It is worth trying to define exactly what early retirement means since expectations vary. During the 1980's, many large employers used their well-funded pension schemes to pay for laying off workers in their fifties by giving them early retirement.

In fact many of these people had no intention of retiring and used these generous packages to move into second careers. They did not retire at all until much later, in their sixties. Nowadays, what most people mean by early retirement planning is not stopping work altogether but having the financial freedom to change their lifestyles, free from children and a mortgage.

Create Sufficient Wealth to Sustain Your Lifestyle on Meager Earnings

First, it makes sense to try to estimate the amount of capital required. It pays to think of income and capital needs in real terms Plan de pensiones as it is easier to imagine an income need of, say, £35,000 per annum in today's money than the actual income needed once inflation has been factored in. We can allow for the effect of inflation by ensuring that we only use real returns, i.e. over and above inflation. We then need to look at how much there currently is in long-term savings and investments, pension funds and property, etc. It pays to be brutally honest and take a little time for reflection at this point because it is easy to build a plan in which you either have little faith or end up being hopelessly optimistic or pessimistic. Allowing for a realistic return, we can estimate how much these will be worth at the target date and calculate the shortfall, working back to create a plan to meet it.