THE FIRST 90 DAYS OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

THE SPLENDID SUBLIMITY OF FINANCIAL FREEDOM – PART 2

You have finally made it – you are financially free! This is the day you’ve dreamt about and imagined for years, perhaps even decades. All of your diligence, persistent planning and audacious saving have come to fruition. Today marks the culmination, nay, the zenith, of an exceptionally lofty goal pursued with relentless vigor and passion! So, tell me, what is it like?

THE FIRST 90 DAYS OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

Welcome to Part 2 of the Splendid Sublimity of Financial Freedom series. In Part 1, we explored the First Day of Retirement complete with the initial set of reactions, feelings and insights. We also examined the notion of Privilege & Responsibility and how they serve as the compelling forces behind Fates On Fire’s focus on exploring the magic of financial independence.

Notwithstanding these more grandiose revelations, there have been sundry additional insights culled during the initial 90 days of early retirement which are worth sharing.

ALL FLIGHTS ARE CANCELLED

As I’ve mentioned previously, the past couple decades of my career were pretty much all-consuming. It was the quintessential “executive lifestyle” job. I enjoyed what I did which is why I woke up every day and did it, but it exacted a not insignificant toll, specifically on my health. It was fine in my 20s, but by my late 30s it was challenging to say the least. Bouncing across 4 time-zones every week and living in an airplane and hotel is not an ideal way to lead one’s life.

On my last day of work, the longest I’d been in one time zone in 6 years was 13 days. And while I still managed about 8 hours of exercise a week, most of it was walking laps in airports and then going full-stop with kayaking and/or hiking on the weekends. My diet was, under the circumstances, not altogether horrific, but it wasn’t ideal either. It was typified by business dinners and questionable airport food during the week and a bit more reasonable on the weekends. At at the end, I was an under-slept, irritable, delirious, bloated mess – And I was absolutely done with it all.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL

Physically speaking, the first 90 days of retirement were the most crucial and transformative in my life. First, just the act of not traveling was wondrous. It’s hard to emphasize the impact that the relentless rigor of travel and constant changing of time zones has on the body. After the 3^rd week, I literally felt like a totally different person. I slept well and felt good. I also used the time to establish a structured weekly workout consisting of body-weight strength training, high-impact interval training or low-impact cardio like walking or surf fishing. In combination with the exercise was the ability to choose and prepare my own foods and structure my meals – a massive boon. The serendipitous benefit, since I love cooking, is that I finally got to all that kick-ass culinary experimentation I’d always wanted to do. In addition, I also had much more time to do my favorite outdoor activities like kayaking, hiking and archery that also contributed to my physical well-being.

At the end of the first 90 days, I felt and looked great. My spirit was soaring and my body was humming and it has continued. Being consistently physically fit is pretty wonderful and is among the best things of early retirement.

MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Cyndi Lauper famously sang, “Money changes everything.” While a fairly decent pop tune, sadly, the message is patently incorrect. Money may afford you options but, as most anyone reading this knows, it really doesn’t have much basis or bearing on your overall happiness. Guess what? Neither does early retirement. Sure, you are now free from suffering the monotonous rhythms and torturous grind of the workaday world. Yes, you are now unequivocally free from stressing about getting that big, important “Boner Report” to the boss and all those other manufactured emergencies and work-related nonsense. Do not let me mislead you, this is a real joy – some unmitigated, heavy-duty ebullience – even if you really liked your job.

Unquestionably, experiencing life without the burden or distraction of having to work full-time is pretty fantastic and downright unimpeachable. However, all that other stuff we have going on continues to be there, irrespective of it’s nature – be it positive or otherwise. Moreover, in absence of full-time employment, it now represents everything in your life. While this was a fairly straightforward theory for me to grasp in pre-FIRE mode and I was prepared, it was very intriguing to actually experience it.

WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE

I’ve always referred to myself as a “Doer” in that I always have to be doing something. I’m am atrocious at relaxing or being physically or mentally idle and exceptionally poor at being able to do nothing. Anyway, I always considered this a relatively positive attribute. It certainly came in handy throughout my career, so working 60+ hours a week for decades was no big whoop – it helped satisfy this urge. Same thing in retirement, but now I had an additional 60+ hours per week suddenly open up. So what happened? Well, they were immediately filled up and continue to be with things I always wanted to do, experience, and be. What this means is I’ve still got a full calendar of awesome stuff – all stuff I want to do and I’m having a blast being a full-time “Doer” for me!

Like everyone else, I have a number of mental habits, which I consider both good and bad. For example, I like to to plan. I plan all the time about anything and everything. It’s just the way I’m wired. I’ve come to embrace it although, unlike my “doing,” this attribute can sometimes swerve into less-than-positive territory. Before retirement, most of this planning bandwidth was consumed by work stuff – it was necessary for me to perform well and succeed. Interestingly, now that I have reclaimed it, I find myself short and long-range planning about all manner of minutiae that would previously never have occurred to me. Ridiculous stuff like, the placement of trees and shrubs on the new property, the perfect theme for this blog, who is going to cat-sit for the Fuzzy Fates when we take some long trip in the distant future. Anyway, you get the drift.

The point here is twofold. It’s key to realize that whomever you are by way of thoughts, habits, actions, behaviors, attributes & motivating needs, will absolutely not change in a post-FIRE life. And since these things are what make you, You, that’s a good thing. But the real learning for me was that in the absence of work, all that emancipated time and energy is now free for consumption and redirected straight into your post-FIRE life, so the end result is that all these individual characteristics are actually amplified in either positive and/or negative reinforcing feedback loops. For me, it was important to leverage the positive attributes and habits while being careful not to allow negative ones to gain ground.

While many other bloggers have addressed this issue, it really is genuinely worthy of some hard core self-reflection prior to retiring early. Both the best and worst of us are intensified with an abundance of newfound time. When I have read others’ accounts of successful or unsuccessful early retirement, they have always centered around this concept.

PERSONAL CONNECTIONS

With precious little free time in my “pre-FIRE” days, like many others, I was not able to cultivate and invest in relationships with close family and friends to the extent that I would have liked. Having ample time to reconnect and re-energize these relationships, and create new ones as well has been one of the greatest things I’ve enjoyed about early retirement. Moreover, having the wherewithal to do so in person has been phenomenal. Whether it’s spending a week with my parents, fishing on a Tuesday with friends who work weekends or just playing with my cats a couple of times a day, the act of investing time with others and strengthening these relationships has been not just enjoyable, but crucial for my spiritual and psychic well-being.

THE STORY SO FAR

Overall, the initial 90 days of early retirement were absolutely, unequivocally fantastic. The feeling of the Splendid Sublimity of Freedom continues unabated – it permeates my every cell and is a part of the magic I feel every day. I have continued to embrace and honor the exceptional privilege of financial freedom and remain consistently conscious of this rarefied experience. Moreover, I remain committed and accountable to using it responsibly to help make a meaningful difference in the lives of others and to explore the infinite magic of financial independence. I’m significantly happier, healthier and, altogether, a much better me. I’m just as busy as ever and remain perplexed as to how I got anything done when I was working what with all the wonderful time spent with family, friends and exciting, new adventures.

All in, early retirement has been as wonderful as I had imagined. Actually, it’s been exactly 42% better than I originally anticipated. So, if you’re reading this and in “pre-FIRE mode”, stay at it – IT IS WORTH IT!

WHAT’S NEXT?

I’d love to hear some comments on your initial 90 days of financial freedom for those in post-FIRE mode. If you’re on your pre-FIRE journey, I hope that this series of posts can shed a bit of light on what the early stages of early retirement are like, at least from my perspective

In the meantime, cast your fates on fire to create your own future and celebrate the magic of financial independence.