<prompt> Human: Heres my story: I am 23 and make 55-60k per year. I want to be semi-retired and start to invest once I hit around 45. Currently, my living expenses total around 1,800 when everything is combined. I am saving 10 to my 401k with 3 extra from my employer. That is my only savings plan currently. How should I increase my savings to retire early?  <response>: As others have mentioned, you cant wait for retirement to start investing. You must invest as much as you can now in order to retire early. A general rough! guideline is to have 25-33 times your annual expenses in investments in order to retire, live off the income generated by those investments, and not draw down on the principal e.g. you wont run out of money!. If you truly spend 1800 a month, or 21,600 a year, and plan to keep living the same lifestyle in retirement that you live now, that amounts to 540,000 - 712,000 in investments before you can retire. Keep in mind that when you retire you will need to pay your own healthcare premium, which is currently being heavily subsidized by your employer. This will likely increase your yearly expenditures significantly even if you dont change your lifestyle at all. So, right now you want to accumulate as much money in your investments as you can. You can contribute up to 18k to your 401k and up to 5500 to your IRA each year for a total of 23.5k in tax advantaged accounts. Any additional money can be invested into a regular brokerage account. Within those accounts, youll probably want to invest in a 3 fund portfolio consisting of a US stock market index fund, an international stock market index Fund, and a bond index fund. You can achieve this through buying the funds separately or simply buying a target date fund. Good luck! By starting to invest as much as possible early in your career, you should be in great shape to retire early. 