Kevin O'Leary Has An Unexpected Warning For Early Retirement

When you're having a tough day at work or simply wish you were traveling or golfing instead of sitting in a cubicle, early retirement sounds like a great idea. Many people dream of exiting the workforce earlier than expected, according to a recent study from IRALOGIX, as 47% of people plan to retire as soon as they can afford it. This idea has spawned a movement called having financial independence to retire early, or FIRE. However, people planning to retire before age 62 need to have enough money in savings to make this happen. 

Understanding what you really need to do to retire in your 30s, 40s, or 50s is just one step in the process, though. You also need to consider whether it's really a smart choice for you. According to financial guru Kevin O'Leary, early retirement isn't the right fit for everyone, no matter how great it sounds in the moment.

O'Leary, a star of the long-running ABC television show "Shark Tank" and a successful entrepreneur, speaks from experience. O'Leary, now 71, sold his first company (Softkey) at age 36. The sale was worth $4.2 billion to the 10 co-founders and gave him enough money to retire. However, before he even turned 40, he realized he needed some new challenges in his life and chose to return to the workforce. "I retired for three years," he says in an interview published by CNBC Make It (via YouTube). "I was bored out of my mind." Learn more about what he says people considering retiring early should understand before pulling the trigger.

Although O'Leary had success with Softkey in his mid-30s, he has had significant success after deciding to return to the workforce. He would've missed some of these successful ventures if he had remained retired. One change he made after his work with Softkey was that he chose to be an investor instead of a business operator. His O'Leary Ventures is a successful venture capital investment program, and his "Mr. Wonderful" personality on "Shark Tank" fits his desire to invest in new ideas while hoping for the next big opportunity. "Working is not just about money," O'Leary says in the CNBC Make It interview. "People don't understand this very often until they stop working. Work defines who you are."

In addition to investing in startups, O'Leary has written multiple best-selling books on different financial subjects under the series title of "Cold Hard Truth." Some of his successes after coming out of retirement included starring in "Dragon's Den" on the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), which started in 2006 and which was a predecessor to "Shark Tank" in the United States. O'Leary joined "Shark Tank" in 2009. He regularly appears as an expert commentator on Fox Business, CNBC, and CNN, capitalizing on his business successes since returning to the workforce.

O'Leary says deciding to retire early is about more than just figuring out how much money you need in the bank to live off interest alone and achieve FIRE. You have to think about what you're going to do with your life to keep yourself engaged. Continuing to work can provide an emotional benefit. "It provides a place where you're social with people," O'Leary says in the CNBC Make It interview. "It gives you interaction with people all day long in an interesting way." Early retirement can cause people to become isolated and lose their edge, O'Leary says.

O'Leary's theories have scientific backing. According to Harvard Health, avoiding mental decline while aging is easier when engaging in mentally stimulating activities. Such activities may allow the brain to create new cells. These new cells provide a buffer when the brain naturally loses cells as it ages.

At 71 years old, the Canadian-born O'Leary is already past the average retirement age for Americans (62) and Canadians (65). However, he has no plans to retire for a second time. "When am I retiring? Never. Never," he says in the CNBC Make It interview. "I don't know where I'm going after I'm dead, but I'll be working when I get there."