Posted by Canadian Dream on November 3, 2011
I find it sort of amusing when people bring up the issue of me failing to retire by the time I turn 45, because even if that did happen I would still win. How? Even in my worst case projection I still think I will retire by the time I turn 50. So even by losing, I can still retie earlier than most people.
Not to mention all the side benefits of trying for financial independence. I don’t worry about money at night and it has never kept me awake. How? I’ve got over $130,000 in investments right now and my house is almost paid off. The words ‘lay off’ or ‘being fired’ are annoyances now and not really serious threats to my family’s well being.
In a sense going after early retirement gives you freedom to choose what others can’t consider. I don’t have any credit card debt, so I don’t ‘have to’ keep working at a job I hate. I don’t have a huge mortgage, so I can look at buying a second property as an investment. The longer I’m on this path the more choices keep opening up.
Perhaps the one choice that mind boggles a lot of people is the ability to earn less. I don’t have to work full time to look after my family. I haven’t had a full time day job in 15 months now and I really don’t see the need to ever go back to full time if I chose to. Actually after the mortgage being paid off next year our income requirements to live are so low that I live with a $10/hour part time job if I want.
Perhaps that is the point of how to win even when things go wrong, my needs are very minor and I know what those cost. So I don’t bitch as much about losing on anything and always try to find the positive about it. Why? I can afford to make that choice.
So how do you win when you lose?
Posted by Canadian Dream on August 17, 2011
This is a guest post by Martin, who is preparing for retirement within the next 5 years; no later than his 40th birthday. He is married, has 2 young children and lives and works in rural Alberta as a regional finance manager for a large energy company. (As a reminder here was his last post)
Like most similar-minded readers of this blog, unconventional early retirement is possible for me because I respect money. I work as hard and smart as I can to earn it and am diligent in making sure that I add real value to my life when I spend it. Being an accountant only compounds the analysis and dissection that I place on my finances. This obsessive, objective approach has revealed a point of concern in executing my retirement plan.
My financial mind is having a hard time dealing with the thought of leaving money on the table.
When I philosophize about it, it is clear to me that I do not want to work a day longer than I have to. However, when I get into the details of determining how much do I need to retire, I keep reasoning that if I work an extra couple of years beyond what I need, I’ll add enough money to (a) provide a larger inheritance to my children, (b) not have to be so diligent about spending in the future and be able to afford the odd frivolous expenditure *gasp*, (c) buy a little cottage on a lake up north, or (d) <insert any of the reasons/excuses I’ve come up with add just a little more to my nest egg before retiring>.
I think my hang-up is derived from the notion that I haven’t yet been paid back in my career for the sacrifice it took to get where I am today. For those with experience in the corporate world, I’m just starting to bump up against the threshold where employees go from from being underpaid to overpaid commensurate to their qualifications and experience. The objective financial quadrant of my mind is urging me to hang on for a few more years to correctly compensate me for the years spent being underpaid.
Has anyone else gone through this idea that you owe it to yourself to hang on a few more years to validate the effort it took to get there? Any ideas on how to shake this idea and just walk away when the numbers are right?
Posted by Canadian Dream on July 20, 2011
The purpose of early retirement is of course to have the option not to work. The key word in that sentence was ‘option‘. You can work if you happen to actually love what you are doing. While I know I’m still in the honeymoon phase of my new day job I recently had an odd experience just prior to my current vacation which makes me think I might even consider keeping working longer than I have to if I can do something similar.
So what happened? I left work and I wasn’t desperate to start my vacation. I was looking forward to going on my trip, but at the same time I wasn’t trying to escape work. I mean I left the work, because I had finished what I needed to get done, not because I was trying to get out of the door. That is literally the first time that has ever happened to me during one of my day jobs. Normally I’m crawling up the walls trying to start my vacation, but this time I didn’t have that feeling at all.
It was a different feeling for sure and I certainly hope it continues. While I come home a little tried from my job at times I actually like going to work again. Which is a huge leap forward from my old day job and I actually find myself in that odd spot of liking everything I currently do for work. It’s a little surreal to be this happy most the time…actually I have to check my arm periodically to ensure I’m not being injected with something to keep up this feeling.
Yet this experience to date is teaching me something. I have to stop settling for my day jobs. I’m far enough along in my plan I can handle a period of unemployment if it happens, but I should start being a little bit more picky on what I want to do and what it pays. Also I have to be more willing to move on if things go sour on a job. Often some items are short term and you deal with them, but if they change into longer term issues I should be more willing to move on. Life is just too short to be unhappy at my job when I have other options.
So that is my plan going forward…I’m going to be a bit more picky about my day jobs because frankly I can be at this point in my life. Damn, that is a good feeling to have.
Did you ever get picky about what work you did in your career? Or was that a luxury you never worried about having?
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