Life of Early Retirement

During chatting, I ask my wife what I have changed after my early retirement. She says I have become friendlier, more smile on face and spend more time with the family. My kids tell me that I have become more patient. My observation to myself is that I walk at slower pace to make myself easy. No work pressure has make me to show my real heart on greeting with my neighbors and friends when meeting each other. I strongly believe that relaxing mindset and feeling happy are keys to remain healthy.

It is true and rather sad to say that I have less friends after my early retirement. Those so-called good friends at work are no longer with me after I quit. Fortunately, I still have my family. My friends wonder how I spend my ample time. I say I just do whatever I like to do such as reading, playing around with my plants, watching favorite dramas & movies, assemble GUNDAM models, traveling locally & overseas and many more. My friends say that they can't stand for this kind of "BORING" life. To them, spend time on hobbies for the whole day is just too dull. Obviously, in short, their life is rather testeless since they don't have any faith on what they like to do (some of them don't even know what they like to do) while keep complaining about their full time job. 

I have been retiring for almost eight months and have no intention to go back to work as I have been enjoying my retirement life. In a normal day, I wake up at 6am. I water my lovely plants and go out for morning exercise at 6.30am. I do muscle stretching after 5 km running. Fresh air and sweat make me feel great. I return home at 8am, do some house cleaning before making shower and having breakfast. For the rest of the day, I do research, write blog, watch dramas/movies, read, play around with my lovely plants, build models, cook for my family, shop with my wife and the list goes on. I also spend time to plan my next trip when I have free time.

You might think that all of the above need money. I keep spending my reserve and wonder how I am going to survive in the rest of my retirement life. My key success factor is that my frugal lifestyle has allowed me to accumulate sufficient resources to sustain my lifestyle during my retirement. Being frugal means spend on life essentials and think twice before use my resources on wants. Spend on wants need to be carefully planned and budgeted. To me, a life without wants is just too boring.

Another factor is that I quit when I have sufficient resources for retirement. Sufficient resources are not only on my financial backup but also the ability of my backup to generate income. To me, keep working for more money carries no value for life. Continue working allows me to have more financial resources. However, without spending them, these resources are totally meaningless. Based on my observation, most working adults who have been working and saving hard for life end up spend their savings in the hospital. This is because hard work has deteriorate their health. Some of them might regret that they have loss their chance on enjoying their life because of illness. 

Therefore, quit the job you hate when you have sufficient financial resources if you can and do other things you like before it is too late.