[SSLance]

Sieg, I'm 48...and this is a common discussion with my wife (shes 5 years senior of me) all of the time. Back in my 20s, I used to say I'd like to retire at age 45. At that time, I didn't have a clue what it would take, I was young, dumb and full of...well I was enthusiastic...

Over the years I've had times where I thought that was absolutely possible and had times where I was afraid that I'd lose everything and never be able to retire like I want. Not having any children has sped our ability to retire early up no doubt, along with good earnings early on, saving responsibly and smart spending choices along the way.

Having lost some family and friends unexpectedly early in recent years, retiring early is on my horizon once again...I'm in the I want to enjoy it now and would rather be broke when I'm 70 than scrimp through the next 20 years saving for when I'm 70 and too old to enjoy the fruits of my labor mode. The hard part is two fold, wondering if I really can afford to enjoy it now and the price I'll have to pay as the majority of our retirement funds are in tax deferred accounts which will be costly to access for the next 20 years.

The graph in the article you linked reminds me of the graph I looked at when making my first real investment when I was 21 years old, a cash value life insurance policy. To this day, still the best investment I've ever made. My advisor call it a reverse IRA and we used the $2000 a year figure as well as that was the IRA deduction limit back then. Good part of that investment for me is, I can borrow against that cash value sitting there long before I turn 70 fee free. That's my ace in the hole towards early retirement.

START EARLY!!!