Last month I turned 31 and while some friends and I were getting a coffee I was asked a simple question:

How does feel to be 31?

I thought about this for only a second when I replied:

The same except I might be a little happy being a year closer to retirement.

What a strange response that is! I began to wonder if I’m obsessing over retirement too much. I needed to take a few moments to reflect. How does one make sure that they enjoy this phase of their life and not just rushing through it to get to the next phase?

Know Your Retirement Goals

First you need to take a moment and think about about what you want out of retirement. Theses are the things that you want to enjoy doing in retirement. This is the my list:

1. Spend at least 3 months a year traveling
2. Live abroad (I really want to live in France)
3. Learn different languages
4. Pursue all of my hobby interests from athletics to cuisine

Get A Taste Of Retirement Now

Look at your life and see what you are doing now that ties into your retirement goals. Are getting a taste of the things you want to do in retirement now? Looking at my goals this is what I came up with:

1. My wife and I don’t spend months traveling but we do get around. We like to alternate years of travel. Some years we take trips that cost a bit more like Europe and on alternate years we take 4 days trips to places like Chicago
2. We aren’t in a position to move abroad right now but I am looking into getting my EU passport just in case an employment opportunity comes up or for when we do move to France when we retire
3. I try and speak french with my wife once a week. Its a slow process but its a start
4. Right now I’m taking Muay Thai and I frequent different restaurants with varying prices ranges and menus

Goal or Obsession?

Look at you life. Ask yourself are you doing things you enjoy now or are you waiting for retirement? If you are exclusively waiting for retirement then you may be obsessed.  Take a moment to breathe and look around your community. I’m sure you’ll find something going on which will give you that taste of the things you are hoping to do in retirement.

For me, when I look at the things I do now and the things I want to do in retirement I realized that I wasn’t obsessed.  I am doing exactly what I enjoy now and my desire to retire stems from my eagerness to do even more of the things I enjoy.

I want to hear from you:
Do you have a list of things you want to do when you retire? What are you doing now that gives you a “taste” of retirement?

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Setting ones 55th birthday as the day they achieve financial independence isn’t exactly exciting and frankly I’m fine with that. You have to ask yourself several 4 questions when choosing a life-altering event like your Findependence Day:

Am I content with what I’m doing and can I continue to do it for X amount of years?

I didn’t want to use the word happy because quite frankly, most people don’t have the luxury of doing something that truly makes them happy. People are tied to jobs because they have financial obligations, spent a fortune on an education, or just have a plain old fear of the unknown. However you do need to be content with what you are doing. There is no way you’ll be able to work effectively in an industry/field for 20 plus years if you’re not at least content with your job. The key here is to be able to recognize that even though you’re not happy, you are content. I wish I could give definitive parameters to determine if you are content with your job but that’s something each individual person will have to decided. However, I think it’s safe to say if you only consider quitting your job once a month then you’re probably content but you’re not happy.

Is it feasible?

Saying you’ll retire when you have a million dollars in the bank is fine, but is it feasible? If you make minimum wage or live month-to-month off your credit cards then it’s going to be extremely difficult to make it happen. You have to develop realistic plan with practical numbers, set sensible goals, and then have the determination to put it into action.

What will I do when I reach financial independence?

You don’t need to know exactly what you’ll be doing during your first retirement when you set your financial independence day but the more time you give yourself the better. This is important for several reasons:

– You won’t spend a large chunk of your nest egg trying to “find yourself”.

– You can start developing skills that will help you in your first retirement like learning how to knit if you wanted to open a knitting cafe.

– You will be open to opportunities for implementing your first retirement plans sooner than you expected, like finding the perfect location at the right price for your knitting cafe.

What about the people around me?

This is by far the most important of all of the questions. You need to know the kind of impact your findependence day will have on your loved ones. When does you wife plan to retire ? Will you be living the high life without her? Are you looking to spend more time with the kids before they leave the nest? Perhaps you are looking to have them packed up and out the door so you can have some peace and quiet? These are the kind of things you need to consider because they will affect the people closest to you.

For myself, I’ve come up with the following answers:

Am I content with what I’m doing and can I continue to do it for X amount of years? Happy for me would be having $10 million dollars in the bank and working for free under the world’s greatest chefs. Unfortunately this isn’t going to happen and I’m fine with that. Right now I’m content with my job. I come into work and do it the best I can. I take initiative to try and make things better. I enjoy the people I work with and the job pays enough that it makes my findependence day achievable.

Is it feasible? 55 is a very doable number with the way we have our finances setup. I can easily continue to put $15k/year into my RRSP’s, $10k/year into the TFSA and still have some money left over for individual stock investing. I’ve also run the numbers at age 50, 55, and 60 using a conservative return of 5%. At 50 I will have a nice nest egg but I won’t be able to live the life I want. At 60 I will have an excess amount of cash but I feel I won’t be young enough to enjoy it. At 55 I will have enough money to do most of what I want and will hopefully be healthy enough to still be able to do it.

What will I do when I reach financial independence? I’ve gone to several B & B’s over the last few years and have enjoyed the stay. I’ve also come to enjoy the thought of running my own. It will allow me to test my cooking skills on our guests having breakfast and provide an additional stream of income in retirement. I also enjoy interacting with people from varying backgrounds. During the low season we can shut down and travel. At 50 I plan to start looking at properties so I can be ready to pounce if the right one comes up.

What about the people around me? My retirement goal of 55 will coincide well with my fiance’s retirement age as a teacher. The kids will be grown and gone by then. This will leave my fiance and I to enjoy the ourselves until the grand kids come along.

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