Why would anyone want to retire early?
In a newsletter I posed the question “what do you think of early retirement?” and had a wonderful response from a reader. To paraphrase she said, I enjoy my career, find it mentally stimulating, enjoy getting that time with adults everyday while my children are at preschool. Working full-time makes the evenings and weekends that much more precious and enjoyable. I can’t imagine quitting work and just biding my time.
Those all sound like great reasons not to retire early. The cultural story around retirement is one of rest and relaxation. You leave work in your 60s to golf, go for coffee every morning with your retired friends and maybe RV around the country a few times a year. Retirement is viewed as one long vacation. I enjoy vacations but after three or four days sitting on a beach drinking margaritas and reading, I get a bit antsy and want to do something. So I can’t really imagine spending two decades on vacation.
But what if retirement meant doing work and activities that were deeply meaningful to you? What if retirement wasn’t about vacation but about the ability to do unpaid work? In the email I received the writer’s view of retirement is ‘biding time’. Which is understandable. That’s what most of us think of early retirement: slow days biding time until you die. The early retirement I’m going to explore in a series of blog posts isn’t about biding time but rather, having the time to do things that do not produce income. Things that are important to you but do not come with a benefits package or regular work hours.
Reasons you may want to retire early:
- You don’t find your career fulfilling or it comes with some negative lifestyle consequences. There is a thriving online community of physicians working towards early retirement. They worked very hard through medical school and residency and now, for a variety of reasons, they want to leave the medical field. Some simply want to work a lot less to have more time with their family and for their hobbies. Some are burnt out on their profession. Some have other passions they want to pursue. There are many other people in jobs that are simply jobs and not their raison d’etre that want to retire early to have time for the things and people that matter to them.
- You have interests, hobbies, volunteer opportunities that your job keeps you from. One doctor I read about wants more time to volunteer with Doctors Without Borders. I keep seeing a couple I know, early 40s, two kids, that are semi-retired and take off on ski vacations for weeks at a time. They are ski enthusiasts and now that they don’t have to work as much, they are hitting all those mountains on their bucket list while they are still young and healthy and able. You want to leave your job so you have more time for other pursuits and people and in the reverse of the reader comment, being at work is actually biding your time while retirement will allow you to do the work and activities you find worthwhile.
- You want more time with your kids when they are young. This is a frequent reason from people in high pressure and high hour jobs. I can relate. My husband missed almost a year with our kids because of his job. He really enjoyed the job, and it was an incredible opportunity for him career wise, but he missed a lot of time and moments. Parenthood and the early demanding years with kids often intersects sharply with key earning and advancement years in careers. If you feel like you’re missing out on those years early retirement, pre-retirement and adult “gap years” may interest you. And when I say more time with your kids, I don’t always mean retiring to become a stay at home parent to young children. This couple decided to take a mini-retirement year with school aged kids. Sure, they are getting more time with the kids but they are also getting more time with each other and for themselves.
- You want more time for selfish pursuits. You could take that university level painting course in your 60s or become a better open water swimmer once you retire. Or you could aim to be financially independent by 50, consult occasionally for your old job and do those things sooner. If you’re someone who is often saying “I’ll have time for that when ____” you might be a person that wants to retire early.
- You want more time while you are young. One of Tanja’s reasons for retiring early was that she has a chance of having a neurological condition that will severely impact her mobility and it would likely start affecting her in her 40s. Her father has this condition and while there is no test to determine if she has it, watching him lose his mobility was a motivator for her to retire early so she could enjoy her health while she had it.
Early retirement isn’t just for lazy or unambitious people. I think some of us think of intentional early retirees like the Hugh Grant character in the move “About a Boy” – living off an inheritance and filling their days with self-serving activities and feeling bored a lot. The early retirement community I’ve been reading up on are highly motivated and ambitious folk. They just have a different measuring stick for the work they do.
We’ll dig deeper on this in another few blog posts but for now, here are some of my favourite early retirement blogs. I don’t agree with everything on these websites but they raise a lot of interesting questions and often provide clear and shocking numbers on how to retire early.
- Mr. Money Mustache: the blog title is “early retirement through badassity” and that gives you nice idea about what the posts often hit on. Mr. MM likes to debunk a lot of myths like the cost of driving and how to eat well on a small grocery budget. He and his wife retired in their 30s and have one son. His retirement is very full: he’s part-owner of a co-working space, builds stuff, writes his blog and works out.
- Our Next Life: Tanja and her husband blogged under pseudonyms until very recently when they retired from their jobs. Why? They didn’t want anyone at work to know about their plan because they worried it would lead to being let go. Early retirement is new for them and they are sharing a lot about how they are adjusting to the slower pace.
- Physician on Fire: a doctor burnt out on working hours and the bureaucracy of the US health care system decides go very very part-time while his kids are still in elementary school. What may shock you: he’s not alone. So many other doctors are following his lead (and blogging about it!). Very interesting read if you are someone that has invested a lot in growing your career or in a long education.
Have you heard of this type of early retirement before? Does it interest you at all? I realize talking about this type of thing is often akin to dreamy tiny houses: not practical or possible for many of us. Still, I think this early retirement movement brings up a lot of questions around life satisfaction, purpose and happiness that I want to explore more. While we are not retired, our move to the country has reduced our income needs and advanced us a few years closer to retirement.
I like the idea, and the reasons, but I also think about how impossible it would be for so many people in this country. (Including my family.)
I also have to wonder if the trade-off of busting my tail in a job I don’t like so I can retire early and make up the time I lost being with my kids is worth it. For us, no. I’m a grad student, and my oldest really responds badly to having me stressed out and really busy. Not a sacrifice our family can make.
My husband and I have spent the last 12 years of “retirement” homeschooling our grandkids. We graduated the last one June 2nd. My husband also teaches a large adult Sunday School class and puts together his own teaching materials including a Power Point slide presentation each week. We tend to our little flock through all of life’s ups and downs. Our home is situated on an acre lot which is very much a park like setting, to include a koi pond and a creek running through the property. The upkeep of our property is never ending. We also have 3 large dogs and two cats. We haven’t been on vacation in years! The upside is that our schedule is our own.
Carol: what a wonderful thing to read tonight. Grandparents homeschooling their grandkids sounds amazing. What lucky kids! It’s so nice to hear of such engaged and active grandparents.
I think that’s a great idea, looking at retirement as a way to break free and do what you want. It doesn’t have to be one big vacation, you can do it your own way! We’re all different.
I think trying to find work that lets you enjoy your life the best you can now is good to shoot for as well. I love being an entrepreneur and the freedom I have!
Yes, yes, yes!!! I “retired” early 12 years ago at age 39. For me though, it was less about not working than it was about not being employed. I still make some money via my online businesses (graphic design and photography) – but since I’m pretty much financially independent and my mortgage is paid off, the money isn’t the primary motivator. I loved certain aspects of my old job – working at a non-profit music school/concert organization – but the pressure of working in a place that’s always on the hairy financial edge was difficult.
I LOVE not having to answer to anyone, and having control over my schedule (not getting those 2am phone calls when someone can’t get the computer to balance out after a concert is really, REALLY nice.) My lifestyle involves living on much less money than most people – but since I have the time and energy to deal with stuff that most people would hire out, it works for me. I spent yesterday patching a section of flooring as part of an ongoing remodeling project – and that’s a normal day for me.
I also took up cycling as a “retiree” and now ride about 100 miles per week. My online business provide plenty of mental challenges managing a server and learning to program in php. But I have plenty of time for gardening, cooking, kitty rescue, and going on little adventures with CatMan. I can’t imagine being bored, and my life is anything but “biding my time.”
I like the distinction about working vs. being employed. I think that’s a big part of most early retirees plans and their goals.
Kudos to you and thank you for continuing to share here 🙂
Yes, I think about early retirement quite a bit and really wish I had started saving more sooner. If I stay in our state system I could retire at age 56, but there are a lot of ifs there and it’s still a long no ways off.
I just want the flexibility that do what I want when I want. More gardening, traveling, volunteering and relaxing.
Yes to the flexibility to do what you want!
I’ve always thought the whole “Freedom 55” (or is it 65?) is a bad plan. Who knows if you’ll even make it to 55 to “relax” and “enjoy yourself”? I say enjoy life to the best of your ability today, whatever that looks like for you. My husband and I don’t talk much about retirement per se, but just about the freedom to choose to work only when and where and how often we want to. Minimalism has been a big help to us there — we’re very close to paying off our mortgage (at 32 and 34), which will really relieve a lot of the pressure to earn a certain income. I also love the idea of sabbaticals or gap years throughout your life at natural transitions/breaks, like when you welcome a new child, move cities, get married, or when your children are between school levels, etc. I’d love to “home school” my daughters for grades 6 (one will be going to middle school) and 9 (the other entering high school) and just travel as a family that year. Our careers will recover!!!! So many people think they won’t and just keep pushing on.
Wow! That is amazing that you are close to paying off your mortgage in your early 30s. Nice that you have identified a good window for travel – you’ve got some good years ahead of you to make it happen. I would love to take my kids out of school for the winter and visit Australia and New Zealand. I think we should probably do it before our oldest is in high school so in the next five years.
This is fascinating! I have a retirement conversation with my dad every time I see him. He is in his mid-70’s and could have retired several years ago- maybe a decade or more. But he enjoys his work, derives a lot of purpose from it, and is still sought out to do it. Additionally, he and his wife travel when they want, don’t work on Fridays, and generally live the life they want to. So he feels pressure to retire because of his age, but keeps asking “why”?
When we were kids (four of us) he was working in D.C. and we didn’t see him much. So after a family meeting he moved his practice to our small, dirt road town and started over. Some days he rode his horse to work:) So we saw him more and he did the work he loved.
I haven’t read the links yet- I imagine work in healthcare or another high-intensity job may push me out the door sooner. But, at least at age 39, I love my work (psychotherapist) and could foresee doing it for a few more decades.
Your dad sounds like he is living a great life! And moving his practice closer to home so he could have more time with his family must have been a pretty bold move back then.
I’ll write more about it later but a lot of people prefer to say they are aiming for financial independence instead of retirement. The goal is not to leave work but to simply be able to make choices around it not based on need for income. So like your dad, work when they want to work.
I really enjoy what I do but would like the financial independence to take distance courses with no career objective (just my own edification). I think I could squeak them in in a few years when my youngest is more independent.
I guess I am partially retired now–I sort of have my own businesses where I work VERY part-time so that I am able to still help out with kids after school, do high volume kitten fostering, and volunteer at the shelter while kids are in school. Since we had kids way too young, I often didn’t work because the cost of childcare was far more than I could make with my psychology degree sadly. Now I’d only be open to a job that gives me a fair work life balance. I’ll be 42 when my youngest graduates, so I feel like I’ll still have time for that career if I want it. I do worry about retirement however, and wonder if this choice will screw us over if the state decides to screw with my husband’s pension. We’re hoping to talk to a financial advisor soon to see what additional funds we should create as a backup in case the government wants to screw over police officers and firefighters (they try to every legislative session). But for now, I’m enjoying the partial retirement and trying not to worry too much about what the future holds 🙂
I’ll be 42 when my youngest is in kindergarten 🙂