Early Retirement

Lately, all that's been going through my mind is when am I going to be able to retire? This working all day and then going home thing is really a pain...it takes up most of your day and then by the time I get home, I'm kinda tired and have little time to do stuff that I like or to just relax. What is the "Ideal" age to retire?

I remember one of my friends, long time ago, said that he wanted to retire at the age of 32...needless to say, he's 38 and still working in the Bay Area...but he is coasting at his job.

We go to school for 16+ years of our lives and then work after that...I've been working now about 12 years...and it seems like a long time...yet my parents managed to work at practically the same place for most of their career and still work till they are 60 or so...where I've only been working 12 years at 3 different jobs and I'm already talking about needing to retire.

I think we just all need to brainstorm on how to get us to that income level that will enable us to retire now rather than another 10-30 years. If anyone figures it out, please let me know!