You’re too young to be retired - Maybe you’re too old to still be working

My town on the morning of the shortest day, I took this on my morning walk

Aren’t you a little young to be retired?

is a question I I hear from a lot of people. That usually gets a smart ass answer from me something like ’Aren’t you a little old to still be working?’

I see it that I worked really hard to get where I am, I also don’t need much to get by. Those two things pretty much led me to a life where I make enough money off my investments to live the rest of my life not working if I don’t want to.

What do you mean you retired at 35?
I mean that I have a lifestyle that I can maintain without having to earn money from a job. I could happily spend time with my family and friends and have enough money coming in to eat and have a roof over my head everyday for the rest of my life. This was done through hard work, good investing, discipline in saving and having the most supportive group of friends and family around me.

Money vs Time

Time wins, every time. All the money in the world does not buy you what you have with your lifespan, your healthspan and the time that you get to do good. You are always trading time for money if you have a job. Stop it as soon as you can, money does not get you what you want in life. No one wants money, they want what money can buy. So work out what you want and change the focus to work towards getting that. If you haven't read it then the '4 Hour Work Week' by @timferris will help you understand what I am talking about.

A job vs work.

Remember, a job is something that you do for money, work is when you create something. I don’t ever want to have a job again. I want to work every day though. Work can be paid and if you are good at something you should never do it for free. The work I do does not necessarily pay me in money all the time, but the wealth of fun, friendship and community building is certainly of value to me.

You must have been lucky?

I hear that a fair bit. If you are the sort of person that believes in luck then sure, I am so very grateful for the opportunities that I was born into, that I took hold of and am still grateful for everyday that comes along that I can still take a breath in. Luck is not what I call it. I call it, planning and working hard, when you keep your eyes open and look for opportunities to earn or save and you take them, this is how you get to retire early.

I couldn’t do it!

Ok, then why are you reading this? Surely there is more entertaining things in the world to be doing than making it to this point in the article. I say this because I am not abnormal, I do not have any super power, I just worked, got better and better jobs and had a plan to retire as early as I could. For a more detailed and much more elequent way of putting this please have a look at https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

I would want to work anyway

You can, it is just so much more fun when you aren’t doing it for the money. You don’t have to do it like I am, hell, you probably wouldn’t like what I do everyday. The idea is to make sure that your goals for life are aligned. Will you be at the end of your life wishing you had a job longer? Wouldn’t you rather be the person who had 50 years working at creating the best life for yourself, your family and hopefully the world?

Final thoughts...for now.

You are a long time in the ground. You think that a 9-5 should be done for 40 years of your potential 80? If you are reading this there is probably the first part of those 80 gone. Aren’t you a little old to be going to a job you hate, to buy stuff you don’t need to impress people that you don’t like?
I will leave you with the thought that if you have got this far, maybe you think that you could retire before 70, if that is you and you feel you need a nudge, let me know, I want everyone to be doing things that build a more resilient, abundant and joyful world.