Do you think the average Joe is really in a position to retire early? Most of us work our guts out full time and we can barely even make ends meet! Some of us can not even earn enough to pay for the bare essentials! If this sounds like you, believe me, you are not alone. Take the USA for example, for the past 18 months people have been spending $1.10 for every $1.00 that they earn! Spending like this has not occurred before, not even during the Great Depression. If you are spending more than you are making, you are certainly not on the path of those who want to retire early.



Managing your Finances

Your average financial consultant will say you should put about 10% of your income aside for retirement. This is so you will have something to live off when you retire. The thing that they do not realize is that most people rely on that 10% to get through the day to day! Think again, even if you are putting away 10%, that is still not enough to retire on the same salary that you are currently making!

If you wanted to retire in say, 20 years, with an income of $5000 per month, you would have to save up nearly 1.7 million dollars! If you are getting 10% return a year that would mean you would need to save about 1800 a month! Does that even sound possible to you? I mean, even if you are only saving 10% of your income, that would mean you would have to be making $220,000 per year! I can not think of any jobs I have had that have paid that well!

Not the best retirement plan if you look at it at face value, especially considering how much debt most families are in. Particularly when you realize they are struggling to make payments on that debt already!

Turning Debt into Wealth, It is possible

It sounds crazy, turning debt into wealth, but when you think about it, it is a pretty simple exercise! We are digging our own graves with debt, but if we pay attention we will be able to fill our own personal hole of debt and start creating our own little pile of wealth! But how on earth do you do it?

The first part of the solution is simple: education. Going out and learning about all the debt restructuring programs that are available could save you literally tens or hundreds of thousand of dollars in interest repayments, and significantly reduce the amount of time you spend living in debt. There are some fantastic organisations out there dedicated to helping you restructure your debt. Most of these organisations also offer great information on how to reduce your taxes, manage your risk in investment, how to invest intelligently and how to plan your estate, so make sure to take advantage of all of these resources as well.

But is education alone enough? It is the trigger to getting rid of your debt, but in order to really tackle the beast of debt you are going to have to increase how much you are earning.

Income outside the box

Most people think that you would have to be a genius to figure out a way to increase your income significantly. You would probably just suggest to find a better paying job, but that can be a pipe dream for most people. The other things to bear in mind about a new job is that you are not controlling your time and your income, someone else is. You are paid only for each hour you work there, and not a second more.

The past model of finding a career and working until your drop has stopped working. Even if you are making a decent yearly income you can still get completely swamped with debt. You might be able to scrape by with the old methods of savings and investment, but if you really want to retire early you need to get creative about your income.

The greatest method out of any of these is working from home. The opportunities for working from home on the internet are extraordinary. A little bit of commitment and time and you could be well on the way to retiring earlier than you ever thought possible.

We are people, we have only got so much time on this earth, so earning a certain amount of dollars an hour is really limiting. If you want to build real wealth you need to take advantage of financial systems and the opportunities presented to you by the internet and new technologies so that you can make money even while you sleep! Take the internet, take a decent idea and mix in some marketing mojo and you will be almost at the cusp of planning your life out to retire early.

Retiring early and wealthy is no longer a pipe dream, I can not give you all of the keys to the kingdom in one short article but I can tell you that the opportunities are out there. All you need to do is keep your wits about you and be dedicated to really retiring early. You know you can do it, so what are you waiting for?