There is a lot of advice, articles, and posts that can be found about early retirement. But the one thing that should be said is retire early to your own thing. When I read from some of my favorite blog sites or financial sources. I always appreciate many of the insights and recommendations that I can glean from them. However in every case I weigh what is written and apply it to my own lifestyle and goals. I assess whether it is something that either applies or could apply to me. There are a lot of great ideas out there. Reading from people who have actually accomplished early retirement usually ends up on my list of strategies to evaluate for my own use.

But they are only ideas.

What worked for someone else may not work for me. Or even being close to being a good fit for me. Everyone’s situation, lifestyle, and retirement dreams are different so no single method or plan is a one size fits all solution. If you want to retire early then you must retire early to your own thing. Ditching your car and going full-on bicycle isn’t for everyone nor is ride sharing, vacation couch surfing, becoming a landlord, etc. All valid and for some a successful strategy for their early retirement.

Maybe something that worked for someone else will work for me or you. I always look at the information being detailed and think about how I can use that doing my own thing. If it isn’t a good fit I discard it in my mind and move on. I find it fascinating that for some out there in the internet world that they also feel it necessary to trash the idea or strategy in the comments section. To each their own.

For my early retirement I preach being open to the “retire early and often” lifestyle. It has certainly been an awesome strategy for my early retirement and even though I am not actively pursuing any new opportunities, what I am now calling my second retirement is nothing short of fantastic. I don’t for a second feel that everyone should agree with me nor expect it is a good fit for everyone. That is my point, retire early to your own thing, not mine. If what I write about on this site is a direct hit with you, then great. Take what you can use. If not, then maybe you have an idea to share that is even better.

So what is Leisure Freak Tommy’s early retirement thing?

• Retiring early and often, being always open to rewarding opportunities that I can be passionate about and I have an interest in learning and doing.
• Looking outside the box in defining retirement and discarding the conventional norms regarding retirement’s definition. I could swap out the word retirement and replace it with financial independence as being the same thing. Freedom to do what I want to do.
• Focusing on happiness and knowing how my and my family’s happiness is defined. It certainly isn’t owning and buying wasteful stuff and I wouldn’t trade my freedom for any salary doing something I really didn’t want to do.
• I believe that you may retire from something but retirement happiness is all about what you are retiring to.

Maybe some will disagree that I am retired at all. That is OK and I would love to debate the subject as I am very passionate about this freedom and lifestyle. So go ahead, retire early to your own thing.

Can you share your ideas of what your early retirement thing looks like?