Posted by Dave on April 23, 2013
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 wrote a couple of months ago about a possible job opportunity as a manager. I decided to not go for that job, but in the meantime I was unsuccessful in an additional job I did apply for, not as a manager (I was told I didn’t have enough experience to do it).
I have a friend who just started working for my company a couple of weeks ago, at a position I held three years ago. He (at age 30) had just graduated from school and is starting his second career. Where I’m kind of looking to change jobs or companies, he couldn’t be happier starting a new job. He’s coming from working as a cook where he had erratic hours for a relatively small amount of money. He’s ecstatic to be working a consistent daytime job that has benefits and a pension as well as vacation days.
I think that all I need, and all that most people need is a little bit of perspective. My first job was working in a chicken barn, gathering eggs. It was a dusty, smelly job which I really wouldn’t wish on anyone. I was paid piecemeal, at 3.8 cents per dozen eggs I gathered. For an 11 or 12 year old kid, the few hundred dollars a week was huge cash, I just had to smell like a chicken barn for a couple of days a week and skip around the odd rat at my feet (I really hate rats).
I think it was Nelson who wrote a few months ago (although I may be wrong) about how people get so worked up about their happiness and work. I mean, I’m not going into a coal mine every morning. I sit at a desk and try to solve accounting problems and write letters all day. All I would be trading my current job of solving “number problems” for would be for more of the same.
I’m sure if I continuously changed jobs, I would probably always get over the “honeymoon” stage and think there’s something better somewhere else. I’ve changed jobs three times now in the last 5 years and it really hasn’t increased or decreased my day to day happiness all that much. I just don’t think that I would be overly excited about any place that I had to go to for a certain number of hours per week, whether it was this job or another job.
I think that what draws me the most to early retirement is the realization that I don’t really think I want to work anywhere. I mean it’s laziness to a point, but really it’s about choice. For now, I can choose the job I want to do, but I still need to earn a paycheque.
What do you do when the glamour is over with your job you were previously super excited about? Do you move on to the next one, or stick it out?
Posted by Dave on April 16, 2013
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.
As I have discussed in previous posts, I have a moderate interest (maybe obsession) with prepping and being ready for any occurrence that could happen. Whether it’s man-made (think EMP attack from North Korea) or natural (earthquake or something), I’d at least like to have a minor bit of planning that would allow my wife and I to survive a couple of weeks if something happens.
I understand that this interest in being prepared for an unknown disaster is probably moderately paranoid, especially living in an area that has been essentially unscathed historically by disaster. The thing with “prepping” gear used is also generally useful for backcountry camping, which I enjoy doing a few times per year. Other than the initial cost of overbuying, having some spare food around the house isn’t all that expensive, especially if you don’t let it go bad. As I have previously written about, this kind of preparation is just a kind of insurance.
My father is going to retire sometime near the end of the year. He understands that he needs to find something to fill in his time. Five years ago, he sold his entire beef herd (around 75 head) and the 200 acre farm that went with the animals and moved to a different place in the country where he has a few horses and a bunch of house pets. He’s decided that he misses beef farming, and in preparation for his pending retirement has bought a “mini-herd” amounting to 8 bred cows, which will calve in the next few months.
He decided that he could only play so much golf or hockey in a day before he would end up getting bored. The farm will give him something to do, which has at least the possibility of making money at the end of the year, and if not will provide some tax write-offs for his retirement income he will have coming in.
Some people don’t seem to have any plans when they hit “retirement age” and you see a lot of people going back to work to either fill in the time, or to achieve a level of fulfillment they couldn’t after the initial euphoria of being free from work (I’ve had several family members do this).
I don’t think that I will have a hard time transitioning into retirement, filling in the void of the 8 hours that I currently spend working. I look at what I enjoy doing in my 22 days of vacation and think that most of these activities could easily be scaled up to to take in my entire year, I would just be able to do it more often.
Who knows though? Maybe I’ll be bored stiff after a few months of not having to wake up every day to give up my free time.
What do you think you’d do to fill your time if you had an extra 40+ hours to use during the week? Do you think you’d get bored?
Posted by Dave on April 9, 2013
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 read a lot of information online and books everyday. Most of my focus is on personal finance and fitness. Over the past year, I have read quite a bit about achieving optimal fitness levels, gaining muscle mass and increasing the probability that I will live a longer life – with my later years hopefully not being spent crippled somewhere. From my reading, I am currently following a fitness regimen that seems contrary to getting into or staying in any sort of physical condition.
I am currently working out once per week, for a total of about 15 minutes. I’ve been doing this for the past 3 or 4 months and have noticed nothing but strength gains. From an efficiency standpoint, the workout can’t be beaten. The effects noticed (very unscientifically) follow what I’ve read – lifting heavy things (basically as much weight as I can for as long as I can) every 7 to 10 days allows the body to heal and grow muscles. This method is far from the conventional lifting I was doing previously, which was a 3-day split, with a couple of days of cardio mixed in. I seem to be in the same kind of shape I have been for the past 5 years, and I can spend less time being sweaty and tired.
I used to do fairly intense workouts (and still do about once every month or so, though more for fun now) like most people, but this new style of working out works for me.
Similarly, my financial plan works for me. I would like to be financially independent, I would like this to happen by the time I’m 45. Ideally, I’d like to retire at this point and spend my time doing what I want to do. Every once in awhile I read a blog post about anti-early retirement and it seems like the writers think that people who are attempting to achieve this goal haven’t really thought it out all that well.
My wife and I have had extensive discussions about what we’re giving up now spending wise, while we’re accumulating assets. We’re also well aware of how our spending may need to change in retirement if our investments all of a sudden tank, we may even have to go back to work. Thus far, we haven’t really felt deprived of anything and are carrying on as we had planned almost 5 years ago now.
I guess my point is, when I read stuff like this it makes me grumpy. Everyone’s plans seem ridiculous from the outside, whether it’s some sort of weird fitness thing, or not working after age 45.
