I retired at 55. A big factor is your spouse. Are you one the same page. Neither my wife or I are big spenders. We easily lived below our means while buying a house and raising five kids. Every time we got a raise we invested the extra income. After I retired I worked about 10 years for H&R Block. For the tax season (four and a half months) I worked full time. Block is a place where you can easily make $25 an hour and I found the work enjoyable. I sat in a nice office and chatted with all kinds of people while I took the stress out of their taxes. So I agree, there's lots of ways to add to your income. I also happen to live on a big city lot with alley access. I built a second unit at the back of our property. When my kids were still at home, some lived out there during the college years. Now it's a rental that brings in an additional $1,000 a month.

I personally have an aversion to "side hussle." To me side hussle is some sort of con. I guess part-time work is not "cool" anymore. As far as working part time forever, that's an individual choice. I have so many things I'd rather do than work, after a while I dropped Block. A lot of people live their lives above their means, they will never retire, because they will always have too much debt. Many folks spend every thing the make, they will always struggle as well, as they have nothing invested. Learn to live below your means and you can write your own plan. The bottom line is that lots of "stuff" does not add to your happiness, you just become a slave to a bunch of possessions.