This is my very first blog post, so let’s get started! When I lost my job and decided to retire from the corporate world there was and still is a transition. I am still floating in a sea of uncertainty. I went from working in the corporate world, being driven to produce for others, to working on making my living organically. Working on creating my own existence monetarily. This is a big change for me and one that is taking some adjustment in my thinking and being. I am building my organic living primarily through my real estate investments. This change in focus is providing me the opportunity to get to know myself a little bit better, outside of the corporate world. I was obsessed with the illusion of success, like many of us are, climbing the corporate ladder, money, title, prestige, all of the clichés. I have been thinking a lot lately about who I actually am versus who I became in my career. My career forced me to change. I think about the passage in the Bible which goes something like this “what good is it for a man (or women) to gain the world and lose his soul” don’t quote me here ☺. My desire for the corporate climb and material things has caused me to do just that in my opinion, lose my soul. It happens and we don’t even know it’s happening. I spent years of my life trying to climb the mountain of success, only to realize that the mountain was an illusion. I am learning this now that I have stepped back from the Rat Race. I refer to this as the “Zen of Retirement.”
I am thinking about a material life. Some of the lifestyle adjustments I need to make in retirement have to do with spending on material possessions. I take a look around and realize that I have an abundance of stuff, more stuff than I could ever need. I am overwhelmed with stuff. So much so that I am paralyzed by stuff. How do I begin to reduce stuff from my life!? One example, I play guitar. I have five guitars. I certainly don’t play guitar enough to justify having five of them but the thought of selling one just about kills me and the truth is, I want more guitars. Don’t even get me started on the stuff in my garage. Simply put, I need less stuff and more true to life experiences in retirement. The Millennial generation has this figured out, less stuff, more experiences. Also, when you seek advice on retirement, managing your money and creating a new budget, a retirement budget, is always in the forefront of recommendations.
My focus is simply shifting to more free time and more experiences on this earth, more love and appreciation of and for life. Life is a short and fragile gift. I want to spend the remainder of my life in full realization of the love and purpose that surrounds me. To do this, I will need less friction, friction being material things that can impede my freedom and the debt associated with paying for those things. Debt is bondage. That is not to say I won’t have possessions in retirement or that I won’t continue to create wealth, it simply means that I am looking at those things differently, more auxiliary and less encompassing. I have big plans and dreams for adventure in my retirement and it will take cash flow to realize those dreams. This is Real Estate for Retirement after all. As I look at and define making my living organically, the cool thing is that I am able to do this through my real estate investments primarily.
I am also learning about the modern world, the gig economy and the new direction I need to take to continue to learn and grow in retirement. This blog is a good example of my continued growth. I could not have predicted that I would have a blog even a year ago. There really is no such thing as retirement in my opinion. Human beings are like sharks, if we don’t swim, we drown. I am not ready to drown just yet. I am still driven, only now I am driven by new things, which aren’t things at all. The key here for me is to keep moving, regardless of how that movement is defined. Retirement for me is swimming in new waters. We need interests, even if those interests are to seek ourselves as we change from one experience to the next.
Goodbye Corporate World, Hello Organic Life, Hello Blog!