Retired Life - A Four Month Report Card

It's been exactly four months since retiring in my forties in October, 2007. Here's my personal perspective on how we are doing:

Work Life Balance - A. This part has been great. Going from a 60+ hour work week in a global organization with moderate travel to flexible part time hours with no travel has been great. The change has give me much more time to spend with family and friends. I take my daughter pre-school, am home to play with her and we have more family events, like the zoo and children's museum.

In addition, my health is getting better. For the past year, I've been nursing a couple of sports injuries that never seemed to heal. After investing some effort in yoga, hot baths and padding, the injury feels about 80% healed in a couple months.

Doing My Dream Job - B+. I've started work on developing my dream jobs. The legal infrastructure work has been completed and the business plans are being developed. The business will operate as a Limited Liability Company, or LLC. I've begun to identify and contact potential business partnerships, and they have expressed initial interest. In addition, I am gaining some insights through part time work that has a few elements of one dream job. I'm targeting for a formal startup in March, 2008.

Financial Status - B. With the stock market decline of January, 2000, the grade could have been a C+. However, it is still a B because we have set aside four years of spending needs in cash, money markets, short term CDs and short term bonds. Also, the part time work and the "dream job" will provide a small financial cushion if the downturn continues.

Setting Future Goals - C. I'm a little behind in this area, since I haven't read The Three Boxes of Life by Richard Bolles as I had intended. Although life can never been fully planned, I would like to have a proposed road map for the third phase, i.e. retirement. In the meantime, we are planning a number of activities, e.g. reconnecting with college friends, seeing our extended family more often and doing mulitple activities with our three year old, throughout 2008. At this point, I don't feel too bad about a C yet. It's only been three months since I've retired and I am enjoying the break.

Overall, I am still very happy that I retired from full time work. Retired life is less stressful, more fun and definitely busy, with much more quality time with my family.

For more on New Beginnings, check back Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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