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#Early Retirement Pitfalls - and How to Avoid Them

By Dana Anspach. Money Over 55 Expert

Dana Anspach has been About.com's MoneyOver55 Expert since 2008. She is also a contributor to MarketWatch as one of their RetireMentors .

Dana is the founder of Sensible Money, LLC, a fee-only (meaning they sell no financial products for a commission) professional services firm which offers retirement income planning and investment management services.

You can follow Dana at Sensible Money on Facebook or Twitter where you'll find more free content and conversations.

You can also watch one of her recorded classes on YouTube called The Key to Retirement Success .

Early retirement may have been forced upon you, or perhaps you are lucky enough to purposefully choose to leave the work force early. Either way, if you retire early, to make sure your money and income lasts as long as you need it to, you need to avoid a few common mistakes. Here are four early retirement pitfalls to avoid.

Pitfall 1: Relying on Factors Outside Your Control

If your early retirement plan only works if your investments earn 7% a year, inflation stays under 3%, your company pension plan pays full benefits forever, your health insurance costs never go up, and your home continues to appreciate in value, then you could end up in trouble.