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What does retirement mean to you? Does it bring up lots of questions and uncertainty? When did your parents or grandparents “retire?” Talking about the topic of retirement today is difficult because everyone has a different idea of retirement. I used to think I knew what it meant to retire, but my understanding is changing even as I type this.
The Traditional Retirement Plan
When I say “traditional” understanding of retirement, I mean what I grew up knowing. As far back as I remember, both sets of grandparents have been retired. They all worked for 30-40 years before getting some sort of pension or retirement plan from their work. This is how it worked back then. You worked at your job (most likely the same job) for your career and then when you reached a certain age or physically couldn’t work anymore, you retired with some sort of pension.
Retirement meant not having to go to work. That summed it up for me. It meant the freedom to watch TV, mow the yard, play golf, etc. If you could achieve this status earlier, you had it made. This is what I understood retirement as growing up. If I had to guess, I would say that many of you have had this similar idea of retirement.
The Problem with Traditional “Retirement”
The problem with this view is that it makes you live a life waiting for your life to start, only when you are physically unable to do many things. You are burdened with the goal of achieving this goal as quickly as possible and by any means possible. There is no possibility to do something that you really want to do because you are stuck paying the bills. In other words, this idea of retirement leads you to just get through the work day instead of looking forward to it. Instead of finding happiness in your day job, you anxiously await the weekend.
An Early Retirement Plan
Instead of waiting to live your life in 30-40 years, what would you say if I told you can live your life today. You can follow your dreams and find the time to do what you want really early in life? I bet you are thinking something along the lines of “yeah… right!” or even that, “if it sounds too good to be true, it must be”. This isn’t the case! I’m not saying it is an easy thing to do, because it takes hard work and some time. But, the very premise of Passive Income to Retire is to track my goals towards this early “retirement.” In other words, instead of trying to work for the same company for 30-40 years in return for a pension, OR even saving up enough money that I won’t run out of money before I die, I want to approach it differently. Instead, I want to build up passive (or even semi-passive) income streams that will help fund my retirement.
I don’t know how much I will need to fund my “retirement,” but the idea is that if I can have a steady income from managing the various income streams, I will quit my day job and continue trying to make more money from these sources. I hope to document my attempts to do so, letting you know where I fail and where I succeed. I want to provide you with the information that is required to repeat the process. I want to give you your life back. Don’t fall victim to this traditional view of retirement. Help me redefine retirement by making the impossible possible. It will not be easy, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.
Great post. This is something I have been working on lately; really trying to get focused on what I want and making it happen. I work in Oncology and I am constantly reminded at how precious life is. I don’t want to waste mine or take it forgranted. Focus and a plan are definitely required.
Great point Miss T. I can see how your work is a central theme in your life.
Glad you put quotes around retirement because it is more than that. It is freedom to do what you want and the flexibility to make it happen. I will be following closely.
Thanks CFM. I can’t wait to release my first passive income report.
I’m working on a retirement plan as well, however, I’ll definitely be working for a while – more than two or three years! I love the idea of passive, or semi-passive income. This is my plan as well, it will just take me longer.
Sounds like a great plan!
I hope to make it in 2-3 years. If things keep progressing, it may be by the end of 2012.
I really hope you succeed and will be reading to see how you achieve that success. Your goal is something I think all young people (myself included) would like to strive for, however I’m not sure how reachable it is with out some lucky breaks.
Thanks TOF. I’m glad that you will partner with me. It’s going to be an exciting ride.
Sounds great Corey! That’s what I’m doing too, but it took me a long time to realize that’s what I need to work toward. I’m getting close to my goal and I think I’ll beat you! Haha, well I’m older too.
We’ll see about that.
But, if you beat me by a year or two, I will still consider myself the one who won. 
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Your idea sounds fantastic.
I recently did some calculations and the results are very much frustrating, to be brutally honest. Have a look yourself – they are all published.
If you invest $ 40, 000 a year over 35 years, at modest inflation rate of 2% and administration fee of 1-2% you need stock market to perform at 4% just to preserve value of your money and higher to gain anything.
This means that you are only preserving money you are investing at a very high risk. So it is just plain wisdom – is there a point to be frugal and try to save, if you ended up loosing money?
Feeding financial industry or living your life in full now?
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This sounds like a dream come true. It won’t be easy, but from all the blogs I’ve read I believe it could be done. I think you have the right idea expanding your blog efforts. Don’t pass up on making investments either. Compound interest may be slow, but it does grow to incredible heights.
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Corey this is inspiring…. Hope you are able to do it!!!