Can you afford to retire early?

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 You've got a sense of your ideal retirement age. And you've probably made certain plans based on that timeline. But what if you're forced to retire sooner than you expect?  

There is no need to panic.  Flexible and personalized financial planning that addresses how you'd cope if you had to retire early can help you make the best use of all your resources. 

Here are six steps to follow. We'll use as an example a person who's seeing if they could retire five years early, but the steps remain the same regardless of your individual time frame.