Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Retiring Sooner: How to Accelerate Your Financial Independence

Rate this book
Learn how to accelerate your financial independence:

What you must know to retire sooner

The single most important factor for monitoring and achieving financial independence

The potential retirement lifestyles, and how much they will cost you

Secrets to controlling inflation in your lifestyle

The essential money tools for achieving financial independence

A quick introduction to safe, simple passive index investing

How soon you could actually retire: the critical relation between savings rate and working years

A gold mine of proven tips for cutting expenses and spending less

The 4 proven strategies for boosting income and building wealth

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2013

Loading...
Loading...

About the author

Darrow Kirkpatrick

3 books4 followers
Darrow Kirkpatrick is an early-retired civil and software engineer with five decades of hiking, biking, and technical rock-climbing experience, including first ascents in the Shawangunks of New York and the sandstone belt of Tennessee. He climbed three big walls in Yosemite Valley, California: The Shield and The Nose on El Capitan, and The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. In 2011 he founded Can I Retire Yet? — winner of the 2019 Plutus award for Best Retirement Blog. His personal finance books include Retiring Sooner and Can I Retire Yet? In 2021 he completed a six-year section hike of the 500-mile-long Colorado Trail, the subject of his memoir, Two Sticks, One Path.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
28 (21%)
4 stars
48 (37%)
3 stars
44 (34%)
2 stars
6 (4%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Alex Gustafson.
29 reviews1 follower
June 7, 2013
Got this ebook for free off Amazon (thanks to a notice from Mr. Money Mustache) and it was good enough to read through. Not much new insight here for folks that have already read the entirety of the ERE and MMM canon -- but it looks like Darrow has his own online following and they probably requested information in book form just like has happened with Jacob from ERE.

If you're looking for a book to share with folks that need some perspective, but might be turned off by Jacob or MMM's extreme badassity -- this book might do the trick.
1 review
October 28, 2018
Excellent book.. Inspiring and Practical!

Author seem very sincere to help us to reach our financial independence with his Down to Earth advise. Highly Recommended for poeple that want to reach Financial Independence and retire early.
16 reviews
January 25, 2020
Solid summary of FIRE

Clear well written book that provides a solid summary of the steps needed to achieve Financial Independence. No single book captures everything but this one comes close.
15 reviews
October 25, 2023
Motivating read

I found the book to be uplifting and positive. It provides a great outlook on what is to come.

I will most likely read it again and find more value in much of the advice outlined.

Thank you
2 reviews
May 20, 2018
Financial Excellence

An excellent financial book on financial independence. The concepts were simple and smart. The book forces you to think about every monetary purchase.
Profile Image for Barb.
299 reviews
January 2, 2023
Super basic and there are much better books for basics (e.g., The Simple Path to Wealth).

Read his other book, Can I Retire Yet? which has better tips, some unique takes, and is solid on its own.
11 reviews
June 16, 2023
retire soon

I really enjoyed reading this book. Practical and useful information on setting goals and a blue print of what is necessary in order to retire early.
1 review1 follower
November 22, 2015
A solid book on retiring early for beginners

If you're familiar with the concept of early retirement, you'll find no revelations here. But if you're a beginner this book is a good introduction. My personal opinion is the book is just a tad bit boring. Financial independence can be an exciting topic, but this book was a bit dry. I also wish there were more specifics of the author's journey. He mentions several times he sold a business; I kept wondering about the payout. I also wonder if his own experiences were included, if that would have made the book more interesting. But overall the concepts were still solid.
Profile Image for April.
3,292 reviews14 followers
January 24, 2016
Mr. Kirkpatrick saved, invested, had his own businesses and retired at 50. Retiring early is something to aspire to, and the author gives steps and guidelines for making it potentially possible for each of us. He does talk from his own perspective and so as I have seen in other reviews there are those who take offense at some of his opinions. He has been successful in the way he proceeded so it gives him some credibility. Not everything he suggested like having your own business or owning rental real estate will work for everyone but evaluating your spending, having a budget and saving more will bring about greater prosperity.
Profile Image for Ken Sharp.
9 reviews2 followers
June 13, 2013
I personally didn't learn anything new from this book but that is because I've been a long-time reader of Mister Money Mustache. I think this book is really well laid out and may be more approachable to newbies than the (sometimes extreme) MMM or ERE blogs. It does a good job of covering all the important topics.

I may buy a paper copy of this just to loan to others that need to learn about financial independence.
Profile Image for Kristin.
596 reviews6 followers
January 1, 2016
Solid primer on the basics of early retirement/financial independence. If you haven't already dived deeply into Kirkpatrick's blog "Can I Retire Yet?", this is a good summary of the most important points from his blog posts.
60 reviews7 followers
May 22, 2015
Excellent resource for anyone seeking to retire

A quick read with a comprehensive look at retiring at any age. Especially important was the section regarding YOUR personal inflation rate. Ignore the government's numbers, focus on YOUR spending and where it can be adjusted.
Profile Image for Bonnie Odin.
367 reviews
February 4, 2014
Excellent. Quick and dirty advice for retiring early. Make more, save more, spend less. No new info for me here, but good motivation to keep cutting costs.
Profile Image for David Božjak.
31 reviews18 followers
March 2, 2014
I've learned nothing new in this book - but I think it is a good, SHORT, first look into early retirement. If you are already a reader of Mr Money Mustache, don't expect to learn from this book.
27 reviews
September 6, 2014
Provides in a short book much food for thought in preparing and planning for retirement.
4 reviews
January 27, 2015
Easy reading

Enjoyed his personal journey to financial peace. Action plan transition you to making a course of implementing something to address the topic being discussed
515 reviews7 followers
June 5, 2013
A different, less extreme perspective on retiring early.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews