WSJ's senior write Perri Capell's early retirement announcement generated a lot of discussion, and hence Perri is providing more context to her decision. To evaluate myself against the three early retirement signs Perri mentioned:

1. A sense that I would regret working full time any longer.

I still have some passion in my current job (being on the new position for less than a year), but I can clearly see moving up in the career ladder means more sacrifice on time with family and my interests, so I don't really have a lot of desire to move up (other than making more money).

I love to spend more time to teach people about the things I learned. This is part of the gratification I found in my current job, but I am more thinking about an independent consultant's role with less pressure from other corporate activities.

2. I am distracted by too many interests.

First off, I want to spend more time with my son during his school years -- I want him to do well and really have the right attitude about life. Second, I love to travel to new areas of the world -- so far I have been to 18 countries -- and I have a long list of places I'd love to visit with my family. I also love to drive, and one of my ambitions is to drive to all 50 states.

3. I can earn enough income by working for multiple employers.

I‘m close. In H1, our household spending is less than 85% of the combined income of our family business and investment gains (and therefore all my full time job income after paying for tax is our net net worth increase). While I clearly understand our future spending to afford insurance and the multiple trips to satisfy our interests certainly mean more cash outflow after the early retirement, I have another 5-6 years to increase our household net worth by six figures a year.

(Justin McHenry at Zen Personal Finance summarized it very well: "What would you rather do, scale back at a younger age or work like a dog until a traditional retirement age and say bye bye for good?")

For me, the period of time leading up to a very difficult personal decision is so much more painful than the decision itself. I knew this was the right move because once I made the choice, the pain I felt went away. Looking back, here are the three signs that told me I need to stop working full-time.

1. A sense that I would regret working full time any longer.
2. I am distracted by too many interests.
3. I can earn enough income by working for multiple employers.