Why everyone should take a mini retirement before FIRE
My dad has always told me he didn’t want to ever fully retire. After having run his own business for 30+ years, he knew that even if he sold it he would have to have some sort of project or job to keep him busy. I think it must run in the family, his father worked as a sugar cane farmer right up until his body failed him at the ripe old age of 93. He always attributed his sharp mind and long age to working, noting how all of his friends that went into retirement homes had kicked the bucket years ago.
My own journey to early retirement properly started 10 years ago when I was 19. I had just bought my first property and was working extremely hard in paying down my mortgage. Over the course of the next 10 or so years my devotion to the FIRE cause would wax and wane in various cycles of burnout. The thing I am most grateful for now though is that I splurged on the things I loved, even though it pushed retirement back in years. I love adventuring, and so I bought a second hand four wheel drive (which is basically FIRE blasphemy) and set off on a half lap of Australia with my then girlfriend at the time. It was one of the best holidays I’ve ever had, sleeping under the millions of stars in a tent in the middle of the Australian desert is something I will never forget. I backpacked all over Asia, South America, and many other places throughout the years. I blew loads of money, but sitting here, In Norway, 5 months into my work hiatus at 29, I am so thankful that I didn’t save and sacrifice more.
It didn’t take me long to realize, I actually miss working. Don’t get me wrong, that first month or so was pure bliss. Waking up in the back of my four wheel drive in some remote part of Australia, having a coffee watching the sunrise, no commitments with not a care in the world. It was liberating. I could do whatever I wanted and I did. After a month of exploring Australia, I packed a bag and jetted off to Europe. I backpacked through Denmark and Sweden before finding a home in the mountains of Norway to experience a Scandinavian winter, snowboard and chase the northern lights, something I’ve always dreamt of. Something was missing though, as the days and weeks went by I felt less and less happier with my retired lifestyle.
Something that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about is what exactly is it about working that I missed, and I’ve narrowed it down to 3 things.
- Routine
- People
- Progress
Routine
I realized that in my “retirement: I had been waking whenever my body told me to, not setting an alarm unless I had a bus or train or something the next day. This may sounds great to some people, but I think I much preferred a consistent sleep schedule that work enforces upon us. I feel like this contributed to my retirement daze as I have come to call it, a blur in which I forgot what the day was and suffering from lack of motivation to do anything. There is something nice about having some sort of structure to your week, days where you work and days where you don’t. Sort of like a runners gun firing at the start of the race, BANG! and we are off. It was almost like I had so much free time, that I failed to appreciate it, and thus wasted it.
People
I’m an introvert by nature. I’ve always lived alone, travel mostly by myself, but even I love spending time around people. I realized I missed the banter of a workplace. Humans are social creatures by nature, and I feel like I was slowly becoming more and more depressed with how little I was interacting with people during the week. Belonging to a team and working together is something humans have been doing for a very long time and I think the workplace is a great way for us to feel like we belong to a community.
Progress
The hardest adjustment for me though, was the lack of progress or sense of achievement. If you’ve been working for years and years on something, saving and dreaming of that end goal, and to suddenly lose that, leaves a gaping hole in your life. I’m extremely thankful that I realized this now, and didn’t waste years of my life, scrimping and saving for full retirement only to realize these things way down the track and end up going back to work anyway.
I’ve since found work on a organic farm and lodge in the most beautiful valley I’ve ever seen, and I’ve got my mojo back. It actually started out as an arrangement, 5 hours work a day (Monday to Friday) in exchange for free food and accommodation, but they have since offered to pay me for my efforts (always a good sign!). I’ve got back my routine, I get to socialize with a diverse group of people, I’m much more active which is great for keeping my fitness, and I have a much greater sense of achievement and pride at a job well done.
Before this mini retirement I had a suspicion that this may happen to me. I was lucky that FIRE bloggers who have blazed before me had wrote about how once they had achieved financial independence, it didn’t necessarily make them happier, and all the benefits of semi retirement. I’ve definitely come to the conclusion that I don’t think I will ever fully retire. I love the flexibility that being financially independent gives me, not having to work to make ends meet and working because I want to and not have to. I’m also glad because it’s completely got rid of this feeling that what I was saving was never enough. I would often compare myself to people on Reddit or Twitter who were much younger, earning and saving more etc. I don’t need to save nearly as much as I thought to become financially free, hell I’m basically financially free now to an extent. I now know that even if I may take a break from work to raise a family or whatever, that at some point I will always return to work for the sheer enjoyment of it. The joys of making progress!
Let me know your thoughts below, do you want to fully retire or are you planning on semi retirement?
