0:01

Dreaming of a better sleep? Tossing

0:03

and turning is not your destiny. And

0:06

Ollie is here to help. Ollie

0:08

invites you to sink into sweet, sweet

0:10

slumber to improve your mental

0:13

and physical health and overall wellness. More

0:16

than just melatonin, Ollie's ingredients help

0:18

you unwind your mind for a

0:20

delightfully dreamy drift off. Sleep

0:23

is on the way at ollie.com. That's

0:26

o-l-l-y.com. Hey

0:30

there! Hey there! Did you know Kroger always

0:33

gives you savings and rewards on top of

0:35

our lower than low prices? And when you

0:37

download the Kroger app, you'll enjoy over $500

0:39

in savings every week with digital coupons. And

0:42

don't forget fuel points to help you save

0:44

up to $1 per gallon at

0:46

the pump. Want to save even more?

0:48

With a boost membership, you'll get double fuel

0:50

points and free delivery. So shop and save

0:53

big at Kroger today! Kroger, fresh

0:55

for everyone. Savings may vary by

0:57

state. Restrictions apply. See site for details.

1:00

This is Optimal Finance Daily, episode 2678.

1:04

Conquer three critical early

1:06

retirement challenges by redefining

1:08

retirement. Part two by

1:11

Chris Mamula of

1:13

caniretireyet.com. And I'm your

1:15

host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Merriam.

1:18

Thanks so much for joining today and every day.

1:21

If you're new here, this is where I read articles

1:23

to you every day of the week so that you

1:25

don't have to find and read them yourself. But

1:28

today is a continuation from yesterday. So

1:31

if you haven't done already, I'd recommend

1:33

listening to yesterday's episode first. But

1:36

if you're all caught up, then let's get

1:38

right back into it and hear part two

1:40

as we continue optimizing your life. Conquer

1:47

three critical early retirement challenges

1:49

by redefining retirement. Part

1:51

two by Chris Mamula

1:53

of caniretireyet.com. Defining

1:57

retirement. Find

2:00

retirement as the point where a

2:02

person stops employment completely. Miriam.

2:05

Webster defines retirement as withdrawal

2:07

from one's position or occupation.

2:10

Or from active working life. After

2:13

many discussions about what we wanted

2:15

our lives to look like, we

2:17

realize we didn't need to accept

2:19

societies definition an expectation of retirement

2:21

any more. the we accepted society's

2:23

expectations that you work forty plus

2:25

hour work weeks until age sixty

2:27

or older. To reach retirement. Ultimately,

2:30

I realize that all three of the biggest

2:33

challenges we face and the same solution? We.

2:35

Need to redefine retirement on our

2:37

own terms. Looking.

2:40

Outside of traditional retirement planning.

2:43

Learning. To be a better investor,

2:46

tracking your spending and understanding how

2:48

economic and political conditions affect you

2:50

are all important aspects of retirement

2:52

planning. However, No

2:55

matter how hard you work on it, how

2:57

much you read, or how many times you

2:59

crunch your number, you can ever accurately predict

3:01

all the things that will be needed to

3:03

provide a secure retirement. Traditional

3:05

retirement planning can only take you so

3:08

far. If you want to retire

3:10

early, you need to develop a robust

3:12

strategy with flexibility. I found

3:14

incorporating ideas outside of in even

3:17

critical of traditional retirement planning to

3:19

be very useful. This.

3:21

Led to even more and better

3:23

questions. I began reading

3:25

books like Tim Ferriss four Hour

3:27

Workweek. They contain many ideas critical

3:30

of retirement. One. Is

3:32

close. Retirement. Is

3:34

predicated on the assumption that you dislike

3:36

what you're doing during the most physical

3:38

capable years of realize. This. Is

3:41

a non starter? Nothing can justify

3:43

that sacrifice. And. Quote. Even

3:46

in my case where I liked aspects of

3:48

my dad and at times and it's a

3:50

silly it had become drudgery. This

3:53

book introduced me to ideas like

3:55

lifestyle design and many retirements as

3:57

alternative to traditional. Retirements: It

4:00

challenged me to question my assumptions that I

4:02

need to have X amount of money in the

4:04

bank to start living the life I really

4:06

want. How could I start living

4:09

a life more in alignment with my values as soon

4:11

as possible? I also read

4:13

books about finding purpose and meaning in life.

4:16

Probably none is better than Viktor Frankl's

4:18

Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl

4:21

survived deplorable conditions in Nazi

4:23

concentration camps. He credits

4:26

his survival and the survival of others in

4:28

the camps to finding meaning and purpose in

4:30

day to day life in the camps. He

4:33

personally accomplished this through helping and

4:35

serving others and constantly dreaming of

4:37

reuniting with his wife from whom

4:40

he was forcefully separated. This

4:42

challenged me to ask myself how he

4:45

could find meaning and purpose while living

4:47

in these horrible conditions while I was

4:49

struggling to do so living a successful

4:51

American lifestyle. What did

4:53

I need to find happiness and fulfillment? I

4:56

realized that part of the answer was to re-examine

4:58

the role of work in my life. I

5:01

re-read a book that was very influential when

5:03

starting my career that I regularly have given

5:05

to students who have interned with me over

5:07

my career, Dan Miller's 48 Days

5:09

to the Work You Love.

5:12

A key takeaway on my second time through

5:15

this book was the difference between having a

5:17

job and a calling. Miller

5:19

writes, quote, a job

5:21

should not define who or what you are.

5:24

You should be able to leave today and

5:26

not change the overall purpose or direction of

5:28

your life. Your calling

5:30

is a much larger concept than what

5:32

you do daily to create income. Work

5:35

opportunities can come and go. The

5:37

direction of your life should remain constant.

5:40

End quote. What is my

5:42

calling and life? Redefining

5:46

retirement. Darrow provided his definition

5:48

of early retirement early on in

5:50

this blog's existence. It

5:52

contained a key idea that was central to

5:55

our challenges. Quote, when

5:57

You look at the numbers and the

5:59

futility. Predicting future economic

6:01

cycles. I think it's very difficult

6:03

and not at all that beneficial to design

6:06

a life with no work at all. For.

6:08

Me, it's more about financial independence

6:10

and choosing my own work. And

6:13

will. The solution to

6:15

all of our challenges was to redefine

6:17

retirement on our own terms. We.

6:20

Need to develop our own plan that would

6:22

give us more flexibility with our time while

6:24

continuing to allow us to live with a

6:26

feeling of security and abundance that we you.

6:30

Part. Of our plan is continuing to

6:32

do work when it's rewarding to lodging

6:34

and or fun. While. Sitting into our

6:36

desired lifestyle and moving us towards or

6:38

longer. Term. Goals. Simply.

6:40

Changing our definition of retirement

6:42

to incorporate paid work. Allowed

6:45

us to overcome challenges that

6:47

seems insurmountable. The traditional retirement

6:49

planning. Incorporating a plan

6:52

to make even small amounts of income

6:54

drastically changed the math and the retirement

6:56

planning A cliche. Allowing me

6:58

to retire sooner and with less anxiety

7:01

and stress. Doing meaningful

7:03

work can also provide purpose to day

7:05

to day life and increase opportunities for

7:07

social connection. I'm sure there

7:10

are people hearing this who will challenge me

7:12

and say that I'm not really retiring. Let.

7:14

Me Agree that I'm not allowing anyone else

7:17

to define how I'll my live. The.

7:19

Simple realization that you don't have to

7:21

live by anyone elses definition of retirement

7:23

gave me the courage to leave a

7:26

good job at forty one years of

7:28

age to pursue a path that I

7:30

find more interesting, challenging, fun, and an

7:32

alignment with my personal values. What's.

7:35

Holding you back And how can you

7:37

redefine retirement to make the goal attainable

7:39

sooner than you may have imagined? You.

7:45

Just listen to part two

7:47

of the post titled conquer

7:49

three critical early retirement challenges

7:52

by redefining retirement. By. Chris

7:54

Man Ula of can I retire

7:56

yet.com. And I'll be waiting to

7:58

be. And t. This

8:00

episode is brought to you by La Quinta

8:02

by Windham. Your work can take you all

8:05

over the place like Texas You've never been

8:07

but it's gonna be great because you're staying

8:09

at La Quinta by Windham Their free bright

8:11

side breakfast will give you energy for the

8:14

day ahead and after you can unwind using

8:16

their free high-speed Wi-Fi Tonight La Quinta tomorrow

8:18

you shine book your stay today at LQ

8:20

calm This

8:24

episode is brought to you by ship station

8:27

if you run an e-commerce business You

8:29

know how much work it takes to

8:31

produce something great while dealing with complicated

8:33

shipping issues. That's why over 130,000

8:37

companies have turned to ship station an

8:39

innovative tool that allows you to focus

8:41

less on shipping and more on building

8:43

your brand With ship station

8:45

you can manage orders label printing

8:48

reporting and customer service on one

8:50

easy to use dashboard You'll

8:52

reduce warehouse costs with reliable enterprise

8:54

solutions and save thousands on shipping

8:56

costs with discounts up to 89%

8:58

off Plus

9:01

you can effortlessly import orders from

9:03

everywhere you sell online So

9:06

turn your shipping challenges into opportunities for

9:08

growth Go to ship station calm

9:10

and use code pod to sign up for

9:13

your free 60-day trial That's

9:15

ship station calm code pod

9:19

This article highlighted for me why

9:21

the word retirement can be pretty

9:23

challenging for many people When

9:25

most of us hear the word retirement, we

9:27

understand it to mean no longer working But

9:30

my involvement in the fire community has

9:32

led me to reinterpret this word To

9:35

me retirement is much more about

9:37

separating your finances from your work

9:39

not abandoning work altogether Satisfying

9:42

work is one of the great joys of life and whether

9:44

you retire at 30 or 65 Why

9:47

would you deprive yourself of that? The

9:50

big difference between working during your

9:52

accumulation years and working during your

9:54

fire or retirement years is based

9:56

on financial need Before reaching

9:58

by your work in a pay-for-profit the bills,

10:00

save and otherwise fund your lifestyle.

10:03

After FIRE, you're working if, when, and where

10:05

you want with no concern for the money.

10:08

Oftentimes hobbies or businesses you create can produce an

10:10

income, and you'll want them to so that you

10:13

can at least cover your costs for the work

10:15

you're doing. However, the work

10:17

you get to do when you no longer

10:19

need an income to cover your living expenses

10:21

can bring a satisfaction you may never have

10:24

experienced when you are required to work for

10:26

money. Many studies have linked

10:28

retirement with a decline in health because

10:30

many people spend their retirement not doing

10:32

anything that looks like work and wasting

10:34

away with nothing to do. Yes,

10:37

there will be and should be periods of

10:39

extended rest and recuperation in retirement,

10:42

but if you don't find a useful way to

10:44

spend your time, you'll most likely end up

10:47

lonely and depressed. That being

10:49

said, regardless of your age, if you anticipate

10:51

your retirement to look like sitting around and

10:53

doing nothing all day, I'd encourage

10:55

you to not retire at all. But

10:58

that's going to do it for today, thanks

11:00

so much for being here every day, and

11:03

I'll see you tomorrow for more Optimal Finance

11:05

Daily, where your optimal life awaits.