Seven Lessons From Two Years of Financial Freedom

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The goal for most of the audience of this site is to retire, probably earlier than most, from their occupations.

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What that retirement looks like, what income sources and expenditures are required, how much side work or hustling is involved, is deeply personal and varies from individual to individual.

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But some lessons are universal, and they’re only really learned from experience. In this guest post from Clipping Chains, we look at lessons learned from two years of retirement — lessons not just from a financial perspective, but a lifestyle view, too.

It’s been almost exactly two years since I last worked for anyone else. Two years since I made a paycheck. Two years since I commuted. Two years since I waited too long, ran like a fool with a backpack smacking me in the ass, missing my bus home anyway.

Major Life Events

– I sort of quit my job in February of 2020. – Traveled to Sicily for two weeks in February of 2020, narrowly missing the first Covid surge there. – Rode the wave of the Covid economic downturn, recalling the highly relevant headlines from the 2008 financial crisis.

I knew this was coming, thought it would be different for me, and am now here to confirm it for you anyway: Quitting your job won’t automatically change you.

In fact, this new vacancy in the hotel of life provides a large, previously unoccupied mirror, ensuring regular self-reflection. And of course, I realize there are a lot of people in this world who would happily sit and stare at themselves in a mirror for a fortnight, pausing only for snacks (if at all). I am not one of those people.

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