Retired by 50: What it really takes

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Think it's impossible to retire in your 40s? I'd like you to meet some ordinary folks who have done it.

"Ordinary" may be a misnomer, because retiring after just 20 years or so in the workplace is an extraordinary act, and most took extraordinary measures to get where they are. But they're ordinary in the sense that they were working people with pretty regular jobs. They didn't strike it rich with stock options, inheritances or the lottery.

Most of them have kids. Most lived in high-cost areas -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., suburban New Jersey. Most didn't start really saving until their 30s (although the one who started at 28 wound up retiring at 35).

Their retirements look different from the retirements depicted on television. These folks don't live on the golf course or roam the country in 32-foot recreational vehicles. Most, in fact, are actually still working -- but usually part time and in their own businesses, doing things they feel strongly about. They've retired from the 9-to-5 world, but not from their passions.

In short, their retirements look a lot like the retirements many people have planned for themselves; about two-thirds of baby boomers plan to work in retirement, according to an AARP poll.

The folks I'm writing about are just two or three decades ahead of schedule.

People who retire so early often have several traits in common, said Jan Dahlin Geiger, a Certified Financial Planner and author of the book, "Get Your Assets in Gear! Smart Money Strategies." They're:

• Allergic to debt."Debt is the opposite of savings," Geiger said, "and you don't get to be rich if you don't save."

• Acutely aware of the power of time. Early retirees know that the sooner they put money to work for them, the more they'll eventually have. Even small amounts, if diligently saved and invested, can grow to whopping sums over time, thanks to the power of compound interest.
  

  Janine Bolon

• More interested in their goal than what the neighbors think. You may realize that you can't keep up with the Joneses and have any hope of retiring early (or even of retiring at all, depending on how far you take your consumerism). But you may not understand how very different your life might have to be from those around you to retire young.

The first two couples I'll introduce you to illustrate that point vividly. Let's meet them now.

The Bolons

Janine and Brad Bolon were 30-something "DINKs" -- dual income, no kids -- when a pregnancy and two books completely changed their lives.

Janine, a biochemist, wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, a decision that would cause their nearly six-figure income to drop by about half.

But the two books -- "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, and "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn -- convinced her that she could not only stay at home, but also save enough doing so that Brad could retire in 14 years.

She wrote up a plan and showed it to her husband.

"He was skeptical," Bolon remembers. "(But) he said, 'Knock yourself out.'"

She did. Her savings strategy, coupled with a boost in Brad's income and a cooperative real-estate market, helped them reach their goal a few years early, even with the arrival of three more kids and while living in one of the country's most expensive areas.

Continued: Keeping costs low

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