My Early Retirement ✨

Hello zesties!

This post is not about how you earn lots of money to retire early, but rather, to share about what I am doing to have an early retirement.

If you follow me from other posts, from my Debt-free journey to Hustling & Bustling to Getting married at 22, it was a whole journey, one which started from the time I graduated.

Prior to graduating from university, I had been working since 14 (like everyone else) in various jobs which I detailed in my posts. However, upon graduation and paying off my debt, I suddenly realised I wasn’t mandated to work anymore. I could retire if I wanted to. I never wanted to be a wealthy person and always desired the freedom to use my time freely. Of course, this really varies from person to person, and I did think of my family and my husband, but I would say I had a lighter load than most.

My parents are really young, 46 and 47 at the time, and I had also just started giving my parents some allowance and I felt so free on so many levels!

So what I did was to sit myself down, a couple of days in a week, for some alone time to really think through what I wanted for my life. Identify any pending goals or targets and plans which I put aside growing up and grinding the Singaporean dream. Something like a bucket list. I never was a fan of writing things down because my hands could never catch up or even attempt to capture my thoughts, but rather I stared into blank space and organised my dreams in my mind.

Sounds really stupid, I know, and seems like I was just daydreaming, but it worked! I narrowed down to things which were most important to me, and I didn’t limit myself to 50 or 100 items because it would be a shame to cap myself. Instead I did a priority list in my brain, one which shifts and changes every single day 🫶🏻

I knew I had left my childhood dream buried and decided to dig it up again and go for it. I also knew I wanted to travel, alone / w my husband / w friends, and decided to get down to it. I made 3 trips in a short span of just 6 months ☺️ and truly felt the taste of freedom and retirement as I call it ✨

I picked up hobbies, tried out things I wanted to, and found that it was okay to be averagely good at everything and enjoy everything equally, I didn’t have to have that one thing which I excelled at, or loved to do so much more than the rest. I had my whole life ahead to just enjoy, experience and learn ☺️

I also realised I wanted a space I could hide away from the world, a space that I could call mine, and thats when I decided to buy my place with my hubby, I reached out to him and shared w him my thoughts, and he was so supportive, so we got a place.

Now you must be wondering, how do I retire w a home loan pending, well, retirement doesn’t mean I don’t work, it just means I choose to work the jobs I want to and work isn’t work anymore. This means not chasing big bucks / climbing the ladder, but rather it means to work what I want to, whenever I want to. And that life is something I wanted myself to have.

So how did I come to the realisation that I successfully retired? When I spoke w retirees and elders who have been there and done that, achieved huge aspirations and finally retired at ages 65 and above. Sadly majority are in poor health, with only a few outliers who are as advanced in age as 101 and w little to no co-morbidities. So why wait until then to enjoy retirement when you can do so now? I realised my lifestyle, and thoughts were rather similar to them w little worry or thought of how to secure the next million, but rather how to enjoy themselves daily. Thats how I knew I retired.

This doesn’t mean I just don’t care about modern successes or have no aspirations or goals, but rather it is me-and-my-family driven, and my success is redefined for me. Success to me has never meant more, and I’m glad I can approve of myself and acknowledge my personal growth and success.

And here is where I say, this is not for everyone, but if this is something that resonates with you, you can do it too. You will have to do a deep dive and align your goals and be truthful to yourself. And to be honest every decision I made took huge leaps of faith, and lots of courage and careful planning. So be sure that this is something you truly want and commit to it :)

OKAY THATS IT, thanks for reading!

I’m off to my next adventure ✨

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