It’s become more common lately for young people to joke about retiring early. Retiring early may seem like a pipe dream, but it can be done! Working forever and living paycheck to paycheck is possible and may seem like your only reality, but budgeting and keeping expenses low can put you on the track to early retirement.

How to Work Forever

Keeping your expenses high and accumulating debt will ensure that you have to keep working until you can’t anymore. Spending more than you earn will trap you in a situation that is hard to ever get out of.

How to Retire Later in Life

Living paycheck to paycheck is an easy way to ensure that you may retire someday, but later than you would like to. It’s nice to get a raise, but if your spending raises as much as your income, retirement will be harder to achieve.

How to Retire Early

The Social Security Administration defines retirement age as 67 years old. If you want to retire earlier, define your budget and stick to it. Determine what age you want to retire and figure out how much you need to save and invest. Put your money in diversified, high return accounts with compound interest to make it happen.