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When I first started out on my financial journey, the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement was brand new to me. I had never heard of it until two years ago. The crazy thing was that I had been employing many of those principles along the way. I was shaving the fat in my budget and laser-focused on knocking out debt and saving as much as I could for retirement.
From around the time I started college to now, I have been hustling. I have tried to set myself up for a good financial future. In college, I learned how to invest in the market. Through investing, I was able to put down enough money to buy my first home at the age of 23.
However, I loaded up on leverage (debt) and took on a hefty mortgage. Because of that, I needed to rent out the bedrooms of my home in order to cover the monthly payments and bills. Eventually, my house was bursting at the seams with friends and even strangers. At one point, I had to move out of my house and into my parent’s to further maximize the rental income. I was thankful that that didn’t last too long, but clearly, I was needing any additional income I could get.
Living with strangers was a bit taxing on me as an introvert. Sometimes, I just wanted a little bit of silence. After an exhausting day of work, I didn’t think a quiet evening at home was too much to ask for.
Some of the guys were rowdy, and most of the guys were quite outgoing. We always had people over at the house. It felt like a frat house most days. Thank goodness we had a bi-weekly a maid service. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure my house would have been destroyed.
Some Stress
As expected in any small confined space, there were some disagreements with the guys along the way. While I am incredibly thankful for the income that I received, I definitely dealt with some sleepless nights due to the stress.
That stress didn’t go away until I got married, and my wife and I made the final mortgage payment for the house. At the time, I remember taking a huge sigh of relief. But within a couple of days, I knew that there was more work to do.
New Goals
Like an athlete, I knew that I needed to continue setting and achieving more ambitious goals. So the money that I had been applying to the mortgage, I applied towards my retirement. However, I remember thinking to myself, how much is enough to save for retirement?
Financial Independence, Retire Early
It wasn’t until I learned about the FIRE movement two years ago, when I began to see the principles in place. I learned how long it would take for me to become ready to retire and how long it would take for me to reach $1 million. I also encountered people who had reached FIRE and others who were well on their ways.
The FIRE movement was critical to my financial growth and acumen.
With that said, I find myself, as I become closer to reaching FIRE (< 3 years), wondering if there is something else that I would like to do other than retiring.
I know that the point of the FIRE movement is not always to retire early and bum out on a beach. Far from it. In fact, most people that reach FIRE go on to do things that they are actually passionate about.
Changing My Perspective
I think less about the retirement aspect and more on what would make me happy. Some people grind away at work, hoping that in 5, 10, or even 20 years, they’ll be able to retire to do whatever they want. In the meantime, their stress levels are sky high, and they are miserable.
Recently, I’ve thought, what if I shifted my perspective? What if instead of focusing on early retirement, I thought about creating a second childhood?
That may sound silly. But, think about it for a second. Nothing is better than seeing joy in a child’s eyes. It doesn’t always take much.
Childhood Bliss
My wife and I love to reminisce about our wonderful childhoods. We grew up seven houses down from each other but never met, so we joke about all the times we must have missed each other by seconds as we played around the neighborhood.
We always found a reason to be outside, whether it was biking, sledding, or catching tadpoles in the creek. Our neighborhood had so many kids, so there was always something fun going on.
A Second Childhood
Now that I’m older, I want to try to recapture some of the joy from my childhood. In my 20s and 30s, I was grinding away trying to set myself up for the future. Now that I’ve almost reached FIRE, it’s time to set some new goals around trying to create a second childhood.
I want to pursue more of the things that I care about and bring me joy. Just being outside more, for starters. I hope to join a softball team again, where I can throw the ball around and have fun with the guys. I want to have a smile on my face more often.
On top of that, I am looking forward to pursuing more projects that provide joy in my life. I love teaching people about personal finance. I want to expand my Reaching FIRE course and have more one-on-one sessions. The joy that comes after helping someone with their finances is amazing. Even small changes here and there can have a tremendous impact.
I remember in my childhood that I was always busy doing something. I barely remember watching TV growing up. It would be great to get back to that type of “busy” lifestyle. It was a great mixture of fun and productivity.
I’ve heard that you can never recapture your childhood, but through the skills that I learned through FIRE, I am hoping that I can indeed create a second childhood.
Great story MSM! I didn’t enjoy my childhood but it doesn’t stop me from living a better life. In fact I’m very much looking forward to my first childhood if we choose to have kids and/or foster. That would be extremely fun and “early retirement” is a good compliment to that.
Lily | The Frugal Gene recently posted…The Quickest, Surefire Way to Be an Effective Personal Finance Blogger (Poll Results)
I’m sorry to hear that your childhood wasn’t great. Here’s hoping your new first childhood exceeds your wildest expectations 🙂
MSM – I’ve often thought of my time since I FIREd years ago as a second childhood. I finally have time to be curious and explore things in a way that I couldn’t or didn’t during my work life.
I also think having some sort of purpose is really important. It helps you get up in the morning. 🙂
Mr. Freaky Frugal recently posted…Right investing effort
Thanks for sharing Mr. Freaky Frugal!!! That’s awesome that you’re living the second childhood dream everyday 🙂 I am definitely jealous and hope to be there soon!!!
I like this mindset a lot. I am looking forward to a second childhood also, but I’ll be honest, kind of sad there are no Saturday morning cartoons anymore…
Dave @ Married with Money recently posted…The Minnesnowta/Snowblower Saga
Hahaha…I totally agree but that’s the great thing about Youtube. You can turn on “Saturday cartoons” when ever you want now 🙂
It’s awesome that you’ve come to the point of specifically planning to live life intentional, integrating joy-providing activities instead of waiting to some target retirement age in the future. Far too many people miss out on this then realize later that they could have enjoyed the journey so much more if they’d adjusted priorities.
Brad – Financial Life Planning recently posted…How To Crush Your Debt With the Debt Snowball Method
Thanks for stopping by Brad!!! I totally agree that too many people put their nose to the grindstone and forget to look up and enjoy journey 🙂
Making that final mortgage! What an amazing feeling. Did you receive that congratulatory letter from your mortgage company?
You’re right, we will never recapture our childhood, but we will forever treasure those memories. There are different stages of life and what we can be focused on now is to keep on creating more beautiful memories. Beautiful post.
I didn’t receive anything from the mortgage company. Not that I really expected them to say thanks for paying off your loan and no longer paying us 🙂
Interesting concept!
I don’t want to relive my childhood or any of my past for various reasons. But it’s nice to be able to create the childhood that I have long wanted starting today 😉
Ms. Frugal Asian Finance recently posted…10 Things We Don’t Buy At The Grocery Store
Being able to create the childhood that you want is one of the things that I am really looking forward to. Plus not having someone tell me when to go to bed 🙂
Like some others I don’t long for my childhood. In many ways my life is better now then it ever has been. But I do want to make it better. Removing financial fear by being fi seems like a good way to do that.
FullTimeFinance recently posted…7 Day Caribbean Cruise for 4 During Peak Season
Thanks for sharing Full Time Finance!!! It sounds like you are living an amazing life now and once you hit FI that it’s only going to get better!!!
This is a great way to view your life now that your close to reaching FIRE. Being responsible, always busy and having fun all at once is the way many would like their life to be.
I used to be in a softball league for work, it was a great way to create team building and enjoy playing a kid’s game
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I definitely is softball. The league that I use to play in closed down and I haven’t been able to find a mix between having fun and competitiveness. Too often I find one leans a little too far one or another 🙁
I fully admit that one of the benefits of being FI is being able to be a “kid” again. I joked with my wife last night that is one of the reasons we want to have kids so there is an excuse to go to Disney World and do all of those “kid” things (not that we wouldn’t do them anyway). I am 44 going on 5.
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Hahaha…I can’t wait until my kiddos are old enough for Disney. I’m not sure who will have more fun, me or the kiddos 🙂
I loved my childhood for many of these same reasons, though I do much prefer being an adult 😉 I think this is a fabulous way to look at things, and my husband’s godfather who retired at 56 has certainly taken this to heart – his days are filled with running, mountain biking, and generally exploring the outdoors. But also drinking beer and hanging with friends, which are definite upsides to being an adult.
I would love to do all those things in my 2nd childhood. Well maybe not the drinking since I don’t like the taste of alcohol but everything else sounds great!!!