A while back I heard a story of a coworker who was turning 55 and retiring the same week. At first I thought, “Good for them! Many people can’t afford to retire that young and work into their 60′s and 70′s.” But then I caught myself thinking conventionally. Since when is it the norm to give your life to a company for 30 or 40 of your prime years and then retire?
Why not build a life, job, or business from which you never feel the need to retire?
My coworkers mentioned that the retiree had this birthday on their radar for roughly 10 years. They made a plan to retire at 55 and stuck to it. I can admire that.
At the same time though, I thought about my life and I know I can’t do that to myself. I’ve worked just over three years in Corporate America and I’ve always felt constricted. I can’t imagine spending another 30 years in a culture based around being told what to do, when you can get promoted, and how much money you are allowed to earn.
Create A Life You Love
To work towards financial independence and freedom from debt I truly believe that you have to enjoy what you do. Please, take a few minutes to read “How to Do What You Love” by Paul Graham. I wish I would have read it when I was in college. My life would be a lot different today.
Am I saying you should quit your job and go live your life moment by moment doing whatever you want? No.
Am I saying you should stop saving for retirement and not worry about pensions, 401k’s, Roth IRA’s, estate planning, etc.? Hell No.
What I’m saying is that you need to live a life filled with purpose. We all need to stop treading water in the sea of life and start swimming in the direction we desire most. What makes us all different is the direction in which we head.
So I ask you a simple question: Are you living your life for retirement or are you living your life for now?
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Great article! It’s a question that is hard to answer. Speaking about myself, I find it difficult to not keep both on eyes on that golden retirement. Its one of my greatest flaws. It’s a hard road to change habits that are ingrained in us. I have to constantly tell myself on a daily basis don’t stress things, everything will be okay.
Thank you for reminding me through this post to take life a bit easier and to enjoy it.
-Ravi Gupta
Thanks Ravi.
I spent a lot of time in the first few years after college focusing on my retirement savings and I wish I spent more time working to build I life I would love first.
Great post Caleb. I wish everyone could here this message. The theme of this post has been transforming my life for the past year. I haven’t quite figured out what all the changes are I need to make, but that is part of it, right? We don’t have all the answers immediately and what might be most important to me today might be drastically different in 5 years. Life is constantly changing and I have realized there is no exact end state that I should be striving for.
You’re right Tyler. We don’t have all the answers right away. For me, going to college and getting a job was the right thing to do. Now, I am ready for the change and how scary it may be.
When you go on a journey and all you focus on is the destination, it never lives up to your expectations. Enjoy the trip along the way.
I think one of the difficult things is figuring out how to effectively balance my resources for things I want to do in the short term and things I want to do in the long term. Too much of the former and my golden years won’t be so golden, too much of the latter and my prime years won’t be so prime. As one goes through life priorities change, short term needs can affect long term goals. A good plan and discipline, however, can allow one to have their cake and eat it too. Great post Caleb, thanks for giving me something productive to ponder this morning.
The short and long term trade-offs are hard to decide between. I think the most important thing you can do is make sure that both are ALWAYS on your radar.
You can’t neglect either one.
Nice article! I just retweeted it, and very true as well! Unfortunately with what school feeds you, very few people see what is truly possible!
Thanks Sam.
I think the blame could go all over for why this is the case, but going forward people have to look within to figure out what is best for them.
The key is in being open to standing out against what is considered “normal”.
I couldn’t agree more. Like others, it’s taken me a while (and I still find myself slipping up) to “retrain” my thinking away from this mindset. Life until 70, 80, 90 or even 100 years is not guaranteed to all of us. We should make sure we live our precious life in the moment while still holding fast to dreams of beautiful things to come.
I’m in the same situation Lenay. I get into grooves where I think a certain way about how the future will be and when I take a step back I realize there is no way to know.
Love this: “We should make sure we live our precious life in the moment while still holding fast to dreams of beautiful things to come.”
The past two weeks I’ve been really trying to focus on the now and live life slower. Even if nothing big has changed (i.e. still working the job), re-framing my life makes me happier already.
It’s an attitude and an overall focus for your life. You can focus on what you love and are passionate about today! And everyday! Or just “get by” until you don’t have to work any longer. The “working for the weekends” mentality stretched out for 30-40 years! I would rather do what I love every day until I choose not to anymore or decide to change my focus, rather than wishing away life until I can finally quit!
Exactly! I would rather try and fail multiple times at making it on my own then watch the clock M-F for the rest of my life.
Totally agree with this topic Caleb.
However, I think the hardest part for most people (myself included) is finding a business where you can be passionate about life, but still make enough money to support yourself and your family.
Good point Paul. The whole “follow your passion and the money will follow” needs to be taken with a grain of salt sometimes. You need to be creative and actually lay out a plan for how that can happen.
I’ve really been reconsidering the concept of retirement. For one, it might be terrible to say, but we’re not guaranteed that we’re going to be around for our 60s or 70s. And from what I understand, the entire concept of retirement started out of the Great Depression era, so it’s not even something that’s been around forever. I think you have to be smart with your money to keep living the free life that you want to live, but it’s very hard to project 50-60 years from now how much money you’re really going to need to maintain a normal middle class lifestyle.
Instead of saving for retirement, I like this view on life by Hunter S. Thompson: “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
I still think that one day I will want to “retire” and live off of just my investments. I am still saving for retirement pretty heavily (10% 401k + 6% match + $5k into Roth IRA each year) because now is the best time to do it, but I have made the decision that I am not going to settle for 30 or 40 years at jobs that aren’t completely fulfilling to me just to save for someday.
Ah, living for retirement. I’m still baffled at how many people just accept this to be a normal given - to work your ass off until you’re older, and THEN relax, when you’re most likely to be less agile, more frail and generally less ABLE to do a lot of things you can when you’re younger (physically at least). Social conditioning, if you will.
Not saying DON’T work your ass off - just that working your ass off for where you’re at now is a failproof methodology for overall happiness, short AND long-term. Good one, Caleb!
Vivek
Thanks Vivek.
I think that more people need to realize how much of their life they are trading for the money they get.
I’m definitely in the mindset of living life now. I am definitely not interested in working long hours in the same job or field until I’m 65 and then sit at home all day long or even just go traveling.
I want to mix fun with work. I’m not against working hard, but just want to work hard for the right reasons and in a way that allows me to enjoy life.
I wish I realized this right out of college but it’s better now then ten years later when I have kids growing up.
I think that no matter when people realize it, they always wish it would have been sooner. It is just easier to settle and take the path well traveled.
Personally, I think there needs to be a balance between the two. Living your life squirreling away pennies to fund a far-off retirement isn’t ideal, but neither is living completely in the now and blowing the money you’re going to need later on in retirement.
The people in my family tend to live well into their 90s (with varying degrees of financial success and stability), so I’m very aware of the fact that I might need income and savings that’ll last me that long. And I also can’t ignore that these are my prime earning years, and that earning more by working harder now and delaying some gratification, I’ll hopefully be able to avoid going broke later in life, when I may not be able to earn as much.
Not that there aren’t days when I wish I was more “life in the now” focused. Working a day job and running a side business gets tiring, but it helps to know what I’m working towards!
Exactly Sarah. It is all about balance.
It sounds like you know exactly why you are sacrificing a big chunk of your time now for later, though. So many people do it without realizing that there are other ways to live.
Caleb I agree with you man.. I just can’t live my life taking orders and being told how much I can make … I really hope I can escape the corporate world one day.
Work out what you want to spend your life doing and make it be so. No one has the right to tell you otherwise.
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