Retirement in its conventional sense is an odd concept to me. You work hard for most of your life, and when you are at the rear end, you stop working and start to enjoy life. Most of the good times have passed at this point, your health is on the decline and you have a limited version of your life.
Of course, for a generation that was focused on making ends meet this was the way to go. But as the world changes, several such concepts will change too. The notion of retirement didn’t exist 200 years ago. It won’t exist 200 years from now.
So what does retirement mean to me? It’s the ability to work on things I want, from where I want, when I want. That is full control over the kind of work, time and location. It’s not a binary event, but a spectrum.
Take my current situation, for example. Working remotely gives me a certain level of freedom regarding my location. I have some flexibility with my hours, though it’s not absolute. And while I might not have a complete say over my projects, I do have the liberty to pick an employer whose values resonate with mine.
For me, retirement is when I can have full control of all of these things. And I’m sure there will never be a point in life where I’m 100% retired – unless I become a monk and enjoy doing that. I’ll still have to do taxes and things I don’t necessarily enjoy. So the goal is to get to a fairly good percentage.
When and what
This could be in the form of starting a business that I’d enjoy doing or making enough passive income to spend my waking hours doing hobbies that don’t earn an income. I’m not sure about earning money doing hobbies – the moment something gets attached to an income, it may become less enjoyable.
Where
This is relatively easy – only restricted by my passport. Location independent work is on the rise and it enables me to get this to a good degree. But I’m still restricted by my weak passport.
And this all comes from a place where I acknowledge, there is no golden event in life that makes you immediately happy forever after. Life is full of ups and downs. Waiting for a certain point to start living feels pointless. I’d rather live now a little while working towards that future.
Memos by Sooraj 