Not many people think about retirement, let's not even talk about early retirement.
This is somewhat a continuation from my previous post.
Let's look at the normal form of retirement.
Usually someone works, employed or self employed for a number of years then at around 60-70, he "retires". And then, they usually take care of grand children, or travel or play golf, essentially, enjoying the fruits of their work for the large part of their lives. At this point, they may or may not be financially independent.
Then let's look at all the other folks who talk about early/semi-early retirement.
Most of us want to be financially independent. We don't talk about ER without the financially independent aspect of it.
We also usually expect to be doing something else, and it's usually something income producing. Part time, contract, freelance, etc
We want to explore other aspects of life besides the corporate world or whatever we have been doing previously.
So let's call it what it is. It's not, in the normal sense, any form of retirement.
Most of us are thinking of financial independence, then exploring other opportunities.
It's as simple as that. Financial independence just gives us the security and confidence to explore and find other things which we would like to do.
Frugal or not, is irrelevant. Being frugal just allows us to get into the financial independent zone faster.
It's either normal spending with super high savings and high AUM, OR be frugal and it can be done with high savings and a good sized AUM.
So being frugal is just a means to an end.
And what is the "end" which we are looking for?
Financial independence or financial confidence or security, so that we will be able to explore other paths in our life journey.
And sure as hell, most of us are definitely NOT talking about retirement in the traditional sense.
It's just that the word retirement is easier to use, cos, I've stopped my corporate work, I don't intend to go back to it, I intend to enjoy my life... all sounds like retirement.
But if we think about it.
What would you call a gym instructor who works 3 hours a day for 5 days a week?
He earns a decent income, works less than a corporate worker. This has been his "full time" work since he started working. He loves his job. His parents passed away leaving him a large fortune so he is FI already.
Is he retired? Semi retired? Or working full time?
The answer to this is really very much based on different perspectives and who is looking at it.
There is probably no right answer and it is for himself to define.
So the word retirement/early retirement... let's not use it.
Let's call it what it is. Financial independence or confidence and exploring other opportunities.
Cos that's what it is.
Using the words retirement/ER, is pretty much complicating things. Cos different people define it differently.
Unless you want to stir up controversy, that's a different intention. And of course it sounds cool to say you have retired early. Cos most people have the mental idea of what retirement is. And when we say ER. People use their "normal" retirement picture and bring it forward 30 years and they think "woah".
But that's just not true.
Unless we want to show off that is... and create a discussion point to talk about.
BUT... most of us don't want to show off.
I have very good and nice and concerned readers emailing me asking me about this.
People who say their parents are concerned about them wanting to ER.
Or that they are wasting their lives.
Or how to convince their partner. Or to share how I convinced my partner. etc...
All these are very real concerns from very real people who are very much like me.
We aren't here to show off and tell people that we want to retire early.
We just have a lack of terminology for such actions. And in truth, such actions don't have a good term cos it never existed til the recent ages.
And so due to the lack of vocabulary/terms, we just tell our loved ones/friends, that we are planning to retire early. And the response is usually not very great. And they cast all kinds of doubts on us and we feel fear, cos we create our own fear when we use the words "early retirement" as well, cos we OURSELVES have a "normal" mental picture of what retirement is, and what we expect to be doing after we leave our corporate jobs.
But all of this is just not true. It may be true for some of us but not most of us.
(Would MMM blog have existed if he loved his job?)
Most of us just want to reach a level of financial independence or security. So that we can have the freedom to leave the job which causes us so much misery and move on to explore and find the thing that we would want to do. Eventually, as we explore, we hope to find the thing that we love to do or don't mind filling our lives with, which would provide some form of income as well.
And that's what it is. That's what most of us hope to achieve.
So let's not over complicate things by using the words early retirement. Cos there ARE traditional mental pictures of what retirement means and what early retirement would mean.
Especially for most of us who are struggling with coping with how the people around us view us.
It's true. Come on. Let's admit it. It causes us concern to be "early retired".
And we are also concerned with how our friends and parents or partners feel as well.
I won't say we care about what others think of us, some of us do, some of us don't.
But I think most of us don't want our parents and partners to be concerned over our well being.
We want them to be happy for us and be supportive.
We aren't trying to show off that we have early retired. We aren't trying to stir up controversy.
Most of us just don't like the grind of corporate work or the power struggles or the politics.
So we want to leave that and find something that would make us happy or don't mind doing.
And that's what it is.
So let's stop using these words early retirement.
Rather, we are financially independent or financially secure/confident.
And we are seeking a mid career change. Or exploring new opportunities. Or taking a sabbatical.
Cos early retirement is a great marketing term. It stirs up controversy and is catchy.
But for those of us who are struggling to explain this to our partners and family. These words are overly powerful and it works against us. And this causes concern to others and for ourselves.
And we don't really want that...
What we really want, is just for our partners, friends and family, to understand our decision and be supportive of us exploring other avenues in life.
We have reached some form of financial confidence for us to make this change and hope that they would be able to understand and be helpful on our journey and not make snide remarks.
(Note : I will still be using early retirement as it is a good term to use for the purposes of this blog)
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