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- According to Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung, authors of "Quit Like Like Millionaire", there is a "dark side" to early retirement.
- People generally have three fears of taking a common early retirement: lack of money, loss of community and loss of identity.
- By employing specific savings strategies, attending conferences and meetings and traveling the world, they have been able to overcome all these obstacles.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Spending a day at work can be difficult. But it can also be difficult not to have to work.
Take it from Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung from the millennium revolution. The two former computer engineers left their job at 31 years as millionaires to travel the world. In their book, "Quit as a Millionaire", they said that they first had to overcome the three most common fears surrounding early retirement: lack of money, loss of community and the loss of identity.
"Fear is necessary for survival," they wrote. "But the purpose of life is not to hide under one's bed and never take any risk.The purpose of life is to make the jump but to bring a parachute – just in case . "
This is how they approached the "dark side" of early retirement.
To avoid running out of money, they were strategic about their savings.
According to Shen and Leung, the easiest way to run out of money during early retirement is to deplete your investment portfolio over the first five years by selling shares in a declining market. To remedy this, they suggest using a cash cushion – a savings reserve fund that you can tap to avoid a complete withdrawal from the portfolio during the off-peak years.
They also suggest to have a return shield, which is a combination of dividends and interests of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) – a collection of investments such as stocks and bonds – that can be delivered in cash without selling assets.
Read more: 8 people who retired before the age of 45 reveal how this decision changed their financial habits
Unforeseen health care costs and inflation could also contribute to the depletion of funds, they said. But traveling has helped them avoid inflation because it's a country-by-country effect. They also bought an expatriation insurance, which is cheaper than national insurance plans if you are an American who is retiring overseas.
"Our experience, after three years of retirement and a stock market crash in the first year, has taught us that the fear of running out of money is exaggerated," they wrote. "Not only has our net worth increased by $ 300,000, but our expenses continue to fall, we are safer and richer than when we left."
They made friends at conferences and meetings
Tony, who took early retirement, resumed work a year and a half after early retirement, in part because he had missed social interactions. In a podcast with Brandon of Mad Fientist, Retired Retired Brandon, he said that future retirees must be prepared for how they will create human bonds once they leave their jobs.
Shen and Leung said simply: when you work, colleagues are your social circle. And others may not understand your decision to retire, they said.
"The more confident will be happy for you," they wrote. "The unfortunate will blame you for invalidating their own way."
"The longer you are retired, the more you trust yourself," they continued. "And if you lose friends by choosing a different path, those friendships are not worth keeping."
But you also win a new community by joining the FIRE movement. This opens up opportunities to meet new people – something that Shen and Leung said they barely have time to do when they were working. Since their early retirement, they have made real friends with people from around the world at FIRE conferences and meetings.
John of ESI Money also suggests joining a club or gym and volunteering to meet people and build social connections.
Read more: What 8 people would like to know before retiring in their twenties or thirties
Early retirement has allowed them to build a better identity
"For some people, what they do is who they are," John wrote. "Then, when the work is done, they do not know who they are anymore."
He added that in order to be able to retire early, people have to find new activities to replace the time and meaning they earn at work. These could be recreation (recreation, travel, etc.), volunteering (church, non-profit organizations, etc.) or professional (part-time work to help them feel productive again), he declared.
As Shen and Leung say, "Lose an identity, build a better one."
Being financially independent, they said, does not necessarily mean that you have to quit your job and travel the world, it's a matter of choice.
"Becoming financially independent means designing the life you want," they wrote. "Once you've built a large enough portfolio to cover 4% of your expenses each year, work is an option and not a mandate, so if you want to take a complete retirement like us and travel the world, do it." , keep working with a more flexible schedule. "
They advise you to enrich yourself and follow your passion so that you do not have to worry about the time or place of your next payment. If your passions lead to failure, it will only suffer emotionally and not financially – if, in other words, you have a portfolio to rely on, do you have expenses? he declares.
They added: "There will always be some concerns when you go against the norm, but just like the perceived danger during a turbulent flight, they are mostly in your head. . "
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