learn from.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But if I’d nothing enjoyable to occupy my time after retirement, I doubt I’d have made the leap so soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you want to learn more about my early retirement story and what I do now, you can read my guest blog post at the Content Marketing Academy: How to leave your job and do what you love the safe way<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    How Can I Know If I Can Retire Early?<\/span><\/h2>\n

    Personally, I asked a trusted Financial Planner to tell me.<\/span><\/p>\n

    He worked it all out with his advanced software.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"financial<\/a>
    The financial planner used his advanced software to tell me the good news.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    But there are also ways you can find out yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Here are a couple of good books which will help you to work it out and discover if you can afford to retire early.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I’ve read them both.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The first one is “Enough? How much money do you need for the rest of your life?<\/a>” by Paul D Armson.<\/span><\/p>\n

    It’s a powerful, practical and encouraging book that helps you to find out if you have enough to support your lifestyle for the rest of your life.<\/span><\/p>\n

    And remember, quite a lot will depend on what sort of lifestyle you want!<\/span><\/p>\n

    You can get that book here on Amazon…<\/span><\/p>\n