Yeah, depends on how you define "retire". There are plenty of people who hit financial independence and "retire" but still choose to work. I'd go so far as to say you should keep working after you hit financial independence or else life gets kinda drained of its meaning.
For me, "retirement" doesn't mean quitting work but rather having the ability to choose to only work on things I find meaningful. I'm also pretty horrible at dealing with authority and too insistent on knowing why people order me to do stuff at work. Most of the time, I can keep my irritation hidden from others but it would be nice to not have to deal with that irritation at all.
So long as the bulk of your money comes from one or two main "clients," you more or less have to do what they say, and they don't have to explain why. "Retirement" means having a diverse enough source of income that you no longer have to follow orders and can push back or simply decide not to work with them because you don't need the money.
TL;DR - we're obsessed with early retirement because we are human beings who crave autonomy mastery and purpose.
If there were a way to gain all of those benefits without having to pass through the process of accumulating vast sums of material wealth, I would certainly do that instead. And I am trying to find ways to get there without simply saving a ton of money. Having said that, even in the best of situations, human beings are gonna human and that means authoritarian leaders naturally emerge when money is involved. I'd rather have a giant sack of cash to shield myself from that inevitability.
For me, "retirement" doesn't mean quitting work but rather having the ability to choose to only work on things I find meaningful. I'm also pretty horrible at dealing with authority and too insistent on knowing why people order me to do stuff at work. Most of the time, I can keep my irritation hidden from others but it would be nice to not have to deal with that irritation at all.
So long as the bulk of your money comes from one or two main "clients," you more or less have to do what they say, and they don't have to explain why. "Retirement" means having a diverse enough source of income that you no longer have to follow orders and can push back or simply decide not to work with them because you don't need the money.
TL;DR - we're obsessed with early retirement because we are human beings who crave autonomy mastery and purpose.
If there were a way to gain all of those benefits without having to pass through the process of accumulating vast sums of material wealth, I would certainly do that instead. And I am trying to find ways to get there without simply saving a ton of money. Having said that, even in the best of situations, human beings are gonna human and that means authoritarian leaders naturally emerge when money is involved. I'd rather have a giant sack of cash to shield myself from that inevitability.