Live Your Best Life
Ever wish you had the freedom to pursue your dreams and passions and live your best life without having to worry about making enough money to support you and your family? To be able to explore the world, learn new things, embark on adventures, help others, and make the world a better place without the daily 9 – 5 grind holding you back? Or even just looking for more financial security so you can build some serious wealth and not have to live paycheck to paycheck? If so, you’ve come to the right place!
What Does it Mean to Build a Better Financial Future?
A better financial future means taking control of your finances and building a strong foundation so you can worry less about money and focus on the more important things in life. What a “better financial future” means to you is a spectrum. It can mean anything from getting out of debt to becoming financially independent (FI) at a young age. While this post will focus on the benefits of the pretirement part of the spectrum, many of the benefits apply to other areas. In addition, no matter what part of the spectrum you’re aiming for, the content in the rest of this series can help you get there.
What is Pretirement?
Pretirement is similar to becoming financially independent. Achieving financial independence (FI) means that your investments make enough money to support you (and your family) so you never need to work again – if you don’t want to.
Reaching true financial independence is a fantastic goal and one that I’m also shooting for, but it can take some time to get there. And unless you never plan to work again, working a job you don’t enjoy to get all the way there can be overkill.
Enter the pretirement year. Instead of staying at a job I was comfortable in but not extremely passionate about, I made some positive adjustments to my lifestyle and saved up enough money to live on for a couple years while also maintaining investments for long term financial security. What this means is that while I don’t yet have enough money to live off of for the rest of my life (financial independence), I do have enough to spend a couple years pursuing whatever passions I’d like – traveling the world, learning to cook, reading, getting in shape, skiing, sleeping in, volunteering, starting a business, etc. And due to my long term investments, when I do go back to work, it can be for something I love and am excited to do vs. something I show up to just to make money.
What Pretirement (and FI) is NOT:
- Focusing only on money and making/saving as much as you can. A large portion of the journey comes with learning to live with less, improving yourself, and finding ways to give back.
- A get rich quick scheme. It will take time and (worthwhile) sacrifices. And while pretirement or FI will certainly be more challenging and take longer for some to achieve than others based on the hand life dealt you, it is still attainable for many.
- Never working again. Instead, you may even “work” more than you ever did before – in an area you’re actually passionate about or on a project to make the world a better place – but without having to worry as much about how you will get paid for it. If work is one of your passions and you enjoy what you do, then you hit the jackpot long before most of us and by all means, keep working! Except now, with FI, you’ll have the added security of knowing you can still support your lifestyle even even if you lose your job. And any extra income can go towards pursuing other passions or charitable causes.
- Risky. Isn’t NOT reaching FI and relying only on a job for income MORE risky? With FI, you can still go back to work if things get tough. If you lose your job, it’s a lot harder to make money off investments if you don’t already have any.
We could all benefit if we stopped thinking retirement is something that automatically happens at age 65. If you don’t save any money, social security alone may not be enough to live off of, and you’ll have no choice but to keep working to make ends meet. Likewise, save and invest and you can give yourself the freedom to stop working long before then.
If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.
Marc Anthony
What are the Benefits of Pretirement?
Peace of mind and financial security
Imagine not having to worry about losing or not being able to find a job and having enough money to comfortably cover living expenses for a couple years – or even a decade or more if you really need to tap into your long term investments. If you’ve saved up enough for a pretirement year, you’ll have achieved this level of financial security too!
The ability to learn new things
What have you always been curious about but never had the time to do? Learning to cook amazing food that will pay dividends for the rest of your life? A new language to interact with locals on your travels? How to make delicious cocktails or brew your own beer? The opportunities are endless, and so is the amount of time (almost) that you’ll now have to pursue them!
Adventure
Travel the world without being limited by a week of vacation. In fact, assuming at your job you get three weeks off each year, one pretirement year equates to over 15 “work years” worth of vacation! Take a road trip and explore our majestic national parks. Spend a month renting an apartment and completely immerse yourself in another culture. Fly to that amazing overseas destination you’ve got saved on your desktop but never had the time to truly enjoy. This last year, I got to stand at the top of and peer into an erupting volcano in Vanuatu, dive with over 30 Bull Sharks (and no cage!) in Fiji, snorkel with whales along the great barrier reef, and camp up the California coast, to name a few.
Explore a new hobby or get better at an existing one
I’ve always loved skiing, but since college, was never able to squeeze in more than a few days each year and my skills plateaued. This year, I was able to get in over 20 days and felt myself make significant improvements. Speedriding is next up on my bucket list.
A chance to live a healthy life
Want to live a healthier life but finding it hard to find the time or energy to cook healthy meals or make it to the gym? While I’m sure you can still find plenty of other excuses to not work out (let me know if you do, I’m always looking for more), you won’t be able to use those two big ones anymore! Stress and lack of sleep also become things of the past! Check out the Health section of the blog (coming soon) for tips on how to efficiently achieve optimal health.
No setting alarms!
Okay, I guess this is sort of a repeat since I just mentioned getting more sleep above, but man do I love sleeping in and boy does it feel good to be able to do this whenever I feel like it. It deserved mentioning at least one more time. Ahhhhhhhhh.
Spending more time with loved ones (although…)
If you’re a parent, this means more time with your kids and tons of money saved on daycare (although after the COVID-19 pandemic, you may be re-thinking this one). If you live out of town from relatives, it can mean spending a week of quality time together instead of just a weekend (although they say, what do fish and house guests have in common – they both start to smell after a few days). Mostly kidding. Spending time with loved ones is amazing for your health and one of the best parts of being alive and human!
Helping others
If you want to help others, one of the best ways to do so is by helping yourself first by pretiring or becoming financially independent. Once you do you have much more time to volunteer and likely a greater financial base to contribute from as well. But even more than that you’ll have…
The opportunity to pursue your dreams
This is the biggest one of all. By doing this you’ll have the opportunity to lead a truly fulfilling life and (assuming the “what we want to be when we grow up” inside us involves admirable pursuits) make the world a better place.
Really, it’s an opportunity to live your best life and help others live theirs!
What are some things you envision doing with a pretirement year or what other advice do you have to live your best life? Please share in the comments below!
