The Key to A Happy Early Retirement

Hey everyone! I have a success story to share. My primary care physician is retiring early next year! Wow, another reader escaping the rat race. That’s awesome. In 2012, I retired from my engineering career and had to find a new doctor closer to home. Amazingly, Dr. C recognized me from Retire by 40 when I walked in. FIRE was in its heyday back then. We talked a bit about early retirement, but quickly pivoted to healthcare. Dr. C has been a great primary care physician, but the healthcare system has made life more difficult for family doctors over the last few years.

Primary care physicians are overloaded with patients and their compensation is lower than specialists. They are also overburdened with paperwork and red tape. As a result, medical students are reluctant to become a family doctor. They have a ton of loans to pay off so it is better to specialize. That’s too bad because I like having a primary care physician. Dr. C is familiar with my healthcare history and kept me healthy for many years. Hopefully, I can find a good PCP next year. I heard it’s harder than ever to find a new doctor. The United States is facing a significant shortfall of primary care physicians.   

Anyway, I want to give Dr. C some tips for a happy and successful early retirement. Dr. C is frugal, childless, and has a working spouse. We can safely assume Dr. C is well prepared financially. I think the bigger issue will be the transition to retirement. Retiring can be jarring at any age.

Stay busy

My best tip for Dr. C is to stay busy after retiring early. Most people think they’ll enjoy a relaxing retirement, but that is a fallacy. Sure, it’s fun to binge-watch Netflix and play video games all day on the weekend. However, you’ll be bored out of your mind if you do it every day. Most of us will feel useless and unfulfilled if we don’t do anything productive. This is especially true for early retirees. We are still young and we want to be useful.  

It’s good to relax and unwind for a few months after a stressful career. However, early retirees need to plan for the future as well. You need to pick up some passion projects when you have more unstructured time. Staying busy is essential to a happy retirement. Here is what I did over the last 12 years.

SAHD, Blogging, and Side hustles

When I retired in 2012, I was very busy with my son. He was just 18 months old and required a ton of supervision. Being a stay-at-home dad to a little kid was exhausting, but I enjoyed it for the most part. RB40Jr and I had a lot of fun exploring Portland. (It was much nicer back then.) I kept up with blogging, but it was on the back burner until RB40Jr started school.

Once he started school, I had more time to myself and focused on blogging. It kept me busy and inspired many readers. I enjoyed sharing my journey. It is possible to retire early if you’re frugal and invest consistently.

I also took on some side hustles whenever I had extra time. I charged scooters and delivered food off and on for years. These side hustles kept me busy and reduced withdrawal. Working part-time after retirement can be very helpful. It keeps you from being bored and even a little income helps a lot. Although, I’ve been getting more picky lately. These days, I don’t leave the house for less than $30/hour.

Slowly approaching full retirement

All these activities kept me busy since I retired from my engineering career. However, they are all slowly wrapping up in their own ways.

RB40Jr is a teenager now and he doesn’t need me as much. I spend a lot of time taking him to various activities. But he is becoming more independent every day. Next year, he’ll be in high school and he can bike there. In less than 5 years, he’ll go off to college and my time as a SAHD will be over.  

Blogging is my passion project, but it has slowed down tremendously over the last few years. Also, I’m less passionate about FIRE these days. We made it and we don’t stress about money anymore. I’m less careful about being frugal and earning extra income. We are older now and we want to enjoy life more. FIRE isn’t the primary consideration now. I think readers enjoy reading about the struggles more.

Lastly, I’m starting to get lazy with side gigs. These app-based side hustles pay well in the beginning, but the pay drops after they become established. It’s getting harder to make good money from Uber, DoorDash, and other app-based gigs. They have to be profitable so they squeeze the gig workers. These days, I only take catering orders. That pays anywhere from $20 to $50 per delivery, but you usually get only one order per day at lunch. That’s fine because an hour per day is enough work for me. However, I have been getting fewer orders lately. I turned down anything less than $30 and the algorithm probably put me on a of black list. Last week, I only delivered 1 order and made $40. I don’t mind working less.

Staying busy after retirement

So what will I do after all these activities are wrapped up? Will I finally relax and chill out by the pool? No way! I know staying busy keeps me happy. Besides, we don’t have a pool.

This quarter, I’m making pottery and playing ukulele at the local community center. Both of these activities are a lot of fun. They keep me busy and out of trouble. I’d love to set up a ceramic studio someday. Unfortunately, our home doesn’t have space. That will have to wait.

I’m also getting interested in bonsai. I made a few bonsai pots in my ceramic class and I’ll start some seedlings next spring. Life is full of possibilities. You just have to try new activities and see if you enjoy them. You’ll have a happier retirement if you have plenty of things to do.

That’s my advice to Dr. C. Relax for a few months, then look around for some new activities to try. You need to grow and learn new skills to have a fulfilling retirement. I’ll bring a catalog of the classes at the community center the next time I see Dr. C. There are so many activities to try. They even have a weaving class and metal shop for goodness sake. Volunteering is a good option too.  

Do you have any advice for Dr. C? What do you think is the key to a happy retirement?

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