Lessons Learned in Early Retirement (So Far)
“You’re off the clock seven days a week. You can wake up, eat, play, work and go to sleep when you want.” – Rob Carrick, former personal finance staff columnist, The Globe and Mail.
I echo those comments.
Rob’s Globe article (subscription/paywall) caught my eye this week and as an early retiree myself I thought I would respond and chime in with my own reflections – some lessons learned in early retirement (so far).
People will be genuinely happy for you…
Agreed.
My retirement party was great and my workplace colleagues seemed genuinely happy for my future non-working self although some were quite surprised that we 1. decided to retire so early and 2. others wondered how we did it.
Generally, everyone to Rob’s point is “…on your side when you retire.”
You will spend more money than you thought…
Agreed.
Travel is our biggest expense this year but that’s all discretionary. We have plans to travel international again later this year beyond our three-week retirement celebration road-trip we took this spring to Newfoundland. I haven’t posted all those details here on the site but you can certainly watch everything on our YouTube channel!
You need tent poles to fill your schedule…
Agreed, to a point.
I had a busy schedule (when working, like journalists) and I also believe I have “…skills that translate well into scaled-down work” if I so choose, but most days, I enjoy slower mornings, time to exercise, and time to maintain this site and consider other hobbies, including some new volunteer work.
While I would agree you need and likely desire ways to fill your time, time moves differently as an early retiree.
Before retirement, we both felt rushed. Rush to get home, cook, then complete other tasks around the house.
Now, we have days or weeks to think ahead…or just sit and think. 🙂
My wife and I are learning to embrace a slower pace, embrace time to think, and in some cases (in a very positive way) be somewhat bored with our respective thoughts.
It’s actually a wonderful place to be in – time to slow down, think, and act accordingly on own schedule.
Health remains wealth…
I’ll stress this point much more than Rob did.
Preparation for retirement is not mainly about accumulating money although money is important.
I’ve long believed health is the ultimate form of wealth regardless of how much money you have – since money is just a tool after all – and money is only good if you can actually use it.
I’m hardly where I want to be in terms of overall fitness but averaging 10,000+ steps per day, golfing each week, cycling 100+ km per week have been nice starting points for me this summer. More work to do…
You need to trust the plan…
Agreed.
One mantra on this site amongst others is:
plans are good but the process of planning is essential.
This is because life changes and your plans need to change with it.
While comprehensive financial plans are more than retirement income projections, I/we do our own income projections every 6-12 months and I would suggest you do the same.
“A good plan says how much you can sustainably spend each year. Go with it.”, yes, but adjust it too.
There are moments of complete satisfaction…
Agreed.
This includes saying “yes” and “no” to things.
While work did provide some solid structure in our lives, a routine to get up, get out, and get to work only to come home again 8-10 hours later, we still crave some level of regular weekly activities – things to do but we also avoid doing some things since we have the luxury of time to do it later…
And finally, we don’t worry about money (as much)!
As a passionate DIY investor/personal finance and investing nerd this one has surprised me and somewhat aligned to my point above about trusting the plan.
We don’t worry about our spending budget as much – we know what we need, what we want and have already built-in some annual buffer just in case as part of this household formula:
We don’t worry about where the income is going to come from – we’ve mapped that out in our Retirement Income Map that I will adjust annually.
We don’t worry about the timing of future government benefits like our CPP or OAS income streams and how those income sources will impact any taxation burdens – we know that too.
We still enjoy watching our dividends and distributions flow in every month – so I’ll keep those updates coming too.
What we don’t obsess nor worry about much any longer – surprisingly – is money.
What we’ve learned from early retirement – so far!
Many DIY readers and my growing list of subscribers have been fans of this site because they already know what goes into managing their own money – and they want to engage with yours truly to see how I figure this out.
So far in early retirement, so good.
I have no doubt I’ll have more lessons learned in the coming years.
Do share your own lessons learned in a comment below. Happy to read and engage back.
Mark
Related Reading:
I continue to help and support all Canadian DIY investors as much as I can through these low-cost retirement readiness projections!
I shared a few years back, given there are 80,000+ personal finance books on the shelf, you might not need any more financial advice.
