What retirement means to me

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Following this post, I got this interesting question from “The Executioner” (slightly rephrased)

“You still have a full-time job, right? How can you call your blog “Early Retirement Extreme” if you’re still on someone’s payroll as a full-time employee?”

Yes, I have a a full-time job, a part time job, I write this blog, I’m working on a book, and I’m also on the board of a non-profit organization. I only live so long and there is so much to do, so I doubt that I will ever be able to sit still viz. “retire”. I am busy 14 hours a day (including weekends). I have always considered my work more of a “mission” than a job. It is essentially an expression of who I am. This is how it should be given how much time I spend doing it.

The thought of wasting my (finite) time is appalling to me. The drive for financial independence based on a simple life has very much been driven by my dislike of trading my time for superfluous possessions and being told to do things that do not interest me (such as playing career and award games and dealing with corporate bureaucracy).

I try to live a balanced life. Hence it is doubtful that I will ever be “traditionally retired” in the sense of dropping out of without contributing anything productive anymore because I need to compensate for not having done what I wanted so far. I can see how dropping out would work for someone who has worked for 30+ years at a tolerable job spending time and energy trying to climb the ladder/pyramid and never had the time to do anything but think about work, earn money, pay bills, eat, and sleep. Retiring after such an ordeal, I can fully understand why they would want to do the things they have not yet had the chance to do. Many people decide to travel, probably because they have never been anywhere and they want to see the world before it is too late. And so they set out to do lots of traveling perhaps overcompensating a bit and after a few years of that they have had enough and so they settle down. I have lived in three different countries and been to 14 so far. Let me tell you, traveling quickly gets old and I have reached a stage where I hate traveling. I know several other “jetsetters” that feel the same way. The next hobby seems to be playing golf. For someone who hasn’t done any sport since leaving high school, a desire for physical/competitive activity is also understandable. Golf can be enjoyed at almost any age and so at age 65 it is one of the few things left to do for the untrained individual.

Yet why delay activities until age 65 at which time you can only play golf when you can play hockey with the occasional body-check (hey, it was an accident, I swear ) when you are 30, 40, 50, or even 60 and older (if you kept in shape). In general I am curious as to the choice of postponing enjoyment so far into the future that the options for enjoyment become limited due to age, health, and lack of time to develop the sophistication to enjoy things even more. Not that I don’t understand it. People are too busy trying to make money to pay for all their stuff. I think that is a shame.

I was actually talking with DW the other day of what exactly defines retirement. Normally it means “removed from all activity”. Yet if I were to spend all my time working on improving my golf game, would that not be work? What if I was working full time but not getting paid. Is that retirement? I think the definition is rather blurred. What it comes down to is whether you do things by choice or because you need to.

I still work, but I don’t work because I have to. You could get technical and call it semi-retirement or financial independence, but then again “earlyfinancialindependenceextreme.com” or “earlysemiretirementextreme.com” sound somewhat silly . This is one of the main reasons that the blog is named as it is. I wanted to have something catchy.

Besides, this blog is not just about me. If anyone gets inspired and adopts some of the methods and decides to drop out and play golf or move around, I’m fine with that. I am giving you the means.

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This post is part of the Carnival of Financial Resources~”We’ve Got Snow!” Edition. Check it out!

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What retirement means to me

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What retirement means to me




via Early Retirement Extreme:

Following this post, I got this interesting question from “The Executioner” (slightly rephrased)
“You still have a full-time job, right? How can you call your blog “Early Retirement Extreme” if you’re still on some...

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What early retirement means when you’re too young to retire

via Early Retirement Extreme:

Note: In this post I discussed some of the aspects about my former career while I was still working. One of my problems was “lack of adequate replacement”. Like some people have pointed out, most people need something to do. However, I would point out that this does not need to be a job. It could be taking care of a bonsai tree; or it could be working as a gardener. In terms of the suggestions below, they are remarkably constant. The only thing that’s changed in the two years that have passed is that I no longer foresee starting a bookstore.

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What does early retirement mean for those who chose to save so intensely and early for retirement and essentially had enough money to stop working around age 30? This is a question I have been asking myself and for which there does not seem to be any conventional solutions.

In most cases, at least as far as I understand from reading Smartmoney magazine, early retirement means spending more time playing golf, being home with the kids, or seeing the world. None of this seems particularly appealing to me (I don’t have kids) right now. In 15 years, maybe, but not now.

Conventionally, I should be doing what most phds with a few years of experience do, that is, try to work myself to death in the desperate attempt to get tenure. Except for the death part, that is actually what I still do even though I in principle could quit. However, having seen first hand where this road can lead I must admit that I am no longer so sold on the idea as I was 5 years ago. Here’s my cost benefit analysis: costs: 95% of the students, grant writing, committees, relatively poor pay, forced mobility, department politics, and did I mention, 95% of the students – benefits: making my own schedule, 5% of the students, and doing research. I think having the freedom to take half the day off on Monday and work 16 hours on Tuesday is overrated given that it comes with a constant pressure to perform. It feels equally nice to work 9-5 and know that you are not supposed to work outside of those hours. Call me naive, but I have finally realized that 95% of the students at higher ed do not really seem to want to be there. Some professors live for the enthusiasm for the remaining 5%, but I don’t think the 1 in 20 ratio is high enough for me. Research is interesting and frustrating. Interesting because everything you do is a “first” e.g. you have discovered something that no humans have known before. Frustrating because there is a ton of dead ends that must be explored. It is really 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. Just imagine trying to come up with something creative when you know that in all likelihood it will fail. Then repeat and do it again. In addition, most researchers, myself included, are working on things that are only interesting 5 other people in the world. There’s a slight shot at fame. For instance, I have published a good 20 papers. Forsooth, you can find them in university libraries around them world, even! However, 30 years from now, I will just be a set of initials in some dusty journal that will only be read by some poor suffering grad student. I am after all not working on curing cancer, so while somewhat meaningful, my work is perhaps not terribly important [except for those 5 persons in the world]. It’s not a terribly bad life though. One gets to influence events in the sense of deciding where thousands and even millions of tax payer/alumni money gets spent. There’s all the free traveling to conferences etc. I have been to 14 countries so far and never paid a dime. It’s not exactly a luxury vacation, but the similarities are probably larger than the differences. However, I wonder whether I am going to spend the rest of my life doing this. If I do, I’m projected to pass $1,000,000 when I’m 40, but what am I going to spend that money on anyway? The law of diminishing returns of extra dollars is knocking on my door already. There is also significant opportunity cost. Maybe I will be wondering what if I had done something differently. The question is, what is the alternative. I think it is exceedingly important to live a life of no regrets.

Okay, so I could in principle retire, but I haven’t. Why not? One problem is that I have not found anything sufficiently meaningful to replace a full fledged career with. In contrast to a job a career should be a means of self-actualization and I tell you if you actually have a career goal in mind, this works out quite well. If you don’t, then it turns into a job fairly quickly, whoops!

Financially independent is a better description of my situation. Maybe people aren’t meant to retire this early. It’s almost like breaking the law of the rat-race e.g. “you still have so many years left in you”.

Perhaps Beingfrugal.net‘s son’s mom said it best when it what described as re-tirement as in changing tires during a pit stop. Yeah, I might want to change my tires.

Here’s my list of possible re-tirings.

1. Start a PF blog (I have previously thought of becoming a tech writer and this seems to fit the bill).


2. Start a bookstore.


3. Buy a small farm, breed an army of sheep and take over the world.


4. Sell my soul to Wall Street.


5. Become a watch maker.

I have started on 1. The question is whether I can make a career out of it in the traditional sense of a career e.g. something that takes up much of the day and keeps me active while being somewhat meaningful and self-actualizing.

As you might have surmised I am not really sure about this. It turns out that it is a lot harder to figure out what to do with financial independence than to achieve it in the first place. It is definitely something I should have thought of earlier in the process.

What would you do if you did not have to work again?

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Holidays in Italy on Garda Lake: best hotels, restaurants and … – Swide

Holidays in Italy on Garda Lake: best hotels, restaurants and … – SwideNov 20th, 2013 · 0 CommentHolidays in Italy on Garda Lake: best hotels, restaurants and … – Swide Christmas Classics: #1 It’s A Wonderful LifeFor the festive season, Swide is inviting you to sit with us in front of the fire, put your feet up and join us as we watch some of the greatest Christmas Films of all time. For our first choice, we’re starting off with a no brainer, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’. via luxury holidays in italy – Google Blog Search:Find out with Swide where to pick your holiday winter destinations in Italy: here is our pocket guide with lake Garda’s best hotels, restaurants and Christmas markets for Christmas 2013. … garda lake best …

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Holidays in Italy on Garda Lake: best hotels, restaurants and … – Swide

Christmas Classics: #1 It’s A Wonderful LifeFor the festive season, Swide is inviting you to sit with us in front of the fire, put your feet up and join us as we watch some of the greatest Christmas Films of all time. For our first choice, we’re starting off with a no brainer, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’.

via luxury holidays in italy – Google Blog Search:

Find out with Swide where to pick your holiday winter destinations in Italy: here is our pocket guide with lake Garda's best hotels, restaurants and Christmas markets for Christmas 2013. … garda lake best hotels restaurants and Christmas markets 2013. For Christmas you have a beautiful option: opened since 1899, the Lido Palace combines high-end cuisine with a luxury stay. Pick what suits your needs best, from the Lido Palace High Tea (21 and 28 December from …

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luxury holidays in italy – Google Blog Search

Holidays in Italy on Garda Lake: best hotels, restaurants and … – Swide

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Holidays in Italy on Garda Lake: best hotels, restaurants and … – Swide

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