Posted by Canadian Dream on July 15, 2011
I am now on vacation for the next few weeks where I will be around for part of it and gone for other parts. So I have lined up a few posts, but will warn you that any emails or comments might take longer than normal for me to get back to you on.
Just a short reminder that we will be having our first meetup on July 23 in Calgary. I have got an email into Robert to confirm exact details, but we should have a post up later with that information. In the mean time I will ask Robert to leave a comment on this post with the where and when information in case he gets it up prior to me.
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Posted by Canadian Dream on July 13, 2011
A long standing problem on this blog and many others is based in terminology around that damn ‘R’ word: retirement. While we typically use it fairly flexibility on this blog to mean several different but similar states of being, yet for other people the word is very firmly locked up with their own idea that once you are retired you shouldn’t work.
The issue arises about the fact that retirement is a broadly used word that the majority of people recognize to indicate the basic idea of several possible states of being: in a nut shell you are free to do what you want within the capacity of your savings. While that general statement is correct the exact definition doesn’t just have to be either black (working) or white (not working). As in most things there are many shades of grey between the two states.
If you really want to be technical I suppose the correct term for what Robert has done is financial independence. He has enough income from his savings that he don’t have to work, but still has an interest in doing some work in a different field.
In my case my dream is likely best described as semi-retirement. I may alter my plans enough that I won’t be fully financially independent as Robert, but instead may have to do some work for a number of years prior to full retirement. This is completely fine with me as I have always planned to have some degree of work after 45.
The point of the matter is the two states of being are very close to each other and frankly rather than getting bogged down in terminology issues we both tend to just use the word retirement. Yes it might not be completely correct, but since I keep flipping back and forth on my plans between the two states it makes things easier for anyone who happens to read the blog.
Heck even at one point I tossed out the idea of: Life 2.o to explain what I’m doing. The point is there isn’t a great term for it, so we make do with what we got and keep things simple with: retirement.
So what do you call what you are trying to do? Why do you pick that term?
Posted by Dave on July 12, 2011
This is a guest post by Dave, who is also looking to retire no later than 45, but unlike Tim has no kids and doesn’t want any. Dave is from Ontario and is working towards his CGA certification.
I spend 40 hours a week sitting at a desk. I have a decent knowledge of accounting via the hundreds of hours of studying and application of the skills, along with a degree in Economics. After perhaps reading too many post-apocalyptic books, I have come to realize that if push came to shove I really don’t have a whole lot to offer outside of these skills.
In the latest “collapse” book I read (Patriots by James Wesley Rawls) an economic collapse was triggered in the US which caused society to basically break down into anarchy, with people forced back to homesteading as food and other supplies ran out rapidly.
I’m not a part of some fringe sect of survivalists, (really, I promise I’m not) but as part of my personal finance plan, I generally look at the worst-case scenario of any possible situation and attempt to insure I have at least some sort of a plan to combat the down-side scenario. In a situation where I may have to live off of what I can produce by myself, I’m thinking that my desk-sitting ability may not come in too handy and my knowledge of accounting would not be overly useful to anyone.
It seems to be over the past 30 or 40 years or so that a sort of “hyper” specialization has taken place, with people gaining knowledge in only a few areas, while not bothering to figure out the basics of life, some people don’t even know (or care) where their food comes from. My grandparents, when they were growing up still butchered their own meat, built their own houses and really didn’t look for outside help unless the task they were carrying out was new or extremely intricate. Compare that to me, who can barely do basic home repairs without breaking something, and there seems to be a disparity of skills.
So, I have no “real” skills – I am not really all that handy, have never really built anything substantial by myself and really don’t have the opportunity to do so at this time. The main thing I’m missing and I think my grandparents (and more so my great-grandparents) had was time – none of them worked in “town” they all lived and worked on farms and essentially grew the food they ate. In doing so, they learned real skills which, other than a small percentage of people in North America have largely disappeared.
I have previously written about Homesteading as a quaint lifestyle – I don’t believe it would be easy, but I do think even a partial setup which would allow some self-sustenance would not be out of place. I really don’t think that there is a significant risk of financial collapse occurring, but gaining some real skills, such as the ability to build something (anything really), hunt/fish/farm would be useful. What it all boils down to for me, is that what I know how to do, if there is a major problem with the economy doesn’t really translate into survival all that well.
Do you have any “real” skills? Does the possibility of a significant Economic collapse concern you?
