Retiring into Uncertainty

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None of us know the future. We have models and predictions, and we can read the news and sometimes detect the foreshadowing, and there are things we can expect and things that are probable. But at some point, we all have to acknowledge that our crystal balls are hazy and murky.

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But should those unknowns, that uncertainty keep you from pulling the plug on your career, assuming the parts of your plan that you can control are indeed in place? The attorney known simply as Landshark argues in today’s post that it shouldn’t.

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Unintentional Savings

I started out on this plan of working towards early retirement many, many years ago, before I even knew that I was doing so. Like many of us, I started saving for retirement in my Roth IRA and 401(k) plan at my first job out of college, well before I ever heard of FIRE. In fact, it was well before FIRE was a thing.

But I had good parents and my parents told me early on that it was a good idea to save for retirement, so like a good soldier, I did what I was told and I started saving for retirement right out of college, even before I went to law school. I’m grateful for that.

That early practice of saving for retirement from the beginning of my career helped instill the discipline of savings, which is really 90% of what you need to reach financial independence. And that saving over time has helped us reach our goals of financial independence so much sooner.

But for a very long time, I struggled with the idea of what exactly I was saving for. Sure, I knew in the abstract that you were supposed to save for retirement — after all, that’s what responsible adults (and especially professionals) do.

But I just didn’t really think about it. I just bought into the general narrative that once you reached some magical age in your 60s, you were “allowed” by society to “retire” — to quit your job and sail off into the distance and enjoy your golden years in retirement.

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