2678: [Part 2] Conquer 3 Critical Early Retirement Challenges by Redefining Retirement by Chris Mamula of Can I Retire Yet

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[00:00:30] This is Optimal Finance Daily, Episode 2678. Conquer three critical early retirement challenges

[00:00:37] by redefining retirement. Part two, by Chris Manula of CaliRetire yet.com. And I'm your host

[00:00:45] in Personal Finance Enthusias, Diania Merriam. Thanks so much for joining today and every day.

[00:00:50] If you're new here, this is where I read articles to you every day of the week so that you don't have

[00:00:55] to find and read them yourself. But today is a continuation from yesterday. So if you haven't done

[00:01:01] already, I'd recommend listening to yesterday's episode first. But if you're all caught up, then let's get

[00:01:07] right back into it and hear part two as we continue optimizing your life.

[00:01:16] Conquer three critical early retirement challenges by redefining retirement. Part two,

[00:01:22] by Chris Manula of CaliRetire yet.com. Defining retirement. Wikipedia defines retirement

[00:01:31] as the point where a person stops employment completely. Merriam Webster defines retirement

[00:01:36] as withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from active working life.

[00:01:42] After many discussions about what we wanted our lives to look like, we realized we didn't need

[00:01:47] to accept society's definition and expectation of retirement. Any more than we accepted society's

[00:01:53] expectation that you work 40 plus hour work weeks until age 60 or older to reach retirement.

[00:02:00] Ultimately, I realized that all three of the biggest challenges we faced had the same solution.

[00:02:05] We needed to redefine retirement on our own terms.

[00:02:09] Looking outside of traditional retirement planning. Learning to be a better investor,

[00:02:15] tracking your spending and understanding how economic and political conditions affect you

[00:02:20] are all important aspects of retirement planning. However, no matter how hard you work on it,

[00:02:26] how much you read or how many times you crunch your numbers, you can never accurately

[00:02:31] predict all of the things that would be needed to provide a secure retirement.

[00:02:35] Traditional retirement planning can only take you so far. If you want to retire early,

[00:02:40] you need to develop a robust strategy with flexibility. I found incorporating ideas outside of

[00:02:46] and even critical of traditional retirement planning to be very useful. This led to even more

[00:02:52] and better questions. I began reading books like Tim Ferriss's 4-hour work week that contain

[00:02:58] many ideas critical of retirement. One is, quote, retirement is predicated on the assumption

[00:03:05] that you dislike what you're doing during the most physical, capable years of your life.

[00:03:10] This is a non-starter. Nothing can justify that sacrifice. End quote.

[00:03:16] Even in my case, where I liked aspects of my job and at times found it fulfilling,

[00:03:20] it had become drudgery. This book introduced me to ideas like lifestyle design and many

[00:03:26] retirements as alternatives to traditional retirement. It challenged me to question my assumptions

[00:03:32] that I need to have X amount of money in the bank to start living the life I really want.

[00:03:37] How could I start living a life more in alignment with my values as soon as possible?

[00:03:42] I also read books about finding purpose and meaning in life. Probably none is better than Victor

[00:03:48] Frankl's man's search for meaning. Frankl survived deplorable conditions and Nazi concentration camps.

[00:03:55] He credits his survival and the survival of others in the camps to finding meaning and purpose

[00:04:00] in day-to-day life in the camps. He personally accomplished this through helping and serving others

[00:04:06] and constantly dreaming of reuniting with his wife from whom he was forcefully separated.

[00:04:12] This challenged me to ask myself how he could find meaning and purpose while living in these horrible

[00:04:17] conditions while I was struggling to do so living a successful American lifestyle. What did I need

[00:04:23] to find happiness and fulfillment? I realized that part of the answer was to re-examine the role

[00:04:29] of work in my life. I reread a book that was very influential when starting my career

[00:04:34] that I regularly have given to students who have interned with me over my career. Dan Miller's

[00:04:39] 48 days to the work you love. A key takeaway on my second time through this book was the difference

[00:04:46] between having a job and a calling. Miller writes quote, a job should not define who or what you are

[00:04:53] you should be able to leave today and not change the overall purpose or direction of your life.

[00:04:59] Your calling is a much larger concept than what you do daily to create income. Work opportunities

[00:05:06] can come and go, the direction of your life should remain constant. End quote. What is my calling in life?

[00:05:14] Redefining retirement. Darrow provided his definition of early retirement early on in this

[00:05:20] blog's existence. It contained a key idea that was central to our challenges. Quote,

[00:05:27] when you look at the numbers and the futility of predicting future economic cycles,

[00:05:32] I think it's very difficult and not at all that beneficial to design a life with no work at all.

[00:05:38] For me, it's more about financial independence and choosing my own work. End quote.

[00:05:44] The solution to all of our challenges was to redefine retirement on our own terms. We need to

[00:05:50] develop our own plan that would give us more flexibility with our time while continuing to allow

[00:05:55] us to live with a feeling of security and abundance that we value. Part of our plan is continuing

[00:06:01] to do work when it's rewarding, challenging, and or fun while fitting into our desired lifestyle

[00:06:07] and moving us towards our longer term goals. Simply changing our definition of retirement

[00:06:12] to incorporate paid work allowed us to overcome challenges that seemed insurmountable with

[00:06:18] traditional retirement planning. Incorporating a plan to make even small amounts of income

[00:06:24] drastically change the math in the retirement planning equation, allowing me to retire sooner

[00:06:30] and with less anxiety and stress. Doing meaningful work can also provide purpose to day-to-day life

[00:06:36] and increase opportunities for social connection. I'm sure there are people hearing this who will

[00:06:41] challenge me and say that I'm not really retiring. Let me agree that I'm not allowing anyone else to

[00:06:47] define how I'll live my life. The simple realization that you don't have to live by anyone else's

[00:06:52] definition of retirement gave me the courage to leave a good job at 41 years of age,

[00:06:58] to pursue a path that I find more interesting, challenging, fun, and an alignment with my personal

[00:07:03] values. What's holding you back? And how can you redefine retirement to make the goal attainable

[00:07:09] sooner than you may have imagined? You just listen to part two

[00:07:17] of the post titled Conquer Three Critical Early Retirement Challenges by redefining retirement

[00:07:23] by Chris Mamula of caniretire yet.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:08:22] shipstation.com code pod. This article highlighted for me why the word retirement can be pretty

[00:08:29] challenging for many people. When most of us hear the word retirement, we understand it to mean

[00:08:35] no longer working. But my involvement in the fire community has led me to reinterpret this word.

[00:08:41] To me, retirement is much more about separating your finances from your work, not abandoning

[00:08:46] work altogether. Satisfying work is one of the great joys of life and whether you retire at 30

[00:08:52] or 65, why would you deprive yourself of that? The big difference between working during your

[00:08:58] accumulation years and working during your fire or retirement years is based on financial need.

[00:09:04] Before reaching fire, you're working to pay the bills, save and otherwise fund your lifestyle.

[00:09:09] After fire, you're working if, when, and where you want with no concern for the money.

[00:09:14] Oftentimes hobbies or businesses you create can produce an income and you'll want them too so

[00:09:19] that you can at least cover your costs for the work you're doing. However, the work you get to do

[00:09:24] when you no longer need an income to cover your living expenses can bring a satisfaction you may

[00:09:29] never have experienced when you were required to work for money. Many studies have linked

[00:09:34] retirement with a decline in health because many people spend their retirement not doing anything

[00:09:39] that looks like work and wasting away with nothing to do. Yes, there will be and should be periods

[00:09:45] of extended rest and recuperation in retirement, but if you don't find a useful way to spend your time,

[00:09:51] you'll most likely end up lonely and depressed. That being said, regardless of your age,

[00:09:57] if you anticipate your retirement to look like sitting around and doing nothing all day,

[00:10:01] I'd encourage you to not retire at all. But that's going to do it for today. Thanks so much

[00:10:07] for being here every day and I'll see you tomorrow for more optimal finance daily or your optimal life

[00:10:12] awaits.