Retirement after 3 years

Six observations on the journey so far…

Byron Bay

I have written a couple of articles regarding retirement — “Do you want to retire at 50?” and “Retirement is not what you expect.” This is a follow up to those articles.

Do you want to retire at 50?

I wanted to record some observations after 4 years of being “retired”. I haven’t done a hard retirement but instead weaned myself off work gradually. Like anything you do for a long period, working is addictive. Not exactly a pleasurable addition but more a muscle memory habit. In the first year out, I did around 3 months engineering contract work, some monthly hour long phone consults plus my app development (which for some reason I don’t consider work even when I get paid for it). Last year I only did 1 weeks worth of engineering contract work and while I enjoyed the engineering side of the work, I didn’t miss being in a corporate environment.

Retirement is not what you expect…

Anyway, on to the observations…

1. What do you say? When someone asks you what you do? When you get your haircut in the middle of a working day and the hairdresser asks if you are on holidays? I was surprised about how much I was defined by my work. My identity was inextricably linked with what I did. So for the first 3 years I have found it very hard to say that I am retired, I still do but I think I am coming to accept it and create a new definition of what I am. This is a work in progress, I suspect we need a new word to replace retirement. I don’t feel like I am working, I don’t feel retired but whatever it is, it is much better than going to work. The best definition I can come up with is a Portfolio of Interests.
2. Purpose. This is linked to observation 1. If you are not working, what is your purpose? You can go as deep as you like with this question, but I came up with the following: To complete each year healthier, happier, wealthier and more knowledgeable than the last. Do at least one international trip per year. Complete at least one significant/legacy activity each year. Review objectives every 3–6 months. Perhaps I have spent too long in a corporate environment but these are the tools I am used to. C’est la vie! Having this “Vision/Mission” statement (I could never tell the difference between the two) helps me put together my objectives for the year. I do these yearly but update and revise them every 3 months as priorities and interests change. I record progress weekly. Objectives have always been important to me and I find them even more so as I work my way through the “back 9 holes” of my life. When I “retired”, I didn’t want to waste time on meaningless pleasure — more correctly, I didn’t wanted to waste ALL my time on meaningless pleasure. To this end, I use the “No Zero Days” approach. The idea is that every day you need to do at leat one thing to progress your objectives. I try to do 3 things per day which further my learning/creating objectives — it doesn’t always happen, but I normally do at least one. I have 7 learning/creating objectives (writing, pilots licence, Spanish, health, electronics, guitar and programming). Progress is not evenly distributed, I tend to get a run in certain objectives as momentum builds. The other thing that I discovered is that with a lot (if not all) of these objectives you need to maintain them or lose them. For me, 7 objectives is too many to build and maintain mastery but it is enough to keep me from getting bored with a subject. Like the cliche says, “it is all about the journey, not the destination.” If happiness for you is making progress, then this method will work. In addition to these daily 7 objectives, I have objectives around finances, travel, social life and asset maintenance. These are things that I don’t need to work on every day.
3. Time. The ultimate paradox. I am convinced that time has momentum and goes quicker as you get older. I don’t know if there is an age where it slows down again, but I’m not there yet. Ironically this is the when you have the most free time but not the discipline to use it effectively. We aren’t used to having lots of free time. When you work, free time is for getting chores done and recharging the batteries. Most people haven’t developed the habits to use free time to further their purpose. Don’t ever think there isn’t enough time, or it will take too long. You no longer have that excuse, so cowboy up and start doing what you always wanted to do. Don’t forget to schedule your own time as well. Particularly if your partner is retired as well. My wife has said she only wants us to talk for up to an hour per day. While (I think) she is joking, there is some truth to this. Relationships are one area which don’t benefit from over watering. You need time apart so that you appreciate your time together and have something interesting to talk about! I try not to spend too much time consuming other peoples creative content but at best I am at 50:50 (creating:consuming). Actually that is not totally correct, some time is spent on maintenance activities as well (e.g. cleaning, shopping, etc), stuff which is necessary to stop us sliding down the entropy slope.
4. Social Network. This takes effort. When you go to work every day it is a lot easier to maintain relationships with friends you work with or work near. Going out for lunch or grabbing a coffee is trivial. When you stop working (or work from home), then you need to schedule in time to meet with people who you would like to maintain relationships with. A number of studies have shown that having an active social life will help you live longer. Not only will you live longer but the quality of life is better with social interaction. One of the joys of being retired is having the opportunity to do interesting things, telling these stories to friends is a joy multiplier!
5. Money. Is there ever enough? There is probably a number which is enough based on your lifestyle. My guess is that in Australia the number is around $5M (excluding illiquid assets like your house). With $5M you can live off the yield indefinitely (even with the current low interest environment — which has probably bottomed out for now). Unfortunately most people (including me) will never have anything near this amount when they retire. So what do you do? My philosophy is to have a plan, live within your means but don’t be afraid to spend on bucket list items early. My theory is that you need to get most things done by the time you are 80. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly you may not make it to 80, no point being the richest person in the graveyard. Secondly, most folk are not getting more spritely as they age. Activities like international travel require a certain amount of mobility, which gets harder as you get older. Also, as you get older and it gets more difficult to get around, your spending will decrease.
6. Worry. This is an interesting one. I think I am addicted to worry. Even when you have nothing to worry about, I find myself looking for things to be upset about. This may be because when I was working if there wasn’t an ongoing emergency it was because the problem hadn’t emerged yet. My advice to myself is to not get upset over trivial rubbish. Like most advise, it is easy to give but hard to take.

So there you have it, my scattered thoughts on retirement or whatever this is, from the vast perspective of almost 4 years. I would be interested in other peoples experiences, jot them down in the comments.

The dog likes retirement

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