About 4 years ago, I met with a financial adviser to start planning savings strategies for both near and long-term goals. We prioritized what my focus areas would be, and he posed the question, “Do you want to retire early?” Naturally, I confirmed this seemingly trivial question with an emphatic, “Yes!” and proceeded to watch him crunch some numbers that resulted in a strategy that showed, if I saved ‘x’ amount of money in accounts ‘x, y, and z’, I could retire at 55 years old, free to do whatever it is I wanted with myself after that. Clearly, we had different definitions of the word, “early.”
Isn’t it a bit strange that many of us spend our whole lives working and saving to one day do everything we want to do, even though that ‘one day’ is more often than not 30-40 years from today?
Why?
How can you be sure that everything you’d like to do right now will be the same when it comes time for your planned retirement? Wants and desires change over time. Priorities shift. A spouse changes your focus. The gift of children changes perspective. Life events throw curveballs in even the most airtight plans. With near certainty, I can venture a guess that my current wants and desires at age 28 are not going to be the same at 48. With that in mind, I’ve taken it upon myself to ensure that I continually pursue that which fulfills me at any given phase of my life.
And so…I’ve retired.
How long will this retirement last? I honestly don’t know, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. For at least the next 2 (possibly up to 6) months, I am going to do everything I can as a 28-year-old retiree that I might no longer want to do when it comes time for my next retirement. I’ll be spending a month in both Australia and New Zealand, chasing kangaroos and hobbits, before I head to Southeast Asia, where perhaps I’ll ride a motorbike through the jungle, the typical agenda of a retiree.
So, strap in and enjoy the ride, and see if you can keep up with an old retired guy…