I'm going to mirror a sentiment that somebody else mentioned earlier in this discussion that you should modify your definition of "retired" to mean "I don't nee

I'm going to mirror a sentiment that somebody else mentioned earlier in this discussion that you should modify your definition of "retired" to mean "I don't need to work for a few years", and go see if not working is in fact something you want to do. I started along that path in my late 20s, gradually ramping up the length of time between contract gigs as I determined that yes, in fact, I do like not working for long periods of time while travelling through Southeast Asia and Central America. For me, the sweet spot was about 9 months off at a time before, surprisingly, I'd feel like working again for a while. So I modified my definition of Retired to mean "retired enough for me", and kept doing short contracts to save up for the next trip whenever the mood to work struck. Eventually, I built a couple SaaS products that have ramped up to the point where I don't need to work at all anymore. So I hit a point that people would more closely equate to "actually retired" when I was in my early 40s. These days, I still do a bit of part time contract work here and there, more as a hobby than an income stream. And I keep the product stuff ticking away at as close to zero hours of maintenance/support as possible. But any day (or week or month) I choose can be off, so that's close enough to retirement for me.