It's happening, I'm planning on retiring!

Well, it's confirmed, I'm fully engaged in planning to retire in 2025. Why 2025? Well, I'll hit 60 and I think I've worked long enough to really take in the moment to call it quits. I'm excited, it's surreal, and at the same time I'm afraid and hopeful that this move will be what I hope for.

I'm surrounded by a number of friends and colleagues who have left the corporate, job, world to pursue other passions or adventures. I've thought about it for a few years now and it's slowly becoming a reality for myself. I know I'll have to figure how to navigate this route to get there. I have a feeling, I have to deal with finances, where to live, how to adjust a new life after working for so many years. I'm not sure where to begin, but I'm hopeful writing this blog helps be sort things out in my head and putting it in perspective on a blog to document my journey. 

Cross fingers, I'm doing this right. It can be lonely, but hopeful again the word hopeful, I did the right thing. 

FINANCES

First off, my first question will be, can I afford to retire? Many of us will have to address the elephant in the room, do we have the money to make it? I would say, maybe I'm 70% there? But, I have to see what number is it to say, I can afford to make the move. 

I read an article that said, you should be able to retire comfortable if you've saved 8x your annual salary.  But it all depends on your way of life after retiring too, it may be enough for one person but another may need more. Here's the article among others that say you should have this amount by retirement. 

How Much Do I Need to Save to Retire? 

Let's say you make $50,000, you'll need to have $400,000 at the time of retirement (for me at 60) and should last you, oh I don't know maybe 25-30 years after leaving your job? That's a tall order for many of us. Who has saved that much when housing and other life circumstances are so expensive? 

I'll need to put together a spreadsheet that helps me see where I'm at to get to this amount. 
In the meantime, I need to save like crazy if I need to reach that goal. Stay tuned, I'll see if that number is even remotely close to my goal. 

Back to the question, am I ready to retire? Let's do this!