My recipe for early retirement (at age 46): part two

Hellebore in our garden

Welcome back!  As I wrote last week, one of my regular and lovely readers, D, asked for my ‘recipe for early retirement’.  I’m always happy to oblige, so I had a think about it and am sharing below the second part of what I’ve come up with.

You can find the first post in this series {My recipe for early retirement (at age 46): part one} here.

This week we are moving onto steps 3, 4 and 5 of my ‘early retirement’ plan.  You will note that I am not *actually* retired, merely (or not so merely) retiring from an external workplace to do what I love (writing) in a place that I love to be (at home) in my own time and on my own terms.

Which brings us nicely to step three:

Three. Ask yourself how you’d ideally like to earn a living

For me, it’s being a writer.  I’ve always loved reading and have wanted to write books for many years – decades in fact – before I actually did it.  I love words.  I love to read, I love to write, I love bookshops, I love libraries, I love browsing my Kindle seeing what I want to read next… everything about words.  For my husband, he wants to be involved in the wine industry and he’s pursuing that at the moment.

What is it that one thing for you?

Make a list of all the things you love doing and see if there is any way you can work in that field.  You could work part-time, in a different more enjoyable job or do what I’m doing and start something on the side doing what you love.

Before I started publishing my books on Amazon, I thought once we achieved our goal of becoming mortgage free and moving to the area where we are now, I could perhaps get a part-time job instead of a full-time one.

But thanks to my writing I have created my own part-time job and I am so grateful for that.  It means I can work here, at home with my cats and my own comforts instead of going to a job somewhere.  It truly is my dream come true.

I didn’t know if it could actually happen, but that thought didn’t stop me trying.  Don’t be scared to try something new, no matter your age or (self-perceived) limitations.  Instead of thinking ‘I couldn’t do that’, think ‘How could I do that?”

Four. Go against the grain and be proud of it

Everyone has their own opinion.  If you listen to others opinions too much you won’t hear your own.  Don’t listen to them.  It’s important to make your own plans, plans that you love.  If your dream life is not what others would choose, so what?  It’s your life not theirs.

I love that I am doing something different to most people.  It feels good to me.  Instead of watching the news and complaining about what I see on there (watching the news makes me too grumpy so I try not to do it), I’d rather create my own inspiration.

I don’t have my head in the sand; I keep up with what’s going on, but I don’t have to torture myself multiple times a day with stuff that feels bad when I can’t do anything about it.  I put my blinkers on like a horse and only take notice of stuff that makes me feel good.

Five. Don’t listen to negative people

Others might be scared on your behalf.  You’re leaving your job?  Why?  It’s a good job isn’t it?  Wouldn’t you be better to carry on with it?  Why do you want to move there?  Are there jobs available?  Isn’t it cold in the winter?

Actually we didn’t really get any negative feedback when people found out our plans to leave the big city and move to a provincial area.  In fact, quite a few people wished they could do the same thing but said they couldn’t move towns for family, job or schooling reasons.

And a few might even be scared of making a big change like this or exhausted just thinking of the magnitude of such a task.  I get that.  Inertia is a powerful force and has kept me stagnant in various situations in the past, and moving house is a big thing!

Once I got to a certain age though, I realised I was in the second half of my life.  Mortal living is not an open-ended thing so I thought I’d better start taking the time I had left seriously.  Why not move somewhere that I’d rather live and do what I’d love to do?

To counteract ‘helpful’ advice, don’t tell negative people your ideas and dreams in the first place.  There’s a great saying that pertains to both being a writer, as well as achieving what you want to in life: ‘show don’t tell’ – rather than tell them you’re going to do something, show them you’re doing it instead.

Rather than asking people what they think about your plans, work out what you really want first, then let them know what’s happening.

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And that’s it really.  It’s not so revolutionary but it takes courage to step out of the crowd and follow your heart.

I hope you enjoyed my five-step ‘plan to early retirement from the workplace’ aka living your life the way you want to.  I hope it’s been inspirational to you and that reading these two posts has sparked off a seed of a plan inside you.

Please comment below and let me know what you’d love to do if you could do anything you want.  Forget about practicalities and just tell me what you’d do!

--Fiona--

I had such a fantastic response to my announcement last week that I have started a new email list on creating your dream life as a successful author.  The first newsletter has already been sent out, but it’s not too late if you want to catch it.

Leave your details here and you’ll receive the first newsletter straight away (you’ll have to confirm your email address first, but after that it will arrive instantly).

I’m excited to share with you my plans for this new project and how you can learn everything I have educated myself around writing and self-publishing.  Your successful author action step no. 1 is included in the first email so don’t hang around if you long to be an author: put your name and email address down here and get going!