In my own life rather than on-line here at MMM, I don't know too many people who retired early and by that I mean before 60 years of age. My parents both retired at 62, both grandfathers retired at 70. I only know one person who retired before 60 and she retired in her mid-50's because she inherited big. I know a few people who had to stop working before they were 60 because of health problems and I wouldn't call that retiring early.
This is a pretty good mainstream article but not an MMM blog article. Anyway, more power to the people here who will retire early by not being consumerist suckers!