I am sure that like me, most of you, hate going into the neon, strip light lit grey hell, that is your workplace, so I got to thinking about how I can retire early and live the life of Reilly on my sofa or on a beach sipping cocktails.

As I figure it out, the aim is to have an income from some other source than work that is sufficient to live on.
Obviously the less out goings you have the lower this income needs to be.

So step 1 is to remove all debt and cut down outgoings.
and step 2 is to secure another source of income other than work.

Step 1, the biggest outgoings are rent or mortgage payments.
So I need to own my own house and pay off the mortgage.

Step 2 (the harder step) I need to secure some other income source, short of publishing my romantic novel and becoming a world renowned (and rich) novelist or winning the lottery....neither of which are likely to happen.
I was thinking I could buy another house and use the rent from that to fund my lifestyle, however that requires incurring more debt.

Investing my money in shares I suppose is also a suggestion, but I am a complete duffer when it comes to the stock markets.

So how can I / we plan for early retirement? Lets hear your suggestions.

you asked a question and replied to that..it is a perfect reply ..10 out of 10.. given a chance , i will never retire, i like to work and like to be financially independent...

I'm guessing you are approximately 14 years old and quite possibly unemployed. Come back after 30 years hard graft and you may have a different outlook.

Cheers

Jekyll

I think easiest way is to start own business - one that requires little time.

Or create some intangible revenue generating asset. E.g. Royalty streams from books, patents, online properties.

Well, that's rather impolite (not to mention immature), but about par for the course, I guess. In any case, I'm 30 years old, have been employed since the age of 12 doing manual labor for my father's construction company (later moving to a very large pharma and eventually consulting), and I can say quite confidently that I have no real plans to fully retire.

I may well retire from this job, but then I'll look for other roles to keep me busy. My father retired at 47, but has since started working again, due to interest (not financial) requirements. His father retired in his early 60s and simply increased his activities in other areas (such as real estate) to compensate for the suddenly free time (and is still doing so near 80, though the Alzheimers is now reducing his capacity for such). If you have an active mind, you'll want a way to fill it, be it with work or hobbies, but for those of us who enjoy our jobs, it can often be like a hobby.

To the OP: find something you like to do that can be financially rewarding. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it can build up over time. Like to do home repair? Pull the old buy-and-sell fixer-upper routine. Like computers? Do some (god forbid) IT support on the side. Building up a supplemental income is the surest route to early retirement.

Alternatively, you can decrease costs and invest heavily in retirement-oriented funds. There are people out there who will manage your money for you, but do your homework and choose very, very carefully.

Our (current) plan is to buy property in the US and use it as an incoming producing rental while we keep slogging away in Switzerland a while longer.

Then we will sell the house here and retire to our isolated cabin on the lake/farm in the mountains, where the cost of living is far lower than in Switzerland. (The proceeds from selling our poky little Swiss house could buy us a huge chunk o' ground in the areas I'm looking at.) Husband will do a little consulting and a lot of cycling or snowshoeing, I will surround myself with broken dogs, maybe even start an 'Hundaltersheim' - and we will finally be able to breathe without worrying about neighbors and permits.

However that plan is financed by our investments - and of course the stock market could tank again, and then the dream will go up in smoke...

The only certainty is that we will not retire in Switzerland.

Wrong workplace, Bro.

Are you really willing to defer your life for a 'life' once you're older? Anything wrong with the present? You mightn't make it to 55. In the meantime, brighten up your afternoon and go Commando... it's all about the daily subversion and mischief making. The rest is too complicated to contemplate.

Almost, but not quite. The way to go is to create your own business, working a profitable niche, but one that can run without your constant input and presence. The thing is, if you're an entrepreneur, you're inevitably mixing with others of the same ilk and this will lead to further opportunities which then require more of your time at the beginning before they then too start to produce results after maturing.

And then you continue this process until you die because it's in your blood, retirement itself may kill you. There are so many cases of people dropping dead just after 65; maybe it's the lack of routine or the fact that they had no interests or pastimes to occupy their new found time.

By the time most folks can afford to take early retirement they're too old to qualify.

Unless you've been lucky enough to inherit a packet or earn squillions through your artistic, business or sporting skills, for ordinary mortals, the best route is to do it the old fashioned way...save, save and save as much as you can as early as you can. Even better if, like my Dad, you've worked in the same place since you were a teenager and had a full "final salary" indexed linked pension. Now, sadly, mostly a thing of the past except in the public sector. Even then you'll have to watch the pennies.

My guess is having a business won't be the "retirement" you'd hoped. Max is right. It'll take sacrifice, either now or later in terms of quality of life.

I should say, that even though I said lieing on a beach I actually see retirement more of a chance to do the other things I like in life...like travelling or walking the dog.
I would actually like to start a little company where I walk other people's dogs and do a little gardening but they won't pay me enough money to live.

If you invest in retirement orientated stuff, isn't there an age limit at which you can touch the money.
I think I can only access my pension starting from 55 for example.

UM: Nothing wrong with the present but I am thinking about the future and the next 35 years sat in a office.

This is so true, my Dad is an inventor and works a lot with start-up technology companies doing all sort of weird & wonderful things. He officially retired about 10 years ago but I don't think he has ever had a day off just for the hell of it since. The whole family, including him, reckons that if he were to stop he would be dead in a week.

So its all a question of money again isn't it. Sigh. What a world.

You need money to live. Being retired does not stop the bills coming in.

absolutely wrong ....

yes that's true but mainly for this modern society we live in where absolutely everything depends on money. total slavery this is.

I know this is a little off topic, but why would you not stay in CH when you retire? That is exactly what I am looking into right now.

This sounds like a holy grail. Any ideas?

Our dream (living on a small hobby farm or simply having enough land so that we can shrug off the pressure cooker that is Nachbarrecht) is probably not attainable in Switzerland. Or at least not attainable if one is not a gazillionaire with a good supply of Vitamin B. Or the scion of a farming family.

I don't think I'll ever be able to get away from the feeling of living in a fish bowl here - it's more about societal attitudes than space. To continue doing the things that are most important to me I need the freedom to feel that my home really is my castle.

Secondly, I am currently dealing with the challenges of eldercare with both sets of parents back home, which has made me think very carefully about what it would mean to be elderly, vulnerable and alone - as outsiders - here in Switzerland. The prospect terrifies me. I simply don't have the kind of network here that I may end up needing in my declining years.

Looking at both the productive post retirement years, as well as the years farther ahead, I think I'd find what I need more easily elsewhere.

Just did some basic PV calculations - not sure if this is correct:

If you want to retire at 40 and expect to live until you are 80, you need to have amassed a bit more than Fr.3m in your bank account in order to spend Fr.100,000 per year for the rest of your life.

If you want to retire at 50, about Fr.2.5m should do it...

Ouch. Start saving....

And that's why final salary indexed pensions are a Godsend. And very rare these days.