A lot of people misunderstand what early retirement actually looks like.
After retiring in my 30’s, I enjoyed the benefits of having a lot of free time. But I quickly realized something really important was missing in my life.
Early Retirement Video Training:
What Does Early Retirement Look Like?
If you’re thinking about early retirement, you’re probably in your:
- 20’s
- 30’s
- 40’s
- 50’s
This is a very achievable goal especially if you have the right entrepreneur mindset.
What does early retirement look like to you?
Before my early retirement, I thought that it would be this great magical experience.
Suddenly red carpets would open up for me and my life would be absolutely perfect.
There’d be no more problems and all my stress would go away.
Well, it is true that certain stresses went away.
Not everything was actually solved in my life.
What Would You Do If You Retire Early?
A lot of people think they’ll build a million dollar business, cash out, and do nothing for the rest of their lives.
They’ll just sit on their back porch all day.
Shoot bottle rockets, drink some beers, sit back, and relax!
So, you can do that when you retire.
I happen to live in a very beautiful spot in the world.
My plans? I was going to sit on my back porch, drink some fine wine, and hang out all day.
I didn’t want any stress or anything.
So I did that for a while. And it was fun.
But something very interesting happened.
Freedom From Work & Responsibility
I really had a lot of fun doing it, but it got old.
Do you know that feeling when you buy something new and the thrill wears off after a week?
I got to the point where the freedom of not having any responsibility was actually very unfulfilling.
How could that be? Isn’t freedom what we’re all shooting for?
Yes, it is. But it’s not necessarily the freedom that we think it is.
Let me break this down for you some more…
Recently, I realized that I got to the point in my life that I don’t ever have to work for money.
I can just do whatever I want.
I can do nothing and remove all responsibility from my life.
What Does Retirement Take Away From You?
But I didn’t understand a particular part of my personality.
If you’re reading this, there’s a high probability that you have this part of your personality as well.
If you were fortunate enough to make enough money at an early age…
Then you’ve given a ton of value out to the world.
I’m not talking about trust fund type stuff.
I’m talking about starting from the bottom now we’re here type stuff.
In exchange for the value you’ve provided, you got a lot of money in return.
Think Beyond Yourself In Early Retirement
There’s a side of your personality that’s wired as a type of person who loves to contribute.
The more you contribute and impact the lives of other people, the more you’re going to get back.
You ever hear that phrase, “If you want to make millions, you must impact the lives of millions”?
There’s something inside of you that loves connecting with other people and giving back.
I wish I could say that I was contributing to the world when I was on my back porch sipping on beers.
But that’s not what it is.
If you’re golfing 7 days a week.
Or playing video games all day.
This is all self-focused internal type of stuff. There’s no contribution!
Contribute To Your Personal Growth
There’s not even self-contribution as well, right?
Like, how much contribution does that make in terms of bettering yourself?
Are you getting that from drinking Coronas all day?
This side of your personality is not going to be fulfilled if you have money and you’re no longer doing anything.
Making Money After You Retire
This is when I realized that I don’t actually want to fully retire.
That’s not how I get fulfilment in my life.
What I do now is called semi-retirement.
This basically means that I work on projects that I enjoy.
I make investments that I enjoy and think are a great opportunity.
I no longer have to do things I hate just because I think I’m going to make $5 million doing it.
Obviously, the sweet spot is that I get to make $5 million and love it.
Those are the things I’m primarily looking for.
For example, I can now teach about topics like business leverage or facebook ads strategies.
Not because I need to make money doing it.
But because I enjoy it.
You get to choose what you want to do. You can still give to the world and make money.
There’s nothing wrong with making money.
Especially because you know it’s a reflection of the amount of contribution you make in people’s lives.
In this scenario, you can walk away at any point and stop.
You don’t need to do it.
Money Is Not The Stopping Point
The mistake I made was that I thought making all this money was the stopping point.
What I really want you to think about is this…
You’ll want to focus on what comes next.
After you get that early retirement money, think about what truly makes you happy.
Experiencing True Freedom
Freedom is a beautiful thing.
But freedom manifests in so many different ways.
It’s not necessarily time freedom.
It’s also freedom to be the best version of yourself.
That’s what I advise you to optimize for.
What does the best version of yourself look like?
How is it optimized?
And again, don’t make it 100% self-focused.
Because you’re just going to run into a wall like I did.
You can only play so many video games and drinking doesn’t help you grow.
You can contribute while you make money and give back through philanthropy.
Do whatever makes you happy.
Does Money Buy Happiness?
Whatever your retirement number is:
- $5 million
- $10 million
- $50 million
Whatever that number is, it’s not going to make you happy in itself.
You need something more afterward.
So learn from my mistakes and contribute while you grow as a person as well.
I won’t say I’m the happiest person in the history of the world.
The Dalai Lama and the Pope are probably significantly happier than I am.
But overall I’m a pretty happy dude.
Overall, I’m optimized for happiness in my life.
Because I get to work on stuff that truly makes me happy.
Alright, so find that happiness metric for you.
Plan Your Retirement In Advance
Don’t just go for that early retirement monetary number.
And think about that as you’re working on your plan.
Not just what happens when you experience early retirement, but also what comes next.
Alright, there we have it.
Some interesting life advice from somebody who was able to retire early.
I was in the trenches and figured out that some things weren’t exactly as I thought they would be.
So I hope you took some value away from today’s article.
If you’re still on your journey, check out this article I wrote on entrepreneur depression.
You can still enjoy your time while you’re on your way to getting there.
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My name is Steve Nixon and I built this website to give back and contribute.
Thank you for reading and I’ll see you on the next one.