Early Retirement Extreme Forums

You're tired of paying Social Security income taxes of 7.65% (or 15.3% if self-employed).
You're no longer amused by the bureaucracy and/or office politics at work.
You're missing out on 9-10 hours of life per day.

You're talent is being wasted, under utilized and/or under appreciated.
Routine is making the years go by quicker and quicker.
Associated costs: transportation, lunches, equipment, expensive city...
You've done the tasks enough that not only do you no longer enjoy them, but actually have a hard time getting them done.
You're productivity is waning due to lack of enthusiasm.

Independence to work on what I think matters that I can contribute to.
Less stress knowing I have "enough."
Knowing that I can get by via a part time job (if laid off).

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." --- Henry David Thoreau

I want my freedom back. I want to focus on important things, like enjoying life and not dying sooner than necessary.
Also, work interferes with my reading and websurfing.

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?---- Henry David Thoreau
After life as a working class hero-- Commercial Bank Managing Officer at age 23 and elected official later----you reach a point of realizing you don't really enjoy what you're doing and you need a change. A lot of what society deems crucial is really fluff, and, IMHO, detrimental.

To experience leisure in a world that relentlessly requires more time in the lives of all humanity
To live willfully in a world that imposes the will of others.
To understand what "Freedom" in America is before that is outsourced as well and because once upon a time, for at least a moment, America really was the "Land of the Free" instead of "Land for the Few"
To have time to see the sights in what is still the most privledged country on the planet.
To reflect on how thankful I am that we all have more than enough to plan ERE.

Because the world is strained by consumerism, a nonsustainable dependence on finite resources, and a credit based monetary system that needs to grow to avoid massive defaults [There's your problem in a nutshell].
Because it provides financial safety during recessions and probably also depressions.
Because it provides solutions during resource shortages (empty shelves).
Because the global impact is four times smaller than [mindless] consumerism leaving more resources for the next generation.
Because a cultural transition needs distributed leaders.

Because your health is more important than your wealth.
Because you don't want people to get in your Way (and you don't want to get in the Way of other people).
Because you want study, maintain, and refine Systems of your choosing.
Because you want to write The Null Papers.

ERE, what is the source of the "four times smaller" measurement? Your annual kWh consumption of non-renewables relative to that of the non-EREr North American?

Your hourly wage for investing is significantly higher than your hourly wage at work.
(thus far this year, considering only my taxable account, my investing hourly wage is at least 40% higher than my work)

@Steve - Cash outlay (being a proxy for resource consumption) compared to the average North American.

Because you prefer living in harmony with your conscience rather than ignoring it. ER and minimal consumption enables me to avoid funding and being the cause of suffering (war, killing of other living beings, displacement of indigenous populations, disfigurement of this planet, etc).
Because the cycle of consumption leads to clutter around me. Physical clutter seems to translate/correlelate strongly with mental clutter. When my mind is cluttered and distracted, I rest less, learn less, grow less, live less, experience less = very likely to discover I have not lived as I (inevitably will) lay dying.

Because you want time to sit and think.

Because you discovered that there's more in life than produce, consume and die.