Something I used to hear all the time at Amway meetings was retiring early. When I was in Amway I was always hearing stories about people who retired in their 20's. I've seen a lot of older Diamonds at Amway functions so it looks like nobody really retires. Diamonds have to keep after new recruits and make sure their downline are toeing the line and buying plenty of Amway products and investing in the tool scam. I think the more correct term is for a few IBOs is some are able to quit their day job and work at being a commissioned sales rep for Amway full time. Even more common are the IBO's who quit their day job to work Amway full time only to discover they couldn't sustain a decent level of living and had to go back to working a job again.
I've had a couple of ambots leave comments on my blog who are 19, 20 years old and they're all going to retire in a year. Yeah, yeah. Maybe if you win the lottery.
I found this article about a couple who did retire early by age 45 and they have some tips here. Yikes – do not click this is now a dead link! http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/113590/tips-from-early-retirees-usnews?mod=fidelity-buildingwealth&cat=fidelity_2010_building_wealth
Note they were not involved in any MLM scheme.
The husband worked as a technical writer and that's really only a recent career that's been around for about 20 years. The wife was a travel agent, a commission based job, but she went back to nursing school. These aren't extraordinarily high paying jobs.
They owned a house and were looking to cut housing costs but there wasn't too much room there so they rented out part of their house. I have a couple of different friends who take in foreign exchange students in their house. It doesn't pay all that well but I'd say enough to cover the monthly grocery bill and maybe a good chunk of the gas bill. Another friend of ours converted his garage into an apartment and he lived in there and rented out his house. I think a lot of people can convert part of their house into another living space to rent out if their city zoning laws allow for it and that helps pay the mortage or utility bills. I knew someone whose house was occasionally used for movie and TV shoots, exterior shots and use of the yard. Movie crews never came inside. That's one of the advantages of being a home owner instead of a renter. You can use your home to create income.
They saved their money and invested it and eventually sold their house and invested the equity. Now they travel the world. Unlike Amway Diamonds they live below their means. They seek out inexpensive places to stay and choose countries where the cost of living is low. They do not rule out taking on temporary work to supplement their income and investments.
That's the complete opposite of what we're taught in Amway: working a job is failure.
Not everyone can live like this couple not having any place that they can call home. Staying in one place for a few months and moving on to a new destination. Its not something that could easily be done if there is a family in tow.
Their plan of retiring by age 45 and traveling the world is much better than the Amway business plan of walking the beaches of the world. One is reality. The other is a fairy tale.