If you're new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years on a median salary. The wiki page gives a good summary of the principles of the strategy. The key to success is to run your personal finances much like a business, thinking about assets and inventory and focusing on efficiency and value for money. Not just any business but a business that's flexible, agile, and adaptable. Conversely most consumers run their personal finances like an inflexible money-losing anti-business always in danger of losing their jobs.
Here's almost a thousand online journals from people, who are following the ERE strategy tailored to their particular situation (age, children, location, education, goals, ...). Increasing their savings from the usual 5-15% of their income to tens of thousands of dollars each year or typically 40-80% of their income, many accumulate six-figure net-worths within a few years.
Since everybody's situation is different (age, education, location, children, goals, ...) I suggest only spending a brief moment on this blog, which can be thought of as my personal journal, before looking for the crowd's wisdom for your particular situation in the forum journals.
Not according to this graph, which shows an almost inverse correlation between retirement age and lifespan, that is, the sooner you retire, the longer you will live. The graph shows linearity going into earlier years. It is interesting how long that relation holds.
This somehow contrasts with this study which comes to the opposite conclusion. However, if, as stated in the comments, the study was not corrected for the poorer health of some early retires, e.g. people retire early because they are in poor health, the conclusion that one doesn’t live long is obvious, no?
A priori reasoning would suggest that not having any job related stress at the chronic low level that leads to increased blood pressure and bad habits like sugary drinks (insulin havoc), which comes with many jobs, perhaps especially careers, would increase life span. Of course, the lack of a job could also lead to a lack of meaning which would lead to stress. Pointless activities (including jobs) do seem to be somewhat disagreeable.
Hence, I suspect one should simply take it for what it is worth, that is, lifespan is a very individual matter and that it correlates weakly with group behavior. In my case I am certainly more relaxed and content than I was in my career. Thus I would expect to live longer being retired. Conversely, if I had continued complaining about my career (many of my complaints agree with this paper), specifically balancing the fascinating parts, like research and model building, with the inane parts like proposal writing, doing the same presentation over and over, and building my resume, it just might have cost me a decade of life, not to mention perhaps several decades of living.
Originally posted 2010-02-21 15:01:13.
