F.I.R.E. Financially Independent Retire Early

A curious and rare quest, which all of us have always fantasized about, which a handful few have been fortunate enough to accomplish in history, today is being transformed into a ground gaining trend in everybody’s imagination of possibilities, and that is to earn loads of money quickly and then move out from the job market. There are arguments both for and against this objective and while it is difficult arguing the worthiness of this objective, the inclination towards this needs to be studied and understood.

Factually speaking, the quitting of job market without adequate funds stacked away has always been there as an option. People for their own reasons have always taken to being an ascetic or hermit since the history of mankind. All across the world since ages we have monasteries for such people. For them financial independence was never a constraint and therefore they remain outside the purview of our discussion. Nevertheless in the modern age of consumerism based economies of countries, losing a pair of working hands impacts the economy negatively. That person ceases to be an active producer and consumer. The burden of producing his food and clothing falls on others and that person becomes a free-loader without contributing anything in return. The other loss is of the industry and organisation which employed that person. The industry would have spent sizable resources on training and developing necessary skills in such a person and becomes a major loser right when during the best years in the life of that person to return favours; he/she chooses to walk away.      

As a concept financial independence and early retirement categorizes people into two major visible groups of persons based on age and responsibilities. One is that this has potential appeal mostly for all middle aged persons across the globe irrespective of whether they are employers or employees. The youngsters and the seniors also do contemplate becoming financially independent but the inclination isn’t as severe. While the youngsters have a long way ahead with unfulfilled ambitions in front of them, for the elders it is all about left over time for reaching their goal post at the earliest. The other is that this concept remains beyond the grasps of most of us because we have too many unrealized responsibilities to take the plunge into this unchartered risky domain. Undeniably since this concept is gaining popularity, it is apparent that people are getting straight-jacketed into chasing economic goals which is not their interest area anymore, or they are getting distracted and losing focus from their jobs because of the cacophony caused by the information explosion in the modern world and the irresistible lure of gaged personal dreams. In the modern world the demands of the job makes life rather sterile, bland, routine and uninteresting and it is relatively easy to locate information regarding the availability to learn and pursue a basket of other options.

There are a few other angles contributing to the spread of the early retirement with financial security option. There are special kinds of people who shadow this option, one of them being the most talented. The talented employee always wishes to quit because of two reasons. One is that the talented have multiple interests in life and the ability to crystalize them. Secondly the salaries for talented people have increased to such major levels that they are able to contemplate early retirement. Then there is another kind, individual who dislike working for someone else all through life. They would rather focus on personal passions since life is limited. All said and done, it is apparent that the outdated cultural principle of security of a life-long job is dead. While job jumping which is yet another matter altogether is quite common in every industry and economy today, the concept of not having to do a job at all for life has also taken firm roots.  Further with capitalism spreading and becoming intensely cut-throat, the work pressure in job life is extremely painful and telling. Though salaries are higher than before, employees want respite from the fierce competitive market place, the ever unhappy and dissatisfied boss, the late hours, the invariably 24X7 availability approach, the multi-tasking and the infamous ‘no time to enjoy life’ syndrome.

The amazing part is that early retirement with financial security is possible and people are actually doing it. The numbers are still low but the trend has begun. A new consultancy field has developed to help people plan their early retirement with financial security together with accurate future return on investments, future inflation, future expenses and a fair assessment of life expectancy. However it is a misnomer of sorts because a lot of sacrifice from the current lifestyle is involved wherein it has to be scaled down. The focus becomes to take life easy, slow down, avoid unnecessary expenditure and live in a simple manner. The essentially commonsense idea is to have an adequate corpus from where one can withdraw a regular monthly cost of living expenses for the rest of ones life, plus a shelter which is a prerequisite and plus separate adequate funds kept aside for health care, children’s marriage and any other responsibility. A residential accommodation is a dead investment but which is expected to outlast the persons own life. Health always remain the unpredictable angle and the person is expected to do everything possible to take care of own health. Exigencies like war and natural calamities affect everyone alike and are therefore neutral to this discussion. It of course goes without saying that provision for a minor source of income based on interest and time availability becomes helpful. Another basic and fundamental idea is that there is no need to leave an inheritance for the next generation and the person (along with spouse possibly) is expected to finish his/her personal life as he finishes his/her accumulated personal wealth.

The rather more difficult part of this early retirement with financial security exercise is to manage ones individual emotional and psychological health. Since it involves pulling forth the mindset of retired life a couple of decades earlier, careful handling of emotional and psychological needs becomes imperative. It is most essential to have an interesting thing to do with your time and energy so as to satisfy your own mental demands because not doing anything useful negatively impacts physical health. Each one of us being a social animal, always seek feedback and assurances from society about we being useful and necessary part of the society, which contributes to our emotional and psychological stability. One has to ensure that they do not bend into a defensive mental mode which could erode self-respect and self-worth. Further managing a healthy emotional state of mind is not so easily predictable and sometimes our thoughts and memories pull us down. Having a useful occupation helps to divert the mind from spiraling negativity and works as an outlet for pent up emotions.

PURSUIT OF WEALTH - BALANCING ABILITY AGAINST DESIRES

Economic growth and decay has been happening across the globe from place to place, from region to region, from country to country. Economic wealth and power has been shifting like sand over the land, settling at different places at its own rhyme and reason. Based on the limited known history of the past couple of thousand years and not necessarily in the correct sequence of time, we have seen that; once upon a time the civilisation in the Euphrates - Tigris held sway, the people in the Indus – Saraswati river basin held the envy of the world, the Egyptians and also the Chinese took over, the Middle East Muslims too became powerful, for a while the Mongols held the reins, and post that the Romans, the Greeks, the British and finally the Europeans and the Americans have held and lost power.

When we look at it from a philosophical point of view the positives that emerge seems to suggest that wealth and power is the biggest equiliser in the world and doesn’t remain the mainstay of any region or race nor individual for a very long time. Everybody gets a shot at it, everybody gets the opportunity to hold it and then pass it on. It appears like a supremely justifiable democratic idea where everybody is considered equal and the strongest or most capable person or group or race or region at any particular point of time gets recognised as the leader. It has become like a game of pass-the-ball around the globe and we humans dimwits at worse or unwittingly at best are being played with. Obviously I do sound negative about this grossly harmless phenomenon; my objection could be overly estimated but not unnecessary though. The pursuit of wealth and power has undoubtedly brought in material progress and it has fueled innovation and development, across the globe.  My complaint against this natural spectacle is both at the macro and micro levels.  

It has caused too much destruction: The known history of the world is fraught with wars and killings for the sole motive of seizing land, power and wealth. Humans either in regional or ethnic groups have fought each other, coveting or usurping from one another. Quite possibly the very first migration of the human species had taken place to seek independent power and wealth. The most initial motives could have been unhindered power or access over land for hunting, grazing and cultivation. With the increase in agricultural and animal production came trading, which further evolved into the exchange value of goods and the needs for common exchange standard using gold and such other precious metals and gems. The accumulations of such universally exchangeable commodity lead to the concept of financial wealth. Predictably this wealth got accumulated in the hands of a capable few which fueled greed and envy in others who were deprived, and the practice of appropriating and grabbing by hook or crook took roots. Humans when seized by negative emotions have never stopped to stoop to the lowest levels. Every action to acquire the power and wealth very soon became acceptable to the species and was very easily considered reasonable. Over time, wealth and power came to be treated as a commodity to be defended and all fighting skills developed by the species to be used against nature and wild animals, were required to be unleashed against its own kind. Most of the times, large scale wars erupted, giving a free rein to mass killing, wherein the pain and sufferings let loose on the population was accepted as a part of the game plan and justified under ‘no pain no gain’ ideology. Soldiers, weaponry and destructive skills too got appreciated in society. Even today we can see that there is destruction and suffering on this planet for the sake of power and wealth. Countries even if not directly related to the local issues of fighting, end up taking sides for strategic interests and supply arms and ammunitions to ensure that fighting goes on. Countries have also calibrated themselves and sometimes their strategy has been to issue threats of wars which also serve the purpose of bringing their targets to their knees. At the individual levels too, theft and looting continues unabated, and the scene has moved on into the internet as well.   

It has not brought universal dignified living: The pursuit and achievement of wealth and power has become esoteric in its application, in a sense that only a few accomplish success, are able to understand it and are capable of managing or manipulating it. The curse of unequal distribution of wealth has been with humans since the beginning. The disparity in the ownership or spread of wealth is extremely glaring.  Today by and large, it is commonly seen that less than 1 % of the global population whom we designate the rich class owns upto 50% of the global wealth (Oxfam 2015). It seems farcical that a handful (8 of them) of billionaires own assets equal to the bottom 50% of the world’s population (Oxfam 2017). The bottom of the population does not seem to have enough money to even scratch out a reasonably respectable living. They cannot have one dignified meal in a day, they do not have a roof over their heads, they are not protected against illness, and they do not have a regular earning work. We write about this, we discuss and debate it, governments try to reach out to the poor through poverty elevation programs, the rich take pride in philanthropy, but truth be told, we humans are not ashamed of this inequality. That is because of the philosophy behind wealth creation, that nobody has permanent rights over it, wealth changes hands irrespective of colour creed and ethnicity, everybody can have a go at it and illegal methods to acquire wealth are not unheard of. Such thinking legitimizes depravity, permits poverty and applauds hoarding. Supporters advocate that it is meant to encourage humans to work more and work smarter. We should however also try to rationalize that while over the millenniums the volumes of wealth in human hands has increased but we have not been able to eradicate poverty from human existence. We humans have entrapped ourselves in vague inhuman philosophies that we do not feel an iota of remorse when we see another human dying of hunger, illness, weather and war.

It increases stress and ego problems: I think we were very happy and possibly we congratulated ourselves about our ingenuity and wisdom when we conceived the thought of pursuit of wealth for each one of us as an enterprise to do with all our might. Probably we thought that our body and mind were mere machines which could be made to do almost about anything in this world. When we humans endorsed the pursuit of wealth we dehumanized ourselves. Undoubtedly our body and mind is capable of extra-ordinary feats and sometimes beyond our imaginations and belief. However each one of us has our own physical and mental limitations, both internal and external. We are not similar in our capabilities even though we may have similar dreams and aspirations. Each one of us is unique and quite possibly we may have talents which are special, however all of us may not be good enough to pursue the cut-throat world of wealth and power. It is a human tragedy and of our own creation that the chase of economic bounty has become the topmost sought after profession right from the moment we start our schooling. We have magnificently succeeded in putting the poet, the painter, the cook, the soldier, the cleaner, all into the same basket along with the commercial genius. Everybody has to go through the same grind, same goals and same learnings. We want all of them to earn immense wealth during their life time. While the commercial genius succeeds easily, the rest do not. This outcome makes someone extremely arrogant and conceited while the rest suffer from stress related health problems. As a species we have to do much more in building parallel avenues in life, unrelated to wealth and power, where the special talents within us are encouraged, highlighted and appreciated, wherein those who do not value wealth and power also enjoy the same status as those that do, where a human being is feted and not the ego, where life in its diversity is celebrated instead of wealth and power.

Conclusion: I would like to close with a thought that is very close to my heart, “can we be more than mere human beings?” We are not just individual persons. We may hold individual personal freedom and privacy very primary and dear to our hearts, but yet our policies and practices, our philosophies and strategies cannot and should not be individual centric. We need to balance our abilities and our desires for the sake of universal benefit and advantage. Can we rise above our parochial myopic interests, can we embrace life and all its dimensions, can we be sensitive towards the needs of this environment that sustains us, can we love and take care of everything around us? Can we?