The Reality About Early Retirement

By Delphine Clarke

I was very fortunate in my working life to work for a large international company, travelling around the world and meeting lots of people. I was a project manager and never seemed to have enough time to spend on me, doing the things I wanted to do. So when I was offered early retirement, it did not take me long to make my decision. I was in my early fifties and beginning to feel the pressure of the job I did. I wanted to spend more time at home and to have more time to relax. I decided that I could live on my pension and so my decision was a mammoth "Yes".

Initially, I enjoyed my time at home. I found myself cleaning my house, doing more cooking and gardening and generally living each day in a more relaxed way. However nothing seemed to happen, life just rolled from one day to the next whereas my working life had always been like a rollercoaster ride.

After a few months, I began to realise that life was quite dull being at home. Another realisation I had, was that I had only done most of my hobbies in order to relieve the pressure of work and to give me another focus. Now the pressure was no longer there, neither was the motivation to do my hobbies. I found too, that I missed my colleagues from work. I missed seeing and talking to people and I missed the pressure of being in a working environment. What a surprise that was to me. It gradually began to occur to me that I actually enjoyed working.

I enjoyed the highs and lows that occurred at work. I enjoyed the interaction with people and I enjoyed working under pressure. And suddenly I realised that I was too young to stop work, my mind still wanted to be working at the fast pace of business and I no longer felt challenged.

So if you are in a position to take early retirement, before making that decision, look inside yourself to understand what motivates you, what you enjoy doing and more importantly, why you do it. Do you enjoy your job? Does it challenge and motivate you? Do you enjoy the company of your colleagues? What would you do if you were not working? How would you fill your time? What would you miss? What would early retirement enable you to do? If you were not working, would you still wish to do it?

It could be that you do not enjoy your job, in which case this could be an ideal opportunity to do something different. Decide what that is and identify what you need to put in place to do it, and in either situation, determine if you can afford to do it?

Another aspect of early retirement is that unless you have a lot of older friends, most of your friends are still working. I found that most of my friends were working, and those that were not, had their own routine. My idea of lunches out and shopping trips did not materialise. You may find the same situation occurring. If you are married, then consider also, the effect your retirement will have on your family. They have had their own routine for a long time and suddenly you will be a part of it. You may find that you and your family have different expectations of what early retirement will mean to you and to them. Clarify this before you retire and set the expectations, otherwise you may find the path a rather bumpy one.

In my case, after a few months, I decided to take a part time job which I did for a while. I have now had three in different environments and each one has been interesting in its own right, but not challenging enough. I then decided to go back to college and retrain as a Holistic therapist. I have finished my training now and am about to set up my own holistic business.

Financially though, the economy has changed in the last few years and I am now finding I need another income to supplement my pension. This is another aspect to think about. When you are not working, you spend time going out and this costs money. You still need to feed and clothe yourself and to have a social life, so think carefully about your financial needs. Your food bills will increase, as will your utility bills and petrol costs due to not being at work, plus you need to take inflation costs into account too.

So after 4 years of early retirement, and a lot of learning about myself, I have decided to challenge myself again and have invested in an online marketing business. This one has a good back office support system to help me and there is a lot to learn. I can do this business from home, along side my holistic therapy business, and it should supplement my income for some time to come.

If you are in the position that I was in, you took early retirement and have now found that you need to have another challenge, or a supplement to your income, then take a look at the business below that I am now involved in. Just click on the link to find out more about this business. http://newkjronline.com?t=ezinead3

One thing I should add, I have never thought about returning to my old profession. Although life is different, I have had the opportunity to try new things and have become a more interesting, relaxed person in the process.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Delphine_Clarke

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