As I type and post and talk to more people, I come to better understanding of myself and new ideas and conclusions.
And I see in Singapore, we have this frugal community where a bunch of people think that being frugal is good and we find that we would like to retire early cos we don't really like the work that we do.
But do people generally want to retire? Much less retire early?
It may surprise many of you, but do people really want to retire?
The truth, I think, is that no one wants to retire.
Think about it. IF the world was perfect and everyone COULD be placed in a job that they loved.
Everyone would think that work is fun and they wouldn't mind working til the later years.
You see, I look to my wife as a prime example.
I always believed love your work is just the stuff from fairy tales.
And yet, my wife loves her job, it's almost impossible to imagine. And yet it exists.
She loves her job, she goes to work happy, doesn't dread Sundays, she has changed her company a few times but moves around within her job scope.
I cannot understand it simply cos I have not experienced it for myself.
Imagine, if you had 10 boyfriends and all your 10 boyfriends cheated on you, you would grow up thinking that ALL guys would cheat on their partners.
Or imagine that when you were young, your parents are lousy cooks and only fed you poorly cooked food and you never tried other foods ever. You would grow up thinking that all food tasted lousy.
As much as sadness and happiness are 2 sides of the same coin, without ever feeling sad, you would never know what it feels to be happy, I did not believe that loving a job existed until I saw my wife.
And I quarreled with her once about it. Cos she could not understand early retirement as much as I could not understand love your job. I could not understand why she did not WANT to retire early. It's not whether or not we could, but she just did not want to, not cos of finances but cos she liked doing what she was doing. And I could not see why ANYONE would not want to retire early IF they could. To me, everyone should WANT to retire early IF they could, cos everyone MUST hate their job right?
But now I know better. There is such a thing as love your job.
And the truth is, I want that.
So back to my point.
I don't want to retire early. I want a job which I love so that I can work til my older years. To find my passion or purpose.
BUT... I don't know when or if ever I will find it.
Let's use some critical thinking skills to think about it.
What is the problem statement?
I do not like my work, due to politics, no interest, whatever. Basically, I do not like my work.
What are my options and solutions.
1) Find work that I like.
But I do not know how to do this, I do not know where to search, I may search for years and still might not find it. Basically besides with a shitload of luck, I don't know if I will ever find it.
2) Accept it.
No thanks. I'd prefer not to accept it if I could.
3) Early retirement.
And thus, my answer to work which I do not enjoy is, early retirement.
Cos it is within my control. I can calculate it, how much I need, how much I spend, etc. Since option 1 isn't within my control, I might as well end the journey earlier than others. Then I won't have this problem anymore.
Think about it. Who are the folks who think about early retirement? Well usually, they are people with above average earning power who are unhappy with their jobs. Cos basically, it IS an option to us.
If it isn't an option, like for people with lower earning power, they would go with option 2. They would just accept it.
But in truth, what is the best solution to this problem?
Duh. Option 1.
To find work that you love to do that will pay you fairly. It's not about whether it is a corporate job or not. Essentially, as long as you are able to find a form of work, employment or self employed that you are willing to dedicate your life to and enjoy doing and willing to do it for long term, that is the best answer to this problem.
The problem with this solution is that it is elusive. It's not quantifiable and most of us don't know how to go about looking for it. We likely have no control over it and we have not experienced it and probably cannot imagine or believe that it even exists.
So like logical people, if we haven't seen it or experienced it, we conclude that it probably does not exist.
And we think that anyone who says they love their job is either rich and appearing on TV and trying to just put on a show, or trying to convince others that they love a job that they don't actually love.
Simply, we don't believe it cos we haven't felt it ourselves, and we cannot imagine how it would feel.
Think about the first time a westerner encounters smelly tofu or durian. He walks past, it smells bad, he hasn't tried it. He thinks it probably tastes bad cos it smells bad, he cannot imagine why people would be eating it. He doesn't try it, he walks away thinking it tastes as bad as it smells.
And yet, when I look at my wife, I see it everyday. She goes to work happy, she doesn't suffer to earn her money. Because she doesn't suffer at her job, she doesn't complain that I'm not working and not earning anything. She's happy on Sundays and Mondays. She's happy when our overseas trips end. She's not unhappy during weekends and holidays, it's just that she takes all this as part of her life. Her work and play are all enjoyable.
This leads me to conclude that "love your job" must be real.
(Side note, I believe that when one party is suffering to earn money and the other party is supposedly doing nothing and not earning money, that's when trouble arises, cos it seems unfair to the suffering party.)
Even though I can conclude that "love your job" is real, I still am unable to find it or even know where to start to find it. Thus, my next best answer to the problem "Work that I don't like", is... well... early retirement.
But I say bullshit. I've been lying to myself all this while. I don't want to retire early. If I can ever find work that I love, I would also probably be the same as my wife and choose to work happily and continue earning my money. This blog probably won't exist and probably many of the other blogs as well.
So I think that is probably true for all of us who are thinking of retiring early.
It's not about whether it's the corporate world or self employed. But rather, most of us just don't know or believe that "love your job" exists. And even if we know that it exists, we don't know where to find it.
So now I say, I hope that all you folks who are thinking about early retirement, let's not use the words "early retirement", but rather "financial independence" and we should use it as a stepping stone and not an end goal. With the power of financial independence or semi-FI, to go and find your life goal and explore until you find the thing that you love doing.
Cos it's out there and it exists and it's our duty to ourselves to find it.
Our life quest should be to find the 2nd most important day of our life.
And I see in Singapore, we have this frugal community where a bunch of people think that being frugal is good and we find that we would like to retire early cos we don't really like the work that we do.
But do people generally want to retire? Much less retire early?
It may surprise many of you, but do people really want to retire?
The truth, I think, is that no one wants to retire.
Think about it. IF the world was perfect and everyone COULD be placed in a job that they loved.
Everyone would think that work is fun and they wouldn't mind working til the later years.
You see, I look to my wife as a prime example.
I always believed love your work is just the stuff from fairy tales.
And yet, my wife loves her job, it's almost impossible to imagine. And yet it exists.
She loves her job, she goes to work happy, doesn't dread Sundays, she has changed her company a few times but moves around within her job scope.
I cannot understand it simply cos I have not experienced it for myself.
Imagine, if you had 10 boyfriends and all your 10 boyfriends cheated on you, you would grow up thinking that ALL guys would cheat on their partners.
Or imagine that when you were young, your parents are lousy cooks and only fed you poorly cooked food and you never tried other foods ever. You would grow up thinking that all food tasted lousy.
As much as sadness and happiness are 2 sides of the same coin, without ever feeling sad, you would never know what it feels to be happy, I did not believe that loving a job existed until I saw my wife.
And I quarreled with her once about it. Cos she could not understand early retirement as much as I could not understand love your job. I could not understand why she did not WANT to retire early. It's not whether or not we could, but she just did not want to, not cos of finances but cos she liked doing what she was doing. And I could not see why ANYONE would not want to retire early IF they could. To me, everyone should WANT to retire early IF they could, cos everyone MUST hate their job right?
But now I know better. There is such a thing as love your job.
And the truth is, I want that.
So back to my point.
I don't want to retire early. I want a job which I love so that I can work til my older years. To find my passion or purpose.
BUT... I don't know when or if ever I will find it.
Let's use some critical thinking skills to think about it.
What is the problem statement?
I do not like my work, due to politics, no interest, whatever. Basically, I do not like my work.
What are my options and solutions.
1) Find work that I like.
But I do not know how to do this, I do not know where to search, I may search for years and still might not find it. Basically besides with a shitload of luck, I don't know if I will ever find it.
2) Accept it.
No thanks. I'd prefer not to accept it if I could.
3) Early retirement.
And thus, my answer to work which I do not enjoy is, early retirement.
Cos it is within my control. I can calculate it, how much I need, how much I spend, etc. Since option 1 isn't within my control, I might as well end the journey earlier than others. Then I won't have this problem anymore.
Think about it. Who are the folks who think about early retirement? Well usually, they are people with above average earning power who are unhappy with their jobs. Cos basically, it IS an option to us.
If it isn't an option, like for people with lower earning power, they would go with option 2. They would just accept it.
But in truth, what is the best solution to this problem?
Duh. Option 1.
To find work that you love to do that will pay you fairly. It's not about whether it is a corporate job or not. Essentially, as long as you are able to find a form of work, employment or self employed that you are willing to dedicate your life to and enjoy doing and willing to do it for long term, that is the best answer to this problem.
The problem with this solution is that it is elusive. It's not quantifiable and most of us don't know how to go about looking for it. We likely have no control over it and we have not experienced it and probably cannot imagine or believe that it even exists.
So like logical people, if we haven't seen it or experienced it, we conclude that it probably does not exist.
And we think that anyone who says they love their job is either rich and appearing on TV and trying to just put on a show, or trying to convince others that they love a job that they don't actually love.
Simply, we don't believe it cos we haven't felt it ourselves, and we cannot imagine how it would feel.
Think about the first time a westerner encounters smelly tofu or durian. He walks past, it smells bad, he hasn't tried it. He thinks it probably tastes bad cos it smells bad, he cannot imagine why people would be eating it. He doesn't try it, he walks away thinking it tastes as bad as it smells.
And yet, when I look at my wife, I see it everyday. She goes to work happy, she doesn't suffer to earn her money. Because she doesn't suffer at her job, she doesn't complain that I'm not working and not earning anything. She's happy on Sundays and Mondays. She's happy when our overseas trips end. She's not unhappy during weekends and holidays, it's just that she takes all this as part of her life. Her work and play are all enjoyable.
This leads me to conclude that "love your job" must be real.
(Side note, I believe that when one party is suffering to earn money and the other party is supposedly doing nothing and not earning money, that's when trouble arises, cos it seems unfair to the suffering party.)
Even though I can conclude that "love your job" is real, I still am unable to find it or even know where to start to find it. Thus, my next best answer to the problem "Work that I don't like", is... well... early retirement.
But I say bullshit. I've been lying to myself all this while. I don't want to retire early. If I can ever find work that I love, I would also probably be the same as my wife and choose to work happily and continue earning my money. This blog probably won't exist and probably many of the other blogs as well.
So I think that is probably true for all of us who are thinking of retiring early.
It's not about whether it's the corporate world or self employed. But rather, most of us just don't know or believe that "love your job" exists. And even if we know that it exists, we don't know where to find it.
So now I say, I hope that all you folks who are thinking about early retirement, let's not use the words "early retirement", but rather "financial independence" and we should use it as a stepping stone and not an end goal. With the power of financial independence or semi-FI, to go and find your life goal and explore until you find the thing that you love doing.
Cos it's out there and it exists and it's our duty to ourselves to find it.
Our life quest should be to find the 2nd most important day of our life.
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
--Mark Twain
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