Being frugal is for life not just for easter.
But why bother? You can't take it with you! It won't make you happy!
I know its odd for someone who works with and blogs about money, but I completely agree.
Money is for spending. I just prefer to spend less so that I don't have to work as much. Maybe I'm just lazy.
This means whereas some people think they need millions to retire, I'm a little more streamlined. A bit more efficient perhaps.
My number is more like £400k - at 4% return this would give me 16k a year. Great! I should have paid my mortgage off by then, so I would comfortably be able to live on this amount.
So next question? Where the hell am I going to get 400k from? Well, I've heard compound interest is pretty cool! So according to mr Monevator I need to sock away £375 a month. Well I'm certainly not doing that at the moment.
So what can I do to help, I could increase the time frame? Nope! I want to retire early!! Not later!
I can increase the amount I put away, hmm a toughie this, is there anything else I can give up? Or maybe I need to earn some more. A possibility.
Another way could be to increase my return. Now I don't know much about investing, what I do know is that it's best to maximise tax free investments, e.g. pensions and ISAs. As for anything else, like fund / stock picking I pretty much suck at, because I've never done it, other than a couple of cash ISAs.
But at least I have a plan! It's a lot more that a lot of people.
Please don't be like these people, start saving now, live frugally and you can make it. You don't need as much as you think.
What's your number?
Why do you need that much?
Is there a different way I haven't thought of??
