Why are you retiring early? :)

[P938LVR]

What are your reasons for retiring early (beside the obvious not wanting to work lol)?

[MsRichLife]

I consider it to be buying back my time.

There are so many things I want to do during the reasonably short time that I'm on the planet. I don't want to ever feel 'trapped' in a job because I need the money. If I work, it's because I choose it to be a valuable use of my time. If I have better things to do (raise my son, travel, learn, read a book) then I get to choose that instead.

[KMMK]

I'm not good with commitments and I want to be warm in the winter.

[deborah]

I consider it to be buying back my time.

There are so many things I want to do during the reasonably short time that I'm on the planet.

+1

To a certain extent there is also the ability to "find myself" - try the things I want to do, and decide whether they are for me. Live a slow life. And the freedom to do necessary things - my father has cancer, and I can now visit him whenever I need to.

[EricL]

It's complicated. But to be brief: Because I can.

[Davids]

My goal is to achieve FI by 40 (I am 32) but I do not think I am going to retire until I am 50. Part of it is I like the place where I work and for career perspective I have goals I want to meet. Now once I achieve FI and if things change where I start hating my job or other reasons then well sayanara.

[MoneyCat]

I just want to be free to do what I want whenever I want.  I am tired of other people holding power over me.

[Chrissy]

My reasons are:

I want to sleep on my own schedule.  It really improves my immune system.
I want to be physical everyday.  This is harder in the winter when I'm at work during all the daylight hours.
I want to plan meals and cook.
I want to learn what I want, when I want:  French on Duolingo, trapeze class, creative writing course.
I want to read... a LOT of fiction books, and do a lot of research on the web on various interests and current events.
I want to write a book about what I do, but it's hard to find time to write about it while I'm still DOING it.  Also, I don't want my job to consume my every waking thought.

I don't want to have to choose between doing one of these above OR being social, because all I have is a few precious evening hours.

In short, I want to do whatever I want, whenever I want.

[AllChoptUp]

YOLO

[frugalnacho]

[Beric01]

I'm lazy.

Yes, I'm working hard to reach FI because I'm lazy and don't want to work hard. I often feel like I must be the laziest Mustachian ever. I can't seem to manage to even clean my room regularly.

And yet I'm biking to work, making my own lunches, etc, which isn't so lazy. If there's one thing I could do, it's take a higher-paying job to reach FI earlier. But my current job is relatively unstressful, and I'll reach FI after spending only 11 total years in the workforce, which I think isn't bad. Somehow I don't think working 60+ hours a week to reach FI 2 years earlier is worth it.

[apfroggy0408]

YOLO

Haha yes!

I went to school to be an engineer because I thought that was something I wanted to do. I always said I wanted to retire at 45 you know just cuz.

Now I've been an engineer for about 18 months and currently just feel like a cog with no purpose. I don't find value in doing this everyday for a long time.

I find value in working and helping with people. Right now I've rekindled my passion for powerlifting/bodybuilding/fitness in general. I figure I can put in the time now and learn over the next few years from the experts then use this as a side hustle.

I value my time more than anything else.

[alwayslearning]

I want to spend more time with my husband enjoying life, rather than listen to complainy pants co-workers all day.

[frugalnacho]

What happened to sol's post?  I was going to respond to it but it's gone.  He asked what you would do if money was no object, and gave "watching tv and playing video games all day, as tragic as it may seem to me" or something like that. 

I wouldn't say I am a gamer, but I like to play the occasional video game, and sometimes I get really sucked into a good game.  I get into my character, and I get sucked into the fantasy world.  For a brief while I am that character living in that universe.  I get really into it and I feel like I have an emotional connection with the universe, other characters, and the story.  I quite enjoy when a game like that comes along and is able to pull me in like that. I wish I had the free time to play them when I felt like it. 

The most recent game that got me was skyrim.  I must have spent 300+ hours on that.   Even though that was a fuck load of time I wouldn't take it back, I would totally play it again.  I am thinking this winter I may sit down and start a fresh character and do another play through it was so awesome.

I also have fond memories of running around hyrule.

[MooseOutFront]

Retiring early is the ultimate life hack.  You win the game by not playing.  Spending every day on my own schedule would be amazing and I look forward to it.

[Cap_Scarlet]

Lots of reasons.  Lets start with 3.

1. Stress.
2. Because I want to do other things than work.
3. Because I have enough money.

[Zamboni]

1.  more time to play volleyball and ski
2.  more time to travel for fun

I'm with the earlier poster about the sleep.  I don't like being awoken by an alarm.

[Beric01]

Retiring early is the ultimate life hack.  You win the game by not playing.  Spending every day on my own schedule would be amazing and I look forward to it.

As a gamer, I just view retiring early as the ultimate min-maxing situation. It's applying gaming principles to real life to optimize yourself. I'm a strategy gamer (along with a bit of RPG), so I love this stuff.

[DecD]

This is why: http://i.imgur.com/IiesWJw.jpg
I want to spend more time there, and places like it.  Lots of time.  I want summer vacations back for long family camping trips.

Also, I let work stress me out-I want to cut out the worry. (Though I speculate I need to address the cause of the worry, or I'll find something else to worry about!)

Also, I want to put more time and effort into solid relationships with family and friends.

Mostly, after a full day of work it's hard to be a really great parent.  I'm exhausted and I want to prioritize good, quality time with the kids.

[P938LVR]

This is why: http://i.imgur.com/IiesWJw.jpg
I want to spend more time there, and places like it.  Lots of time.  I want summer vacations back for long family camping trips.

Also, I let work stress me out-I want to cut out the worry. (Though I speculate I need to address the cause of the worry, or I'll find something else to worry about!)

Also, I want to put more time and effort into solid relationships with family and friends.

Mostly, after a full day of work it's hard to be a really great parent.  I'm exhausted and I want to prioritize good, quality time with the kids.

+1. More travel, more time with my husband and son and more time spent enjoying life and not worrying/stressing about work!

[soccerluvof4]

Because today i was able to golf with my son and go on a bike ride after with my daughter !

[FIreDrill]

I'm 24 and don't have any specific reasons yet.  Mostly, I want to have the ability to do whatever I want with my time.  Work or not work.

[G-dog]

Because now that I've learned this is an option, I can't stop thinking about it --
I want to spend more time with my dogs
Read
Get back to regular exercise
Cook
Bake
Clean more
Get a part-time, low stress job
Visit friends
Travel
Learn a language
Be master of my domain and my time

[NCGal]

Ditto AlwaysLearning.
We got married late and still have much to do together. We won`t be that young (58 &56) but it`s a helluv-a-lot better than 65 like we had thought.
Because we want to do what we want which includes sitting on the porch drinking daqueries (homemade) and waving to people like everyone does here, and have my NY friends laugh at me for being a redneck.
Because my mother died this year, and so did one of my cats, the first pet I ever had and the longest relationship I`ve had (14 years) aside from my parents and brother.
Because my father-in-law had a health scare this year and I find myself saying all the trite but true things I swore I`d never say when I was a kid,such as `life is too short.`
Because we want to see every state in this country while we`re young enough to hike.
Because WE CAN.

[mozar]

Because I was treated like shit by employers for the first five years of my career. I graduated from college right after the dot com bubble burst. I graduated from grad school a month before lehman brothers collapsed. Being personally and continually blamed for struggling to find employment (if i was let go it must be my fault), losing my job over and over again. Also working at a job is like being in highschool forever, and I hated highschool. When I found out from this site that I didn't have to work until 65, my chronic depression disapeared. I started tackling my insomnia for the first time in my life. I finally figured out what I have to live for, and it's myself.

[G-dog]

I finally figured out what I have to live for, and it's myself.

Wow  - powerful reason!  Wish I would have thought of it this way.

[Guizmo]

I want to have time to stay fit. It is easy now that Im young but Im sure it will be harder. I also want to have time to read more and do other productive endeavors as well as things I enjoy. I do think I'll likely still work 10-15 hours a week once I finish in 10 years, when Im 35.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

Can I post a link?  ARS has been absent, so maybe this will work :)

http://escapevelocity2020.com/2014/01/retire-early/

[Al1961]

It's time to pursue health instead of wealth. I retire at the end of this month

I have a high stress career as a legislative auditor. The job comes with lots of pressures to produce, but also, at times, to compromise professional values in the name of expediency. I've fought the good fight for long enough. Time to quit while I'm still winning that battle.

Other battles aren't going so well. Long hours sitting at a desk exacerbate issues with high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and the stress and depression from dealing with dickheads with power.

The exercise and healthy eating regime (it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle thing) begins on Friday. Once the weight is down under 170 I can think about training for 10k's again without completely abusing my knees.

Al

[DollarBill]

My reasons are:

I want to sleep on my own schedule.  It really improves my immune system.
I want to be physical everyday.  This is harder in the winter when I'm at work during all the daylight hours.
I want to plan meals and cook.
I want to learn what I want, when I want:  French on Duolingo, trapeze class, creative writing course.
I want to read... a LOT of fiction books, and do a lot of research on the web on various interests and current events.
I want to write a book about what I do, but it's hard to find time to write about it while I'm still DOING it.  Also, I don't want my job to consume my every waking thought.

I don't want to have to choose between doing one of these above OR being social, because all I have is a few precious evening hours.

In short, I want to do whatever I want, whenever I want.

+1 ditto and YOLO

[Cap_Scarlet]

There's an important additional aspect to add here and that's health.

Most of the people on here in their 20's, 30's or even 40's are likely to be relatively healthly and the vision they will have is of themselves in their healthy state in retirement.  But is that really going to happen and as we get older health deteriorates - its a fact.  Some will be luckier than others but for me there is comin a point where I want to have some years of retirement where I do the things I want to do.

I am neither overweight nor unfit but over the last few years have suffered from:

- Testicular cancer (luckily is was a seminoma so now pretty much 100% cured through operation)
- Skin cancer (luckily a basal cell carcinoma so not a killer)
- The beginning of Dupuytrens contracture
- Knee pain
- Tooth implant
- Various other aches and pains.

My point is (and I do not do a manual job) twofold.

1. You may live to be 80 but if you can't move then what is the point?
2. Retiring and assuming you can continue with a high deductiblwe health insurance is a fallacy - factor into your retirement plans good health coverage.

[dude]

Because this workaday existence is totally unnatural.  Not work itself, but the type of work most people do to clothe and feed themselves; the strictures and culture of the typical work environment; the time spent "like lemmings trapped in shiny metal boxes"; living life outside of its natural circadian rhythm; selling one's self for fiat money; staring at a computer screen all day long.  It's all just plain weird and not natural. 

Like someone else said, I want to sleep on a natural schedule -- go to bed when I'm tired, and rise when I awake on my own accord, not to the shrill sound of an alarm.

And spend every day doing what I really want to do, on my own schedule.

Any time I'm away from the office for an extended period of time, I realize how much I really don't want to go back, how badly I want to free myself from the daily worklife existence, and how satisfying life outside of the M-F/9-5 grind can really be.  It's this vision that sustains me.