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Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

 
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In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Early Retirement - Not Good for Your Mind!

Really?

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Billy and Akaisha bicycling on the beaches of Belize

Billy and Akaisha bicycling on the beaches of Belize

Recently we read an article by Kriston Wong titled, Why Early Retirement Isn't as Awesome as it Sounds - The Relationship between Retirement and Cognitive Decline.

These types of articles are fascinating to us because of the perspectives they present and the fact that we retired at the age of 38. (Have we been losing our minds for the last 32 years?)

In this particular piece, the study quoted cited evidence correlating retirement with mental decline, calling it mental retirement. The report from the Health and Retirement study suggests that it may hit harder for younger retirees.

Brian, from Done by Forty suggests: “The very prospect of an early retirement itself may sap the worker’s motivation. Why take on difficult projects and learn new skills if you are fifty, but are leaving the workforce in five years?

And finally, Ms. Wong surmises: The solution seems to be less about working through retirement and more about making sure you’re exposed to stimulating activities when you retire.

 

 

 

 

Bingo!

To address these comments, we would like to say that it is our opinion that withdrawing mentally or not participating actively with life is reflective of you as a person. People do that whether they are retired or still working, and we also understand that some people really dislike their jobs.

If we worked in a factory or other repetitive job that did not supply much brain stimulation or challenge, we too, might not feel motivated to do more than the minimum required.

Refusing to take on “difficult projects and learn new skills" because you plan to leave your job in five years (and counting the days while doing so), is a personal decision, a style of interacting with life. This casual, laid back attitude would then be carried into early retirement with you.

Akaisha boogie boarding in Phuket, Thailand

Akaisha boogie boarding in Phuket, Thailand

A different point of view

We have taken the stance that becoming financially independent is one of the best things you can do for yourself – and for the world.

Not being financially dependent on a paycheck to maintain your lifestyle, you now have the freedom and the ability to give back to your community, learn anything you might choose, travel, volunteer, mentor, invent a humanity-supporting product, rescue animals, play music for the elderly in assisted living homes, teach English as a Second Language for free, help provide clean drinking water to villages around the world, meet people outside your normal social circle, grab hold of all sorts of new opportunities - literally hundreds and hundreds of things that are beneficial to yourself and the global community.

We believe these activities would be mind-grabbing and prove to be interesting.

Why not create a life of meaning in your retirement and go from satisfaction to satisfaction?

Since we retired we have accomplished numerous of the above mentioned activities, something we never could have achieved had we continued working in our stressful careers.

We say “get busy living or get busy dying.”

In our books we have recommended that before you unplug from your job, that you make a list of all the things that you might want to accomplish during your financial independence time. This gives you something to look forward to, not just something that you are escaping from. And that makes all the difference.

Billy and Akaisha horseback riding in the Ecuadorian Andes Mountains

Billy and Akaisha horseback riding in the Ecuadorian Andes Mountains

It’s how you frame it

Take a look at some of the suggestions below. If all you have on your calendar is TV reruns or ball games on TV - season to season to season - you might find yourself getting bored quickly. What if you decided any of the following?

Volunteer at the animal shelter (hospice, children’s hospital, food bank, community college).

Learn Chinese (physics, how to play the saxophone, how to cook French cuisine).

Organize a sailing trip across the Pacific (a motorcycle trip across Canada and the US, an RV trip to every National Park in our country).

Plan to house sit all over Europe and write a book (start a blog, take amazing photos, leave an artistic journal legacy for your grandchildren).

Doesn’t this sound a lot more energetic and life-affirming?

What if you had unlimited amounts of time to spend as you wish? How would you fill it?

This is the list you refer to when your mind becomes shaky about the life-changing decision you are making. THESE are your reasons.

In our travels and three decades of financial independence we have found a common response from other retirees. “I wished I would have done it sooner” is a constant among many as well as “I do not know how I had time to work, I am so busy”

Even here in Guatemala trying to arrange a lunch date or sunset dinner with other expats needs advance notice. Everyone’s schedule is full with volunteering, personal creative projects, teaching or learning Spanish and just plain living.

If you want stimulus, travel! Not on a cruise or tour, but on your own. Pick out a couple of destinations and go. Learning about how to get there, choosing hotels in which to stay and activities to see will keep you busy, not to mention the language barriers if you travel abroad. Then when you meet other travelers in cafés or restaurants, they will tell you about a nearby town that you simply must see and off you go.

Believe us, this will keep you sharp.

Billy on outrigger in Boracy, Phillipines

Billy on outrigger in Boracy, Phillipines

Own your life

We believe in you.

We want YOU to believe in you, too.

We encourage you to own your life and live it with fulfillment.

Back in the “old days” retirement was a word that turned people off because it represented uselessness, disconnection from others and a lack of involvement with life and activities. Basically, the end of the road.

This is not your Father’s retirement

Which is why we state that our retirement is like your parents; only waaay cooler!

Use the words financial independent instead, it will make you feel more alive. Be delighted. Be creative. Feel solid in your choice and thrive. You have not decided to disconnect from life and "do nothing." You are now on a new life adventure; something that is interactive, alive, captivating and gratifying in a different way than your career was.

Thus we named our first book, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement.

Life IS an adventure. Live it! 

What's Your Number? - How much money do you need to retire?

For more on Retirement Topics, click here and here

 
About the Authors
 
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli are recognized retirement experts and internationally published authors on topics of finance, medical tourism and world travel. With the wealth of information they share on their award winning website RetireEarlyLifestyle.com, they have been helping people achieve their own retirement dreams since 1991. They wrote the popular books, The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement and Your Retirement Dream IS Possible available on their website bookstore or on Amazon.com.

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Retire Early Lifestyle appeals to a different kind of person – the person who prizes their independence, values their time, and who doesn’t want to mindlessly follow the crowd.

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