5 Steps to Financial Independence Without Giving Up on Dreams
Chasing “Early Retirement” is not the holy grail
“How can I retire at 35?”
“How to be financially independent and retire early?”
“How much do I need to save to retire by 40?”
We’ve all searched for this question on the internet, haven’t we?
That is probably why there is a well-accepted acronym for this wild goose-chase — the FIRE movement.
Financial Independence and Retire Early — FIRE movement is basically a lifestyle based on aggressive saving (saving at least half your income), minimalist spending, and being able to retire in your 30s or 40s.
The more I read, the more my conviction that this is a fundamentally flawed concept, here’s why.
Let Us First Define Retirement
Retirement — to withdraw from one’s position or occupation or from active working life
Given the definition, the fact that a whole generation — fondly called the “Millennials” is chasing a retirement at a fairly young age baffles me.
Why would a 35 or 40 yr old want to quit an active working lifestyle? As kids, we all want to “grow up to be ….” a certain something and once we’re there, we want to quit in a matter of a few years?
Retirement is just a Euphemism for Quitting Your Current Job
Most people mistake their dissatisfaction with their current jobs and professions for the desire to retire. As a result of this, they end up chasing the inaccurate goal of “early retirement” than trying to cure the fundamental problem — finding what you love and spending your life doing it.
If “financial independence” was the sole goal of why we work, most billionaires should have retired a long time ago. But it’s not.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
— Steve Jobs
And So What Next After that Early Retirement?
Most people are infatuated with the idea of early retirement so much that they haven’t really thought it through.
And so while it sounds like heaven to be able to have all your time to yourself — wake up late, do what you love, and spend time with your loved ones, the reality is that filling 24 hrs a day for 30 more years of active life without a “job” isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
One of the more useful articles around early retirement that I’ve read does actually detail quite a few of the downsides of early retirement.
What’s the Solution? Introducing ICE
And so I’ve thought of countering the popular FIRE with a not-yet-so-popular term coined by me as an evolutionary version of FIRE — ICE.
ICE — Inner Calling Exploration — A concept in which you explore a variety of hobbies/passions to find your true calling and gradually work towards making it your primary “job”
Let me explain ICE to you in a few basic easy-to-follow steps:
- List Out Your Options — If you were to quit your job or “retire” today, what would you want to spend the rest of your life doing? Make an exhaustive list of things that come to mind — traveling, writing, spending time with family, photography, painting, dancing, whatever works for you.
- Know Your Financial Standing — Have you saved enough to sustain your desired lifestyle for yourself and your family for the rest of your lives? If yes, then all of your options in #1 are viable, but if not then you need an income source for sustenance.
- Find the Balance between Passion and Practicality — You may want to explore many things but some may be more feasible than others. Your likelihood to succeed in each area may also significantly vary. Based on your ability as well as passion, pick something that balances your passion with the probability to succeed as your primary pursuit. For example, you may really want to be an actor, a blogger, a dancer, and a comedian. But you’ve spent 10 years in a career related to finance and your likelihood to succeed probably is significantly higher if you choose to start a finance-related blog than competing with Tom Hanks, Shakira, or Jerry Seinfeld.
- Split Your Time into These Priorities — I’d recommend a 60–20–20 rule with 60% of your time devoted to the prudent primary pursuit, and the remainder split between your other passions. While the first may not be your top passion, it will help pay the bills and keep a steady income or at least help you build towards one. The others will keep you motivated and help you enjoy life a bit more than a monotonous job would have.
- Be Patient and Rewards will Show — It takes time to really succeed at something and so trust your abilities and be patient with the results. In the meantime, at least you have the luxury of knowing that you’re doing something you really enjoy and none of this is a burden or an unwanted means to an end. And in the process, you may realize your most prudent pursuit wasn’t the right one, and so reprioritize until you find your true inner calling.
Hopefully, by the end of the above process, you will be able to find yourself something that you truly enjoy doing, are good at, and often enough those two lead to a combination that results in some solid income as well.
As for your other passions, keep them as an integral part of your life because we can’t really be the best at everything, but we can still love doing it just as much — after all, you may not be J.K. Rowling, but that shouldn’t mean you should enjoy writing any less than she does.
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. In stead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”
— Maya Angelou
Paul Myers MBA, a writer I admire and a visionary reminded us of our responsibility towards our coming generations and prompted some of us to guide these future generations. This is my attempt at giving my little wisdom to everyone who will take it! I am only 32 still, so still qualify as a millennial, but fortunately, I’ve seen enough to believe (probably falsely) that I can still guide generations younger than me to choose the right path in their lives — and not follow the beaten track everyone else is following.
My fellow, Illumination editors and writing friends — if you ever write a story on some wisdom to future gens, do tag me and I’d love to read, and even learn something in the process!
Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Geetika Sethi CR Mandler MAT Liam Ireland Julene Cole Arthur G. Hernandez Dew Langrial Dr John Rose EP McKnight, MEd and everyone else (I couldn’t find the whole list of our editors — as bad as that sounds — but you’re all tagged in spirit!)
Taylor Farrell Myers hope this is some useful advice — and pls keep those awesome stories coming!
