What if your dream is just a nightmare in disguise.

Many people dream of early retirement. Many can achieve that goal 5–6 years ahead of their actual retirement age. A minority of other FIREies manage to get there a decade or two ahead of time. And then there are a rare few who get there in their early 30s. 

There are different opinions about very early retirement from those who’ve actually achieved it. 

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics,166k came out of retirement, 58.9K of those were bored out of their minds when they decided to join the workforce. In comparison, 59.5k joined because of financial stress on their savings. 

Extremely early retirement can go either way.

Early retirement is a dream come true for many in their 40s. The dream they worked on tirelessly for years, kissing more than 70 per cent of their paycheck goodbye. 

Often, their dream has a definitive guideline for when they will retire, but at times, it lacks the routine of daily workless life. They get bored. To cure their boredom, they change their lifestyle by a bit and then a bit more before you project the impact of that lifestyle change far into the future. You’re drawing more money out of your investments than you planned for. 

On the other hand, you are someone who can keep his lifestyle in check and not let it get out whack! You are someone who enjoys spending your day at the beach or taking long walks during the day and are not entirely out of the workforce; you work casually in a cafe down the road from your fully paid house instead of your pre-retirement high-stress corporate job. Life may not change as much for you. But soon you ask yourself the question again, Is that it? Is it all I have left to do for the rest of my life until I’m buried 6 feet? 

Change in Perspective

Retirement, in a way, is just a focal change in perspective and life. You leave the workforce because you feel a lack of control over your days. Need to go to the doctor, can’t do it until 5 pm, need to visit your mate interstate, you gotta wait for the weekend and be back by Sunday evening to get ready for the workweek. Not when you’re retired!

But if you retire just to drink margaritas at the beach and take long walks in the sunshine. You cannot sustain it for more than a month. How long until you get sick of doing the same thing every day. You walk for two hours a day and sleep for eight. What would you do with the rest of the fourteen hours?

If you retire to work on something more important to you than your job, only then you’ll make retiring early worth your while. 

Either you’re working toward something worthwhile in your retirement, or you’ll find that all your motivation and belief systems have collapsed. 

Check out other articles: The Jolly Investor

Categories: All Stories