Anyone retire early and absolutely love it?
If so, what are you doing with your time?
Why do you think many struggle retiring early and go back to work?
I hope to retire in the next 5-10 years but often wonder if I’ll like being retired. I have tons of interests and can keep myself busy with little real estate projects but wonder if that’s enough.
plenty of research on this is coming out. I'd recommend some of mitch anthony's work and the WSJ, they've been writing more and more on the subject of retirement from a non-financial standpoint. some good stuff in the journal reports section. some of it won't be as relevant for the early retiree but the best way I can summarize it is you must have purpose.
the vast majority of people who unretire do so because they feel an existential void that had been filled with work. if you have other things that give you purpose, you may be one of the fortunate that do not have this crisis, but if you don't have it yet, I'd strongly recommend you begin figuring out what you'd want to do with that time.
not to get all conspiracy theorist, but it makes sense to me that the Rothschild family's motto was "Concordia, Integritas, Industria" translating to "Harmony, Integrity, Industry". I don't know the psychology of this (there definitely is a lot of research about this though), but work, beyond building grit and whatever, really is good for peoples' psyche and soul.
Because work means purpose. It's a reason to get up in the morning. Even if you hate your job, you get up and do it to prove the world wrong or make sure you and yours are fed and clothed. If you love your job? Not all payments or bonuses have to be monetary!
That's also why we see plenty of people take early retirement from very lucrative work and pursue things that aren't anywhere as well compensated monetarily but they get the moral, social or spiritual fulfillment instead. Case in point, friend's dad up and left Lockheed after twenty five years and became a school bus driver because he had plenty of money but wanted to do something "for the kids" with his time instead. And he was never happier too.
right, it's 100% one of our psychological needs. now, many have tunnel vision to believe that work and child rearing are the only ways to find purpose versus the ancient greco roman world which put a lot of emphasis on philosophizing, study, charity (read up about "otium"), which is why a lot of people face this crisis. they've poured themselves 100% into work and family (For good reason of course!) but then experience the enigma of arrival when they get the archetypal golden watch, the nest is empty, and their broker says "welp you've got the money, so when are you going to retire?"
so yes, I agree that the psyche and soul need to be built. where we depart and I may depart from the Rothschilds is that all of this has to be work for pay or that work is the best route to this. it may be the path of least resistance (because it's easy to not be existentially curious when you're working 12 hours a day and barely have enough energy to do chores and feed the family), but it's not the only way
Thanks for the reply. What activities have you seen early retirees do that have satisfied this need? Does it need to be a higher purpose? Or just a passion for something like woodworking?
the thing I see lead to the most existential fulfillment is giving back, less so with hobbies (this does NOT mean hobbies give no fulfillment or suboptimal fulfillment). hobbies are important to kill time but according to the research and my own experience, being with family/helping with kids/grandkids, charity work, and pro bono work seem to be the tickets. I'll give you an example. one of my happiest early retirees was in leadership at a large pharma company, he's also recently become a grandfather. he has time to travel and do his hobbies, but he really loves working with interesting clients without a profit motive (e.g. special forces, charities), doing his podcast, writing articles, and babysitting the grandkids (as well as caring for his aging parents/in laws).
on woodworking, this is where some of the research and I part ways. the research says that if you have hobbies, that's great and gives you the benefits of socialization, physical activity, and a way to kill time, but that it's not as fulfilling. personally? I have many clients that have a full plate and seem plenty fulfilled. another happy af early retiree who never had kids gets plenty of enjoyment just from his normal routines of a 2 hour gym session 5 days a week, travel, regular social lunches with friends and former colleagues, travelling to see family (cousins, nieces/nephews), and spending time with his wife.
another important thing is who you surround yourself with. keep in mind that early retirees is a very unique group that encompasses everybody from a 40yo professional with $5mm in the bank from carry/stock options who's going to live conservatively to a 30yo who was employee #3 at splunk or some shit and is worth $200mm and wants to shit on models chests on the stern of his friend's yacht. the story of "john" from fooled by randomness is a good way to understand this (https://franklycurious.com/wp/2015/03/16/survivorship-bias-or-why-the-r…). the simple fact is this - you could wind up feeling lonely because many of your contemporaries and friends either cannot or will not retire early, so you will either have to find activities with people outside your normal circle (likely trending older or richer) or get used to doing your own thing a lot of the time (charity, pro bono, consulting, travel can fill this void). or perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps you're worth $25mm plus and all your friends are similarly well heeled so you won't miss a beat.
Shitposting on WSO
I'm pretty convinced that I'm about 10 years away from retirement. It wont be as early as some of you here (I'm not IB) but still early enough compared to my peers. Here's what's helping me:
I think all of that leads to fun while I enjoy planning my retirement and puts me in a pretty good position to actually have fun when the time finally comes to retire in a few years.
Sounds like you are setting yourself up for easy street, which may work for you. If I eliminated all stress and just did one of my hobbies everyday like mountain biking I'm pretty sure I would lose my mind from boredom after a month.
I get where you're coming from, but I'd say why not flip it around and make it challenging? IE become a competitive biker, or get involved in a local group (because what's more challenging than dealing with other people?), start a bike shop or even teach a course for locals? If all you did was ride by yourself every day and not put some kind of challenge on it, yeah that'd get mind numbingly boring.
CompBanker where you at
Retired
Some really interesting thoughts here … particularly from thebrofessor who brings good insights. I summed up my early retirement a lot in this post here: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/off-topic/qa-the-final-cut
I’m only a few months in, but some initial thoughts:
Success in early retirement has a lot to do with your personality, where you derive value, and how you like to spend your time — or very importantly, how much value you derive from avoiding activities spending time doing things you dislike. I’ll elaborate.
As a retired person in their 30s, every single one of my friends has a full-time job that occupies them during the days. Many of them even work demanding jobs where they are unavailable during the weekday evenings. This means that my in-person social time with friends is limited to weekends, lunches/coffee with people who are working from home, etc. Having others working from home has actually been a big plus for my ability to interact with friends during the workday when otherwise they would be chained to the office. However, the vast majority of the standard 9-5 hours are actually downtime for me to do as I please. I then fill up my weekday nights with recreational sports, the odd dinner/drinks with friends, or business-like meetings (more to come on that). Sometimes I just stay at home and chat with friends/family in America or whatever else I want.
For me, this is a lifestyle that I find much more appealing than spending the vast majority of my waking hours in an office grinding out deals. But I’m also the type of person who went two months during COVID without interacting with another human face-to-face and didn’t really notice. I’m probably in the minority and a big introvert, but I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way. On the flip side, I can say with 100% certainty that this lifestyle would drive some of my very good friends absolutely mad, so it definitely isn’t for everyone. Make sure you know yourself VERY well before making the decision to retire early.
Thanks a lot for this. Great response. Some questions...
Do you ever battle with thoughts that you aren't being super productive or a contributing member of society?
Do you feel any loss of identity without your job? Has this changed your interactions with others?
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