At 26, most people are trying to figure out how to stop eating instant ramen, not how to fund a decades-early retirement. But Alex from Houston had bigger questions. He called into "The Ramsey Show" asking Dave Ramsey and co-host John Delony how to retire early—and how to get to his money before age 59 and a half.
"Essentially it has to do with early retirement and how best to fund that via mutual funds—or however that best looks—as to be able to access it before 59 and a half," Alex explained.
Ramsey didn't skip a beat. "You're jacking up your regular retirement first, because we don't need to talk about retiring early and you have no money in your 401(k) or Roth IRAs," he told him. In plain English: crawl before you sprint.
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Real Estate Checks and Index Fund Stacks
Once the basics are in place, Ramsey said there are a couple of ways to build wealth you can touch before traditional retirement age.
First stop: real estate. "You can begin to save and pay cash for real estate… a rental house, small apartment complex, or office building," Ramsey said. "That is obviously money you can access at any time. And you have to access it—the rent that comes off of it—it's not optional."
Second stop: low-turnover mutual funds. "An example of that that's easy to do is an S&P 500 index fund," he added. He even admitted he puts his own overflow cash there every month.
Uncle Sam Always Gets His Cut
For most investors, those funds come with a tax perk. "In most people's cases that'd be 15% instead of 30 or 40 or whatever your tax rate is," Ramsey said. "My case, I make too much money so my capital gains is way more than 15%, but… because I'm rich and I must be punished. That's how the thing works these days."
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The lesson: for average savers, index funds let your money grow tax-deferred and cash out at a friendlier rate than your paycheck ever will.
When Quitting Becomes the Problem
But then Delony dropped the line that had people perking up: "If your goal is just to quit working, that's when people just die, right? Or their bodies fall apart."
It wasn't aimed directly at Alex—it was a general observation. Retirement, he argued, shouldn't be about escaping a miserable job. Ramsey backed him up. "If that young man is wanting to do this because he hates his job today, go and change… start making plans to go do something you love and you'll make more money anyway."
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Retirement Isn't About Candles on a Cake
Ramsey later quoted former Ramsey personality Chris Hogan: "Retirement is not an age, it's a number." In other words, it's not about 65 balloons and a gold watch—it's about having enough wealth that you can choose what to do with your time.
Whether you're 26 and dreaming of financial freedom or 56 and only just starting to save, the key is the same: get serious about building accessible wealth and know why you're chasing it in the first place. And if you're unsure what that looks like? That's when talking with a trusted financial advisor can keep you from running spreadsheets yourself into the ground.
Because money can buy freedom—but if your only plan is to quit working, well, as Delony bluntly put it, "that's when people just die."
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