Make as much money as you can ethically and legally. Become the best employee you can be and ask for raises. Or in some cases, it may make sense to jump from one company to another to get a raise and a promotion. In one place I worked, you had to leave to another company and come back a couple of years later to get a significant increase in pay.
This strategy may not be the best if you are wanting to work until retirement age and get a pension from the company, but it may boost your income to help you retire early. Just don’t do it too often, because you will want to keep a strong credit report.
The next recommendation is to start a part-time business. You can take our course, Find Your Genius and Profit to help you get started. There are so many advantages to owning a company, so I am just going to give you an overview of them: lower your taxes, asset protection, residual income, a huge cash influx, and much more. This can provide a bump of 10% to 20% of income your first year. Plus, it will help with self-worth after you have retired.
A great resource on this topic is a book called, Your Money or Your Life by Joseph R. Dominguez and Vicki Robin. I don’t agree that you should minimize your lifestyle to be free sooner but that is a personal choice.