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.
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