Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

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. |
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Creating
a Lifestyle of Meaning within Your Retirement
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli at
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
At various times in our lives all of us come to a fork in the
road - that place where we need to make a decision about where we want to go
for our future. Picking a career, choosing a spouse, or determining whether
or not to have children are examples of these significant junctures.
We think that choosing to retire early rather than working
for a couple of more decades which is the conventional choice, is a personal
decision not unlike the ones listed above. This change in your life
direction has consequences - not only for you, but with your relationships.
Decision time
Recently we read that if you decide to retire early, the
worst thing you could do is to surprise anyone invested in your current
lifestyle. If you do rock the boat, trouble could follow as you are forcing
these folks to question their own life’s path.
In our particular case,
we did upset the applecart,
and apparently our decision to live a lifestyle of our
choosing instead of fitting in with convention, challenged everyone we knew.
What we considered to be a personal decision had the side effect of throwing
everyone into unwanted self-reflection, and some felt threatened or were
generally unhappy with our change.
Who would have known?
Retiring early – or
obtaining
financial sustainability sooner
than your friends - will have the
by-product of making you stand apart
from the crowd. Many find this position
to be stressful.
We understand that some people feel more comfortable fitting
in with the crowd, but we think that some things we must conclude on our
own.
Personally, we took two years planning our exodus from our
working life and did not tell anyone about it until we gave our notice at
our jobs. We did not want the naysayers to distract us from our goal and
chose to work out our doubts and concerns about our future life between
ourselves.
The future impact of your retirement – building meaning
within your financially independent lifestyle
Your relationships will be impacted by your intention to
retire, especially if it is before the socially accepted age. So it’s
important for you to have a plan of creating personal meaning in order to
fill in any blank spaces that your lifestyle decision has created.
Keep in mind that once you remove yourself from your career
path - with all the discretionary purchasing power that it includes -
certain doors may no longer be open to you.
If watching your peers collect their second or third home,
drive Maseratis, give generously to charities and be selected to become
directors of significant public companies is going to grind on your own
sense of self-worth, this is something you must weigh carefully before
you chuck your lifework for good.
If you leave your profession early, you may not have as many
conventional post-work opportunities. However, the choice of early
retirement allows you to determine for yourself how you want to utilize your
particular set of talents and abilities. This can be immensely freeing and
gratifying.
Useful questions to ask yourself are "what will you be doing
with your newfound time? What areas in your life carry significance to you?"
Build on your answers.
Examples
Some people choose to
mentor or volunteer abroad
or at home in their communities. Others invent digital apps, write books, learn
new languages or go back to school. There are those who choose
meaningful travel,
going on anthropological digs, visiting the world’s holy sites, or starting a
boutique travel agency which brings a limited number of travelers to exotic
locations, thereby
opening their perspectives.
Just as worthy, some pursue avenues of personal value such as
gardening,
learning yoga, spending time with the grandchildren and family or getting
involved with animal rescue.
It is imperative that you use this gift of personal free time to
edify your morale, confidence and self-respect. If you allow yourself to slip
into insignificance in your own eyes, it is guaranteed that you will be
unhappy. It doesn’t matter so much what you do, so long as it holds satisfaction
and meaning to you.
It’s a delicate balance between succumbing to peer pressure to
stay at your job or pursuing what you value most. Life does not stop when you
cross over from the world of work to one of
Financial Independence. Rather, this new direction can bring delight in ways
you have never known before.
What's Your Number? - How much money do you need to retire?

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.



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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