5 small money changes I'm making in my 30s to retire early in my 50s (2024)

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• I didn't think about retirement in my 20s, and now that I'm in my 30s I'm ramping up my savings.
• I want to retire in my 50s, so I have to think especially creatively to catch up and hit my goals.
• I'm budgeting, avoiding debt, diversifying my savings, and doing weekly check-ins to hit my goal.
• Read more from Personal Finance Insider.

Planning for retirement wasn't something I thought about in my 20s. I was so focused on short-term goals — like paying off credit card bills and affording rent in New York City — that the thought of putting money aside for the future didn't cross my mind.

But when I entered my 30s, my perspective on personal finance changed. I realized that I needed to build a strategy for my money that not only supported me now, but later on as well.

I've been spending the past few years trying to build up a retirement plan from scratch because I realized I want to retire early. Even though the average retirement age is around 62, I'd like to retire in my 50s instead.

In order to do this, I make consistent monthly contributions to my SEP IRA and other funds that will support me when I stop working later on in life. But since I feel like I'm playing catch-up with my retirement plans, I'm also committed to making some changes in my life that will help me reach my goals so I can retire early.

1. Sticking to a budget

In order for me to get on track with my retirement plans, I needed to have a strong financial baseline. For me, that came in the form of creating a realistic budget and sticking to it every single month. Since I've started doing that this year, I've been able to control my spending and make sure I have enough cash every month to contribute to my retirement funds.

Before doing that, I found myself having excuses as to why I needed to use that chunk of money to pay off a bill or for something else instead. Now, the amount I put aside for retirement is fixed and built into my budget for the month.

2. Changing my attitudes and saving with intention

When I was in my 20s, I thought that saving for retirement was pointless. Not only do I realize now how wrong I was, but I also realize that my negative attitude made it impossible to want to put money aside.

I now approach retirement saving in a more intentional way. Rather than just proclaim my goal of retiring early, I have also mapped out things I want to do when I retire, like specific trips I'd like to take and property I want to own. Having more specific goals makes it more exciting to save now, for later.

Making significant changes to my mindset have allowed me to change the way I approach saving for the future and have made me eager to meet my retirement contribution goals every month.

3. Diversifying my retirement plans and seeking passive income

After opening a SEP IRA account and making monthly contributions for a few years, I decided that I wanted to have multiple ways I was planning and saving for retirement.

That's why I've started to find ways to add variety into my retirement savings plan. Not only do I have a retirement fund, but I've also started saving to buy properties so in the future I can rent them out as a form of passive income.

I have also started to get serious about finding ways to make other forms of passive income, whether it's investing in small business or creating my own streams through courses, books, and merchandise. I can use that income to both pay bills now and to save some of that money for retirement.

4. Keeping debt under control and saving for emergencies

The only way I can retire early is to make sure I stay in control of how much debt I have. At the moment, I am debt-free. However, that could change if an emergency happens in my life and I don't have the funds to cover it, or if I lose all of my income. To help manage this risk, I am actively contributing cash to my emergency savings account on a monthly basis.

Other things I do to keep my debt down are monitoring my credit card statements to make sure I'm not overspending, and planning expensive purchases in advance to make sure I have the cash to splurge on them.

Doing these things helps me stay on track with my retirement plans and allows me not to have to pull back from funding those goals in order to address pop-up debt.

5. Having weekly financial meetings with myself

One of the best ways I've been able to change my financial habits and reach my monthly retirement savings goals is to have weekly check-in meetings with myself.

Every Friday morning I sit down and review all of my finances, from credit card statements to my SEP IRA. This helps me keep a pulse on how much I am spending and saving on a weekly basis, and it allows me to have a firm understanding of the status of my finances.

Before doing this, I checked in on all of my accounts only once a month. That made it easier to overspend, get lazy with personal accounting, and not have my financial goals on the top of my mind.