NICE!! I def. want to retire wayyyy earlier than 65 too – at least *be able* to retire. I’ll still work all the time anyways cuz I’d just get bored, but you know what I’m saying… At that point I’ll be able to work on whatever the heck I want!

We were in the same boat. We were saving 15% because that’s what we always read we were supposed to do. Great. If you want to retire at 65. I don’t know what your current savings goals are, but if you’re doing the standard 15% and have excess left to play with, give serious consideration to whether you early want to work until you’re 65. We don’t, so we use the ~40% of our income that is unallocated to bump up the retirement savings and pay off the mortgage as fast as possible. Net effect, we’ll be retiring a decade earlier than originally planned. There are lots of places to spend the excess (we do an major trip every year, so we aren’t socking away every available extra dollar), but just because you are meeting the savings goal you set doesn’t mean you shouldn’t reassess the goal.