This is a action oriented blog post and is addresses to our readers:
- Who loves the idea of FI & RE but have not yet started.OR
- Who are already saving up for Fi & RE but have no clue of what to do after achieving FI & RE.
This blog post is short and to the point intentionally because we want you to Take A Action Today- yes, as soon as you finish reading this article.
Before you go ahead and read further. PAUSE & TAKE A DEEP BREATH. Now, say this to yourself- “Today I will take ONE small step towards my F.I.R.E goal”.
So, just read the part applicable to you and straight-away go and take the action.
You want to start but don’t know where?
Do this one thing to start. This is your 1st step and a pretty easy one as well. Go to our calculator– and use it to find out how much money you need to F.I.R.E. All you have to do is fill in your current expenses. You can even leave the inflation, returns, corpus size as-it-is for now. Do not worry to be exact, it is only your first step. Once you get started you can always come back to fine tweak it.
Today get a preliminary number and write it down on a big piece of paper- as your “F.I.R.E Goal”, “Dream come true”, “FREEDOM” or anything that excites you.
Once you do this, pat yourself on your back. You have taken the first step towards F.I.R.E!!!! Yeah exciting!!!
Achieving F.I.R.E is a complex goal, that will take years to accomplish.
It is normal to be overwhelmed if you have not started yet.
For success BREAK IT DOWN into small achievable steps.
Sugandha
YOU ARE PURSUING FI & ER BUT DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WILL DO AFTER ACHIEVING IT
This is such an important question to answer. If you do not have an answer to this, you must start figuring it out starting now.
Consider this math for a minute:
- No: of working days in a typical year– 261
- No: of hours an average person works– 8
- Total no: of hours you spend in a year working-~2000 hours/per year.
Now if you were thinking to just chill, or to travel for fun, or watch T.V. You might want to re-think. All these things can not fill 2000 hours that just opened up for you.
So the big question is what is it that you want to do?
We suggest two different approach for people at two different place in their journey:
If you already know what you want to do, but do not know where to start?
Some of you may have an idea of what you want to do after achieving F.I.R.E- write a blog, join a start-up, travel full time, join XYZ company, start your own business, become a freelancer etc…
To further your progress, you can do two things-
1. start reading about it to get ideas on all the possibilities- buy a book, Join a course, subscribe to a blog. And look for people who are already doing what you want to do and connect with them on social media- twitter, linkedin, Instagram.
2. If you know all about it and eager to start right away. Test the waters, start working on it over the weekends or holidays or part-time. For eg., if you want to be a travel blogger- start with the weekend gateways around you. If you want to start a business- create the first product you want to sell etc..
Action point- Take any one of the three today.
Either get something to read on the subject you want to pursue.
OR connect to someone who already is doing what you want to do.
OR Make a rough action-plan to start working on it part-time.
Even if you can only spare 1 hour a day, do that! Because by the end of the year, you would have spent 365 hours already towards your future life.
Sugandha
Do you want to know how much is 365 hours in 8- hour work day?
answer is 45 day!!! 🙂 1.5 months!!! That is something, right?
You do not have any idea about what you will do after F.I.R.E
World is your playing field. Pick anything that fancies you- read about it, take a short course in it and see if anything sticks.
Action point- Explore that one thing that you always wanted to do- it can be a hobby as well.
Compounding is not only for money, but it also works in all aspects of life. Today please plant the seed for your future.
If you are curious to know what we both want to do after retirement, drop us a line in comments. Also, drop us a line to tell us what you want to do. We are very curious to know
Most importantly drop a comment if you took any action after reading this post. It will motivate us and others in their journey!!!
If this post helped you and and you want us to do more action oriented posts. Do let us know in comments. If you are stuck somewhere and are unable to make any progress, do let us know and we will share a solution if possible.
Thanks…it’s course by course. My main interest is European – specifically Roman history but I want to reach the equivalent of a History Post Grad so I’m spreading the courses out. I don’t yet have a clear idea of opportunities to teach or work otherwise in History for a guy who starts at 45 but it’s one of the options I want to explore for a post retirement occupation. It’s quite likely that I will end up continuing in FP&A – hopefully at a lower level that allows me to get my hands dirty again. As you said though, that’s the beauty of Financial Independance – it allows you not to be bound by the monetary aspects of what you do. If I can find a job doing something I enjoy even if it’s for peanuts, that’s something I can explore. Less than 4 years to go now.
All the very best Anil!!! Thanks for sharing it with other readers! It is motivating for all of us to see you so close to achieving ER!
Great idea. I’ve been trying this the last 6 months or so. I’ve no idea whether it can actually turn into something I can do but I’ve been taking History courses from Coursera the last few months. Let’s see how it goes
Very Interesting Anil, are you studying world history? I am thrilled to see you are already in the arena testing what sticks!!! This for me is the most beautiful aspect of F.I.R.E… who else can do that at age 42? if not soon to be an early retiree!!!! cheers!
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