7 Things You Can Do When You’re Done Saving for Retirement

I had done a good job of doing so for nearly a decade with an anesthesiologist’s salary, and thanks to an early bear market followed by a lengthy bull market, I could afford to retire and maintain our lifestyle indefinitely.

That’s not the path I chose. I worked as an anesthesiologist for another five years and started a blog that became an online business that has largely replaced the income I had when I was outfitted with scrubs and a pager.

I continue to save for retirement, though. I’m not going to decline the government’s offer of certain tax deductions or spend every dollar I earn just because I can, but there is a certain beauty in knowing that I could.

7 Things You Can Do When You’re Done Saving for Retirement

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A rule of thumb we often use in the financial independence (FI) community is that you should have a minimum of 25 years of expenses saved up before you can call yourself FI and afford to retire early (RE).

When Can You Stop Saving for Retirement?

To determine whether or not you’re truly FI, you must know how much you have and how much you spend, or, more precisely, how much you expect to spend once you’re no longer working. Some expenses will go up, and some will go down.

You can track both your net worth and annual spending manually with a spreadsheet or with the aid of technology with an aggregator like Personal Capital. Now, once you’ve determined that you’ve attained FI status, what are you going to do about it?

This is an obvious option, and it’s a primary reason many people strive for FI. They want out of the rat race, and once they can afford to retire, they do.

Options. So Many Options. #1: Retire

Those who reach FI relatively early in their careers often do so because they’re good at what they do. If you’re good at what you do, there’s a decent chance you might enjoy what you do, and you just might want to keep doing it.

#2: Do Less

Maybe you’re successful at what you do, but you don’t love what you do, and you’d rather do something different. Do it! FI is your Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card for whatever cell, clinic, or cubicle you may be stuck in.

#3: Transition

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