Retirement planning

Many of us willingly or un-willingly might have attended Amway workshop where videos of someone hammering clocks to emphasize on breaking their monotonous 9-5 job and living a happy life is shown. Few of my friends had bought the idea but i doubt they have reached a point where they can retire but these videos sow the seeds in people's mind of early retirement.

Last year i met my friend's friend, Akash in early 40s, who was following this idea to get retired early. One day Akash met the financial planner, explained his financial status, his current expenses etc and queried when can he retire? He being working in IT industry for almost 20 years and living a simple and frugal life, he had saved quite a bit. Looking at Akash's finances and expenditure, the financial planner told him that he could retire at that very moment if he wishes to, from financial perspective. This was "Amrit" to his ears, i believe the same for many millions of other IT engineers, and he retired in couple of months after serving notice at his company.

On my next visit to my friend's place i met Akash also. Akash told that enjoyed his retirement life, he traveled to few places which he wanted to for a while, he now spend more time with his children and family and give more time to himself also. This looked to be perfect life one aspire for. On further asking his daily routing,  he mentioned that he does all his activities in morning and has free time from 11 am till 4 pm and i learnt he was not sure what to do during that time and he was finding ways to kill those 5 hours daily, i.e. his ~30% of his active life became unproductive. Later i learnt that he has started making some apps, i am not sure how much he is enjoying that. Here are the few things that arises 

⦁ Does the retirement planning needs only financial planning? I believe it is big NO, if finances are the the only thing that Akash wouldn't have started apps development. Retirement needs holistic view of current situation and post retirement life.

⦁ One needs a plan which keeps one engaged, which has to be meaningful, productive and gives joy or/and sense of achievement too. 

Now the questions arises why a person wants to get retired early. Is it laziness which makes him unwilling to work? Is it the pressure of work which makes him to run away from work? Or it is something else? After doing same work day in and day out, it becomes monotonous and the person wants to break the shackles of it. Next questions comes to mind is why the job becomes monotonous, this is because a person stops learning. He continues to do same thing again and again without change. If one tries to change the way he works, if he bring some process to work it more effectively and increases productivity then this boredom from job will cease to exist. One will continue to learn, continue to make him relevant, continue to add more skills, continue to love one's work. If one believe that one has acquired the required skills and has something better to do then following could be done.

⦁ A very close friend of mine, who was teaching in school before he did his M.Tech and entered into corporate life. He was passionate about teaching and he started doing online classes after his work hours and after few years he reached to a point that he left his job and followed his passion for teaching and doing very well. If someone is not happy in current job and wants to follow one's passion then one can follow this soft handover from job to passion without creating much repercussions in one's life.

⦁ For those who are happy in their professional life but fancies about what to do in post retirement life, then one can start developing their hobbies. Follow your dreams from retirement life now, work on them, spend quality time on them and see where you stand after couple of years. If it still entices you then keep moving with it or change path and start learning and do something else. While you have time till you retire, keep trying new things.

• If one wants to be part of some band, then start learning it over the weekends or outside of working hours on weekdays. If this continue to rush your adrenaline then keep working on it or else start developing on some things else. 
• If teaching and making a difference in less privileged children' life is what you want to do, then start doing it when you are in 40s itself instead of waiting to get retired.
• I started growing vegetables in open land next to my house for my own consumption. Taking cue from that my friend who has green thumb, leased open land in his neighborhood and started growing veggies in his part time & made money also out of it. I am sure this will be his first step for the ladder to make something bigger later on. 

As i mentioned in my previous blog, you can read it here, delaying the retirement till as late as possible and continue to keep the mind engaged is one of top factors to live a longer and fruitful life. If one still wants to see how retirement life would be, then try taking 2+ months of leave from work, do whatever you want to do & experience the post retirement life. If one feel one is happier during this time period, especially the end of it,  then one can take the retirement else quietly go back to work.