I want to figure out how to retire early. I want to take my professional skills public and work as a consultant (part time).
Before pulling the trigger on your current job, be sure that there is a real, sufficient and specific market for your services in the private sector. Do you have any clients lined up? Do you know what rates they would be prepared to pay? Do you know how much help they need (i.e., how much work they can offer you)? Etc.
I have tried to live within my means.
Have you been successful?
I have 20% of my income stream independent of my earned income.
That's good, but for the purpose of assessing your financial independence it is relatively meaningless in the absence of additional information (
viz., the ratio of your total income to your total expenses).
I have a net worth of about 2M. To maintain my household I need, at minimum, $80,000/year.
It is impossible to say precisely what annual income your investments may earn in the future, but 4% is probably as valid an assumption as any. That would yield the $80,000 you say you need. The only particular concerns that I would have are as follows:
(1) You say that your net worth is $2 million. If some of that money is tied up in your residence or other non-yielding asset(s), it will not contribute to your retirement income, and your current savings are probably insufficient to yield $80,000;
(2) You say that you need "at minimum" $80,000 per year. I would not like to retire with a very thin margin: ideally, your projected investment income should slightly exceed your spending, not merely equal it. On the other hand, perhaps you can generate some additional income through part-time work (or, as Rich_in_Tampa suggests, presumably as an ex-public servant you will be entitled to a pension?).
