Early Retirement Is Tough

Problems start with money — as usual

I retired early, aged 52.5. I understand many people would like to be in my place, but my life isn’t as rosy as it sounds.

I don’t want to complain, but I have to if I want to stay mentally healthy. Sorry. Feel free to skip this one.

I sold my business in 2019 and faced the classical founder’s conundrum

Shall I stay and work for the buyer? Shall I start a new business? Or should I retire early and — hopefully — enjoy life?

I was about to sign a three-year contract with the new owners when a friend called. Long story short, he had a brilliant idea for a startup. I joined, and six months later, we were about to launch when Google released a new feature killing our chicken before it got out of its egg.

I took it as a sign and chose early retirement.

The first few months were fun. I took extended holidays with my wife and loved spending time doing nothing.

There’s no denying that. But soon, money became a problem.

I had been saving as much as possible for thirty years — reinvesting all I could in my business. But suddenly, I found myself without a regular income. I wasn’t saving anymore. The only option was to spend. It was contrary to my life philosophy and a real challenge to my core values. You don’t want to be in that position.

It’s not fun.

Another source of anxiety was the amount of money available.

I had so much of it that I didn’t know what to do with it. It’s the curse of having too many choices. At the same time, I wasn’t a billionaire and had to make sure I would have money till the end.

What do you do when you have enough to buy a Ferrari but not enough to buy one every year? Do you buy one? Do you wait? Not an easy choice.

One can become quite anxious about this sort of thing if one doesn’t have access to the power of mindfulness like I did.

Another thing people don’t tell you about early retirement is that your children will be jealous.

They see you having so much money and feel entitled to a share.

I wonder why. I was the one who got back to work after the family dinner instead of watching cartoons or reading books. I helped with the homework and took time to explain seventeen times easy concepts — for free. I was working extra hours on Sundays because I had attended the Christmas show at school.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Christmas shows, but I don’t see why it means I should share my wealth with the actors.

I paid for their studies and even gave them a reasonable amount to start their lives on the right foot.

Still, they see me not working and want a piece of that!! Lazy bastards. It seems I failed to instill a work ethic in them. I refused to share my early retirement with them in no uncertain terms. It created a lot of tension. Some are still unresolved a few years later.

It saddens me, but if stoicism taught me anything, it’s that I can’t solve people’s issues. I can only (try to) deal with mine.

Money is my biggest issue, and I hope my therapist was right when she said writing this article would help.

I want to end on a positive note.

Sometimes, I wish I still had my business because then I wouldn’t have all these problems.

On such days, I go to the apartment I bought in a building facing the head office, turn on my telescope, and watch people looking bored in long, soul-crushing, and useless corporate meetings.

It helps.

PS: my wife said I might get hateful comments because of this article. If it’s your case, I recommend giving me money. It will only increase my problems. You can do so on ko-fi or Substack.

If you’d like to learn more about the challenging and demanding life of early-retirees, read this by James Bellerjeau.

I write about retirement and other topics (mostly other topics) on Substack.