Posted by Canadian Dream on May 19, 2010
Recently I was thinking back to my lifestyle design posts and it occurred to me I left something out of my options: should I just work less now? Which got me thinking about what is semi-retirement? It is hard to nail down since so many different things could be part of a semi-retirement, but typically you work part time in order to have more time to do what you love and partly live off your investment income. That last part is somewhat optional since it is possible to have enough income that you don’t really need your investment income at the start.
So with that in mind I recently thought: why don’t I just drop down to part-time work at my day job? I could basically semi-retire not in a few years, but rather in a few months. After all I don’t really need my day job anyway, so why not accept more time and freedom for less pay?
Thus I decided to try and have booked a meeting with my boss toward the end of the month to discuss the idea. My proposal will be simple: I’m drowning in work from two jobs and I’m stressed out. My solution is to drop down to working 80% of the time. I’ll still come into the office five days a week, but I’ll just be leaving each day by mid-afternoon. The company will save money on my salary and benefits and will get a more productive worker when I am there.
Will it work? I don’t have the slightly idea if this will fly or not, yet I have nothing to lose in trying. Life is too short to spend it in office building doing work that someone else decided was ‘important.’ I want more time NOW, so I’m willing to push back my full retirement dreams a bit to get that. There is little point being ‘free at 45′ if I’m burnt out when I get there.
So what would you do? Would you being willing to work less now, but accept a later full retirement date or not?
Posted by Dave on May 18, 2010
I like to gamble – I particularly enjoy gambling on sports. I read and understand a lot about sports, having played them for most of my life. Although I have never really kept track I have never lost money over an entire season (I know this because I haven’t had to put any new money into my online account).
I recently got an e-mail (spam) from an author who I had purchased an e-book from a couple of years ago and is now selling daily picks for the various major sports (Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Hockey). In the e-mail there was a link to the historical results achieved by the picks, which although not impressive (a win rate of around 60%) the returns (if they were not forged) were similarly not overly impressive, but steady over the previous 3 seasons, this system’s baseball results showed an average gross return for of $6,000, which conceivably could be achieved by anyone willing to study the sports involved and employ a similar system of betting. Alternatively, the sports picks could be purchased for a subscription price per season.
What I’m wondering is whether adding sports betting to my retirement portfolio would make sense. I know significantly more about baseball, football and hockey than I do about some of the companies that I watch or indexes that I invest in. There is a lot more transparency occurring in major sports than there is with some of the companies in the stock market (think of the crash that took place a couple of years ago, that started mainly due to a lack of information). Major sports need to provide injury reports daily – their finances are an open book and there are probably just as many reports available on any player in the NFL as there are on most companies listed on the S &P.
The benefit of returns on sports betting is that they are generally tax free1 – a tremendous boon, compared to the stock market. Additionally, there is (for me anyways) a little bit more enjoyment in watching a game to see my possible returns than watching the business channel, or reading business news.
The downside to betting on sports is that it really isn’t passive income. I would have to actively be making bets on an almost daily basis in order for any level of profitability to be feasible. Betting on sports is also not really a socially acceptable way to earn a living – If I told my parents (or spouse for that matter) that part of my retirement was based on how well I can predict the point spread on a football game, I’m not sure how excited they would be.
From a diversification of income perspective I don’t think that betting on sports is any less risky than most endeavours undertaken, whether it be starting a business, investing in dividend-providing companies, or owning property there are different risks that need to be mitigated in one way or another. I’m not sure what level of returns are possible through gambling, but how much more risky is betting on sports is compared to “investing” in the stock market.
What do you think – Is this a reasonable contribution to my portfolio? Do you have any interesting alternative streams of income in your portfolio?
1 Unless you’re a bookmaker or employ a system that minimizes or manages risk. Conceivably, in this circumstance winnings would be taxable, and losses would be deductible as you would be “deemed” to be running a business by the tax code.
Posted by Canadian Dream on May 14, 2010
I was recently sent a book to review called The Retiring Mind by Robert Delamontagne which was possibly one of the oddest books I’ve ever read. On one hand the book contained a incredibility accurate description of my personality type which was about 95% correct in just two pages and linked that to my possible issues with transitioning to retirement. On the other hand the book did go off towards the end into some serious ‘New Age’ style philosophy on our place in the universe.
The first part of the book deals with determining your personality type according to a system I have to admit I’ve never heard of before called Enneagram type. The author provides nice short descriptions of each personality type and also includes a little quiz to help you figure out which one is your primary one. The personality types have interesting names such as The Master, The Enchanter, The Star, The Drama Queen, The Solitary Mystic, The Closet Rebel, The Cruise Director, The Conquistador and The Harmonizer. I found found out I was The Solitary Mystic, which means I like to think deep at times and need some time alone on a regular basis (which is completely true). In addition to a description on each personality type the author also provided a activity map on what things you might enjoy doing in retirement and then provides a risk factor of experiencing emotional distress during the early to middle stages of retirement. My type apparently only moderate risk, while The Master would have a high risk. Overall I enjoyed this part of the book and found it useful.
Then in Chapter 4 the book changes course and introduces happiness realizations that trace back to the personality types. Unfortunately the realizations took on a heavy ‘New Age’ philosophy bend to them which to be honest the author realizes when he states we might be thinking: “What kind of new age bullshit is this?” Which at the time I was thinking nearly that statement. I had hoped that would mean the author would change course, but that never happened. Instead there was long discussions on concepts like “Everything is perfect as it is”, “Independent action is not possible” and “Everything is interconnected.” In short the book went downhill from there.
So overall I loved the first part of the book and disliked the second half of the book. The good news with the book was the overall things was very short at a lean 137 pages so even if you don’t like the second half of the book the read was quick.
Now onto the good part of this Friday: the book give-a-way! So please leave a comment on this post for a chance to win your own copy of The Retiring Mind. One entry per person. Please use a valid email address so I can contact you (please note I don’t share these addresses with anyone and only use it to contact the winner). Contest open to residents of the continental United States or Canada who leave a comment prior to May 21, 2010 at 8pm CST.
