Early Retirement Blog

The day after Thanksgiving is known as “Black Friday”.   The day when Americans begin their annual tradition of mass spending for the holidays. The reason why “Black Friday” is black, is because in accounting, the color black signifies profits while the color red signifies loss.   Black Friday is the day that retailers start making money, and as the color ironically implies, the day your retirement dies at the mall.

And, you should consider yourself lucky, if all that dies on Black Friday is your retirement.   Last year’s Black Friday, saw the death of a New York Wal-Mart employee, who was crushed to death by frenzied shoppers when he opened the store’s doors before dawn.   While in California, on the same day, two men shot at each other in the parking lot of a Toys R Us.

You can save yourself from stampeding shoppers, and save your retirement as well, by celebrating a Green Friday this year.   If you skip the madness at the mall, and save the money you would have spent on exchanging gifts, you can retire early. You can figure out just how much retirement savings you can gain, and how much less savings you need for retirement, by trying our Early Retirement  Calculator.

Say for instance you spend $1,000 per year on Christmas, if you celebrate a Green Christmas instead, after 20 years you could have an additional $55,000 in retirement savings and you can retire with $25,000 less in retirement savings.

This Black Friday,   while everyone else is stressing out at the shopping mall, take a nature hike to work off the calories from Thanksgiving.   And imagine how you can be out in nature on Mondays and Wednesdays every week – not just on Black Friday.

• Learn how you can retire early
• Free retirement calculators
• Early retirement planning