Author: Latestarterfire

Posted on

What do I want to do Before I retire?

Silhouette of woman with hand on her face | What do I want to do before I retire
Photo by Matteo Vistocco on Unsplash

I’ve been thinking a lot about retirement lately. Surprise, surprise 🙂

You probably think that being a part of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) community automatically implies that retirement is a goal one strives for continuously and is something we think about often anyway.

But there is a more immediate reason. I always dream about retiring when I feel stressed at work. And this time is no exception.

The flu season is upon us and I can’t help but remember what this time was like last year. Without being dramatic about it, it brings up feelings of anxiety and stress.

We were inundated with bookings. Phones were ringing off the hook. We struggled to get enough supply. My colleagues were worried about getting Covid 19, either because they have chronic health conditions themselves or were worried about spreading it to elderly parents. It was left to me to keep the service going. And I did. There really wasn’t any choice.

It may or may not be easier this year. Certainly my colleagues don’t mind helping out this year (I am still obviously alive!). But this year, there is the added complication of Covid 19 vaccinations (a good complication, mind you).

It is advised that the flu and Covid 19 vaccinations be separated by at least 14 days. Mainly because we don’t know if there is any interaction between the two. And if there are any side effects experienced, we’d like to pin them on one or the other. So people need to be extra organised this year – having to organise 3 jabs instead of just the one.

Anyway, things got to a head (literally, inside my head) that I took some unplanned time off work, 13 days in total. Just so that I can have a break before the busy season ahead.

But of course, I don’t know how to relax completely. I made appointments to see my optometrist and GP. Finally got a blood test. Blah blah blah, mundane but important chores that didn’t get done in 2020.

Retirement? No, no no!!!

My eyes were so bad that I needed two appointments with the optometrist. At the second appointment, during a lull while he was setting up some equipment, I innocently asked if he would be retiring anytime soon. He’d been my optometrist for more than 20 years and I was wondering what to do if he were to retire.

Well! His reaction was comical. Why would I want to retire? Why did you ask me today, of all questions? I just received a letter from some corporation asking if I intend to sell my practice and retire soon. What would I do in retirement? I’d have to see my wife 24/7 – she’d have so many jobs for me to do around the house and garden. No, no, no, definitely do not want to retire. I would want to work a few days at the very least.

I replied, knowing he loves to travel – don’t you want to travel to somewhere that you can stay longer than two weeks or a month? Say, stay for 3 months and explore in a more leisurely manner?

His eyes lit up. Hang on, he says. He left the room and came back with his iPad. Here, let me show you some photos of when I was in the Serengeti a few years ago. I would absolutely love to stay for 3 months here.

And the photos were gorgeous … he was on a trip that followed the migration of wildbeests – every night, they stayed in 5 star accommodations and by day, they followed the animals.

Going to Africa on a safari to see these animals in their habitat was on my to-do list for retirement too. So this was handy – more info to file away to that part of the brain that deals with future retirement.

A herd of wildbeests crossing a river
Image by Les Bohlen from Pixabay

Retirement? Yes, yes, yes!!!

Immediately after this discussion, I was off to visit Frogdancer Jones in her Best House in Melbourne. We’d only met in person once, in 2019 at the Playing with Fire documentary in Camberwell.

And since I’d basically asked to tag along on her Antarctica trip, I thought it’d be a good idea to get to know one another in person.

We got along like a house on fire and didn’t sop talking for hours. Phew! I think we’ll be fine in a cabin on a boat to and from Antarctica 🙂

What really struck me was the stark contrast between my optometrist’s abject horror at the thought of retirement and FDJ’s obvious delight at being newly retired.

She was rested, napping whenever she wanted and has read 20+ books (it’s only March!), discovered new programs to watch on Netflix and Stan, renovated her en suite ….

She generously fed me delicious gnocchi made from home grown potatoes in a tomato and basil sauce – yes, all grown from the back garden.

And sent me home with 2 gigantic zucchini from the front garden, some lazy housewife beans, lime verbena leaves for a refreshing tea and a bar of hand made soap.

Reading her blog posts always inspire me. Face to face conversation with FDJ was even better! I went home, inspired by her effortless generosity and exuberance. I cannot wait to be retired myself!

2 giant zucchini
Frogdancer Jones' gigantic zucchini

And there was more ... on retirement ...

In the same week, FIRE Your Own Way asked on Twitter – What is the first thing you’d do when you retire?

My reply – NO MORE ALARM CLOCKS – and no routines … read for as long as I want, sleep/nap often …

So yes, it seems that I have been thinking a lot lately about retiring and what I’d do when I retire. Most of all, I am looking forward to having my own routines for me, not because I have to be in my best form for work.

And now ... the conundrum ...

As part of my GP visit, I mentioned about how stressed I feel thinking about the upcoming busy season at work. We discussed the benefits that I may gain from talking to a professional psychologist.

So off I went …

At my second appointment with the psychologist, I unloaded about how unproductive I feel at home, after work even though I had made progress from the first appointment. I had accomplished little chores each night and practised self care by reading (I love my new reading glasses!). She asked about my passion and I told her about the blog and wanting to retire at 55.

Her comment was … hmmm … what do you want to do BEFORE you retire?

I was flummoxed. Ummm … what do you mean, BEFORE I retire? In my head, I was thinking … working obviously, I have to work until I retire, duh!

She replied – based on how you are feeling now, despite having a full time job and a blog on the side, you still feel unproductive. How will you feel when you don’t have a full time job? Will you feel unproductive?

You obviously have a financial plan to take you to retirement. Instead of thinking about what you want to do when you retire, how about thinking about what you want to do before you retire? Let’s transition you towards this retirement.

No joke. This question has kept me awake. It is 2.59am and I cannot go back to sleep. 

My constant struggle with productivity

I think I have an issue with allowing myself to relax. I always feel guilty that I am not more productive. Without meaning to, I am always comparing myself to others’ prodigious productivity.

I tell myself – you don’t have any excuses not to be productive. You don’t have to cook and clean and take care of a family in addition to working full time. What’s your problem?

Four people I’ve spoken to about this in recent weeks have all said the same thing to me – You are so hard on yourself. But am I, really?

Do I just have high expectations of myself? I don’t know. Perhaps. What I know is that when I don’t fulfill those expectations, I feel defeated. Then I procrastinate and am paralysed and don’t do anything. Arghhh … why do I do this to myself?

I get the psychologist’s concern. If I always feel unproductive now, then how will I feel when I am well and truly retired? While I may spend the first few months being blissfully happy with no routines, staying up late reading and when I’ve travelled to my heart’s content, what then?

Are you READY to TAKE ACTION today?

🔥 practical tips & strategies

🔥 step by step guide

🔥 cut the overwhelm, second guessing & paralysis by analysis

I WANT THE ACTION PLAN

So what do I want to do before I retire?

Perhaps I should reframe the question as – what can I do now instead of waiting for retirement?

I want to work on my fitness and weight loss goals now. There is no point arriving at retirement with a body that can’t enjoy some vigorous activity, especially while travelling. Since I live a fairly sedentary lifestyle now, I will need to up my game by increasing time spent outdoors. Losing 10kg is one of my 2021 goals – I am pleased to report that I have made a start on this and lost 2kg so far.

I’m loving growing my own vegetables – I have so much to learn and would love to expand into growing dwarf fruit trees and maybe venture into beekeeping … I’d love to be self sufficient by the time I retire and have thriving food gardens.

Building and maintaining relationships – this suffered to a certain extent in 2020. There were of course, a lot less get togethers due to Covid lockdowns. But as a result, I am not as enthusiastic as I once was for organising meet ups with friends. But as more of us are vaccinated, hopefully my enthusiasm will be rekindled. Regardless, I have to work on this more.

Building and maintaining this blog. It breaks my heart when I read someone posting in Facebook groups about how late they think they are at starting saving and investing for retirement. I want to shout – no, start today, it is not too late. So I want to continue sharing my story and other late starters’ stories. Yes, I will have more time to work on it when I’m not also working full time but I can devote what I can to it now. Instead of feeling frustrated that sometimes I am just too tired to work on it. And that I am not being consistent. Blah blah blah.

I would also like to explore some volunteering before I retire instead of waiting till retirement. Right now, I contribute money to various charities and causes. But I’d like to contribute my time too, eventually.

Hopefully, doing all these before I retire will lead me to find some purpose and still feel productive when I do eventually retire in 6 years.

Final thoughts

I don’t want to arrive at retirement with only a financial plan in place. 

Right now, I long for retirement as a means to escape the stresses of full time work. I yearn for time to do my own thing and for slow travel and perhaps to tick things off my bucket list before the threat of dementia descends.

But really, I need to start exploring now and think about what I can currently be doing to live life to the fullest, instead of dreaming about what I’d do in retirement.

How about you? What do you want to do before you retire?

Posted on

Finances after 40

This is the last year of my 40s … yikes!

Two years ago, I wrote a guest post for The 76k Project for her Finances after 40 series – an interview series for women in their 40s, discussing what they’ve learned and what they would’ve done differently now that they are in their 40s.

76k has moved on to an exciting new project – Financial Superstar where she will encourage and support you on your journey to be a financial superstar. I have her permission to publish my guest post here.

It’s kinda fitting as I leave my forties behind?

 

Disclosure: Please note that I may benefit from purchases made through my affiliate links below, at no cost to you

Sunset in Mauritius - I'm looking forward to more of these when I retire - a girl can dream, right?

Waking Up to an Epiphany

I dreaded my 47th birthday – I don’t know why, precisely. Just that I woke up one day, really stressed and anxious that I would be retiring with not ‘enough’. At this stage, I did not know what my ‘enough’ was or when I could possibly retire.

I panicked merely at the thought of retirement being on my horizon. After all, retirement was for the oldies, not me. What would I do in retirement? What if I hadn’t saved enough for retirement? How do I know how much I would need after I retired, to sustain me for the rest of my life?

Coincidentally, ABC TV was advertising a new podcast about personal finance aimed at women, hosted by comedian Claire Hooper. As I quite liked Claire Hooper as a comedian, I started listening. It was fun and hilarious and I felt hey, this personal finance thing wasn’t that hard or intimidating after all.

Then I was introduced to my first personal finance book, The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape, a phenomenally popular personal finance guru who has been described as having a cult following. From him, I learned about investing in low cost Listed Investment Companies (LICs) and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

While googling “how to calculate how much I need in retirement”, I stumbled across the FIRE community and discovered there were people who retired in their 30s – I mean, wow! Here I am, panicking about retiring at 65 …

As I read more and more blogs and listened to podcasts, I wondered if I too could achieve FIRE even though I was such a late starter. I decided to try anyway.

I must admit, I do feel old in this space of young 20s and 30s who are crushing it with frugality, minimalism and living with intention on their relentless journeys to FI. It is one of the reasons I started blogging – I want to add an ‘older’ voice to the mix as someone who discovered FIRE later in life. Many of the bloggers and podcasters in their 40s have already reached FIRE – that was how it came across to me, anyway.

(Edit: I have since come across many late starters like me and am grateful that many of them have shared their stories in my Late Starter to FI series)
getting started checklist

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Use this FREE Checklist to start your journey to Financial Independence

DOWNLOAD NOW

Looking Back ... My Twenties

I spent my twenties and thirties working very hard – lots of long hours – 12 or more hour days, 60 hour weeks or more, earning a decent wage as a health professional. I never earned six figures but was privileged to have a company car to use. This benefit alone has saved me thousands of dollars in petrol, insurance and registration fees over the years.

My only financial goal was to save enough to put down a deposit for a house. Owning a house was every Australian’s dream – maybe it still is, but stratospheric property prices have made it very difficult for today’s 20-somethings. My parents, especially my Mum, had also drummed that into me: owning your house provides you with security. So I saved for this deposit.

In the meantime, I also spent lots of money. Even back then, property prices were increasing rapidly. I would be discouraged by what I could afford and after so many open house inspections and missing out at auctions, I would decide to go on a holiday instead – to New Zealand, China, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, the Whitsundays …

I was and am still not very good at delayed gratification. (Edit: I am much better at it two years later!)

My Thirties

Eventually, I saved enough to buy a townhouse in my early 30s and put down a 40% deposit. My mortgage was very manageable and I had no other debt. My salary was deposited directly into my loan account. And as long as I was ahead in my repayments, I could withdraw the extra payments whenever I needed it.

My parents taught me to be debt averse, to never borrow money for depreciating assets such as a car. They nagged me to pay off my mortgage quickly. But I was also seduced by the conventional wisdom that everyone has debt these days, and that it is perfectly acceptable to enjoy yourself while paying off a mortgage. After all, one has to live.

 

So I continued to go on holidays – to Italy, France, London, the US. And I proceeded to fill my house with stuff – I loved buying things ‘for the house’. I enrolled in short courses – baking and cake decorating, mainly.
 
The biggest mistake I made then was to stop making extra contributions to my superannuation, my retirement account. My employer continued to make their compulsory contributions. I was content now as I had achieved my goal of owning a house (even though I still owed the bank at this stage).
 
(Edit: You can read more on  My Money Mistakes)
Sunset at Hamilton island; pier boats palm tree leaves
Sunset on Hamilton Island, Australian Whitsundays

My Forties

In my early forties, an opportunity came up to part own a business – I took it. I still worked part time in the original business. Financially, it was a mistake. I used the equity I’d built up in my house. It was tough – we did not make any money. But I learned that I could live with a lot less and still survive. After 3 years or so, I walked away from the business and returned to my previous full time role.

I’ve since paid off my mortgage completely and can really say I own my home. This is probably my biggest financial achievement. It was such a weight off my shoulders. I know there are great debates in the FIRE community about whether to own or rent. For me, the security that comes with a paid off home is priceless. No one can kick me out of this house. I will always have a roof over my head.

Being single also plays a big part in me wanting to be financially secure. There is no backup plan – I am it. I cannot rely on anyone else. At times, this is scary. Especially as I age.

In your forties, retirement is looming whether you like it or not, whether you are prepared for it or not. Health care and aged care are potentially two big unpredictable upcoming expenses. In Australia, the health care system is very good (particularly if you compare it with the US, sorry!) but I would still buy private health insurance for peace of mind. I do not want to depend solely on the public system and be at the mercy of waiting lists for surgery.

Aged care is another matter. The federal government funds part of the cost but as yet, I do not understand how it works fully. The standards of living arrangements differ greatly, with some new facilities looking like 5 star hotels while others are run down and dilapidated. I would like to be able to choose a level of care that I am comfortable with, not be forced to live in a run down facility that smells of urine.(Edit: I wrote about this in Will My Money Last Till I Die?)

Additionally, there is dementia in my family so at the back of my mind, I wonder if I too will be susceptible to the disease. If dementia is in my future, then I need to make doubly sure that at the very least, my finances are in order and that I will not be a burden on anyone.

Are you READY to TAKE ACTION today?

🔥 practical tips & strategies

🔥 step by step guide

🔥 cut the overwhelm, second guessing & paralysis by analysis

I WANT THE ACTION PLAN

Advice for Other Women

I drifted through life, particularly after I bought my house. So my advice is don’t drift! Pay attention to your life, your finances, your relationships, your work. Stay engaged.

Looking back with perfect hindsight, I should have continued to salary sacrifice into my superannuation. That would have boosted my retirement savings. I weep now to think of the opportunity costs with compound interest.

As I did not care or think about my finances then, I certainly never cared about what sort of investment vehicle my superannuation was in. Even though it was my money, it didn’t feel like it. Because I wouldn’t be able to touch it till I turned 60 – and hey, that is decades away. I still have time to worry about such boring things.

I should have chosen the high growth option and be 100% invested in equities. Instead I just left it in the default balanced option. Ah, another lost opportunity.

So my advice to young people in your 20s and 30s is to think about retirement, whether or not you want to retire early. Keep chipping away and save towards that retirement – contribute towards whatever retirement accounts you have at your disposal. Let compound interest do the hard work. You won’t then wake up in a cold sweat at 47 years old wondering if you have saved enough to retire at 65.

iron fence sunset San Sebastian
Sorry, more of my obsession with sunsets - this is in San Sebastian

Looking Forward

Strangely, taking action to sort out my finances after discovering FIRE in my late forties has led me to question how I live my life and where I would like my future to be heading.

This is totally unexpected. But it makes perfect sense. Why else would you agonise over ways to increase savings rate, frugality, side hustles, living with less crap if you don’t know how you want to use that money?

I have always been a workaholic – work always came first. I am not overly ambitious but I do want to do a good job and be good at my job.

However, the stress is now getting to me. I honestly don’t know if age is an issue or that I’ve come to my limits after years of working in a demanding job. Or perhaps I am less resilient because I now yearn to retire. And I’m sick of being time poor – coming home mentally and physically drained every night. (Edit: I have transitioned to a less stressful role)

So I am learning to live with intention and carve some time out of my day/week to think about what I want out of life and dream a little.

This is the decade where I realise there is no dress rehearsal for life. This is it.

It goes without saying, that it has been a huge learning curve since discovering the FIRE movement. It’s not just the numbers and how to nuts and bolts of the various strategies. That is the ‘easy’ part for me – automating savings and investments then leaving time to do its thing … (Mind you, there is a lot of anxious calculation and recalculation!)

The hard part is having the courage to live the life I want to live (and find out what that is!) This is where the FIRE community is really brilliant – there are so many inspiring people living lives that inspire me and that I am continuously learning from. I am looking forward to the future now, not with trepidation and fear, but with enthusiasm and zest.

Retirement, here I come!

Final Thoughts

When I wrote this post, my retirement plan was still a jumble of figures and what ifs and maybes. Since then, I have a more concrete plan to retire at 55.

I can’t help but reflect on how anxious I was then, compared to how I feel now, nearly 3 years down the FI path.

And the last thing I want to say is that despite starting late on the FI journey, it is possible to make incredible progress, just by taking action consistently along the way.

I’m so looking forward to more sunsets in exotic locations 🙂

How did your finances change in your 40s compared to your 20s and 30s? Do you regret anything?

Where can I send your
Monthly FIRE Goals Plan?

By signing up, you’ll also be added to my newsletter

You can unsubscribe any time, I promise.