Arrived at financial independence, but what does that mean? Retiring early becomes an option, but to do what? What will early retired life look like, what will we do?
Not finding answers to these questions will stop many people from making the decision to retire early and send others who did retire early back to work.
My first three years of early retirement have gone well, I’ve been busy and I’ve not been bored. I have plans through to the end of this year, but no clear view of what I’ll do after that. I don’t want to drift through life, so I’m back to asking myself what will the next phase of retired early life look like, what will I do?
Being part of a couple plays a big part - the decisions have to work for Sally as well, and I suspect we aren’t going to be on the same page, maybe not even in the same book, which makes things more difficult.
This post is real life me trying to get to grips with real life what next in early retirement. It's also me trying to explain my thoughts to Sally. I suspect you'll laugh at how daft my thoughts are, but perhaps that shows how difficult the subject can be. But at least I'm making a start, and if these are the things that are to be difficult in my life, then surely life must be pretty good.
Setting the scene - where am I coming from?
From ages 18 to 47 I worked in finance. I started at the bottom as an accounts clerk, worked hard, and did enough right to end up as a finance director. Accounting has a reputation for being boring, but I mostly enjoyed it, with the exception of the final few years.
Work took us away from home for 18 of the past 25 years - we lived in Jamaica, Hong Kong, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Currently we’re in France. This slightly nomadic lifestyle means that “home” isn’t as defined for me as it is for most people.
Early retirement started in July 2016, but I slipped into part time consultancy for a further 6 months. I hated it - the reasons for initially quitting were still there, plus it stopped me getting on with the next phase of my life. I started full time early retirement on 31 December 2016.
I turned 50 in May😫. On the plus side, I’m active, healthy, fit, and 50 isn’t old. But it still felt like a big deal. If the next 10 or 20 years fly by as quickly as the last 20 years, I’ll be 60 or 70 before I know it. If I don’t do things now, will I have the ability, energy and desire to do them when I’m 60 or 70?
What I don’t want to do
It feels easier to say what I don’t want to do than what I do want to do, so this is where I’ll start. Writing these things down shows what my drivers are.
I don’t want to be tied down. I like the flexibility I’ve found with FIRE life.
I don’t want to work for a big corporate. I won’t go into the whys here, but corporate life has zero interest for me now.
I don’t want to be too cautious – that’s a trait for my old accountancy life. Now I want to live life more, to try new and different things.
I don’t want to be boring and I don’t want to look back in the years to come and say I wish I’d tried more, and different, things.
I don’t want to be lazy and I’m not looking for an easy life. I want to challenge myself, to push against my comfort zones, even if it feels a bit scary to do so.
What do I want to do?
Now the difficult part, because I know I don’t have a proper answer. But I do know that I have to start somewhere.
Travel. It sounds so predictable, something loads of FIRE people say. But three years ago, a round the world trip was part of my original plan, and it's still in my head. My original plan was:
4 months in Asia and Australia. Done✔
3 months in France, taking possession of our apartment in the Alps. Done✔ but after 8 months we're still here.
5 months in Africa and, maybe, South America. Not done❌
A year travelling through North America in a camper. Not done❌ although I always thought this would be done a little later
Travel in Europe would be done in smaller bite size chunks from a settled base. Not done❌ although this was another one for later.
I still want to convert the not done❌ items to done✔
Fitness. This is more a normal daily life item than a big aim item, but it’s something that I want to maintain in my normal daily life.
I want to continue with my blog.
If it were just me, this is what my next phase plan would look like
Part 1:
In spring or early summer 2020 I would go to Canada, buy a van and spend the summer/autumn converting it into a camper.
Return to our apartment in the French Alps for winter 2020/21.
In spring 2021, start travelling through Canada and the USA for about a year, heading south with the weather.
Part 2:
Assuming we do a good job converting the van into a camper, could we do conversions for onward sale?
Perhaps 2-3 months per van conversion, timing to suit ourselves, and only one or two a year, allowing plenty of flexibility and time for other things.
Part 3:
Over time, complete the round the world trip i.e. Africa, South America and Europe. That doesn’t mean every country, not even the majority, but enough to feel the excitement, adventure and trepidation of travel.
Part 4:
Continue with my blog. It takes more time that it probably should, but I enjoy it. I treat it like an unpaid part time job that I want to do.
Continue with my fitness activities, particularly running. I want to get back to the stage where I’m running at a level that I’m happy with.
Part 5:
Enjoy spending time in our French Alps apartment from time to time.
Combining these things together would be a life of flexibility, travel (experiences), fun work, blogging, fitness, home and family. It feels like the nucleus of a contented life.
What do I think Sally wants to do?
I’ve deliberately ignored this until now because it’s important for us to each say what is really in our minds.
I’m sure her list is going to be different to mine, which won’t make it easy. It’s best if she tells me herself, but here’s what I think based on what she’s said before:
She’s not done with teaching, and I believe she prefers a school classroom situation.
Recently she’s mentioned tutoring, I guess either from home or in the homes of the kids. I’m not sure if this is what she really wants or whether she’s trying to come up with a compromise that she thinks might suit what I want.
At some time, she wants to do a house renovation. Buy it cheap, do it up, and sell for a profit.
Potential problems with my plans
I suspect Sally won’t be very interested in most of my ideas – that’s quite a significant problem🤣
I’m hopeless at DIY, so the van conversion idea is going to be a challenge, although perhaps I can become less useless. Sally is good at DIY, so if she were interested then it’s something we could do together.
How sure am I that the things on my list are really what I want to do? Truthfully, I’m not certain – there is definitely a feeling that I am still searching for the right thing(s). Maybe one of my ideas is it, or will lead to it, but I really don’t know.
The risk is that I’m writing down crazy ideas rather than more permanent solutions. For example, is van life just an Instagram driven fad rather than something I really want to do? Possibly, but maybe that’s the benefit of my FIRE life, I can take the chance.
Many of these still feel temporary but perhaps they could lead to a more sustainable situation. If they don’t, I’ll put my thinking cap on again and see what other ideas I can come up with.
Next steps
Now it’s Sally’s turn to come up with her wants, dreams and plans to see if there is a common answer that works for us both, and gives structure to my next stage of early retirement.
If we have different ideas, we'll need to look for areas of overlap that we can develop. Or perhaps we'll have two different lists of ideas that will be difficult to reconcile – I suspect this is where we’ll be.
But even if this is the case, at least we will know each other’s thoughts and can then try to find the best answer for us, difficult as that might be.
There is also the deal that I made with Sally when we left Dubai. She agreed to a career break so that we could do "my" round the world trip. Although we didn’t travel as much as planned, that deal still stands so if Sally wants to return to teaching in 2020 then that’s what we’ll do.
Reflection
Figuring out the next stage of my early retired life isn’t easy. Maybe my ideas are a bit stupid, daft and temporary? Perhaps I'm rebelling against the "normal" life that I've lead to date? Maybe I'm hoping that Sally comes up with a better idea, or perhaps I'm secretly hoping she jumps on board the crazy train too. Whichever it is, FIRE has given me the time and a reasonable level of finances to consider daft ideas and, if we decide, give some of them a go.
I feel I may have hit on an outline of what I'm looking for: a life of flexibility, travel (experiences), fun work, blogging, fitness, home and family. My ideas may need some more work, but the structure may be sound.
Even with the challenges of figuring out "what next", I like my FIRE life, and I have no intention of returning to the corporate world. But at the same time, not knowing the next steps of my FIRE journey is unsettling. Sometimes, having choices can be harder than not having choices.
Before we tackle the decisions, it’s over to Sally to see what her ideas and priorities are, and to see if this makes the process easier or more difficult - my money is on more difficult. Oh well, as I believe someone said, the best things in life don't come easily. I’ll let you know what we figure out.