“Where there is a river, there will be a bridge. If there isn't one, then build it. If someone has built a bridge, be appreciative and cross it. If there isn't one, let me be the person to build one and cross it together with others who need to do so”
This is my story of being an early retirement personality. It is a great lifestyle to live retired and with the right personal finance plan.
How it all started?
I have been working for the last 30 years of my life. I started out into the working world of employment with a gung ho attitude. I want to be the best model worker any employer could ever find. In this way, I'd always be rewarded. This was my rationalisation as a young man back in the late seventies. I spent 15 years of my life in the civil service and another 15 years as a manager in the then robust building industry.
I learned the agony of working life those 30 years. My dreams of achieving a comfortable income upon retirement coupled with a beautiful bungalow home in the countryside fades over the years. I felt being used and abused by society and environment. Reaching my early forties, I could see no results of achieving my dreams.
It was then, I decided that it is enough. I had to make a choice. The many motivational courses and seminars I attended made me decided on one course of action. I have to make the right choice of early retiring from employment and move into a different sphere of life - early retirement.
Is this the right choice?
Making this choice was not an overnight decision. I pondered and wrestled mentally and emotionally for a few years. Can I afford to walk out of my full time job which has been providing for me all these years? Could I face the onslaught of a whole new lifestyle being on my own? What if I failed?
I knew that the right mindset was critical to succeed on my own. In 2006, I took the step of faith to enter into the arena of online business without much knowledge and experience. Being matured enough, I managed to work on the right businesses whilst working almost 16 hours a day in my full time job.
This year, 2007, at the age of 47 years old, I made that decision to launch into a new lifestyle - early retirement.
I am NOW early retired!
There are two dimensions of early retirement that I would like to share with you.
The two areas are our personal time and our income life. It is no point to say that we are early retired and still live in the nightmare of having to worry about mortgages, bills, children's education, etc, etc. There must be a balance of these two factors.
My lifestyle today.
Out of a hectic full time job, I make sure that life has more meaning now. The family time I never used to have is the top of my priority. I now planned holidays on a regular basis. Where I have wasted over the years, exchanging my health for wealth has been turned around. I scheduled exercise time to keep myself fit and healthy. Instead of rushing outdoors to run a business, I took the right choice of working from home.
I am retired from work and not from life today. I still run my online business earning me monthly passive income. Working from home has helped me cut down lots of overheads cost. I find that being the master of my own time, I am able to produce more income that when I worked as an employee.
Conclusion.
I made a choice today to be early retired. It is not an easy choice when you do not see the bridges ahead. We need to take a step at a time till we reach those bridges. There were times I questioned myself, what if there isn't a bridge ahead. And I learned this philosophy - Where there is a river, there will be a bridge. If there isn't a bridge, then build one. If someone has built a bridge, then be appreciative and cross it. If there isn't one, let me be the person to build one and not only I will be the one to cross it but many others as well.
This philosophy enriched my life and lifestyle today.
