Early Retirement Plan (ERP) makes me lonely.

I talked about my early retirement plan (ERP) very firmly in my previous posts and I believe that it sounded quite solid and strong-minded. However, frankly, my mind is often wobbly and unsure, and sometimes I feel so lonely. There is nobody who I can discuss openly about my future at the moment except my dear husband. I never consider myself as an extreme popular person but I have never expected that I would have this kind of isolated feeling (like an alien). I don’t talk about my ERP enthusiastically any more unless someone asks about it seriously (very rare case). Avoid talking about ‘REAL’ things happening in my life and talking only everyday stuff to people around me (especially, even to close ones) make me feel quite sad.

 

 

 

Since I seriously think about my future at workplace and start talking about my ERP, I have experienced many different types of people’s reaction.

 

Majority of people are who simply don’t get what I am talking about. ‘Early retirement’ doesn’t exist in their life dictionary. They need to follow the standard life which they have been taught from the very early age. Anything unusual is no good. They have to work till the retirement age or later as it is scripted so they don’t question about their life path and also don’t have any interest in the ERP.  

 

Some of them seem to ‘TRY’ listening what I am trying to achieve, but they don’t think they can have the option. They agree but they cannot afford not to work in order to keep their life-style. They have plenty of reasons why they cannot think about the ERP such as kids, mortgage, renovations, new cars, holidays, career, etc... And, never forget to comment that I have different circumstances from them such as no kids, no mortgage, rental income, high savings, etc. Guess what? No one really asked how we have no mortgage and save more than them.  

 

There are some people who I cannot talk about my ERP, especially who are closer to their retirement age or over but still have to work. As long they love what they do, I don’t have any problem with their long working life. However, if they still have to work and spend their life at work for maintaining their life, (sorry) there is no reason to talk about my plan with them. It will be a useless talk to them anyway and I don’t want to be like them anyway (sorry again).

 

Some of them look at me as a weird person who talks unreasonable stuff (BS’s). To them, I am still too young to think about retirement. Instead of that, I am supposed to work harder and focus on progression of career. I need to develop my skills to get better jobs and get paid more to increase my life standard. I must spend more time at work and devote more of my life time for ‘better life’ in future. To them, I am very hopeless, unambitious and irresponsible for my future.

 

Since I seriously think about my future at workplace and start talking about my ERP, I have been feeling;

 

I feel totally ignored. I have noticed that no one is really interested in my plan. My plan is ‘REAL’ but no one seems to take it seriously. People seem to take my ERP as an impossible or only dreamlike plan. I look like a whinger who simply complains about work as everyone does. Since I started taking about my plan, seriously, no one really has asked ‘Why?’, ‘How?’, or ‘When?’ to reach my goal. What I really cannot understand is how many people around me hate their jobs which they spend most of their life, but no one seems to be interested in getting out of the trap. Why? I really don’t get it.

 

I feel worried. Am I wrong? Will I be okay? I feel like if I have chosen answer ‘A’ when majority of people have confidently chosen answer ‘B’. I was sure to choose ‘A’ but, suddenly not sure if I am right or wrong as no one seems to agree with my choice. I know that I must choose my own pathway instead of following others without examining my own life but choosing solitary pathway and stepping forward alone make me nervous.

 

I feel lonely. I would love to share my ERP with friends, family and people around me. I want to get useful tips from others and improve/adjust my plan if needed. I would like to share my ER journey with people and help them to get on the similar journey as soon as they can. However, it is awfully hard to find anyone to share. Our simply-life living approach is taken as Scrooge-like lifestyle and being conscious on spending is considered as thinking about only money. Trying to achieve early freedom from work to enjoy more of my life becomes a lazy behaviour. I do not worry about how I would be shown to people but I am being sad that people don’t even try to understand what we really want to achieve.

 

Too long list of complaining? I know but, I want to be honest with what I feel at the moment and share my unclear feeling with people who try to achieve early retirement as we do. Sometimes I feel nervous but at the same time, I am very honoured by my situation that allows me to plan for the early freedom. I don’t deny that I feel lonely to choose unusual path but I strongly trust my decision.

 

How do I get over this loneliness and keep myself strong?

 

Early Retirement blogs and books help me tremendously. Whenever I feel lonely and unsure about my plan, I try to read the EG blogs or books. I feel released by knowing that I am not the only one and many people who are far smarter and open-minded are trying to achieve the same goal. These blogs clear up my vagueness and refresh me why I have chosen to retire as soon as possible. Life is finite and I cannot afford to waste it. The ER bloggers and authors’ clear vision on their future is simply eye opening and inspirational. I truly suggest you to visit their blogs to open up our mind.

http://www.bravenewlife.com/

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/

http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/

http://retiredsyd.typepad.com/about.html

http://lackingambition.com/

 

I need to believe in myself and my decision. Honestly, it is not easy to keep believing your decision and keeps going ahead when people surround you don’t agree with the decision. I believe that we need to listen and re-evaluate our journey time to time but I refuse to follow how other people want me to live. I have been living the standard life recommended by society and I don’t want to live and end as scripted. I know it is time to live on my own plan and be a leader of my own life.    

 

Very fortunately, I have a wonderful supporter who shares my (our) plan together. We talk a lot about our future and share information which can help us to get on our dream faster. Having a same vision is privileged and it makes our journey far delightful.

 

I truly wish that one day my family, friends and close colleagues can understand what I am trying to achieve and share our journey together. One of my favourite ER boggers mentioned that we cannot tell people what to do. All we can do is showing them how we live. I want we all enjoy our life more and have more time to spend for doing what we like to do and being with whom we would like to be. I have learnt that I cannot change them by talking so I will show them how life can be enjoyable through my ERP. I hope this can help people to live ‘a better life’.

 

 

 

 

 

Die at work?

Die at work?

 

I truly hope this is just a typo or misprint.

 

‘About 600,000 Chinese a year die from working too hard, according to the China Youth Daily. China Radio International in April reported a toll of 1,600 every day.’ http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-03/in-china-white-collar-workers-are-dying-from-overwork

 

 

 

 

This is simply unbelievable.  As a very ordinary person and also an employee, the number of death toll is absolutely staggering to me. Finishing my life at work would be the last thing I would wish for. 1,600 people every day means about 67 people every hour and about a person every minute… so while I am typing this, some people have already ended their life at work. It sounds very depressing, doesn’t it? However, the worst fact to me is that not many people seem to take these very serious figures seriously.

I was born and grown up in South Korea so I do know what kind of pressure people need to bear at workplace and what kind of work ethos is required in order to survive everyday life in the ‘Hard Working’ environment. Fortunately, I was working as a self-employed person so I could choose not to deal with workplace pressure but social pressure and prejudice that suppresses person’s (especially my own) free-will was unbearable.

It was one of the main reasons why I chose to leave my home country to have a ‘Better Life’ in Australia. So, am I happier than before? Did I make a right choice then? Certainly, my lifestyle has been changed a lot and I feel far freer than when I was in Korea. However, more than 10 years of employment has started questioning myself about my dreamed life that I was hoping to find when I left Korea. Am I having a life which I wished for? Am I happy truly to live like now, spending most of my life at work? Wouldn’t I be able to do something more meaningful in my finite life? Will I be okay to exchange my life to money rest of my life?

At this moment, 12 people are sitting around me in their own cage and say nothing. All I can hear is noise from typing the keyboard. Deadly quite…  ‘Are they still alive?’ A silly thought has hit my mind while I am pretending to be one of the busy employees. Fortunately all are definitely alive. I cannot stop giggling head off as it is too depressing way to live our precious life inside of this little cage. Isn’t it insane to live or die at work? Were we really born to live like this?

 

A lady in the lift this morning said loudly to her colleagues when she left the lift. “Another day another dollar!” (which means “good day!”) And we all laughed out. Yes, indeed… another day, another dollar. How many of us are working for only money? Why do we exchange most of our life time for money (to buy and to have more things). Even though who can claim that they love to work, it doesn’t satisfy my curiosity why we need to spend most our lifetime at work (or die at work).  I believe that it is time to examine our life and find out what life really means to us.

 

·        Find out the most important things in our life: Very unfortunately, I still don’t have clear idea about my future such as what to do and how to achieve my dreamed life after my planed early retirement has commenced. However, I ‘100%’ clearly know that I neither want to spend all my life at work nor die at work. Very often we make a mistake by focusing more on less important things. To avoid making the mistake, we need to know what the more important things in our life are. These will direct us to get on a right life path. The most important things for me are health, good relationship with my husband, time for myself, travel, setting up my own money maker etc…. so that I need to spend more time and energy for these things. Knowing what the most valuable things to your life are is the first step towards to your dreamed life.

 

·        Find out the true meaning of work: The reason why I go to work every day to me is very clear at the moment. I work for only getting paid (I know it sounds terrible but it is undeniable ‘TRUE.’). Unfortunately, I do not like what I am doing every single day. Work neither fulfils my passion nor thrills me any longer. Don’t get me wrong.  Work used to be one of the most important parts of my life. I tried hard and I finally realised that I don’t want to exchange my life to work any longer. To me, life is too precious to waste for get more money in order to spend more. How about you? Why do you go to work? Ask yourself and get truthful answers. I am sure it will let you rethink about your current life which can be eternal.

 

·        Find out things to do: As I became a social animal that has been kept in a zoo-like environment for a very long time, I am seriously scared of having too much free time. Will I be okay with managing my life instead of being told what to do? Many of my colleagues commonly asked me what I am going to do with very worried voice/tone when I mentioned my early retirement plan. Of course, I know what I want to do when I am free. I want to do whatever I want to do without being told what to do. I want to do things what make me happy, fulfil my passion and excite me every day. I don’t want to anything when I don’t feel like to do and I want to spend more valuable time with my loved ones. I hate being so tired and lack of energy after work that I cannot think of doing anything I wanted to do and having another days for going to work. I believe that there are so many more things to do in our life instead of working.

 

·        Find out ways to achieve: I do not want all my wishes and plans end up as ‘BS’. I have seen many people who know what they want and how they want but refuse to take any actions to achieve their dreams. Too hard...? Without sincere efforts, dream can stay as only dream. My husband and I have been working on our financial independence in order to achieve our early retirement plan. We have been saving more (over 70% of our salary currently), reducing unnecessary expenses and keeping a simple lifestyle, and we are ready for our freedom as time we want/decide. Having no worry about having a job for living is an absolutely wonderful feeling. It sounds too easy but too hard to do? It is all up to how truly you want to be free. Started as overseas students who were having less than $1,000 in the bank accounts, we have achieved our financial independence within 10 years so why can’t you do that?

 

Please remember that Life is finite. I don’t want to kill either myself or my life at work and hope you don’t either. I believe there are far many things to achieve, experience and enjoy in our life beside of work as long as you set up yourself financially free and mentally and physically healthy. Who has set up the rule that we have to work till when we are old or die? I cannot promise that I will never see this type of shocking article in future but I hope at least some of them who read my post start evaluating this insane work life and try to escape from it as soon as possible.