Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's what some say you need saved to achieve early retirement. Hosted by Frances Cook.

It doesn't matter how much you like your job, you're there to get paid. That's what makes it a job, rather than a volunteer role.

But while many people are counting down to retirement at 65, others have their eye on the exit a little earlier than that.

We've mentioned on this show before about the FIRE crowd, meaning Financial Independence, Retire Early.

Many of those smart cookies are working on plans to retire at 30 or 40. Some even want to retire in their twenties.

Well now it's time to get into the nitty gritty, because a key idea behind that is the 25x rule.

The idea is that you work out how much you need to pay your expenses each year, and then you save 25x that amount.

Invest the money well, and you could live off the profits, rather than slaving away each day for a wage.

I called KiwiBank's chief economist, Jarrod Kerr, to talk about if it works, and the pros and cons.

For the full interview, listen to the podcast.

If you have a question about this podcast, or an idea for the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/, Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook