We think of retirement as a thing you do near the end of life, when you’re no longer capable of working, or when you’ve accumulated enough wealth to stop working for good. I say you should retire early and often.
This is what I did when I left my job for the school systems. I had saved some Money for retirement – and I did retire, but only for a year. That gave me the room to change careers which made a huge difference in my life.
I’ve done this on other occasions too, and I’ve used retirement savings for things besides retirement. Those are investments too, even though they don’t always have a monetary pay out. They can pay big dividends in other ways.