Retiring early means not having to work every day from 8 to 5 with an hour for lunch. Or having to work every day from 7 to 5 with an hour for lunch. Or having to work every day from 7 to 6 with an hour for lunch, just to pay your bills and give you and your family the life you and they deserve. It means you are not working but the money still comes in every month. It means you have everything taken care of financially and you’re not doing any manual labor to get it done.
When you think about it, it is really a dream come true. You can go out and enjoy the day with your kids, or your wife, or the special person in your life and not have to worry about money. For me retiring early meant I did not have to leave home and drive on the freeway in ice storms or through slush covered streets with people who did not know how to drive in the winter with snow and ice.
I got my inspiration, about retiring early, from two people. The first was my cousin who was quite a bit older than I and retired after 20 years of working for the city planning department. He was 42 and one weekend in October, he came over to our house and told us that he and his wife were leaving for Arizona. My dad wanted to know how long he would be gone and he said, “We’ll be back in April.”