Retiring early is an aspiration that many individuals can get excited about. Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, in their best-selling book, “Your Money or Your Life”, arguably introduced the concept of early retirement to the mainstream culture decades ago. Today, thousands of individuals are actively pursuing their goal of becoming financially independent and quitting their nine-to-five grind.

According to one Gallup study, individuals in their early 20’s were generally optimistic about their ability to save for retirement before age 60. Those same individuals, however, curbed their early retirement enthusiasm when later surveyed later in their 30’s as savings and other lifestyle realities made it increasingly clear that early retirement might just be an elusive goal.

Even so, data from Hearts & Wallets suggests that one out of every six Americans surveyed by the group expects to retire before the age of 55 – ten years sooner than the standard retirement age of 65.

This data illustrates one key point when it comes to the concept of retirement: individuals across all walks of life increasingly want to start the journey to become financially independent and retire early, rather than walking down the path of a traditional retirement later on in life. To be sure, retiring early has become so popular that it’s even earned its own name: the FIRE movement.

In this podcast, we discuss four ways to supercharge your retirement plans by participating in the FIRE movement. We’ll also discuss some factors to consider when calculating financial independence number.