I thought retiring at 62 was a pipe dream, then my neighbor in Tucson showed me his math
Three years ago I sat on my porch in Tucson and argued with my neighbor Ray, who swore anyone could retire at 62 if they tracked every dollar. I called it nonsense, since my own bank account never seemed to grow past $4,000 no matter what I did. Then he pulled out a notebook with 11 years of grocery receipts and showed me he had saved $210,000 on a $19 an hour job by cutting one thing at a time. I ran my own numbers that night and found $340 a month I was bleeding on stuff I did not even want. So is retiring early really about income, or is it just about knowing where the leaks are?
Man, this same thing shows up everywhere once you start looking for it. People think the answer is always more money coming in (a raise, a side gig, whatever) when most of the time it is just stuff quietly draining out the back door, and nobody ever checks the back door. So no, it is not really about income, it is about seeing the leaks, and most of us never bother to look.