What if you could cash in a nest egg + profits from selling everything you own (A house? A car? Stocks?) and just… live.
What if you could do what you love most (Writing? Playing your guitar? Painting? Calling the lowest bid on The Price is Right?) all day.
What if your nest egg allowed you to live comfortably – not lavishly – but still afforded you small luxuries, like brunch with friends, buying that vintage find or even the occasional evening of theater?
What if.
What if, when money ran low, you could just take up a few creative part-time jobs to help boost your Rainy Day Fund.
What would you miss most?
Getting up at 5 a.m.
Warring traffic, twice a day
Superiors who don’t know your worth
Your 10×10 cubicle
Your 30-minute lunch that you eat at your desk
Your desk
Leftovers for lunch, again
Your bi-weekly paycheck
What would you miss most?
What if all this was possible – would you cash in your life you have so that you could live you want?
What if you lived this way, for just one year, only to discover that you miss your old life – the traffic, the cubicle, the boss? At least you’d know what you really want, wouldn’t you? Because how do we know what we really want until we’ve had a taste?
So, if you could retire now, would you?
*This post was totally inspired by something my husband just said. Because maybe, just maybe, we’ve thought about it once or twice.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
I am just getting started with my career but i do need the push. Otherwise i would be lazy as hell.
What would I miss most? Probably meeting colleagues.
So I’d be heading down the volunteering for something route as well.
I do volunteer work now (I haven’t had a paying job in 5 years)and while I do love it, it can be as tiring and frustrating as a job at times. Though I always have the choice of not doing it.
I think what people crave is freedom and diversity, whether it’s volunteer work, or a paying job, doing the same thing can be boring and frustrating. And it’s always nice to ignore responsibilities and do what ever you want!
how have you not worked for 5 years??? lucky…
I think I would miss having structured work days for sure… and being forced to get up early so I actually get paid.
What would I do though?? Hmm…I would finish traveling all the sites on my list of places to see. Then I would probably do the Peace Corp. Then I would my time serving others..volunteer work, relief work and the like. Something where I feel like I’m serving a greater purpose.
nothing wrong with structure! I’ve worked from home and it’s not always easy. I craved the discipline! But now, I’m over my 10×10 cube at work. But that aside, I love your idea of volunteering if you retired.
Absolutely, without a second thought. I would be so good at being retired. I would probably go do a few days volunteering somewhere when I wasn’t travelling just to not get too bored.
Agreed! Retirement doesn’t mean having to be bored, does it? My poor in-laws are bored. It blows. Keeping active and, well, LIVING is vital to enjoying the free time. We just get so wrapped up in DOING that we forget how to just simply BE. (oh, God, there I go getting all yoga-like again.)
Ideally my life is going to be mobile, so the 9-5 crunch won’t necessarily apply to me and hopefully I won’t get burned out so quick.
I guess that’s the dream, though. To do what you love and get paid for it… making the idea of retirement seem silly.
I hear you on this. My goal is to have a great blend between my work life and personal life – when you love what you do, why stop?
Eh. I may bitch and moan, but at the end of the day, I need the structure… or I’d never get off the couch.
Definitely not. I don’t even know what to do during a 3 day weekends, let alone every single day for a year.
yeah i think about this all the time. selling everything we have and traveling. almost talked the husband into doing it once but now the kid is on the way and we have way too many responsibilities. some day though i’ll be doing what i want :)
Kid on the way! Congratulations! Perhaps, when baby gets older, you can pack up and hit the road together… like a happy, hippie family. Ahhh, would love that.
I asked myself all of these questions about a year ago, and finally worked up the nerve to “retire” in May 2009. I’ve never looked back! Life is now all traveling and writing and learning how to draw.
You’re absolutely right. You can always get another job.
http://raggedythreads.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-this-brilliant-self-discovery-or.html
I can’t wait to click this post!
I would “retire,” only insomuch as my job right now is strictly to pay the rent while I try to scrape together time and energy to pursue writing. If my rent were taken care of, I’d have so much more time for writing and self-promoting! Of course I couldn’t give up writing, no mater how much $$$ I had, ’cause without it I would die.
I absolutely would! And I think I would still work, but I’d do something I’m passionate about – or something fun – like open a bookstore!
Backpack theory. That’s what I call it.
Yes, I would retire.
I’d face the fear of uncertainty, the free-falling loss of all the things that tether me here, suspended and dreaming.
Because I know that I’d only worker harder. I’d work with passion. I’d walk up mountains as long as I am reaching the top for my heart, and not to pay the bills.
But I’m making the most of the interim. Writing on the side. Dreaming on the side. I guess we do what we have to.
As long as you don’t stop thinking about it, “once or twice.”
wonderfully put.
I’m actually lucky enough to be doing what I love. If I could retire now, I would probably still end up doing the same sort of work I do now- teaching arts and crafts to inner city kids. I would just do it for free.
That sounds amazing, Emma. How long have you been teaching? So rewarding, I’m sure. I love hearing when people say they love their jobs. I mean, sure, we work for $$, right? But there is no price on satisfaction.