Early retirement is bullshit for me, actually I'm stuck in this cycle.
I invest like 80% of my salary for many years, technically I can retire now because 4% of my investment is enough to cover my annual expenses. But, no one knows if I get sick in the future, my wife turn to be materialistic woman, school fees rise really high than 4% annually etc.
If I quit my current job and choose to the job that I want which likely earn bigger in the future, if I didn't make it, I will regret, at the same time I can't back to my old comfort job. Don't say take two jobs at the same time because the first job requires me to work for full time.
I agree. Saving up is a good thing but nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.
And furthermore an early retirement sounds dull. There need to be periods of rest and work in a person's life but only work or only rest is not the right way. Life means movement, only the dead don't move.
Yes, the problem with most of us though is that we don't know how to save or invest when we are young and we don't think about our future until it's too late in our lives and then thinking back and says that we should have done this and that so there is a lot of regrets.
But I guess that is live itself, it's the unknown and we take risk, and it might not be good for us, but still we move on. But now that we are mature and still have time, then maybe we can correct our mistakes and be financially independent even in our late ages. And that is the beauty of life, we can continue to work, make money and learn from our mistakes. And yes, we are design to move and not rest, that's why when I go to the province and seeing farmers, who are in their 70's or 80's but they look young and strong because of their constant movement and battling life itself.