Reflecting on Year 1 of Retirement
Retired at 33.
That’s the headline of this story. But that moment in time is just a small piece of the story. Even the whole lead-up to that moment is just a blip compared to what is to come.
But the task for today was to take a look at year one.
What was it like in those 365 days when there was no employer or ….
It was funny, as I tried to write that previous sentence and finish out all the things that I no longer have now that I’m financially independent or “retired”, I almost wrote words like agenda, calendar, obligations, etc.
In reality, there will always be schedules and conflicts and other people’s lives to take into consideration.
Life is quite resilient at keeping you busy
The primary feedback I received after previewing my original take on this post was less inquisition into what I was doing in retirement, how I was affording it, why I was doing what I had chosen to do, etc.
No, the real question I seemed to have left unanswered with my original take was how it feels.
How does it feel to be financially independent?
The ability to answer this question is the answer to this question.
For me to really sit and process what this accomplishment feels like, to reflect on the first year’s moments, and to just feel all the feels.
To do that, I needed some uninterrupted space, which led me outside. In turn, that led me to turning off the overly bright lights, and I needed to put on the right clothes on so I didn’t get cold…. This is a deliberately long winded way of saying.
To process how it felt to be void of work, took a lot of work.
I often hear people questioning what someone could possibly do to fill the void that will be left from their career, when in reality the number one thing that person has been needing all along is a little void.
Our whole lives are focused on increasing our ability to produce and we often do such a good job increasing production that we lose the space to process.
Being financially independent lets me be me. It gives me time to figure out who that is. It gives me time to work on my shortcomings and hopefully, time to show myself some gratitude.
It makes me cherish each day even more because I know each one comes with so much potential.
I’m not sure why, as I try to write out these thoughts, I keep saying “it” in reference to retirement instead of simply expressing how I feel.
I feel so grateful for the abundance of time that I have and I feel like it’s my responsibility to be the best friend possible, the best brother possible, the best son possible. I don’t care how equitable the effort is for the relationship. I fully understand that it may be me asking a friend to meet up 5 times before I get a single yes.
I could try to keep score, I could not be the one to call first, I could sit and wait for someone to make time for me…but at the end of the day the person who gets hurt the most is me.
I cherish being able to do more than my fair share. Everyone has their struggles with finding purpose and cause, but while we search for that, our family and friends are a great place to start.
I find a lot of fulfillment in being a good friend, good spouse, good brother, and a good son.
The freedom feels amazing and it’s extremely motivational.
That combination will hopefully drive a lot of positive changes inside of you.
My advice would be to give yourself some grace and practice some patience when you consider how you hope those changes might trickle into those around you.
Financial independence might put you in the perfect mental spot for growing as a person and you would naturally want to pull your friends and family right along with that growth
But you must remember that the conditions might be perfect for you, and even if you have the best of intentions, the conditions just may not be right for them.
So how does retirement feel?
Relaxing: just being yourself and no corporate costume
Awkward: Realizing every American interaction with someone starts off with work followed by me trying to explain the situation and balancing the outward perception from <oh poor thing is jobless> to <this prick trying to flaunt how good he has it>
Proud: as someone who is often hard on himself for not sticking to things, financial independence took real commitment for ~9 years.
Scary: that I’ll have great ideas I want to try, memories I want to make, relationships I want to strengthen, or things I want to discuss… but discover that those I want to do it with don’t want those things at all
Relieving: A year in, I find similarities to the relief I felt when telling everyone I gave up alcohol. Saying out loud that I’ve done something that 99% of people will never do feels very weird at first, but then I adjusted to that 1% weirdo being my story, and the people who truly care about me let you be that 1% weirdo. And that exchange ends with a lot of relief.
Responsibility: I feel a responsibility to push the people I love the most to take ownership of their financial lives
Satisfying: The satisfaction is not from feeling that everything that needs to be accomplished is accomplished. My sense of satisfaction comes from knowing that the first year of retirement was worth every decision and delayed gratification even if it’s the only year of financial freedom I ever get.
There are a lot of wild stories in year one and I’ll be sure to give you some of those, all the ins and outs of what it technically looked like to be retired for a year.
But if this is as far as your attention span wants to bring you, I wanted to make sure I got out how it feels.
My focus here will mostly gloss over the lead-up and mostly gloss over the long-term ramifications, instead, I will just sit and reflect on my experience with the first year of retirement.
I will take just a second and lay out how I got here. I grew up in a small town in Mississippi. A high school scholarship to Air Force ROTC and academic scholarships allowed me to graduate with a debt-free computer engineering degree. I made money going to college but that’s yet another article.
My first duty station was in Colorado. It was there that I realized all my goals had been accomplished and yet I was depressed for the first time. Eventually, that led me to inspect what really makes me happy. The answer to what made me happy was time with friends, family, and exploring new places. To gain access to that time I needed enough passive income. And that is how I discovered the concept of financial independence.
That financial independence journey kicked off in 2015. The next eight years would put me in three states and included four more years of Air Force service followed by four years of a corporate career.
Over those eight years, I started with a 65% savings rate and that eventually climbed to 90%. I plugged away all those savings into investments which were primarily total stock market index funds. I made certain to never skimp on experiences and enjoy the ride while also stashing away for the future.
Fast forward to 2023 and I had finally made a plan for my retirement date based on projected income and stock grants that I would receive. I planned to retire in June of 2024 after my next big batch of stock was given to me.
Plans are always hilarious, aren’t they? My company was also bought out in 2023 and I was offered a severance package in November. That severance package would pay me my salary and grant me the stock that I was owed through June of 2024.
So yes, I was technically laid off. I didn’t get that moment I had built up in my head where I got to make this big announcement and leave on my terms. That part was tough, I’ll be honest. The reality is that I got exactly what I was hoping for financially and I received an extra six months of freedom. Some people might try to poke at the fact that I was laid off, but in the end, you can call it what you want. November 2023 was the last month I ever needed to be employed. I retired at 33.
There we go, my whole life and financial independence journey wrapped up in a page worth of text. Now let’s get into what the real purpose of this post is for, what year one of retirement looked like.
The only drawback to the severance was that I entered retirement without real plans. I had a trip planned to Killamanjoro which was supposed to be the retirement celebration but that wasn’t until August of 2024. So what would I do for the 9 months preceding that trip?
What would I do now that 40 hours a week and extreme amounts of mental energy were just freed up? It honestly didn’t feel like a big burden to overcome because I was making Christmas ornaments for my mom with my laser engraver, hosting my niece for her first trip to Austin, enjoying unplanned visits from friends I hadn’t seen since high school, taking advantage of my Movie Pass subscription, working on the plan to flip a house I bought for $5k in Mississippi, trying out new packaging for Ripped Dip, attending consumer product good meetups, participating in local markets with Leslie, and experimenting with new recipes. And that was all in the first week…
The question people seem to struggle with the most, even more so than wondering how I retired so young, is how I wouldn’t go insane from boredom. Thankfully, I’m interested in almost everything. I love to learn about and how to do everything. It’s a blessing and a curse because I tend to go deep into an area for short bursts and then move on to the next thing without ever getting bored.
I’ll drop a more detailed overview of the year at the end of the article. Even with the overview, it’s hard to express everything I did in a consumable way. So many of the days between travel were filled with little things that I wanted to do and brought me some joy. Whether that was just walking outside and listening to a podcast, working out, trying a new recipe, or even mowing my friend’s yard while he was at work.
The most amazing thing I got to do was just be myself. No matter how wonderful my work environment was, I still wasn’t able to fully be me. I had to act like I cared about things that meant nothing to me. I had to act like I was mentally invested in the direction of the company. None of that was true.
I do love solving problems, and work gave me that outlet. I also enjoy mentoring others and work gave me that outlet. But I didn’t get to choose the problems that were important to me, and I didn’t get to seek out the people I felt like I wanted to mentor. In retirement, I didn’t only do things for myself. But, If I was doing something for someone else, I got to choose what I was doing and who I was doing it for.
Once people get their heads wrapped around what life might look like, then they normally settle into the more logistical questions. How did you retire and how are you funding your lifestyle?
As I mentioned earlier, my main method to reach early retirement was the stock market. I have faith in the work that has been done to show that somewhere between a 3-4% safe withdrawal rate is a pretty comfortable place to be where you can feel confident that you’ll never run out of money.
I’ve tracked every dollar that I’ve spent since I started this journey and I knew I could live a heck of a life on anywhere from $2500-$4000 per month. $2500 is the more typical month for me and $4000 would add some extravagance. To achieve a safe withdrawal that puts out $4000 per month I would need $1.2M of investments. That number is if I had no additional income.
In the end, I retired with about $1.7M. But the nest egg wasn’t the full story. We also put our primary residence on AirBnB. Over the last year, it has brought in over $30k after paying AirBnB and cleaning fees. After splitting that with Leslie, that brings my cash flow needs down to $2750 per month to hit that high-end number.
It doesn’t end there. We manage an apartment in downtown Austin that brings in $200/mo each and I have a hard money loan out that pays $1800 per month. Now I’m down to only $750 per month I need to cover. On top of all that, I receive some income from my time in the Air Force and I’m hoping to have the house I bought for $5k in Mississippi renovated and rented for ~$750 per month.
It turns out, that with the variety of income streams and my actual cost of living being closer to the $2500 per month end of the spectrum, I’ve been able to continue saving money since I retired. I also had that lump sum of cash and stock from my severance.
That has all led to my net worth increasing from $1.7M at retirement to $2.1M on my 1 year anniversary. This also means that when we factor in Leslie’s investments, she’s able to take some time off with me.
She continued to work for most of my year of retirement but is going to take some time off for our big 6-month international trip that kicks off in January 2025.
So the money part has been shockingly simple so far. I haven’t had to stress about draw-down strategies because nothing has been drawn down. I continue to invest more and more. Even if our lifestyle increases and we get to a point where we break even and can’t invest anymore the investments will continue to grow.
If I never saved another penny, I’d likely have $4M by age 42 and $8M by age 50. That’s in today’s dollars, so that does take into account inflation. I don’t even know what I would do with an $8M nest egg that’s capable of pumping out $320k per year when I’ve only ever spent over $32k in a year once in my life.
Ok, so you can see why I chased financial independence, how I achieved financial independence, how the money works in retirement, and what highlights I had in the first year. But what do I think about it as I reflect on it? Is it what I thought it’d be?
My thoughts on it are extremely positive. My frequency of happy days has greatly increased, my step count has doubled, and my fitness is as good as it has ever been. I would warn people though if they think it’s a magic bullet. I’m still very capable of having a bad day. This whole thing could go very poorly if you don’t have a solid foundation and I pride myself on self-work and self-improvement to make sure that foundation is there.
I take advantage of my newfound free time to reflect on days and situations and try to understand myself better and how I can be better.
It isn’t exactly what I thought it would be, but that’s also to be expected since it happened six months sooner than I thought it would. I’m kicking off year two with the big six-month trip which feels closer to what I imagined. But year one has been a blast.
What about the warts? What are the parts of retirement that weren’t so great?
Constant travel and moving around comes with a lot of amazing experiences but it also makes fostering a community extremely hard. The other unglamorous part that you probably won’t see someone posting on Instagram is living out of a suitcase. Constantly packing and unpacking can be a grind.
Normal social interactions have also become a little tougher in this era. You quickly realize how much of everyone’s conversations revolve around work and complaints about the office which we no longer can relate to and have a hard time caring about. Conversely, it’s hard for anyone to relate to what you have going on when you’ve completely lost track of what day it is and are between multi-week trips across the world.
There are also psychological challenges. I have a tug of war between telling myself that it’s ok to be happy and content while also questioning if I’m telling myself that as an excuse to make up for my lack of making some big splash, starting a company, or taking on some huge effort.
I also am not naive to the fact that in time, I may want something different than this extreme amount of travel and variety that I currently have. But that day isn’t today and I’m going to soak it all in while I’m here. I’m sure the day will come when I crave more stability and I’ll cross that bridge when it gets here.
There’s no way to know where life will take me. That has become abundantly clear over the years. But for right now I’m taking advantage of this time. I love the fact that I can be a more involved friend. I can meet people where they are and on their schedule. I can give more than 50% worth of the effort to the relationship. I don’t worry about whether it’s equitable between me and a friend because I know I’m in a unique position to give more right now. I could be petty and say that I’m not getting back what I’m putting out but in the end, that doesn’t serve anyone.
Next year kicks off with a trip of a lifetime across the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy. Then it’s back to the States for a few months before we get to have all of our friends and family descend on Austin for our wedding. That’s how year two is shaping up and I have a feeling year three will be just as wild and amazing.
Retiring in your 30’s is an unusual path but it is so worth it. Regardless of how old you are or what your aspirations are, I encourage everyone to take control of their finances and build a life that works for you and your loved ones. We only get one life, and if we’re lucky that life gives us 80+ years of memories. Do everything you can to pack those years with memories, solid relationships, happy days, and positive impact.
If you’re curious about that deeper dive into what this last year has looked like, I’ve included that below. Thanks for stopping by and sharing this journey with me.
December
Hosted my niece for a week in Austin
Made custom laser engraved gifts for my mom and good friend
Tried Franklins BBQ and Interstellar BBQ for the first time
Planned and purchased everything for a kitchen remodel
Saw several movies
Redesigned ripped dip packaging
Attended consumer product goods meetups
Went to the trail of lights
Did a baby kangaroo feeding experience
Redesigned my Dad’s upstairs to be a sudo apartment in Mississippi
Ripped up old flooring and prepped concrete for staining
Replaced all the windows in the flip
Spent two weeks in Mississippi
Enjoyed Christmas with my family
Tons of workouts
January
Two weeks in Mississippi
Someone hit and totaled my Tesla
Redid Kitchen in Leslie’s family beach house
Lots of other projects there like replacing all the hardware for the doors
Spent a week on the Texas coast
Saw several movies
Lots of cooking
Lots of workouts
Dove into Ninja Creamis
February
Spent two weeks on the Texas coast
More beach house remodeling
Went to the Austin Symphony
Took the train to Dallas
Completed the purchase of my New (to me) Tesla Model Y
Spent a couple of days with my best friend in Dallas
Spent a week in Mississippi
Lots of remodeling on the flip house
Attended a Rodeo
Took my niece to a concert in Nashville
March
Spent two weeks in Mississippi
Played golf
Replaced doors and painted the exterior of the flip house
Drove back to Austin
Tried a new boxing class
Did my first Dexa scan (10.1% body fat)
Spent a week in Miami
Attended Ultra music festival
Went to two additional concerts
Drove back to Texas Coast
April
More remodeling on Texas beach house
Found outfits for our engagement (surprise to Leslie)
Made pies/desserts for Leslie’s Brother’s 50th birthday
Spent two weeks in Portugal
Got engaged
A quick trip to Paris
Volunteered for Preservation Austin home tour
Spent a week in Puerto Vallarta
May
Hosted my parents in Austin
Threw an engagement party
Another trip to the Texas Coast
Yoga wellness day trip
DeadMau5 show in Austin
Spent 10 days in Chicago
Attended Beyond Wonderland music festival in Chicago
Tons of catching up with friends, sporting events, new restaurants, museums etc
June
4 more days in Chicago
House sitting for Leslie’s brother
10 days in Mississippi
More work on the flip house
Cookout for Father’s Day
Consumer Product Goods event
Spent a week in Alaska
Took a private plane flight around the glaciers and mountains
July
Spent two weeks across Oregon/Washington
Odesza concert at The Gorge on the 4th of July
Oregon Coast stay
Clamming
Exploring Portland
Berry Picking
Beautiful hikes
Highland cow experience
House sitting for Leslie’s Brother
Week in Puerto Rico
August
Traveled to southern Mississippi
Attended my Aunt’s wedding
Spent a couple of days with my Aunt
Spent over two weeks in Africa
Hiked Kilimanjaro
Did African Safari
September
Boat day Lake Austin
Knocked off some local Austin restaurants from the wishlist
Began planning our 6 month international trip
Started taking running more seriously
Mississippi state vs Texas football game
Hosted friends from Mississippi
Kygo concert
October
F45 photoshoot
Celebrated Rhonda's birthday
Staycation downtown Austin
Maggie Rogers concert
ACL
Domdolla concert
Baking spree (first biscuits, high protein desserts)
Started building cookbook
Vintage culture concert
Ride along in a rally car
Leslie 10yr college reunion
November
Austin Networking getaway weekend
Wedding Expo
Hosted 5k / Friendsgiving
Spent 11 days in Dallas with my best friend
Creed concert
Hyrox race
4 days in Mercury Texas for Thanksgiving
Wooli concert
