Over the years of running our respective sites, Joe, as the founder of Million Dollar Journey, and Mark, with his continued labour of love called My Own Advisor, we have (and continue to receive) many requests about our current respective portfolios – but this post is a bit different.
It’s a take on our shared learnings from early retirement – so far.
While we’ve been planning for retirement for many years now (and have reached that milestone respectively in each household), there are things that have surprised us a bit.
If you’re in retirement, maybe there are things that have surprised you too. We want to hear from you.
If you’re not yet in retirement, well, we hope this post helps prepare you for what’s to come.
What we’ve learned from early retirement – so far!
You already know from our site this mantra:
“Ultimately nobody cares more about your money than you do.”
This continues to make us HUGE fans of DIY investing, so we support other investors seeking to take more control over their personal finances.
We continue to help and support all Canadian DIY investors as much as we can through these low-cost retirement readiness projections!
As early retirees, we know we couldn’t have reached financial independence, let alone early retirement, without these ingredients – these are not surprises to us:
- We had the desire to learn about personal finance and investing.
- We had a genuine interest in the subject matter.
- We embraced changes in our lives, and learned to adapt.
- We practiced humility. We messed up at times and acknowledged what wasn’t working – in order to avoid similar mistakes in the future – and improve.
Instead, this might be our e-book into six simple bullets:
- Book introduction: Spend less than you make.
- Book Chapter 1: Save and invest the difference. Invest in mostly low-cost products. Consider diversifying your investments.
- Book Chapter 2: Avoid active trading. Celebrate falling stock prices – buy more when stocks fall in price.
- Book Chapter 3: Disaster-proof your life with insurance, where needed.
- Book Chapter 4: Rinse and repeat, then retire early when you have enough.
- Book Chapter 5: Learn about tax-efficient drawdown methods and tax-efficient final estates.
That’s the basics within 80,000+ personal finance books in just six simple bullets.
Getting to financial independence was one part of our respective journeys. Starting early retirement and embarking on retirement income spending is something absolutely different – that has delivered a few early surprises.
What we’ve learned from early retirement – so far!
Surprise #1 – We don’t miss work.
Unless you’re an artist or have a very cool job that was fully aligned with skills and values all the time, every time, we’re a bit surprised that we don’t miss work.
Although Mark continues to think he has “something to do” in the early mornings beyond assisting DIY investors here with our low-cost projections services, what has surprised us so far in early retirement is that we don’t miss the work. We miss the people and the connections with people at work at times – we do not miss scrambling to fulfill fast-approaching deadlines, rework on projects, or the changes in sudden corporate direction to adapt to.
We now both work a bit on our own terms per se here – a few hours per week – which doesn’t feel like any work at all.
Surprise #2 – We still want structure.
While work did provide some solid structure in our lives, a routine to get up, get out, and get to work only to come home again 8-10 hours later, we still crave some level of regular weekly activities – things to do. A structure that gives us purpose in our newfound time. This site is very helpful for that – helping others in a meaningful way. It’s part of the reason why we also don’t charge 1/4 of the prices some others charge for related services. We offer our time and services as a passion – from DIY investors for DIY investors.
Mark enjoys cycling, golfing, walking/hiking, and taking day-trips with his wife when not embarking on some international travel or road trips. Joe enjoys pickleball and working out – when not supporting his kids, many activities!
Most people need and want some structure in their lives – and this strong sense of purpose is something we knew about prior to retirement, but didn’t realize how much it is needed so far in early retirement.
Surprise #3 – Time moves differently.
Before retirement, we both felt rushed. Examples include rushing to get to work, rushing at work, rushing home to complete work or tasks or manage kids’ activities (Joe here, in my case) in advance of the next item on the to-do list. Now, we have days or weeks to think ahead. We’re both learning to embrace a slower pace, embrace time to think, and in some cases (in a very positive way), both be bored with our respective thoughts. It’s actually a wonderful place to be in – time to slow down, think, and act accordingly on own schedule.
Surprise #4 – We don’t worry about money (as much)!
As DIY investors, personal finance and investing nerds, this one really surprised us!
Unless you’re significantly wealthy with tens of millions of dollars in the bank and spare cash to burn every month as you wish, we don’t know anyone (including other passionate DIY investors) that do not think about money from time to time – even during retirement!
But what has surprised us quite a bit in early retirement is we don’t worry about money (as much). We still think about money management often but…
We don’t worry about our spending budgets in our respective households – we know what we need.
We don’t worry about where the income is going to come from – we’ve mapped that out.
We don’t worry about the timing of future government benefits like our CPP or OAS income streams and how those income sources will impact any taxation burdens – we know that too.
We still enjoy watching our dividends and distributions flow in every month. We still enjoy low-cost Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) for portfolio growth. We still enjoy managing the cashflow from our own portfolios.
What we don’t obsess nor worry about much any longer – surprisingly – is money.
What we’ve learned from early retirement – so far!
Many DIY readers and our growing list of clients have been fans of this site because they already know what goes into managing their own money – and they want to engage with us and gain deeper insights on their retirement readiness at a low-cost with others who share the same personal finance passion.
Ultimately, all successful DIY investors we know and retirees who work with us on this site via our discounts are able to answer these questions with ease:
- Why money is important to them.
- What their money is for.
- Where and when will that money be available to meet their spending needs.
They fully understand and embrace the elements of a good financial plan for retirement:
- Goal setting and spending needs (near-term and longer-term).
- Killing and then avoiding any future debt obligations.
- Managing ongoing insurance needs (including life, home, auto, other).
- *Cashflow and portfolio management:
- *Retirement income mapping.
- *Tax management strategies.
- *Estate planning.
We’ve branded our site Cashflows & Portfolios because we believe understanding and managing your *cashflow is arguably the most important part of a financial plan pretty much no matter what your circumstances are.
For us, getting to retirement was always a strive for life-work balance.
Now that we’re both fully retired, it’s about letting go from workplace stress, finding new ways to structure our time and energy, embracing our time and freedom, and not worrying (as much!) about money management given the foundation we have built.
I’m sure there will be more early retirement lessons and surprises as time goes on. We’ll update this post to capture and share those. :)
Need any support with some low-cost retirement income projections? We can help!
As passionate DIY investors, we offer up our time and expertise to help other DIY investors planning for retirement or in retirement – to optimize the cashflow from their portfolio.
We know we can help you out too at a low-cost compared to the services charged in the thousands and thousands of dollars by others!
If you are interested in obtaining private projections for your personal financial scenario, read more about our retirement projections services.
Thanks to all readers and members of this site, whether you are striving for retirement or are in early retirement like us.
It’s a pleasure to engage with you and support you.
Joe and Mark