Wouldn’t it be nice to have complete control over your life?

Quit the job you hate. Travel for a year or two. Work for a non-profit despite the lower pay. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to do these things, or whatever else is on your list, without fear?

You don’t have to be rich to live your life on your terms. Saving in a retirement account can give you this freedom. I’ve talked to many people who have been able to do all these things because they had retirement savings. And they didn’t even have to touch their accounts.

One couple I know took two years off work and traveled the country in their RV. They weren’t rich. One was a public school teacher and the other was an IT manager at a financial services firm. Yet they were comfortable giving up their jobs to see the country while they were still young enough to enjoy it.

They were diligent savers. They had no debt, their retirement savings were on track, and they had money for emergencies. While they traveled, they took part-time, minimum wage jobs to cover their costs. They didn’t need to draw on their savings, and because they had retirement savings, it was not a setback for them to skip contributing for a while.

A woman I met with recently, plans to leave her career early and work for a non-profit in a field for which she is passionate. She’s not rich either. She is a project manager now, but she’ll spend the last decade or so of her working career doing something she loves.

It doesn’t matter that she won’t be bringing down the same pay, because she’s already built up her retirement account. Her low living expenses will allow her to maintain her lifestyle with less income, and she won’t need to dip into savings. She won’t need to contribute to retirement savings either, because what she has will continue to grow.

Saving for retirement early in your career is more valuable than saving later in your career. The early money you invest earns investment returns longer, and grows larger, than money you invest later in your life.

Saving early gives you a cushion that can allow you to stop saving sooner. With a 7 percent average annual rate of return, you would only need to save half as much per month now as you would ten years from now to accumulate the same amount of money at a traditional retirement age. The earnings on your money’s earnings will carry you.

If retirement seems a long way off, or you can’t imagine what you would do if you weren’t working, it still pays to save for it. Your retirement account can give you the flexibility to do the things you want without touching it. It frees you to save less, or take a break from savings all together. It gives you both freedom and financial security.