How To Retire At Any Age

As Vampire Weekend once put it: every dollar counts, and every morning hurts; we mostly work to live, until we live to work. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been dreaming of hanging up the boots pretty much as soon as you put the boots on. What would it actually take for you to retire early, or retire at all? Here’s our guide on how you could retire at any age you like with a little work (and let’s face it, a bit of luck in there as well:

Your 60’s and 70’s: Looking pretty sensible there chief

Hey I like it - under-promise and over-deliver, right? Right now the age pension is set to 65 ½, rising to 67 by 2023, so if you’re aiming to retire right about when the pension kicks in, this would be the target to aim for. People are tending to retire later than they have in previous years as well, with the average for people retiring in the past 5 years going up to about 63 years old.
But just because you might be eligible for the pension doesn’t mean you’ll be sitting pretty. The ASFAS shows that a 65 year old needs around 43 grand a year to retire comfortably (provided they own their own place and are reasonably healthy), but the aged pension for just one person is only around 26k. So if you want to kick back and enjoy the finer things in life, you’ll want about $545,000.

Your 40’s and 50’s: Now we’re getting somewhere

I feel like this is the prime retirement age if you’re not aiming to be the next Jordan Belfort, but you’re still gunning for a nice nest egg. According to the stats, the average retirement age is 55, but that also counts people who have to retire who might not be financially ready due to illness or injury.

You’re going to need around another 200 grand at the very least if you want to retire around this age, probably plus some extra. After all, you’re probably looking at 40 years of time to fill with your hobbies and passion projects, community projects or spending time with your family.

Stuff you’ll want to do will be to pay down your big debts ASAP, choose a fund with good returns and low fees, and probably make some salary sacrifices in your super early on to take advantage of that sweet, sweet compound interest.

Your 30s and 20s: Better start manifesting now

This is the realm of the statistical outlier. People who retire at this age generally then make even more money by going around on big press tours and conferences selling their methods around the world for the low low price of $200 for a two-hour seminar. 

In my mind there are three categories of people who manage to retire this early: entrepreneurs who make it big, serious finance geeks, and trust fund kiddos. In this category it’s often a combo of all three. It can be done though, and when it comes to learning about how to manage your money, you may as well reach for the stars, because if you fall you’ll land on a cloud (or a pile of money).

Your 0s to 10s: Please send me money

If you’re retiring before you’re 18, you’ve clearly created or been born into a situation where your savings and super are looking very nice indeed - like into-the-millions nice. I’m willing to wager that you have some serious family money behind you, or you’ve managed to create the next unicorn from your parents’ bedroom. Either way, if you have a few million to spare, or some stock in your company you’re willing to spare me, my cash app is (REDACTED BY EDITOR)*

*Just kidding

We can’t all retire by the time we’re ready to leave high school, but taking a little time early out of your week to take a look at your super can make a massive difference down the line, and could affect when you’re able to live that grey nomad dream. If that strikes ya fancy, take a look at our top-notch Academies! They’ve got everything you need to set you up to smash it in the big wide world.