I Asked ChatGPT How To Retire 10 Years Early — The Plan Shocked Me
Written by
G. Brian Davis
Edited by
Zuri Anderson
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I asked ChatGPT a deceptively simple prompt: “Give me a step by step plan for retiring 10 years early.”
The AI did just that. And it got plenty of things right — while missing the most important point, which a human advisor would have understood instantly. Here’s the plan ChatGPT gave me.
ChatGPT’s Plan To Retire 10 Years Early
ChatGPT spat out a 10-point plan for retiring 10 years early. The condensed version reads like this:
- Define retirement age & whether you want to work at all after retiring.
- Calculate FIRE number: Annual Expenses x 25 = Retirement Goal (FIRE number).
- Cut unnecessary expenses: Cut areas like housing (downsize, house-hack, relocate to a lower-cost area), transportation, subscriptions, food and entertainment.
- Boost income streams: Ask for raises, switch jobs, pick up side hustles, invest in cash-flowing real estate.
- Save [over] 50% of income: Aim for [more than] 50% savings rate if retiring in 10 years, max out 401(k) [plan], IRA, HSA (if applicable), save bonuses, raises and windfalls.
- Invest in stocks, real estate or businesses: Index funds (e.g., VTI, VOO) for long-term growth in both tax-advantaged accounts and a taxable brokerage account for access before age 59½.
- Plan for early account access: Roth Conversion ladder (from Traditional IRA/401k [plan] to Roth IRA), taxable brokerage account, cash cushion of one to two years of expenses in cash or bonds.
- Strategize healthcare: ACA Marketplace, health sharing ministries, COBRA (short-term solution after quitting), part-time job that includes healthcare benefits.
- Monitor and adjust: Track net worth monthly or quarterly, rebalance your portfolio annually, adjust spending, saving, and investing as needed.
- Retire with confidence and buffer: Reach your number plus 10 [to] 20% as a buffer, try a “test retirement” year (take a sabbatical or mini-retirement), prepare psychologically — retirement is a big identity shift.
What ChatGPT Got Right
The AI did a perfectly adequate job summarizing hundreds of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) books and articles.
The broad strokes are all there: Spend less, save and invest more, leverage tax-advantaged accounts and real estate investments. It even paid lip service to the psychological perils of leaving the workforce.
Yet it completely missed the bigger picture.
Where the AI Missed the Mark
Imagine you bump into a financial planner at a party and ask “How do I retire 10 years early?” They’d instantly reply by asking “How old are you now, and in how many years do you want to retire?”
Because the plan for someone retiring “10 years early” looks completely different for a 22-year-old — who can work another 30 to 35 years and still retire 10 years early — versus a 50-year-old asking how they can retire in just five years.
“Just saying ‘achieve a 50%+ savings rate’ is about as useful as suggesting they ‘achieve Warren Buffett’s investment returns’,” notes financial advisor Scott Caufield of Sophos Wealth Management. He also wonders how Social Security fits into ChatGPT’s plan.
William Stern, CEO of investment and lending company Cardiff, sees a disaster waiting to happen.
“It presents a fragile, high-risk, 10-year sprint as a predictable checklist with zero room for error,” Stern explained. “No job loss, no medical emergency, no market downturn, no burnout. The most dangerous financial advice isn’t that which is clearly wrong, but that which is technically correct yet contextually catastrophic.”
A human financial advisor would sit down with you for hours to ask questions, understand your goals and risk tolerance, and work out a plan together. While an AI may be able to do that one day, don’t substitute ChatGPT for your financial planner just yet.
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