Why does everyone want to retire at 40?  What does one do then?  I seem to hear and read it a lot.  Especially from 20-somethings.  I work, I love what I do. I am not trapped, but I not think that heavily gearing into property will accelerate future planning.  Whilst I do not want to work till I am 75 or anything, I can't see the point of retiring too early unless you have something else to do.

My personal interpretation is that what people  mean is that they want to be financially independant by 40 ( in other words, if I stop working today, how much income would I continue to recieve? Or re-worded, how long could I survive for if I stopped work and only lived off passive income only.  If you had several positively geared properties getting, say $50k/year net after all expenses then you are sort of financially independant.  A bit more would be better of course.  Only problem I can see is you can't borrow as easily because you don't have a job.

People who retire with nothing to do often seem to shrivel up and die.  You need something to do or you get bored and go batty.

I believe there are a few Great Australian Dreams.

1. is to get a redundancy package

2 Own your own home

3. retire at 40 (if you don't get 1, and if 2 isn't forcing you to work till you're 75)

4 give your kids what you never had (most of the time this equates to having a parent up to their eyeballs in debt!)

I would go differently and say that it is better is to

1. have someone to love

2 have something to do

3 have something to plan/dream/look forward to for ( and this is where the whole financial/investing in IPs comes in)

4have memories to cherish.

I see retiring early only works if you can continue to fulfill all of these.

Thoughts?