Lessons Learned in Early Retirement (So Far)
“You’re off the clock seven days a week. You can wake up, eat, play, work and go to sleep when you want.” – Rob Carrick, former personal finance staff columnist, The Globe and Mail.
I echo those comments.
Rob’s Globe article (subscription/paywall) caught my eye this week and as an early retiree myself I thought I would respond and chime in with my own reflections – some lessons learned in early retirement (so far).
People will be genuinely happy for you…
Agreed.
My retirement party was great and my workplace colleagues seemed genuinely happy for my future non-working self although some were quite surprised that we 1. decided to retire so early and 2. others wondered how we did it.
Generally, everyone to Rob’s point is “…on your side when you retire.”
You will spend more money than you thought…
Agreed.
Travel is our biggest expense this year but that’s all discretionary. We have plans to travel international again later this year beyond our three-week retirement celebration road-trip we took this spring to Newfoundland. I haven’t posted all those details here on the site but you can certainly watch everything on our YouTube channel!
You need tent poles to fill your schedule…
Agreed, to a point.
I had a busy schedule (when working, like journalists) and I also believe I have “…skills that translate well into scaled-down work” if I so choose, but most days, I enjoy slower mornings, time to exercise, and time to maintain this site and consider other hobbies, including some new volunteer work.
While I would agree you need and likely desire ways to fill your time, time moves differently as an early retiree.
Before retirement, we both felt rushed. Rush to get home, cook, then complete other tasks around the house.
Now, we have days or weeks to think ahead…or just sit and think. 🙂
My wife and I are learning to embrace a slower pace, embrace time to think, and in some cases (in a very positive way) be somewhat bored with our respective thoughts.
It’s actually a wonderful place to be in – time to slow down, think, and act accordingly on own schedule.
Health remains wealth…
I’ll stress this point much more than Rob did.
Preparation for retirement is not mainly about accumulating money although money is important.
I’ve long believed health is the ultimate form of wealth regardless of how much money you have – since money is just a tool after all – and money is only good if you can actually use it.
I’m hardly where I want to be in terms of overall fitness but averaging 10,000+ steps per day, golfing each week, cycling 100+ km per week have been nice starting points for me this summer. More work to do…
You need to trust the plan…
Agreed.
One mantra on this site amongst others is:
plans are good but the process of planning is essential.
This is because life changes and your plans need to change with it.
While comprehensive financial plans are more than retirement income projections, I/we do our own income projections every 6-12 months and I would suggest you do the same.
“A good plan says how much you can sustainably spend each year. Go with it.”, yes, but adjust it too.
There are moments of complete satisfaction…
Agreed.
This includes saying “yes” and “no” to things.
While work did provide some solid structure in our lives, a routine to get up, get out, and get to work only to come home again 8-10 hours later, we still crave some level of regular weekly activities – things to do but we also avoid doing some things since we have the luxury of time to do it later…
And finally, we don’t worry about money (as much)!
As a passionate DIY investor/personal finance and investing nerd this one has surprised me and somewhat aligned to my point above about trusting the plan.
We don’t worry about our spending budget as much – we know what we need, what we want and have already built-in some annual buffer just in case as part of this household formula:
We don’t worry about where the income is going to come from – we’ve mapped that out in our Retirement Income Map that I will adjust annually.
We don’t worry about the timing of future government benefits like our CPP or OAS income streams and how those income sources will impact any taxation burdens – we know that too.
We still enjoy watching our dividends and distributions flow in every month – so I’ll keep those updates coming too.
What we don’t obsess nor worry about much any longer – surprisingly – is money.
What we’ve learned from early retirement – so far!
Many DIY readers and my growing list of subscribers have been fans of this site because they already know what goes into managing their own money – and they want to engage with yours truly to see how I figure this out.
So far in early retirement, so good.
I have no doubt I’ll have more lessons learned in the coming years.
Do share your own lessons learned in a comment below. Happy to read and engage back.
Mark
Related Reading:
I continue to help and support all Canadian DIY investors as much as I can through these low-cost retirement readiness projections!
I shared a few years back, given there are 80,000+ personal finance books on the shelf, you might not need any more financial advice.
I find the freedom to plan your days is still being tested after many years of retirement. Not enough planned to too much planned and things out of your control dropping into your lap. My wife stated a while back” how did we ever get anything done when we were working?”. Not problems just new realities.
Financial concerns have transitioned into conversations about how we will spend our money which are always good conversations.
It isn’t about how much you have but what you want to do with what you have.
We are still early in our retirement and have much to do vacation wise.
Same, Steve.
Want to ramp up travel spending/international travel in the coming years. 🙂
If financial concerns are more about spending and/or taxation, you’ve done very well I assume!
Kudos,
Mark
Hi Mark
Yes I agree. You will spend more money as planned initially
I you will spend more and more every year when things that you can do now will have to be done by another person or contractor
Another thing that I learnt is that everybody see a retired person like a rich person. They try to charge you more for everything
Also there are a lot of things relatrd to your health that are not free. You go to an Eye Test ( free), the optometrist refer you to an specialist. That specialist want that you return every six month. Pay for a test that is not covered by OHIP. Parking is not free and no free. Prescriptions are not covered by the provincial plan. Etc, etc
Totally agree on the healthcare, realizing that now!!
Stay well. 🙂
Mark
“You will spend more money than you thought…”
Certainly not true for us. I have a large travel budget and expense budget but it was far too high. Home obligations (can’t do slow travel because of kids needs, mandatory health appointments, etc) curtailed much of my anticipated travel desires. Expenses at home are less since not having to work reduced commute, wardrobe, convenience eating (vs cooking at home) and other expenses typically related to work more than expected. I am a conservative planner so I guess this shouldn’t be a big surprise. That said, we are learning that you really don’t need that much money to be happy. For the last year when I first retired, we average around $7k / mo. USD in spending. My budget is more than double that. We’re going to make some adjustments to up spending.
I like those reflections…thanks for sharing.
I do like and appreciate less work-related costs: wardrobe and lunches although I did bring my own lunch many days.
$7k USD per month is solid spending and you’re going to be spending double that soon?
With a ridiculously good stock run the past 3 years, that’s how the numbers are panning out. I don’t know if we will actually spend $80k+ per year on travel but that’s certainly one expense line that is targeted to go up significantly.
Excellent. I think our travel budget is around $30k per year but we’re in our early 50s and can scale-up from there. 🙂
Yes health is a very important part of retirement . Having just had emergency spinal surgery for a herniated disc brought that in focus for me. I am retired and kept in good shape with a personal trainer, member of 2 cycling clubs for rides and member of a walking group. However things can change very quickly . Having just driven my wife and son to the airport for a 6 week trip to Germany, Turkey and Sicily I was sad. I had to cancel my. trip but i had trip cancellation insurance which will reimburse me for the cost of my trip. We always take this type of insurance . Retired life is great and you have to roll with the ups and downs. I don’t worry about money since my investments have done so well. I am gifting shares with large embedded capital gains in kind to charities I support and this gives me much satisfaction . Love reading your postings and will have to watch your Youtube videos which I have subscribed to
Sorry to hear about the health challenges, Roger, but glad you are on the mend!!
Yes, we always have trip cancellation, etc. insurance as well. It’s an expense but likely worth it!
I agree with the ups and downs. I’m worrying less, a bit, as mentioned about money although I still think about it quite a bit. I’m learning its “OK to spend”.
Thanks for the kind words about the YouTube! Cathy (my wife) enjoys posting them and more to come.
Mark
Rob’s experience is a good starting point. I would add some of the following:
A main positive is the pleasure of being able to say “No” to things you don’t really want to do.
There is the pleasure opportunity of volunteering in a programmed or ad hoc way.
Health pressure surprises from extended family will challenge one’s plans.
Those are good additions, could have easily included those and the “no” applies a bit to me too. Still learning that one!
Thanks for your comment.
Mark
Thanks for this. As my time comes up in a few months I’m preparing, but I think it’ll all be about living in it and seeing what emerges. All the planning in the world is not the same as actually experiencing it, so I’m preparing to give myself some grace in figuring it out and seeing what comes. Purpose, connection and some structure are the things I’m spending most of my time thinking about, the finance math works so that part isn’t the main concern. I’m probably overthinking and overplanning, but let’s see what happens, because that’s really the exciting part of it-a new chapter with a lot of adventures to come. Glad to hear about your journey and learning how it’s going.
Nice to hear from you!
How many weeks left to go?
Yes, similarly, I like some structure for sure but depending on how you adapt – you might find less structure is OK too – learning to let go a bit and not feeling you have to be busy/on the go all the time. No need to overplan, no need to overthink, no need to over analyze. Just see how you feel each day and learn it might be something different: slower day, busy day, relaxing day, workout day, etc.
Feel free to drop me a line whenever and it would be good to catch up later this fall/winter. Was into work earlier this summer to see a few folks and it was an interesting experience being on “the other side”.
On the finances, I recall you mentioning you’ve got your own cash wedge close to 3 years (?) which is amazing – we had 2+ years when I retired or 3-years if you include when Cathy retired almost a year ago now….she retired in Oct. 2025. Time flies.
Cheers,
Mark
Jan 15th is my last day, so working to wind things up and transfer them over. It’s a strange limbo time. I did set up the cash wedge for 3 years. Have it in a money market fund to keep up with inflation so feel pretty good about that-being cautious but not killing overall returns too much.
People are definitely interested in hearing what I plan to be doing after!
Keith
Oh wow, great!!
Yes, some limbo for me in the final weeks given my replacement wasn’t hired until the week I left! All good, boss was very busy this spring and I suspect he still is. Had coffee with him a few weeks back to check-in. 🙂
Ya, our cash wedge is a mix of money market funds in registered accounts and higher-interest savings accounts.
You’ll like retirement I suspect. LOL.
Congrats on the pending transition and stay in touch of course.
Mark
Great stuff Mark! While I’m still completely comfortable with the retirement decision that I made (April 2024), I will admit that the first year of retirement had definitely been an “adjustment period”. Leading up to retirement, I had read so many books on the topic – with a particular focus on the finances. However, all the books outlined that retirement is more than “just the finances” – and boy were they right! It’s also about sense of purpose, physical and mental health, trying out new things, and maintaining your social connections. When I looked back at my first year of retirement, I learned a lot about myself and what it meant to be retired. One of my biggest retirement surprises was, in fact, something I mentioned earlier. Prior to retirement, I was so focused on the financial part! Will I have enough? Will my spending habits change? How will my income drawdown work without a regular paycheck? How do I optimize my tax situation? Have I accounted enough for emergencies? Could I suffer from sequence of returns risk? Well – a funny thing happened on my way to retirement. I hardly give finances a second thought anymore. Maybe I can attribute that to good planning – or maybe it’s just the realization that there are so many more other things important in life. Don’t get me wrong – you want to have enough of a nest egg to enjoy retirement – but if you’re not able to continue keeping active, healthy, purposeful, and social – having all the money in the world won’t really matter! All the best to you and Cathy as you continue to navigate this new chapter in life!
Nice comment, MikeyP.
I’m still in my adjustment period to be honest. Only been 5 months. I suspect it will take almost another 3-6 months to really feel into the groove.
I definitely enjoy retirement more than the personal finances: some structure, learning to improve my physical and mental health, and trying out new things too.
We still worry a bit about the money but nothing I really stress over. Sure, it would be good to “have more” and we could have working longer into our mid-50s but that was never our plan and at the end of the day, another 2-3 years worth of work would have added maybe, what, up to 5% or so more to our total portfolio? I dunno, seems like too much of a tradeoff which is why we retired when we did. More money, sure but less life. 🙂
All the best back and I enjoy your comments.
Mark