Retirement once meant completely stopping work after a long career. Now, it can mean achieving financial freedom in order to take money out of the equation, allowing you to pursue whatever you please, which might be work but doesnt have to be.

5 ways to set up retiring in your thirties

Financial freedom has become a buzzword in personal growth forums, and it has multiple definitions. For me, financial freedom is about choice. Choosing who to work with, on which projects, from wherever in the world you want to be. It also means being able to say no to anything other than work that fulfils your mission and purpose, and yes to those opportunities that arent necessarily well-paid or arent incredibly exciting.

You win at life by being paid to do work that you love so much, youd do for free. An extension of this is not having to work, but believing so strongly that youre onto something, that its how you choose to spend your time.

If that sounds appealing, heres how to set it up:

The FIRE movement (financial independence, retire early) is one that provides specific calculations to work out where you are versus where you want to be. It works on the basis of setting aside 25 times your annual living expenses and putting it into investments. Its not for everyone, but the premise is solid: work out where you are and work out what you need to do.

Without an idea of how much you earn and how much you spend, its impossible to project forward. Start with a blank piece of paper and work out your numbers. Use banking apps such as Revolut to analyse your spending. Get good at spreadsheets.

The penny saved is a penny earned mentality works on a scarcity premise and isnt congruent with the mindset of big thinkers or ambitious people. Alongside thinking of costs, think of opportunities. Think of the value you could bring to others and the financial rewards gained as a result of that. Incorporate that into your forecasts.

Robert Kiyosakis book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, describes doo-dads as things you buy that cost you money, or waste your money. They might include luxury cars, jewellery or lavish clothes. In other words, anything that you dont really need. The Minimalists, however, advocate focusing on less. Fewer possessions and fewer obligations. Fewer focus on unimportant materialism and more on spending time with people. Their mantra is love people, use things because the opposite never works.

Being low maintenance is a vibe, and its achievable for everyone. It involves opting out of unnecessary expense commitments in favour of finding happiness in simplicity. From a financial standpoint, every day of minimalism stacks up, and could mean financial freedom is a whole lot closer.

In an article by Derek Sivers, he talks about how he got rich on the other hand, explaining, Its not how much you have.Its the difference between what you have and what you spend.If you have more than you spend, youre rich. If you spend more than you have, youre not. If you live cheaply, its easy to be free.

5 ways to set up retiring in your thirties

With small risks come small rewards. With big risks come big rewards. What each individual is comfortable with varies wildly. Given, however, that youre not going to live forever, why not take the big risks? Ask the big questions, start that company you cant stop thinking about. Approach that person for that collaboration.

You owe it to your future self to make the decisions that will make him or her proud. There are many reasons you should be dreaming bigger. As Daniel Burnham, architect of Chicago, once said, Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir mans blood.

Most people who retired or became financially free in their 30s didnt do it from a steady salary or stable job. They did it from scalable ideas, a fast-lane project, uniting a tribe, or effecting huge change with a cause that mattered. They did it taking risks that had never been done before, not working 9-5 and imitating their competitors. To get what no one else has, do what no one else will do.

If you need inspiration, think of the people who inspire you the most. Those who make you want to up your game in a big way. Find them online and channel the motivation into replicating it for yourself.

From an old Chinese proverb, The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now. I recently spoke to Tayla Evans, a 17-year-old entrepreneur whose sustainable tent concept just won Young Enterprises U.K. company of the year. Evans asked me for the advice I wish Id had at 17. It was this: start now. Stop waiting for conditions to be perfect, stop waiting to finish the year, or the chapter, or the semester. Get a huge head start on your own journey by trying, failing and starting again as soon as you can.

Most people dont think about what they want their future to look like until theyre too far down one path. Many never get around to intentionally designing their life, or career, or even their weekend. But the earlier you make your plan the sooner you can make progress or the sooner you can iterate and pivot.

Start earlier by making your plan immediately. Make your plan by asking better questions. If I had two weeks to do this, how would I do it? How could I make this 10 times bigger?

5 ways to set up retiring in your thirties

You become a combination of the five people you spend the most time with. Five people, working together on collective financial freedom, could be the sole reason you reach financial freedom earlier. As Tony Robbins says, Energy flows where attention goes. Share your plans with your closest circle and watch them be realised at record speed.

A close alternative comes from reading books. The authors become your mentors, exhibiting the research and presenting the case, before giving clear guidance and inspiring you along the route they advocate. There as many methods of financial education as there are people, but Rich Dad Poor Dad, the 4-Hour-Work-Week and Playing with FIRE are good places to start.

Its never before been more attainable to reach financial freedom, and your version of retirement, earlier than former generations. It requires careful planning, inventive thinking, and an assessment of whats really important. Dream big, create the plans, make incredible things happen, and the rest is easy.

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5 Ways To Set Up Retiring In Your Thirties - Forbes