Planning to retire early? Ask yourself these questions first

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

retirement is a bug that bites many of us from time to time. Easy to romanticise and simplify, but somewhat tough to pull off. There are two primary questions I would ask.

First, have you considered in great detail what you would do for the rest of your life? Second, how well do you think you have estimated the money you need to stay alive? These questions are tiring for those who are just focused on getting out of something they believe they cannot do anymore. But these questions matter. We may dislike it, but we are mostly defined by what we do.

It sounds great in the first few years of quitting a job, to say that one had had enough of it. Many in one’s social circle may even envy the courage to call it quits. Those years are also spent justifying why quitting was the right thing to do.

However, it all wears off soon. It becomes difficult to say that one is not doing anything with one’s life, time, energy and intelligence. It also gets awfully boring.

The pursuit of purpose, not just the pursuit of happiness, is what keeps us going. We also like to see that purpose fitting into a larger scheme of things, so that we can feel a sense of belonging, contributing and influencing the world around us. A friend chose a minimalistic nomadic life of simply trekking through tough terrains.

In a few years, he began to write diaries, advocate caring for nature, and went on to lead small groups to trek and camp in the wild. He did not have this in mind when he began. He believed he needed no one and that he would live alone with the nature he loved.

However, he couldn’t help sharing, impacting and influencing others with the discoveries that changed his life. We are all like that. Before retiring, take the time to imagine your