Wanted to add another thought I had on this topic today: Taxes are minimized under the "semi-retirement" plan, since income is always dramatically lower than the "work really really hard at a high-paying job for a short period with an 80% savings rate" plan.
This is definitely true. For me, I'm planning on ~8 years of nose to grindstone (high income high tax) and then enough to live off of and max my retirement accounts after that.
