Retiring at the age of 40 could be a real difficult and near-impossibility for most average income earners and they believe such a retirement age are for the super-rich and those who earn more than the average income on monthly basis. Most investment bankers and financial advisors will often advise you to cut around 25% of your gross monthly income and invest it in a kind of balanced index fund and leave it for some specific years. This however may be impossible for extremely low income earners.

If you can refrain yourself from extra spending and invest around 15-25% or more of your monthly income at your early working days, you will definitely have enough to invest or use in starting your own business even before you reach the age of 40. Investing your money in some solid IRA or some share building investments, which allows you to automatically invest money into stocks or funds for just $4 or more.

Another great simple and automatic way of investing is by opening a Vanguard account which allows you to buy a huge variety of index funds like the popular S&P 500. These are viable investments that can make you leave your regular day job even before your each 40.

You need to note that the present annuity factor at age 40 is 17.3163 for an annuity paid for a lifetime only. This means that you will need to contribute around $17,000 on yearly basis if your salary is around a $100,000 a year. This is quite impossible for low income earners who hardly have anything left after paying their bills. It is therefore imperative to have a solid saving culture to achieve the aim of early retirement.

One of the best steps you can take is to ascertain your current monthly income before tax and then calculate how much you have saved and how much you will save from other sources of income. Subtract your liabities from your income and assets and then you will be able to figure out how long your financial resources will be able to last you. It is ideal to have more than one source of income for you to retire at such an early age of 40.

It looks as if saving and investment options are the main ways of retiring early but one wonders how much one will; need to save or invest to retire at the age of 40. If you can save some money and start your personal business before the age of 40, you might want to take a risk by quitting your regular job and building your business to huge success that you can manage after retirement.

When you are able to set up a part-time business before you retire then your mind can be rest assured that you can manage your business on your own and the success depends largely on your dedication. You may even retire long before your 40^th birthday when you start your own business.