More "me time". I've changed my plan

Defeats the purpose of what? Wanting to hang around your friends and family once you've retired from the workforce? OP never mentioned this is a goal. But if it is, there's nothing to stop Alex from seeing their family in person if they visit for a holiday or go back every Christmas for a catchup.

Alex will make plenty of new friends and discover new hobbies and interests. He can still keep in touch with old friends too. Skype, Viber, Wechat, Line, Whatsapp, Facebook, email, telephone and fax all help reduce the tyranny of distance.

Ok I admit it's a bit radical for people who don't like to broaden their horizons and find comfort doing the same things they've always done. That's why I said you can't be a sheep to pull this off because you'll need to step outside your comfort zone.

Really? You'd leave friends and family just to enjoy a cheap retirement. Skype doesn't allow hugs, does it? Family dinners?

Just because I want to be near my family doesn't mean I'm a sheep or don't want to step outside my comfort zone. Sheesh!
 
Goal: To be able to afford to go part time when I turn 55 which is in around 15 years time.

I've already started looking at jobs ads with 0.60 FTE. :)

When I turn 60 my goal is by that stage to have enough passive income to not have to work PAYG at all !! My goal has always been to retire on $75 k pa passive income (in today's dollars) but when I get closer to the end of my working life I think I'd be happy to live off the same amount of money that I'm earning today in passive income which is $60 k pa if that meant I could semi retire sooner.

I'm not after hundreds of thousands pa in retirement, flash cars, overseas holidays, material items, luxuries. Time & health is my driving goal !

Ive been struggling a bit lately with so much going on in my life, I'm finding it tough to fit everything in. Most nights of the week I'm always doing something, a meeting, sport, exercise, socialising & after a while it wears you down it really does! I took today off sick slept 10 hours.

I think my priorities have changed now! I want more * me time! * I'm realising just what is important to me & that is time, time to fit everything into the day without always being exhausted. I reckon I can achieve part time by 55. I'll make it happen, & then fully retire not too long after. Future is looking bright.

Anyone else here value their time more than anything else? And are willing and happy to pull the plug sooner so they can work less hours?

Good to have an end goal but how will you achieve it?
I totally get the desire to cut back on things with the reward of getting off the roller coaster earlier I'm just worried that it might not be possible for you unless you do some serious decision making now to set yourself up for then. 15 years is not a lot of time to generate that income.

Certainly it's easier to get to $60k instead of $75 but have you considered that if you go part time at 55 then you Superannuation will miss out on 5 years of full-time income contributions.

How much super will you have - and at what age will you be able to access it?
How will you support yourself between 55 and xx when Pension kicks in?
How much rent etc can you generate in the next 15 years
 
Really? You'd leave friends and family just to enjoy a cheap retirement. Skype doesn't allow hugs, does it? Family dinners?

Just because I want to be near my family doesn't mean I'm a sheep or don't want to step outside my comfort zone. Sheesh!

Agree. At the end of the day, family and friends are what is important. Not the amount of passive income. Not the mansion I live in. Not the car I drive. Though cynically, I must say that if you do not have two cents to rub together, even family and friends can become scarce.
 
My friends and family are scattered all over the world but mostly in Europe, Australia and Asia. I chose to retire in Asia because I'm only 8 hours away if i need to visit Oz. Cheap airfares doesn't matter where I retire. What makes you think it's a cheap retirement? My annual income is 18 times what the locals earn so I'd hardly call it a cheap retirement! It's the equivalent of retiring in Oz on a passive income of $1.1 million per annum. And what makes you think you're a sheep for wanting to be near your family? Sheesh, read and comprehend my post fully before making dismissive replies.

Really? You'd leave friends and family just to enjoy a cheap retirement. Skype doesn't allow hugs, does it? Family dinners?

Just because I want to be near my family doesn't mean I'm a sheep or don't want to step outside my comfort zone. Sheesh!
 
Agree. At the end of the day, family and friends are what is important. Not the amount of passive income. Not the mansion I live in. Not the car I drive. Though cynically, I must say that if you do not have two cents to rub together, even family and friends can become scarce.

Agree that friends and family are what it's all about.
 
If you're single with no kids you could retire at 45 in SA or SEA.
Time is all you have. You just need to think outside the square and don't be a sheep.

dex knows what's up. No wife/husband, no kids = early retirement. There's nothing to hold you back, just go for it.
 
dex knows what's up. No wife/husband, no kids = early retirement. There's nothing to hold you back, just go for it.

Whats the point of early retirement with no wife and no kids? Many people aim for early retirement so that they can spend more time with their loved ones. Watch them grow up and share one off experiences with them.
 
dex, I fully appreciate where you're coming from mate. My brother is the only person in my family who is aware of my plans (actually... my SIL is likely aware too, but she doesn't say anything) and he hassles me constantly 'Have you booked your tickets yet? When are you going?' etc.

Women (generally speaking) tend to not feel the same way. Men are - again, generally speaking - much more inclined towards adventure, whereas women are much more inclined towards developing roots and focussing on family and staying where they are. Ironically, my mum asked me, when I was 20, why it took me so long to move out of home (she left home as soon as she finished high school).

Alex (who is a woman, by my guesstimate mid 40's) may not be so inclined to adventure, although I hope she is. When I read her goal of being retired by 60 I thought 'Blimey! 60? For real? There's too much life to be lived between where she is now and 60!' But at the same time, she's gotta live her life the way she wants to live it and all we can do is try to nudge her in a more adventurous direction. Ultimately, what she chooses to do is her choice to make, my friend.
 
dex knows what's up. No wife/husband, no kids = early retirement. There's nothing to hold you back, just go for it.

Yep, these darting off to se asia threads are always geared towards the single person it seems. As i have said before if nothing was keeping me here i would probably be up for a bit of an adventure like that too. Go for it.
 
$1000 dollar in 10 year time will not have the same buying power, thanks to inflation.
But 1 minute in 10 year from now still 60 seconds.

I have to call you out on this one. It's an understandable assumption, but utterly incorrect.

Time essentially has inflation too.

60 seconds tomorrow will objectively pass quicker than it did today. This is an inescapable fact -- your perception of time is liquid. The older you get, the faster it passes.

I posted about this a while ago, though the thread went down like a lead balloon. Below is from my original post.

We all know time subjectively passes quicker as we age. Remember the endless summers as a child? Then suddenly the work weeks are flying by, next it's years.

Well, for those of you interested, there's a simple formula to calculate how long it will "feel" like between now and a future age. Are you ready?

Assume an age to which you may reasonably expect to live (e.g., 80).

Divide this assumed age of death by your present age (if you are 40, then 80/40 = 2).

Divide your present age by this number (40/2 = 20).

The result is a "reference age" (20) as subjectively remote in your past as your assumed age of death (80) is in your future. Consider the years from that point in your life (age 20) to the present (age 40): the time you have left (40 to 80) should seem about as long.

Your present age is the geometric mean of the reference age and the assumed age of death, and becomes closer to the arithmetic mean as your present age approaches the latter. In old age, therefore, you can assume linearity: each future year will seem almost as long as each past year back to the reference age. (In other words, the worst is over!)

In my case, being 28, if I live to 80, it'll subjectively feel like the same time 'til then, as it does going back to when I was 9.8 years old.

(18 years back = same as 52 years forward...ouch!).

Reference: http://www.kafalas.com/Logtime.html
 
Damn... I thought my last 39 years has gone so quickly. What you are saying is I'm going to die even quicker! I have only last 20 years worth of life left.

I thought I liked you Richard Feynman :)
 
Really? You'd leave friends and family just to enjoy a cheap retirement. Skype doesn't allow hugs, does it? Family dinners?

Just because I want to be near my family doesn't mean I'm a sheep or don't want to step outside my comfort zone. Sheesh!

Agree totally.
 
Defeats the purpose of what? Wanting to hang around your friends and family once you've retired from the workforce? OP never mentioned this is a goal. But if it is, there's nothing to stop Alex from seeing their family in person if they visit for a holiday or go back every Christmas for a catchup.

I would think by the time most people retire, they are fairly settled and don't want to move permanently to another country so they can live cheaply. Many retired people have grandchildren and friends in Australia. I cannot imagine moving to another country to live cheaply, and that is a common theme here on SS, often mentioned by some that you can live very cheaply in some other countries.

Alex will make plenty of new friends and discover new hobbies and interests. He can still keep in touch with old friends too. Skype, Viber, Wechat, Line, Whatsapp, Facebook, email, telephone and fax all help reduce the tyranny of distance.

Ok I admit it's a bit radical for people who don't like to broaden their horizons and find comfort doing the same things they've always done. That's why I said you can't be a sheep to pull this off because you'll need to step outside your comfort zone.

We can broaden our horizons and try new things without upping sticks and moving countries to retire. A yearly visit at Christmas to see the family just doesn't cut it for many.

My friends and family are scattered all over the world but mostly in Europe, Australia and Asia. I chose to retire in Asia because I'm only 8 hours away if i need to visit Oz. Cheap airfares doesn't matter where I retire. What makes you think it's a cheap retirement? My annual income is 18 times what the locals earn so I'd hardly call it a cheap retirement! It's the equivalent of retiring in Oz on a passive income of $1.1 million per annum. And what makes you think you're a sheep for wanting to be near your family? Sheesh, read and comprehend my post fully before making dismissive replies.

I think you have a different view to me because all my family is here in Australia, in the city I live in. That might change, and if it does, I'll visit them wherever they are. You on the other hand have family all over the world so don't have the same pull of the city where you family live. I understand that.

Agree that friends and family are what it's all about.

Why did I think you were calling me a sheep for wanting to be near family? Probably the bit I've bolded and underlined :p.
 
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Damn... I thought my last 39 years has gone so quickly. What you are saying is I'm going to die even quicker! I have only last 20 years worth of life left.

I thought I liked you Richard Feynman :)

If it's any consolation, modern medicine is piggybacking on the astonishing exponential growth of technology.

I don't think it's at all far-fetched to believe many people in their 40s today will be celebrating their 130th in the 2100s.
 
If it's any consolation, modern medicine is piggybacking on the astonishing exponential growth of technology.

I don't think it's at all far-fetched to believe many people in their 40s today will be celebrating their 130th in the 2100s.

Quality comment Richard :), I remember reading scientists believe that the first person to live to 150 in recorded history...is alive today.
 
Whats the point of early retirement with no wife and no kids? Many people aim for early retirement so that they can spend more time with their loved ones. Watch them grow up and share one off experiences with them.

People aim for early retirement so they can spend their time doing whatever they want. Wife or kids doesn't matter. Get a dog and some hobbies. You only live twice Mr China.
 
Ah but you're thinking of a traditional retirement when you're aged in your 50's and 60's with grandkids and grey hair. Agree that's what most people do because they haven't thought outside the square. Or maybe they're happy being sheep :p

What I'm proposing is "retiring" in your 30's and 40's and living comfortably. This isn't the same as living cheaply though. Far from it. I'm living a millionaire lifestyle which I couldn't afford do in Oz unless I worked and saved for another 18 years. And none of this is permanent either. It can be a mini retirement. I can go back to Oz and potter around the garden or die tomorrow. Impermanence is a fact of life :(

We can broaden our horizons and try new things without upping sticks and moving countries to retire. A yearly visit at Christmas to see the family just doesn't cut it for many.



I think you have a different view to me because all my family is here in Australia, in the city I live in. That might change, and if it does, I'll visit them wherever they are. You on the other hand have family all over the world so don't have the same pull of the city where you family live. I understand that.



Why do I think I'm a sheep for wanting to be near family? Probably the bit I've bolded and underlined :p.
 
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