Early Retirement Doesn’t Have to Suck

Allow me to introduce you to an early retiree with 13 years of early retirement experience. For perspective on that timeline, this Dude has been retired longer than I’ve been an anesthesiologist. And the Dude’s not even 50 years old.

Early Retirement Dude was once clean-cut and corporate. He has a wife, a daughter, a cat named Satan, and however many dogs his family happens to be sheltering that week. Oddly, he’s cool with it all.

Early Retirement Doesn’t Have to Suck

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First, FIRE can destroy your self-discipline. Like it or not, I imagine you’re skilled at rising early, attending to your morning toilet, dressing yourself passably, commuting, arriving at your job promptly, etc…

FIRE and Self-Discipline

So in FIRE you have the opportunity to apply that metric to your own life: how is what I’m doing helping me in the long run? Ask yourself that question and see if you’re comfortable with the answer. 

I recommend you try micro-change—each day completing one or two five-minute tasks that eventually lead to strong, healthy habits.

Second, FIRE can blow up your social life. You should NEVER depend on your job for your social life. And yet we do, because the ever-lengthening workday leaves less and less time for building and enjoying more personal and more validating relationships.

FIRE and Your Social Life

Consequently, the majority of those work-based relationships will vanish the moment you FIRE. Back in the day you didn’t have time to socialize outside work.

Third, FIRE will wreck your fitness if you let it. I have a very high tolerance for pleasure. As I mentioned, rum & hammocks are a particular vice. But having said that FIRE attacks your self-discipline and that micro-change is a great way to defend it.

FIRE and Fitness

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