You may recall that Retirement Interview 37 featured Billy and Akaisha from Retire Early Lifestyle.
Many ESI Money readers had a very positive reaction to that interview — as they should have. Billy and Akaisha are a couple of the OGs from retiring early and have lived the lifestyle for over 30 years!
So when they told me that they just updated their book, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement, I knew I wanted to share some of it with you.
I asked and they granted me permission to share the two excerpts below.
I selected these as I thought ESI Money readers would be especially interested in them.
The first one is very short and simply gives some worthwhile thoughts on what to ask yourself about your potential FIRE journey.
Here it is…
—————————
If You Want to Move Forward into FIRE – Important Questions to Ask Yourself
Below are some questions to ask yourself as you consider leaving the working world and a familiar routine. Take your time finding the answers. This reflection will be worth it as you move forward to a new life expression. And it will help you smooth out some bumps along the way.
- Would you like a different focus to your days? Or find a new perspective on Life?
- Are you willing to stand out just a bit from the norm?
- Do you like to be in charge of the direction of your life?
- Do you have a hobby you want to advance or an itch to volunteer?
- Would you like to pursue an academic subject or further a spiritual quest?
- Do you want more adventure to your days?
- Do you want to own your future instead of committing it to a job you dislike?
As always, these are personal decisions, and only you can answer these questions. But if you have a hankering to do something different, or have an internal drive that wants expression, Early Retirement could be right for you. Remember you will be retiring from your line of work, not from life.
You can get out of the comfort zone of your job, leave the perceived safety of your current lifestyle, and choose a future full of adventure and new opportunities more in tune with who you are.
We can tell you that we didn’t put our brain on autopilot nor did we let our talents and skills go to waste. We never expected nor did we plan to “coast for the rest of our lives.” But these were some of the fears expressed to us from others who were afraid to consider Early Retirement as their feasible plan.
More Important Questions
We encourage you to try FIRE on for size with the following questions. Your answers to them can help you decide if you are truly a candidate for this unique approach to living your life. There are no right or wrong answers. The important thing is to find your answers:
- Are you involved in your life or merely fulfilling other people’s expectations?
- Are you trapped by the money and benefits you earn and the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed?
- Are you living without passion and zest because it’s secure or easy to go along?
- Do you feel you are betraying yourself and your talents?
- How much of your life are you doing because you love it and are excited by it?
- Why would you want to retire from your 9-5 job?
- What if, instead of calling this “retirement” you called it “Financial Independence”?
- Would that give you more mental room? Would that feel more creative and freeing?
- If you had to describe yourself without using your career, or what you do for a living or your paycheck as the answer – what would you say?
- Besides providing an income, what else does your job provide for you? How can you replace those things in your life after you leave your job or career?
- How do you plan to keep productive, or give you a sense of purpose?
- Can you entertain yourself?
- What will you do with your time if all your current friends are still holding down fulltime jobs?
- What is your plan to stay connected to society, once your job is no longer the center of your life?
- Do you and your spouse enjoy each other’s company?
- Do you have similar interests?
- Do you both want to pursue Early Retirement/Financial Independence? Or are you in this alone?
—————————
Some really good stuff IMO!
The biggest impediment in retiring early for many people is simply fear of the unknown. They don’t know what it will be like, if they have enough saved, and on and on.
Considering and thinking through these questions will go a long way to helping many people feel more comfortable with a high-value decision that few have much experience with.
BTW, this is why I do retirement interviews here — they help demystify an unknown activity that strikes fear in the hearts of many (they talk more about this below). If you would like to share your retirement story, please contact me as every story helps people to get more and more comfortable with retirement.
Now we move on to the larger excerpt of the two.
This is from Chapter 5 of the book and talks about the two paths to FIRE as follows…
—————————
As the years have gone by, we have received many questions about FIRE. We’ve spoken to those who wish to retire early, and to those who have already done so.
What has emerged as a theme, is that there are two paths to FIRE: the monetary, measurable path — and the emotional, immeasurable path.
Let us explain.
Physical and Measurable
It’s obvious that to retire early, you have to have the money.
You must track your spending, find out where your money is going and what you spend annually to live the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed. Take that annual spending figure and multiply it by 25 as the experts have recommended, and then the resulting number is the amount you must have in invested, liquid assets.
To make reaching that number easier, you can simplify your personal infrastructure, cut back on spending, invest wisely, and join your company’s matched retirement plans. If you are younger, you have time on your side to begin making a money machine.
After retirement, there’s the 4% safe withdrawal rate, and perhaps some geographical arbitrage to keep housing expenses down. Then there’s Social Security, Medicare, personal wills and trusts.
This is a very formulaic, very mechanical approach to achieving the numbers and protecting your assets.
Many of the people we have spoken to, say this is the easy part. Just follow the tried-and-true blueprint.
Then… there’s the other path. The one that can often blow you out of the early retirement water.
Emotional and Immeasurable
In the early days of our retirement, no one spoke of this side of the equation to gaining your financially independent dream life.
In fact, this secret torpedo-to-your-plans was often omitted in constructing this life-changing event.
Today, we see articles here and there about the emotional component of early retirement, but most of the financial planners that you pay to see don’t speak of it. That’s because it can’t be measured, there is no one-size-fits-all, and everyone has different desires and challenges when it comes to their emotional involvements.
How do we communicate to our families that we want something different out of life?
If we’ve been the fiscal cushion for our children (and perhaps now, grandchildren), to what extent do we modify that in order to gain more mobility or freedom? Do we maintain a household because we have pets? Do we keep a five-bedroom home just in case the kids want to visit? If we do end up selling the family dwelling, where will we celebrate the holidays? And how much care will our aging parents need?
Questions about balancing our responsibilities with the desire for a different life can set us back on our heels. It can be disorienting to find a way to be productively engaged and develop a new identity — one not defined by our careers. Some people are not prepared for this change.
Service opportunities, civic involvement, or pursuing a lifelong passion can offer us new ways of relating to the world, but sometimes the waters can be choppy.
If you want to ensure a successful early retirement, the sentimental and psychological side must be dealt with, or it will rear its ugly head and take you down.
Some Examples
We have always said that to retire early is simple, but it’s not always easy. We believe anyone can do it, but one must be committed. If you are married, then your partner must be on the same financial and goal-oriented page as you are.
Spender vs. Saver
If your spouse is a spender by nature and you are a saver, then there will be trouble in paradise reaching your set goals.
If there can be no meeting of the minds, there can be divorce, or the dream of early retirement will be shelved. Someone in the partnership suffers.
Different Retirement Goals
If your spouse thinks leaving the job is fabulous, but they want to replace the job with activities like being on a city or business board, have a life filled with volunteer work, growing a garden or taking continuing education classes at your local university, that retirement dream could pose a compromise to you. Especially if your idea of financial freedom is travel, simplifying your housing to save money, becoming a snowbird or an expat.
These are very real situations, and just goes to show you that there will be issues to resolve between you. Not impossible, but these things need to be talked out before you make the retirement leap.
Both people have a right to their retirement dreams.
Peer Pressure and Status in Society
And then there’s the issue of peer pressure and status in the community.
Let’s face it.
One’s career can give us a certain kind of standing in the community from which we derive all sorts of benefits and pleasures.
One man told us that it didn’t matter, that his freedom was more important. But then as he settled into FIRE, he realized how much he took his executive first class flights for granted.
And his secretary’s ability to plan his trips and lodging on the company’s tab was also overlooked.
These days, no one calls him to solve problems at his company, and his flights were in the “common cabin” which affected him psychologically. He was surprised at this discovery!
Hey. It happens. Welcome to the other side of life.
Depending on your particular retirement plan, getting a new car every few years, upgrading one’s entertainment system, vacationing in 5-star resorts could all be pushed to the back. No one will defer to you on the sidewalk like they did at the office. Yes, you have become FREE! But to others you just look “ordinary.” No job titles are worn when you jog at the community park.
There is No Speedy Way to Wade Through
The emotional path of FIRE has to do with intangibles. It concerns values that roll around in your mind and heart that you might not even know you had.
While the emotional side of your life cannot be easily calculated nor standardized for everyone, it’s a huge part of your personal happiness.
Finding out how much money is enough is essential to your future. However, if you don’t respect the matters of the heart for your retirement future, you may unnecessarily find yourself in choppy emotional waters. It is important for you to learn who you are without your job title, before embarking on your new adventure. Like an actor that has been typecast, now is the time to reinvent yourself.
The New Retirement – Financial Independence
These days people are healthier and more educated, active, and diverse in interests than preceding generations. We also have more opportunities to contribute and connect with others.
For instance, getting involved with Meet Up groups is a fun way to be linked with others who share our views. Or you could join an Expat forum, pursue a travel group, a hobby group, or a financial club. These are places to meet people who can help simplify or define the kind of future we want to live and help us to develop practical plans of action to get there.
Exchanging ideas with those addressing the same issues can open us up to a new future.
Take Action
The point is to view this time of your lives as an asset. It’s a new chapter, and a new beginning. Why not reinvent yourself?
It isn’t the winding down of your value, it’s a new episode in your personal story. Dream, discover, and plan for the years ahead in this truly exciting time of life.
Here are some suggestions on what you can do:
- Make a list of all the things you want to learn, places you want to visit, and hobbies you want to pursue using your newfound freedom.
- Enumerate your strengths. How can you be productive and contribute to the world or your neighborhood going forward?
- Have fun imagining future possibilities with the help of your spouse and other family members, if they are affected. Do you know how to entertain yourself? Or do you prefer more structure?
- Speak with others farther along the retirement path and check community associations for ideas, throwing all potential choices into the ring for consideration.
- Explore your options. Try on different hats. Replace the emotion of fear with a sense of fun and adventure. Woo-hoo!
It’s not always achieving the “magic number” that creates a satisfying retirement. There is a lot more to the equation than finance.
—————————
One great option is to test drive retirement if you can.
Take a month off and see how you like it. Or 3 months if you can — even better.
Also think through what retirement activities you think you’ll take advantage of. If you have a very short list of possibilities, that’s a red flag that retirement may not be for you — until you develop some options you’ll be interested in.
If you liked what you read above, get your copy of Billy and Akaisha’s book, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement.
K D says
Excellent post. The excerpt from chapter 5 was spot on in discussing the non-financial aspects of FIRE (applicable to all retirements). Thank you for sharing.
Akaisha Kaderli says
Hi KD,
Happy the information was useful to you! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Nancy Chu-Meyers says
Hi, I wanted to let you know that I ordered this ebook for $17.95 and the email sent to download the file failed to download. I’ve reached out to the authors, but you may not want to continue to promote this book, as your other readers may also have difficulty actually getting the ebook.
Nancy Chu-Meyers says
Well, I was able to finally get a pdf copy of the ebook. So folks should be prepared for a few trys to get it downloaded. Be sure to respond timely to the failed downloads, as the authors are traveling and there may be delays in their reponse.
Akaisha Kaderli says
Hi Nancy,
We are happy that you “finally” received your pdf. Just to bring some realism to this situation, from the time we first processed your order to the time you received the working link was an hour and 10 minutes.
True, we have been on the road. True, initially we mistakenly gave you a non-functioning link and we apologized.
Practically speaking buyers of our books can expect professional, personal and respectful treatment.
We wish you success on your road to FIRE and if you have any questions about the topics in our book, feel free to write.
Best Regards,
Akaisha and Billy Kaderli
Akaisha Kaderli says
We have just arrived at our beach location after having been on the road for 2 months continuously, processed Nancy’s order and made a mistake with her download link. When we received her email regarding the failed link, we immediately responded with this note below. She has the new link to our book at this time.
We always make things right with our Readers, and we ask for a bit of patience.
Thanks,
Akaisha and Billy
Hi Nancy.
We apologize.
We have been on the road continuously for almost 2 months and are a bit jet lagged. No excuse but we wanted to apologize.
We will send you your proper link ASAP.
Thank you for your patience. It should be in your email box shortly.
Thanks for your interest in our books.
Best Regards,
Akaisha and Billy