Category Archives: Early Retirement Lifestyle

My Ordinary Early Retirement Story: Nothing Extreme To See Here Folks

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It’s a world where extreme anything gets the attention, even when it comes to early retirement. News flash! Early retirement isn’t only possible for those going extreme. I just lived a normal ordinary life and found a way to financial independence. Mine is an ordinary early retirement story. Married, 3 kids, house, and a long career that started at age 20. A career where I worked my way up from entry-level call-center representative to lead engineer. During all of that there were side gigs, night school, all the ordinary boring stuff we do to keep our heads above water and trying to get ahead.

The ordinariness of my early retirement story doesn’t end there. I didn’t retire early in my 30s or 40s, I was 51 years old. Young by traditional retirement standards but hardly extreme or a sensational headline. A total snooze. Nothing to see here folks, unless maybe you are also ordinary and interested in the possibility of retiring earlier than most.

My Ordinary Early Retirement Story: Nothing Extreme To See Here Folks

My Very Average And Ordinary Early Retirement Story

When many early retirement stories are centered around highly educated middle class folks making big bucks and deploying super saver strategies to retire really young, mine is a more unremarkable common man’s story. I grew up in a lower-income family. My father worked hard but was economically limited by his 6th grade education, my stay at home mother made it through the 9th. I was unable to snag a scholarship so college was out of reach. I did what most did in our socioeconomic situation, I got a full-time job right after graduating from high school.

In a nutshell…

Marriage

Married my high school sweetheart just before I turned 19. We just celebrated our 42nd!

1rst Home

Bought a new 980 square foot starter home a year later in the less than desired side of town with a FHA loan and a low 8% interest rate. We put in a lot of sweat equity to help cover the minimum down payment. They offered stuff like that back then in the late 70s.

College

Working full-time I took night college classes when I could, mostly paid for by work tuition aid benefits. I sure couldn’t afford to pay for it on my own with what I was paid.

Little bandits show up

At age 22 become a parent. We had 3 kids two years apart. All little blessings that we freely gave all our love and money to. Sure glad my job offered healthcare benefits.

Making it work

Childcare costs is and has always been a financial killer. My bride gave up her secretarial job and became a stay at home mom until the kids started school. I worked 2nd jobs and side hustles to make ends meet. Well, the ends almost met.

Debt issues

Incurred too much debt along the way when kids were young as we tried to get by. It was a struggle and a royal pain to manage until my wife could start working again. The same sad story for a lot of ordinary people.

Finally, saving for retirement

Started saving in a newly promoted  company retirement thingy called a 401K when I was 27. Something new that had a little company match to go with it. What an amazing concept!

Job mobility traffic jam

Stayed at the same telecom company 31 years through thick and thin, slowly advancing through the ranks. It took 17 years from my start as a service rep to becoming a network engineer. I don’t know if this means I have superpower patience or I’m just stubborn.

Move or lose your job

At age 37 I reluctantly accepted a corporate restructure inspired interstate relocation to keep my job. Moving my family to stay in my line of work was good for my career but a personal life regret.

Taking financial control

At age 40 became personal finance aware. I wanted something more out of life than constant corporate and employment obligation. Met with a financial planner aligned with my early retirement goal of retiring 10 years later at age 50. Things got real.

Hardly a salary superstar

I worked hard and was respected in my field, even nationally, but could never hit the 6 figure salary club. Talking with my peers from other “like” companies nationally I was fully aware that I was a chump. My company just salary-treated long-time employees differently, in a bad way of course.

Damn recession

October 2008 was my target retirement date but the deep recession caused me to flinch and delay my early retirement. I’m told that recessions will do that to a lot of people. Well, maybe only ordinary boring people.

That’s it, I’m done!

Late 2009 I decided the recession had hit bottom and the economy was going to eventually climb out. It was time to stop wasting time and retire at the age of 51 to live life on my terms. I gave a one month notice and started making preparations. Company lawyers chimed in as if I cared and f’d with me as much as they could. Turning in my pager to end the years of being on call 7 X 24 X 365 took a huge weight off of me and I felt taller as I left the building for the last time. Now who’s the chump!

Pursued some interesting opportunities

I believe that retirement is the absence of needing to work, not the absence of work. So I carefully chose some great retirement gigs. That’s nothing that retirement traditionalist will get excited about. Staying open to opportunity in early retirement is far from being an extreme topic that causes a buzz anywhere. In fact, I think a lot of early retirees understate how common it is to work and earn money doing something they enjoy in their retirement. So I’ll call this secretly ordinary.

Here are a few of my boring ordinary financial impacting moves that worked in my early retirement favor….

Debt and Savings

Sorry, but I had no secret investment strategy. What can I say? Automatic payroll deductions, compounding interest, reinvested dividends, stock growth, consistent dollar cost averaging, it works when given enough time. My motto – Saving anything is better than saving nothing. I started only saving the minimum for the full company 401K match and concentrated all extra money on debt payoff. Once debt free I stayed debt free other than our modest mortgage. I just piled all extra money into maxing out the yearly allowable 401K contributions and ROTH IRAs. Soooooo ordinary….

House

No house flipping, moving up to larger or better homes every X years, or leveraging equity to build wealth. I have seen some exciting stories of people who have successfully done that. Nope, not me. I just bought a house that I could afford without stretching finances too impossibly far and still meet our housing needs. I always boringly considered a house as a stable place to live and being a hedge on inflation. What did that get me? I’m in our second lifetime house free and clear.

Education

We didn’t have student loan debt to worry about. My wife went to community college to get a secretarial certification and I worked full-time. We paid for her tuition and books as we went. I took night classes and employer promoted remote learning courses when I could.

Later in life we had to make decisions and set limits as to what we could sensibly cover for our kids education. My son was an artistic hands-on guy so he went to a trade school to pursue his interests. Our daughters attended 2 year community college. One did go on to additional education. We paid as we went and nobody was saddled with long-term student debt. Is it just me, does anyone still choose this route anymore?

Frugal Living

The lifestyle we created to control spending and maximize savings is what I call frugal. It’s far from extreme. We never allowed lifestyle inflation to creep in after there was more money coming in over the years. We basically practice purposeful frugality since starting our FIRE journey and we’re constantly making tweaks. Others may disagree with my kind of frugality. I read some more extreme frugal efforts people use to reach employment liberation at super young ages and I am impressed.

What I did was push against our frugal threshold limits so our lives would still be enjoyable and keep our budget sustainable. Hacks here and there, coupons, have the patience to wait for sales, stop wasting money on nonsense, etc. Nothing extreme, just average normal stuff someone can do when they ditch blind consumerism. It does add up to big savings over time. I sure won’t win any frugality contest nor attempt to enter any. The funny thing is, when adding frugality, our lower cost lifestyle becomes a habit and ordinary.   

Paying for early retirement

I faithfully followed the aggressive but realistic 10 year early retirement plan created by my CFP when I was 40. No sensational or extreme story here other than I consistently stuck to it.  There was also a diminished retirement benefit that I earned and rolled into an IRA along with my 401K. I used a SEPP 72t IRA arrangement to avoid early withdrawal penalty to fund my early retirement. Unremarkably, with my ordinary life and financial status, there was no million dollar portfolio to retire early on.

Health insurance

Oh yes, the golden handcuffs that weren’t real gold. Even though a company merger did its best to destroy a lot of my company’s retirement benefits earned if you survived 30 years there, I left with a grandfathered but non-guaranteed retiree medical benefit. (I have to say that my staying there that long, given all the corporate BS they dished out, is the most remarkable thing in my story.) It allows me to buy into the employee health plan but is a “Use it or Lose it” benefit. It went up to $1,340 a month for 2019 and can be killed any year going forward.

I could save money by going on the ACA. I choose to stay with my retirement health plan as long as it lasts or until we become medicare eligible because the ACA is under constant political threat.

Retire early and often

I’ve had some awesome retirement gigs since my first early retirement that really worked out for me. Far beyond anything I envisioned. They were rewarding on both personal and financial levels until they weren’t and I just retired again. My lifestyle was funded by my SEPP 72t IRA so anything I earned was reinvested and I cleared the modest mortgage balance that I initially retired with.

As for now, I have run through my pursuit-list of paying gigs I wanted to learn and do. I still keep my eyes open and continue exploring all of the new things that pop up in the world of opportunity. I’m happily on the sidelines until the next passion driven interest comes my way. I think it’s a cool attitude to have about early retirement, but I get why others wouldn’t.  

My Ordinary Early Retirement Story: Nothing To See Here Folks

As You Can See, A Totally Boring and Ordinary Early Retirement Story

That’s it folks, my only claim to fame is I figured out a way to retire early within my ordinary life limitations and blessings. No big event, major breakthrough, windfall, extreme measures, or financial success secret.

I do read incredible FIRE stories about people who retired in their 30s or 40s. They travel the world, make money online from anywhere they want to, live on a sailboat or in an RV, amass millions of dollars, etc, etc. Their stories are very inspiring and fascinating. I have picked up some great early retirement ideas to use from them. But given what I enjoy and want in life, I’ve filed the more extreme and sensational elements away as unrealistic for me to actually pull off or even really want to do.

All I wanted was to simply ditch the rat race and stay living in my community near my kids and grand kids. A life with the same lifestyle I had always lived, but with more freedom to focus on what I value and enjoy a little more travel. No grand lifestyle changes or unnatural feeling lifestyle downsizing. Just the right early retirement for this ordinary average guy.

Managing The Shifting Sands Of Retirement Passions

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There Will Be More Changes Than You Think –

Coming up on retirement or recently retired? Think you’ve planned out and locked-down your retirement lifestyle for the years ahead? Not so fast pal. All those things you think you will spend your retirement doing will most likely change if not end. They are part of the shifting sands of retirement passions. Don’t sweat it. What we do in retirement evolves as our passions zigzag and change. It happens to most of us. But the key to enjoying this ride instead of lamenting a hole in our lifestyle lies in picking up some good retirement habits and ditching some bad ones.

Managing The Shifting Sands Of Retirement Passions

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Managing Retirement Passions For Inevitable Change

Planning Our New Retirement Lifestyle Based on Today’s Passions

We all know the importance of retiring to something and that includes our passionate pursuits. They include all the hobbies, sports, travel, and having a robust social life. In my case it also included some working pursuits.

They are the things we love doing, so why wouldn’t we believe it’s exactly what we will do during our retirement life? We certainly should budget for them in both our time and money. It’s a prudent retirement plan assumption. But realistically, those planned interests may only stay with us for part of our retired life.

The reason our passions will shift is we can either settle into a less than hot romance with them or completely fall out of love. That’s right, romance and love. Seems that things we love doing when we were under rat race schedules and obligations can lose steam once we retire and have all the time we want with them. Oh, it’s still hot and heavy initially in retirement. But I can tell you as time goes by, interest can wane on some of our retirement passions as our retirement lifestyle matures. I have seen this happen to me and with others. It is a normal progression for most people, one that we don’t initially think about or plan for in our retirement.

How We Should See Our Retirement Passions

Strike when it’s hot, set it aside when it’s not. Don’t worry about shifting retirement passions because if we are diligent then other things will either replace or push for its evolution. Sometimes what we enjoy and are passionate about today will open the door later on for something we consider better. In my case I followed many passions early in my retirement years that I no longer care to pursue. Others have cooled but are still enjoyed. I now even find myself pursuing interests that weren’t on my retirement radar years ago. In any case, when retirement passions fun hot, lean into them. Don’t be afraid to display your passions and interests either.

The Retirement Habits to Ditch
Rigid to a fault –

It’s common to plan on doing something you love to do throughout your retirement and sometimes with heavy frequency. But it’s like the old joke: Patient- Hey Dr., it hurts when I do this. Dr.- Then stop doing that.

The same goes for our retirement passions. When it hurts or stops being enjoyable, stop doing it or at least less frequently until the passion killing issue is worked out, one way or another.

Comfort zone ruts –

When we no longer are told what to do anymore or have to compete we can go overboard avoiding anything challenging. Retirement can have us wanting everything to be under our full control and easy. This can lead to boredom with anything we enjoyed doing.

Overdoing it –

The other end of human behavior is jumping into a passion like it’s a sprint when it should be a marathon. Nothing kills a retirement passion like becoming tired of it and burned out because of going overboard. It can turn into a unrewarding obligation and burden. Not to mention the possibility of physical injury overdoing active pursuits.

The Retirement Habits to Cultivate
Use moderation to save waning passionate retirement pursuits –

Learn to recognize that a change is necessary before it dies. If it’s something important in your retirement and lifestyle then figure out what needs to be done by pulling back on an overboard pursuit.

Spice things up –

Learn to recognize signs that you are in a rut. Spicing up a too comfortable and easy pursuit will keep it interesting and enjoyable.

Staying curious –

There are always different ways that things are done. Allow yourself to wonder what you could do differently to improve a pursuit. Also stay open to new pursuits and challenges that may appeal to you. Be curious to identify, fully investigate, and research new interests. Exploring different ideas and activities can be an enjoyable pursuit in itself.

Be open to new things, but also be able to say no –  

Balance sticking to things to explore it to the fullest. We all know we can do poorly at first with something new and it requires time to find out if it will become a valued pursuit. But stop once you’ve lost your romance with the challenges of a new pursuit or the passionate interest itself. It’s OK to say it’s not your thing and just move onto something else that will be.

Migrate toward family, friends, and community –

When in doubt, follow what’s natural. There are folks who have nothing they are passionate about doing. Others burn through what the thought they would enjoy doing throughout their retirement and found later that they no longer do. They have no idea how to fill the void that’s left. Passions can be found in simple interaction with those we care about. Volunteering, family activities, and cultivating a good social circle are naturally needed, enjoyable, fulfilling, and rewarding pursuits.

 

With over 9 years of retirement behind me, I have seen some of my passions run their course, change, or be replaced with new ones. There are necessary considerations for any retiree to mentally and financially manage as time passes and our retirement passions evolve.  

My Early Retirement Spending Miscalculation, It’s Less Than Expected

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I was looking at my retirement budget calculations. Just a quick glance at the planned long-term numbers I used pre-retirement to ditch the rat race at the age of 51 on December 17, 2009. I’m happy to see that after 9 years of monthly retirement budget tracking I made an early retirement spending miscalculation. Happy because it’s in my favor.

Overestimating early retirement spending is certainly a good thing. When we plan for retirement we have to figure out how much retirement income we need. It comes down to estimating what our retirement budgetary needs will be and applying inflation to the equation. To get our starting number we guess what costs will go up and what costs will go down once we dance our way out of the workplace. But it’s all an educated guess. We won’t know until we are actually living our desired retirement lifestyle and the real inflation rate is revealed down the road.

My Early Retirement Spending Miscalculation, It’s Less Than Expected

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It’s Easy To Make A Retirement Spending Miscalculation

The default advice is you’ll need 70% to 80% of your salary in retirement. That didn’t make sense to me as I was saving a high percentage of my income for retirement. I also expected to pay less taxes. I took the approach that I needed 100% of my pre-retirement frugal living budget minus estimated savings of work related costs like commuting, clothes, and the alcohol I had depended on to counter work induced stress. Then I added 10% to cover my tax obligations. That final estimated figure was far less than using the salary based calculation.

Once I settled on the budget amount I then applied a reasonable yearly inflation factor of 3%. That is except for healthcare. I pulled that amount aside and applied a 6% inflation factor against it to get a closer estimate. Running the numbers through a retirement calculator and coming up with good results is the green light to take the leap.  

The high level retirement spending miscalculations –  

My early retirement spending reality is that healthcare went way up over that 6% inflation amount each year while some others were less than the 3% I used. Some things I initially budgeted for have even disappeared. That’s because things change as we live and experience retirement doing the things we want to do. We settle into an entirely new way of living and our taste for certain things changes over time. Here’s some of my early retirement spending findings.

Healthcare – Medical Insurance

Nobody should be surprised that this went way higher than inflation for everything else. It’s my biggest retirement spending budgetary item and pre-retirement miscalculation. When I retired in December 2009 my retirement health insurance benefit cost $476 a month. For 2018 it was $1,064 and in 2019 it will rise to $1,340. Ouch! The difference between 2010 and 2018 is 123%. That’s a huge healthcare cost increase over 9 years. It should be easy to see how this one will skew anyone’s retirement spending calculations.

I thought doubling to 6% would be high enough when I separately calculated inflation costs for this item from everything else. I figured it was a reasonably obscene inflation percentage to make sure this expense item was covered. The reality is it should have been calculated using a 12% inflation rate. Aside from the company killing this retirement benefit (as they occasionally threaten) and our going on ACA if it still exists, I see little relief from this until our medicare years. I have adjusted future budget projections to reflect that realization.

Cable TV and Entertainment

When I retired we had a basic cable plan. That was our family’s frugal living compromise. Our retired parents all said with more time in retirement you will want to have a good paid TV package. Thinking our basic cable plan was plenty, I included it in our retirement spending calculation. When I retired my cable cost $35. Over the first 6 years of my retirement the same cable service slowly climbed to $92 a month with all their higher channel and fee increases. That increase was well above the 3% inflation rate I used.

We found in our retirement the opposite of our parents retirement experience. We were satisfied with local TV viewing and really only watched a handful of cable channels. It didn’t justify the cost. The nationwide analog to digital TV transmission upgrade and new antenna designs made cutting the cord easy to do. Streaming development also made paid cable or satellite service an easy retirement cost to eliminate.

We have also eliminated other entertainment cost.

We’ve started using our library where DVDs are free to check out. We also connected to our community’s event online calendars to get event email notifications and have enjoyed free concerts near us. Having time also allows us to go to the movie theater or other venues during off hours at a discount.

Retirement brings more spare time but it didn’t raise our TV and entertainment cost. It instead lowered them.

Mortgage

I retired with a modest mortgage still on the books. I calculated our monthly payment into our retirement spending calculation without thinking I would ever pay it off. But then I started a short but sweet encore career. Since I was basically living off of my retirement funding I simply directed 100% of my paychecks to the mortgage and cleared it within 18 months. This move is what made the insanity of rising healthcare cost a near wash for my early retirement spending miscalculation. This is a case of you won’t know what will impact your retirement budget until you are retired. You simply don’t know what you will do until you do it. I had no idea this would happen when planning my early retirement.

Eating Out

Even with all the free time, restaurants didn’t call our name any louder than they did before. In fact they are even harder to hear. Initially we took advantage of happy hour discounts but soon got over it. We prefer home cooked healthy meals and we now have the time to make them. We spend 50% of what we initially modestly budgeted for this.

Travel

We had a decent travel budget. We try to save money when we travel and have done that for decades. With retirement we have time to look for deals and can travel off-season. We also can make reservations and lock into deals months in advance. Another thing we have experienced is our appetite for travel has decreased over the 9 years of retirement. We simply like where we live and play. As far as travel goes we prefer quality experiences to quantity of travel. Although the cost of travel has increased over the years, I’ve found that we travel as much as we want to but are spending the amount we started with. Our travel spending has seen a near 0% inflation increase over these 9 years.

Fuel

I calculated a 50% drop in fuel cost once I retired. Simply thinking that I would be using some of my extra free time to go places but also subtracting out my 20 mile (200 miles a week, whoa!) work commute costs. In actuality the drop has been closer to 75% of our pre-retirement cost. We shop local and travel shorter distances and prefer to spend most of our time outdoors, not driving somewhere. We are lucky that we have outdoor recreation and everything needed within 5 miles of our home. Not only is fuel cost down but so is all auto maintenance like tires, brakes, oil changes, etc.

Taxes

I was paying a large percentage of income in taxes when working so I calculated 10% for my retirement income tax obligation. The reality is when I am not working it is actually only around 5% of total retirement income. Some of that is due to using a more tax efficient withdrawal strategy that I hadn’t considered before I retired.

The Takeaway From This Early Retirement Budgetary Exercise

This exercise wasn’t a yearly spending study.

I merely looked at our initial retirement budget at the end of 2009 with my planned yearly projected increases using our applied inflation estimate. Then I compared that to our spending for 2018 to see how it tracked.

I was happy to see that we are 14% less than what our calculated long-term 2018 budget projection was.

2018 was a year where we did everything we wanted to do. It was also a normal year without any catastrophic events.

For the between years there was one that did go over budget projections. It was a bad year due to a medical crisis. But the other years came in under spending calculations, some much more than others depending on retirement life events. For instance the year we paid off our mortgage and a couple of the following years before health insurance had risen so high came well below the earlier budget calculations.

Having a plan matters.

I believe this shows that having a reasonable plan along with purposeful living and spending discipline, even crazy stuff like obscene healthcare increases won’t necessarily derail one’s retirement plan.

It’s good to have an emergency fund or access to other funding in retirement.

Having the means to carry us through a bad spending year is important. The medical crisis year that we experienced could have caused problems if we only had a fixed monthly income to depend on. We need funds beyond our sunny day budget projections to get through any rainy years.

Retirement life happens and things can change.

During retirement we will do things, stop or decrease doing other things, and make decisions that we couldn’t know to plan for. In my case starting that encore gig and casually paying off my mortgage was a decision that had huge implications in the outcome of this exercise. Had I instead invested my salary, my retirement spending would have been ratcheted higher by healthcare. I would however have more money in my portfolio. Hopefully doing that would have provided higher income to counter the retirement healthcare spending increase. I think I made the better choice.

Inflation is tricky to predict but plays a huge role in planning and outcome.

I admit that my first nine years of early retirement came with many lifestyle cost items having an actual low inflation rate. Healthcare’s massive increase ate solidly into what should have been a stellar lower than expected retirement spending amount. However, had I correctly applied the higher 12% inflation rate to my healthcare calculation the results of this exercise would be off the charts in my favor. The opposite is also true. If we begin to see hyper inflation increases across the board then we have to recalculate our budget going forward. Hopefully investment income can keep up but if it can’t then spending control or possibly returning to a paid opportunity is our best defense.

Having more free time doesn’t necessarily mean spending more to fill it.

I thought we would spend more than we are for travel, entertainment, and all else we do when we are out and about. Although this was partially true in the first couple of years of our retirement, it didn’t stick. In our case having time allows us to save money while still doing everything we enjoy doing.   

Retirement Comes With All Kinds Of Spending Variables

Everyone’s retirement experience will be different. Things like retiring with a child at home that causes spending changes as they age, experiencing a health crisis, or finding out during retirement that you are a passionate travel freak, can throw all projections out the window. If that happens it will hopefully be short-term and you can find yourself back on track or find a way to adjust your budget to meet your retirement’s new spending needs.

Retirement lifestyle cost is a concern for most people when they decide to retire.

What I have found is that as long as there is a reasonable plan based on the lifestyle we want to live and can afford to live, we have a retirement funding cushion available for any bad years, and we  monitor our spending, we can overcome most challenges before they become a huge retirement financial nightmare.

There are no guarantees in life or budgets, but worrying too much about things does no good. Instead know that planning well and tracking our spending gives us the best chances. If the worst should happen then it won’t be due to head-in-the-sand financial recklessness.

Small Changes You Could Make To Your Health, This Year

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Whether busy in the working world or in retirement, it can be hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle. You might try a diet for a few weeks before slipping into old ways, or you might try to quit drinking so much but you end up falling off the wagon when you go to a bar with your friends. Healthy living can seem like a chore, but it shouldn’t. With gradual steps in the right direction, you can start to form habits that’ll become part of your daily routine. Staying healthy shouldn’t be time-consuming. It should simply be a part of your existing schedule. Here are some small changes you could make to your wellbeing.

Small Changes You Could Make To Your Health, This Year

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Exercise every day.

First of all, you should aim to exercise every day. It’s a small change that could make a massive difference to your physical and mental wellbeing. Rather than fretting about strenuous sessions at the gym once or twice every week, you could achieve better results by simply doing 10 to 20 minutes of exercise on a daily basis. Run around your local park, do some push ups in your living room, grab a chair and do some triceps dips, or simply go on a walk with your family and friends. Staying physically active can help to not only keep your waistline trim but also keep you mentally healthy. Exercise releases endorphins in the brain, and that boosts your mood. Establishing a routine exercise activity and incrementally pushing yourself a little more as time goes will generate positive health results.

Reduce your unhealthy habits.

Everybody has unhealthy habits. For some people, it might be that they snack on junk food when they’re bored. For other people, it might be that they drink a little too much wine on a frequent basis. Whatever the unhealthy habit, you should aim to improve your attitude towards excessive consumption of things that are bad for you. Being healthy isn’t just about exercising or eating well; it’s about avoiding the things that are unhealthy for you.

If this seems an impossible task to get onboard with, some people have found success with hypnotism. If you’re struggling to kick a habit such as smoking then you might even want to look into nicotine patches, gum,  or getting a cheap e-juice as an alternative that is a bit healthier for you. Sometimes, weaning yourself off bad habits is easier than going cold turkey. Aside from the health benefits that can come from quitting bad habits, most come at great financial cost. Think about all the things that you could better use your money towards.

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Work on your mental health.

Remember, your mental health is just as important as your physical health. One important change you could make to your health this year is to look after your mind. Your mental wellbeing can be improved in many small ways. For starters, you should talk to your family and friends as often as possible. Sharing your feelings, whether that means laughing or crying, is crucial to your mental health.

You might also want to start making smarter financial decisions. For many adults, the root cause of their high stress levels is money. Whether you’re having problems with your finances or not, you probably worry about money a lot. You might find that it helps your mental health to start being more organized with your finances. An organized budget leads to an organized mind. The point is that you need to think about aspects of your lifestyle which could be improved in order to improve your mental wellbeing.

Home, Health And Happiness: The Retirement Practicalities To Think About

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A lot of us look toward the future with a prevailing sense of dread. Whether it’s about getting old, or about the fact that we are more than likely going to be working until our dying day. These are all thoughts that add up to a continual sense of unease. But, there are ways for you to age with grace, like there are ways for you to be practical as each decade comes and goes. If you are someone who hasn’t got a retirement plan in place, because you think you might not be able to retire, it’s now time to consider what the essential retirement practicalities that each and every one of us can acquire.

Home, Health And Happiness: The Retirement Practicalities To Think About

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Making Your Home A Retirement Haven

While you may be renting a property, or you might own your own home, either way, where you live needs to be as practical for your retirement as possible. While there are so many different considerations in a financial sense to think about, if you are someone that owns your own property, do you actually need to downsize? It’s worth thinking about this now, because when the day comes that you didn’t consider selling up and this property is now a millstone around your neck, it can cause a lot more stress as you age.

Instead, it’s worth considering what you actually want out of your twilight years. Do you want to stay where you are, location wise? If so, is your current abode suitable? If it is, but there are some things that need changing, trying to invest in the most practical of changes now, rather than having to get a part-time job when you are retiring, will be easier as far as paying for things like costly foundation repairs, fixing structural damage, but also, altering your home so you can live there. You might think that it’s a considerable cost now, but it will be a far more difficult prospect when you are living on a more basic income. But to get to this point, you need to ask yourself what you really want out of your retirement years.

You might think yourself too young to even ponder the notion. But when you think about what you really want, in terms of your material goods, as well as what you want for your dependents, you are going to form an image in your head of what your ideal vision of old age is. And from there, you can start to sculpt the ideal scenario for you, but also, your loved ones.

Facilitating Your Spending Requirements

Once you have understood what you really want out of old age, then you can begin to make the necessary financial sacrifices. Of course, you can’t take money with you when you go, and a lot of people have the frame of mind that you should spend it all now. While you can get a basic government retirement fund, you will need to examine whether this is enough for you to live off. This goes back to your goals in retirement, but also, how you imagine spending time in retirement.

Do you have a lot of things you want to accomplish? For example, do you envision yourself going on various vacations? If so, you might consider saving more now, and constricting your spending so you are able to live this vicarious lifestyle. But one of the biggest things that people worry about when it comes to the essential finances in retirement is that they think that they will spend the same amount of money throughout their retirement years. In fact, when you build up your retirement fund, you need to imagine spending the highest amount at the very beginning of your retirement years, and the figure will gradually taper off. This is because of the fact that you will become less mobile and as you gradually begin to downsize your life to suit your practicalities day-to-day, you can then begin to think about if you have too much spending money, in which case, you can think about things like inheritance for your dependents and your next of kin.

The Cost Of Health

We all want a healthy and happy retirement, and whether you have nothing in the bank and it looks like you will be working well into old age, or you have enough money stockpiled for one massive vacation a year, your health is still one of those clichéd things that you have to focus on. Healthcare should be one of those things that you don’t give a second thought to, because you are adequately insured. But also, you should view your health as an investment. After all, if you have a lot of money, but you are unable to enjoy it because of an ailing health condition, what is the point? And so, this is where the old fashion advice comes into play, such as healthy diet, but also exercising.

In addition to these, your mental health is something that has to be invested in, because the potential for isolation is something that increases as we get older. And why you may view things like vacations as essential ways to give you peace of mind, it’s important, in retirement, to invest, financially or emotionally, in routines. This is why the cliché of taking up something like golf always springs to mind. Not only is it a great way to get all those health benefits of being social, outdoors, and so forth, but it also is a minor physical challenge, and benefits your brain in various cognitive ways.

 

Because retirement is one of those things that you don’t give a second thought to, especially when you’re in your 20s or 30s, the reality of the situation comes around sooner than you think. And while lots of advice online will tell you to consider life insurance, writing out a will, investing, and all the other common approaches, you still need to consider your home, health, and happiness at the core of your retirement plan.

5 Tips on Saving More Money with Annual Travel Insurance

Early Retirement Lifestyle, Protect Assets, Saving Money, Vacationing in Retirement,

When it comes to travel insurance, one of the most common questions is, ‘Isn’t single trip insurance cheaper than annual travel insurance? Then why would I sign up for the latter, when a single trip cover is saving me a few bucks?’ Not all of it is true, especially if you are a frequent traveler. Opting for  travel insurance entirely depends on the kind of traveler you are – a frequent traveler or an ordinary traveler.

Either way, getting  travel insurance is necessary, just to make sure you and your family are protected in case of an accident, loss of personal belongings, travel inconvenience, etc.

Annual travel insurance might come up as an expensive venture, however, for frequent travellers, it’s probably the most viable option out there.

Before delving deep into the art of saving money, let’s first see what annual travel insurance actually is.

5 Tips on Saving More Money with Annual Travel Insurance

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Annual travel insurance in a nutshell

In short, you make a one-time investment to purchase an annual travel policy instead of putting your money at work before every trip in a given year. It is a more convenient and feasible option for both business and leisure travelers.

An annual insurance policy usually offers the following:

  • Trip cancellation coverage
  • Covers medical expenses
  • Coverage for loss of luggage
  • Delay in flights and other flight related inconvenience coverage
  • Flight reroute expenses
  • Travel inconvenience coverage
  • 24-hour hotline for emergency situations

Certain insurance policy providers also offer the following:

  • Cover for aadventurous sports like bungee jumping, scuba diving, rafting, etc.
  • Identity theft cover
  • Rental-car collision cover

Apart from these, insurance providers might offer you other additional benefits, which you need to check with the service provider before signing up.

How to save money with yearly travel insurance

Did you know that you can save a lot more money with an annual trip cover? Most frequent travellers are opting for it, and it’s time you should consider it too! Here are 5 essential tips on how you can save more with a yearly insurance policy.

  1. Pay low premium: For multiple trips in a year, signing up for annual travel insurance is the best option. You will eventually end up paying substantially lower premium compared to a single trip policy!
  2. Choose your insurance plan wisely: Make sure that you are opting for the best plan. Do you want independent travel cover for each member of your family or a single plan for the adults? Individual insurance plans are generally more expensive, so choose as per your requirement.
  3. Know your travel duration: You have to pay more for longer duration stays. So, make sure you are clear about your travel plans and have all the itineraries set. Also, how many days of insurance cover do you need in a calendar year? If you have all these in place, you can save more money while purchasing the insurance.
  4. Compare deals and benefits: In Malaysia, you will find a host of travel insurance policy providers, including and not limited to, Allianz, AIG, RHB, Maybank, MSIG, etc. Compare the deals, offers, and rates offered by the insurance service providers and choose the plan that suits you best. In this way you will be able to save a few extra bucks.
  5. Geographical area: Know the areas that fall under the insurance policy. You don’t want to fall sick, meet with an accident or lose your money in a place that’s not covered under the policy, right?

A well-known insurance policy provider will always tell you the benefits of an annual travel plan before you take it up.

So, are you a frequent traveller? What kind of travel insurance plan are you exactly looking for?

 

This informative article was contributed to Leisure Freak by Syed Faraz

Syed is a Financial content analyst/adviser of bbazaar.my, an online platform that provides information and advice on personal finance and money management.

Early Retirement Is More About Pursuing Dreams Than Retirement

Early Retirement Lifestyle, Retire Early, Retire Often,

Yes, I’m an early retiree. But I hardly ever say or think that I am retired. Maybe it’s because of some physiological retirement hangup due to my age. But it’s more likely because I believe early retirement is more about pursuing dreams than retirement. That has certainly been my experience. As I have celebrated yet another birthday, having just returned from one of many planned vacations this year, and look back at my 9.5 years of early retirement, I can’t help myself but reflect on what early retirement has been for me and how I try to explain it.

Early Retirement Is More About Pursuing Dreams Than Retirement

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I’ve Found Early Retirement Is More About Pursuing Dreams

Mention of the word “retirement” within any context and it evokes different visions for different people. Usually it’s the traditional images of retirement that enters one’s mind. I believe associating that narrow traditional image with early retirement is a barrier. One that keeps many people from taking the necessary steps to successfully retire early. It certainly takes a substantial portfolio to support that image of early retirement. If my younger self knew then what I know now, I certainly would have been even more motivated to retire early. Once you ditch the word “retirement” and all of its traditional imagery, then replace it with having the freedom to pursue dreams, I think early retirement becomes much more attractive. Depending on your dreams it becomes much more attainable too.  

 

Dreams are meant to be big but also realistic

You have to be a dreamer to walk away from a successful career. The trick is understanding that if you really want it, you need to figure out ways to make it happen. The thing we have going for us with early retirement is youth and energy. That means we are willing and able to pursue dreams and many times some of our dreams will also provide income beyond our portfolio.

My early retirement dream didn’t require me to save a million or more dollars, or even have my mortgage paid off. I didn’t make a huge salary. Trying to first reach that high level of financial accomplishment would have delayed my retirement into old age. My dreams were centered around my family, community, friends, and travel. It was also focused on things I wanted to learn and do. I planned right from the start that I wanted to retire early and often. People I worked with thought I was nuts, but all of this is exactly what my early retirement has been.

Some of my pursued dreams failed and others surprised me when they didn’t turn out to be as attractive as I thought they would. As some dreams were lived, others lost appeal and new ones were born. Early retirement is an amazing adventure.

 

I saved just enough to allow myself to do it

Paying off my mortgage and increasing my net worth beyond having just enough all came after my first early retirement. I had some awesome retirement jobs and a successful encore career. I have taken criticism with claims that all I did was a late life career change, but I disagree. My early retirement dream is based on this simple definition: Retirement is the absence of needing to work, not the absence of working. I cut my lifestyle cost using smart frugal living and saved just enough to fund that lifestyle.

I walked away from forced obligation to being free to go after anything I wanted to. There were opportunities I really wanted to explore and experience. There’s so much I want to learn more about. I knew that retiring early meant still having the energy and drive to accomplish whatever I wanted to pursue. Once I felt I got all that I wanted from the experience and was ready to move on, I would just retire again. I feel I dreamed big but also realistically. It all started with knowing I had just enough to give me the courage to do what I had long-planned to do.

 

Early Retirement Pursuing Dreams

Whatever one’s early retirement dreams are, from being a world travel photographer, an artist, starting an encore career of passion and interest, or beginning a business, to living something closer to a traditional retirement lifestyle, either here or abroad, early retirement is more about pursuing YOUR dreams. Figure out what your dreams are, then do what you can to make it happen. I can personally say that it is totally worth the effort.

Hotel Hacks: How to Get the Best Room without Paying Top Dollar

Budgeting, Early Retirement Lifestyle, Saving Money, Vacationing in Retirement, ,

Doing your research really does pay off, but if you are still unable to find a great hotel then you may have to resort to alternative measures. After all, it is more than possible for you to find a great hotel without paying the high price, and these travel hotel hacks will help you to do that.

Research

When you do your research, try to use sites such as Trivago. All you have to do here is enter your destination into the search box. The site will then ask you to fill out your travel dates and before you know it, you could be well on your way to booking your dream hotel. You can even put down the board requests that you have as well. This is great if you have some really special requirements. The main thing that you have to remember here is that not all hotels are on sites such as this. Make sure that you compare prices on other websites too as this will show you hotels that you never even thought existed.

Before pulling the trigger, always try to find your target hotel’s direct online site and compare prices. Sometime the hotels run specials that the hotel broker-site’s don’t know about.  Ever consider an exotic vacation to Mexico? If you want to save more money while still getting a great room, why not consider the Courtyard Leon at The Poliforum? Sometimes going somewhere not as well-known can save big bucks.

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Cashback

Did you know that it is more than possible for you to earn cashback on your next hotel stay? All you have to do is sign up through a cashback website. When you do this, you can then purchase something listed on their site. Every time you do this, you will get some money back. If you use sites like this for every aspect of your vacation, you’ll soon find that it isn’t hard for you to really get a good result out of your travel and it is a great way for you to take some extra holiday money with you.

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Trade for a Villa on Family Holidays

When you go on a family holiday, instead of booking a hotel, consider going for a villa. You can save hundreds by doing this and this doesn’t just have to apply if you are going abroad. It is more than possible for you to stay at a B&B and it is also possible for you to rent some seriously luxurious hotels out of season. You can always haggle with them as well. In some instances you may even find that they are way nicer than the chains you have looked at. You can also try to work with the person who owns the B&B to ask them if they would be willing to give you a discount if you write a review or even if you shared their site on your blog. Publicity is always a great tool and hotels are usually very happy to take advantage of it.

Lastly, don’t forget to check sites like Airbnb and VRBO. People all over offer great homes and rooms for lower cost than many hotel chains and offer great value.

 

It’s more than possible for you to get a great hotel and at a very low price. The only thing that you really have to do is your research while also making sure that you look into all of your options. No matter where you go to stay, always check their reviews first!

Create A Bright And Colorful Garden On A Budget

Budgeting, Do It Yourself, Early Retirement Lifestyle, Frugal Living, Passion, , ,

Do you dream of spending lazy afternoons in a beautiful, fresh and inviting garden now that you’ve retired early? Americans are spending more time than ever in their gardens, with 1 in 3 households now growing their own vegetables in their outside space. Spending time in the garden is a relaxing, peaceful and enjoyable pastime for many retirees and it’s a pure luxury to be able to put your feet up and enjoy your surroundings on a warm summer day. Entertaining family and friends in the confines of your garden is a perfect frugal activity for retirees, therefore creating a bright and atmospheric space while sticking to a budget is essential.

Create A Bright And Colorful Garden On A Budget

Photo by Marie-Sophie Tékian on Unsplash

Open up the garden

A simple tidy up and trim of the bushes can be all it takes to turn the garden from a cluttered, overgrown, unappealing mess to a spacious and attractive part of the home that you want to spend bundles of time in, and it doesn’t cost anything to have a bit of a spring clean. During the autumn, crisp leaves which have fallen to the ground will soon become a damp, soggy annoyance. Cleaning these up with a leaf blower will instantly make the garden appear bigger and, while it may be a bit of an investment, there are numerous alternative uses for a leaf blower which make them a good multi-functional tool worthy of the initial outlay.

Inject color

Colorful gardens are fun and bring a smile to your face when you step outside. Fences, planters and wooden pieces of furniture can be painted in an array of colors to instantly brighten the area. Opting for plants and shrubs in different colors, purchased from discount retailers, creates a lively atmosphere which anyone will enjoy relaxing in. While scattering pretty cushions on benches and chairs will make them comfortable and stylish. You can recycle old tin cans by painting and decorating them and filling them with beautiful low-cost plants, too. Or, get the grand-kids to transform the rocks at the bottom of the garden into animals and dot these around the lawn.

Bring the garden to life

Invite friends and family round for a get together and ask they all pitch in to spruce up the garden at the same time. This is a great cost saving method and way to get jobs completed swiftly, while enjoying time together. Someone can mow the lawn, while others trim the bushes and pot some new plants and all you’ll need to do is dish out some ice-cold drinks and pop a few burgers on the barbecue to keep everyone happy. It’s also worth asking your loved ones if they’ve got any old pieces of garden furniture in their sheds that they no longer want, or packets of seeds stashed away that they’re not going to use which you could recycle and put to good use in your own garden.

There is no need to spend a fortune on doing up the garden when there are so many ways to brighten and liven the space up for very little expense.

 

This timely spring-season related article is a contribution to Leisure Freak from freelance writer Jackie Edwards. Thanks Jackie!

Now working as a full-time freelance writer, Jackie Edwards is also a busy mum of two small children. In any free time she has (which isn’t much) she likes to volunteer and do charity work and take the family greyhound Bertie for long walks.

Becoming a Caregiver, The Retirement Game Changer That Can Happen To Anyone

Early Retirement Lifestyle, Non-financial Aspects of retirement, Retirement Plan, ,

Surprise! I never saw it coming. It was something that escaped all of my early retirement planning and it touches everything from finances to lifestyle. It can consume dreams if you let it. Taking on the role of caregiver is a retirement game changer. It is seldom planned for but chances are good that the caregiver role will touch many people.

In my case it was rather sudden. But even if we can see a loved one’s health declining, it is usually a slow-moving but unstoppable train and we fail to grasp ahead of time the challenges to come. For me it was doubly heartbreaking as illness struck my bride right in midst of our early retirement.

My wife and I worked hard to save enough money to retire early and stay as healthy as we could. We made all the lifestyle and financial plans that everyone does to finally live free from the obligations of the rat race. We had looked at and carefully planned for our early retirement of energetic youthful bliss. Even making considerations within our plans for long-term care in our old age. It was all about living life on our terms for what was left of it. Well, life is messy, and the terms were changed. It can happen to anyone.

Caregiver- The Retirement Game Changer

Our planned retirement life together was thrown into the air. People tend to only focus on the awesome parts of retirement, not plan for this. We didn’t plan for it, at least not for this at our young age. This meant learning on the fly in real-time. Saying it is a challenge can be an understatement. Here is what I’ve learned through this experience so that you can at least think about the possibility and plan accordingly

Shifting Finances

I was already retired and didn’t have a job that I was relying on. Having to give up a job to become a caretaker not only interferes with earning income, but also interrupts adding to retirement accounts. Saving for retirement is tough enough for most people. Working folks who become caretakers have huge financial hurdles to overcome and many end up using their retirement savings earlier than they planned.

For already retired folks the budget gets blown apart. Medical costs can climb much higher than other budgetary items that may decrease like travel and entertainment. We hit our health insurance out-of-pocket maximum before mid-year. Not only did we spend much more for medical but when treatments and medications were ineffective or failed, we also paid for natural remedies in an attempt to increase my wife’s quality of life. You are willing to try anything that looks promising when illness hits hard.

Takeaway: It is important to have some flexibility in your budget. Have at least enough extra funds easily available to pay up to the health insurance plan’s out of pocket maximum amount each year.

Emotional Challenges

Taking on the duties of being a caretaker comes with a lot of emotional tugs. Not only do you have to recognize and help your loved one through their physical and emotional challenges, but you must deal with your own thoughts about what could have been had this not happened. It is all too easy for frustration, sadness, disappointment, anger, resentment, and depression to creep in for both parties.

Be prepared for an emotional roller-coaster for all involved. We communicated what we were feeling and both deployed super patience with each other. With open dialog it is easy to understand that it is a difficult situation but one that we are lovingly willing to fight for the best outcome. We both were disappointed about all of our unrealized early retirement plans and an unknown future, but we kept a positive attitude by agreeing that everything was postponed, not cancelled.

Takeaway: Everyone feels frustration in this dynamic. Over communicate instead of hiding feelings. Keeping a positive attitude has healing powers for both the cared for and the caretaker.

Self Imposed Isolation

We are private people and that can be a detriment. It has never been easy for me to ask for help for anything. To all around us it was obvious something was going on. I was always seen alone and my wife seldom left the house for other than medical appointments. People with good intentions would ask how things were going. I would hold back and just say that things were going good and that she had some health challenges but was doing well. I wouldn’t complain or talk about how things really were going or express our fears and concerns. Even when our daughters called we would downplay how things were. When they visited we both tried to hide the seriousness of the situation.

I just couldn’t ask for anyone’s help. We both felt that everyone has busy lives and we don’t want to burden them with our problems. Many months went by before I started to leak the situation. Once I did that I then found I wasn’t alone. So many people had experienced similar life hurdles and had helpful advice. There were sincere offers for help. Even the littlest of things were a huge help. We loved when our daughters would prepare meals to give us a break from my grilling everything and my poorly skilled cooking.  

Takeaway: Share what is going on with the people in your life. Self isolation is unnecessary. It’s alright to accept help, especially when in a possible long-term caregiver situation. Then appreciate and be thankful for any help and to anyone who can make the time to lend a hand.  

Wasteful Worry

It’s easy to get caught up in worry when you don’t KNOW the outcome. Will this get better or will it become worse? What if medical treatments continue to fail? What if something happens to me, what will we do then?

It can cause sleep disorders, which is exactly what I experienced. My sleeplessness left me physically run down. Not only was I dealing with the mental side of being a caregiver I now was adding another negative physical dynamic.

Instead of worry, let the doctors work through what they do and take care of yourself. As a caregiver, aside from our worrying being a waste of time, it can cause us to neglect our own health. The caregiver role is demanding and we need to stay up to the task by doing things to stay healthy while also allowing joy in our life. I found I was concentrating solely on my wife’s health, needs, and everything related to her medical treatment. I needed to set aside time so I could introduce healthy actions for myself too.

Takeaway: Exercise, go for a walk if you can get away for a short time, get outside in the sunshine, and eat right. Allow your mind daily mental escape and relaxation to recharge. All the healthy things we know we should do goes a lot farther towards our health and means much more when we are in a stressful and challenging caregiver situation. Strive to find some balance.

Becoming a Caregiver, The Retirement Game Changer That Can Happen To AnyoneAnd Now?

My retirement caregiver experience lasted about a year. Although my bride will live with her illness the rest of her life, thankfully the doctors found the right treatments and medications for her to return to a fully functional and active life. That breakthrough was almost a year ago. We know we are very fortunate and that many people have to deal with much more than we did. Living through this really opened our eyes. We appreciate and cherish our health more than ever.

What happened came out of nowhere and totally sidelined our retirement for a year. Fortunately it didn’t come at a time in our lives when we were depending on our employment for income to live. Our retirement budget did take a hit but nothing catastrophic because we did have decent medical coverage once out-of-pocket limits where breached. We plan to happily take advantage of this second chance and live our retirement to the fullest. The future is always unknown so we don’t want to waste any of our young and healthier time of life that we have left.

Why I Shared Our Story

I know our story is unique, there are many different caregiver scenarios. Even within our story, my wife’s experience from the cared-for side in her early retirement will be different from mine. The caregiver role can come with many different requirements like making your home wheelchair accessible or even having to move. It could be a retired couple caring for a parent and having to curtail their planned retirement life. The reason I shared our story is that I believe this kind of retirement impacting situation can happen to anyone and some of the issues we worked through will be common.

At Least Think About The Possibility

As we look at our retirement plans we should consider thinking about the impacts of a spouse, parent, sibling, child, or grandchild needing us to step-up as their caregiver. Even when we aren’t an in-home caregiver but taking on some care activities for an independent but failing loved one may mean being anchored close by and disrupt our retirement lifestyle and travel plans. This retirement game changer is becoming far more common than you think. It is an uncomfortable reality.

We should all understand that our plans for our retirement can turn out a lot different. We should prepare ourselves both financially and mentally for the possibility of becoming a loved one’s caregiver and if the unfortunate should occur, go into it happily and courageously as just another detour in our life’s journey. As far as I am concerned, we have one life to live the best way we can so don’t allow a bump in our retirement plans derail us.

Update 10/4/18: For anyone who has interest into looking at long-term or short-term care insurance I have found an informative article at ALTCP that compares short-term vs. long-term care policies.

Do you have frustrations or concerns about and/or have tips to counter the disruption of your retirement plans because of being a caregiver in some capacity?