18 Comments

It's so fascinating to me what questions come up for folks once money is no longer a primary factor. What came up to me at least, is seeking a sense of belonging and community (and of course the sadness at not being able to be with his family).

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Nov 3Liked by Rick Foerster

Great exploration into what is “enough” and finding a sense of stability while not having a fixed home base. TY

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author

Thanks for your support!

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Nov 16Liked by Rick Foerster

This is a beautiful exploration, and a welcome reminder that enoughness is easier to conceive than most might imagine -- and yet still takes quite a bit to become a reality. Can't wait to read more of these.

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author

That's a great point... it's more within reach than people think (I'm planning on writing about this), but the trade-offs are significant. And more people understand the trade-offs required BEFORE (e.g. saving money), but few understand the trade-offs AFTER.

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Nov 18Liked by Rick Foerster

Ooooh yes, the before "trade-offs" definitely get more airtime than the ones after. Excited to read about it!

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Hey Rick, enjoyed that this wasn't an "I'm rich and everything's great, look at me sipping Mai Tais on the beach" kind of early retirement story. I once met a guy who had retired recently after a successful career. He said the first thing he did was rent a house on a Mexican beach. Every day he went and sat on the sand, enjoying the ocean breeze. But after a couple weeks of this, he got bored out of his mind and realized the stereotypical dream retirement wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He still needed some reason to be, to get out of bed every day. He moved to a different town and started volunteering, getting involved with the community, giving back, and building new friendships, and said that was 100x more meaningful than sitting on the beach all day. His story completely upended my longing to stop working and retire, and made me rethink my entire end-life vision. I'd still take early retirement if it becomes feasible, but I will definitely shape that era differently than the stereotypical beach-sitting dream.

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The goal of this series is to get everyone feeling bad for early retirees 🤣

Just kidding... but I think there is a broader point as I explore the lives of these people: that if everyone got a taste of freedom for awhile, when they go back to their old life, they might live it a little different. As in, learning to live well now is the priority, not some perfect future (which never comes).

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Reminds me of something Jim Carrey said, that he wishes everyone could experience celebrity level fame and fortune, so they can find out it doesn't bring happiness. Also no one is guaranteed to live to retirement age, so I like the "live well now" philosophy instead of waiting for an imagined perfect future.

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Nov 5Liked by Rick Foerster

Yes! This!

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Nov 7Liked by Rick Foerster

I'm curious what changed in your "end of life vision"?

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The main change was shifting from a "life of relaxing by the beach" to "continue to find meaningful things to do and stay engaged with my community".

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author

smart man

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I really enjoyed this piece and how it felt more realistic, by including the less positive sides too.

I have heard of others going back to some sort of work after early retirement, so I can see why Naz did that, it is probably nicer to do it on his own terms like that

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author

It's never all sun-and-roses, as my next interviewee will show...

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Looking forward to reading it

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This is really nice, a nice start to this series. I especially like the questions at the end—will be nice to see how these play out across the series.

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author

Thanks Tom for your support! The next one is a doozy...

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