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Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 6:00 AM 4 min read
What does the American Dream look like to you? Perhaps it includes owning a nice house in a good neighborhood, traveling often and reaping the rewards of a career you love. About that last one: According to Pew Research, around four in 10 working adults say their job or career is extremely important to their identity, suggesting that a fulfilling profession isn’t only a pillar of the American Dream, but also an integral part of who we are.
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But even the most awesome jobs typically will be left behind when it comes time to retire. And an emerging aspect of the modern American Dream is early retirement. A 2024 report by YouGov found that 59% of Americans want to retire before 65. And millions of Americans do retire early, but often not because they want to; they’re forced to due to job loss or health hurdles. But there are many Americans who make early retirement a goal and pull it off.
How can you retire early and comfortably? Let’s look at what you absolutely should not do. These are five bad money habits that are proven to hold people back from early retirement.
Here’s a super basic but incredibly important bad habit: not knowing exactly what you’re spending your money (and we mean every single dollar) on. It’s a common problem.
“Many people find it surprising to see where their money really goes,” said Austin Kilgore, analyst with the Achieve Center for Consumer Insights at Achieve.
People looking to retire will be smart to periodically track all expenditures, online and off, for a few weeks at a time to see exactly what’s going where. They also will incorporate into a budget, which really is just a spending plan to help you achieve goals you set and do the things you really want to.
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A little splurge here and there probably isn’t going to break the bank — unless these splurges are bigger or more frequent than you estimate and/or are being flung onto credit cards. Be mindful of your spending, as spending beyond your means will quash the possibility of a comfortable early retirement.
“Eventually this habit of spending more than you earn can snowball, leaving you with high-interest balances and little to no progress toward saving for your future,” said Christine M. Parisi, CFP, senior wealth advisor at R.W. Rogé & Company, Inc. “It’s a major obstacle to early retirement because you’re not just failing to save, you’re actually moving backwards by acquiring debt.”
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