AK answers 3 questions on early retirement.

Dear AK

I have been faithfully following your posts for the past year and have benefitted much in terms of my own early retirement planning.

What I applaud you on is not only having wisdom in value and passive income investing but also the willingness in imparting this knowledge to other investors aspiring to financial independence. Well done!

I figured from your posts that you have recently retired from full time work and are now financially independent reaping the benefits of your most commendable and lucrative passive income.

If you may and don't mind sharing, can I tap your experience on the following:

1) at what point or level of passive income returns did you make the decision that you had sufficient safety buffer to leave your full-time work? It's always nice to have the safety net of a monthly pay-check and medical coverage and it is not easy to let this go in return for more free time;

2) even after achieving financial independence and leaving full time work, are you able to occupy your time fully and meaningfully? I struggle with this aspect as I fear boredom and a meaningless daily existence wondering how to occupy my time.

3) how do you keep yourself up to date on your work related skills in case you decide to return to full time work?

Thank you in advance and appreciate your guidance and sharing from your personal experiences.

Regards
A Kindred Spirit

My reply:

Hi AKS,

Welcome to my blog. :)

#1. When my passive income was as much as my earned income, I was basically in a position when I worked because I wanted to and not because I had to.

However, I am Singaporean and KS. So, still worrying, I waited for my passive income to be a bit more than my earned income. How much more? Maybe 30% more?

As for medical coverage, I recognised a long time ago that I must have good H&S coverage and not depend on the coverage provided by my employer. Visits to the clinics don't cost much since I am a Singaporean and I go to Polyclinics when I am ill.

#2. Initially, retirement could be boring but I am hardly bored. Blogging and related activities took up quite a bit of my spare time. That kept me from being bored but I blog less now. I am also slower to reply to comments and emails.

Then, what am I doing to occupy my time? I am spending more time learning about health matters, especially matters related to nutrition, weight loss and exercise. I am doing Yoga again and I spend quite a bit of time in my planter gardening. I also read up a bit on the subjects.

I am always learning something new. I am not bored.

#3. For me, I have no intention to go back to active employment. So, this is not a burning question for me. I have an academic degree and not a professional degree. So, I guess this is another reason why this question is not really important for me.

I was teaching for a while and I could always do some relief teaching if I really want to, I guess.

I do know of people who say they don't ever want to retire. As long as they are happy and healthy, there isn't anything wrong with having no desire to retire.

However, if they say they can't retire or if they are unhappy and suffer in their jobs, that is a big problem. They should really have exit plans then.

Related post:
Retiring before 60 is not a dream!