How to Retire at 40

That's just an average age; 41 worked for me! It's possible to retire at any age, but let's not confuse fantasy with reality, or what is possible, practical or desirable. There is one thing that needs clarification: What, exactly, do we mean when we talk of "retirement"? In traditional terms this meant a "job for life", frequently in a large corporation, and somewhere around 60 years old, you would get a small present, and a pension. There probably are still jobs like that, somewhere, but they're getting so rare, they must be close to extinction.

There are other factors at work here: people are living longer, healthier lives. This can be, and is, a very real problem for people on a pension; inflation can be high or low, but it's still there. That income will diminish to the point where's it's worthless. Ask any Zimbabwean, where there were more than a few hungry billionaires. Or anybody that worked for Ford or Enron.

The old idea of retiring doesn't seem to exist anymore, so we need a new definition. So if it's not the traditional form, what are the alternatives?

The obvious one is not to work for anyone else, but there's a big problem here: What skills do you have? You may well be a hugely talented, but unrecognized artist, but just doing something because you like it, is not going to sell paintings, songs or that great novel you haven't written yet.

I first 'retired' at 35, after 15 years with the same employer. That doesn't mean I spent 15 years doing the same job: large corporations have a lot of opportunities and space to move, which can save a lot of hassle with the paperwork: at least they know who you are. It would be more correct to say I had learned as much as I could, and had no further opportunity to move upwards in the organization. I could have simply stayed in the job for the next 25 years, collected my gold watch and pension, and done....what?

People do survive in the same job for life, but how they cope with the daily tedium varies, ranging from permanently drunk, (we had a few of those) while they're waiting for that magic 'retirement age' to stealing as much as they can, to having interests outside the company. The stealing is usually called 'unwritten' perks, like free phone calls, internet, company vehicles and stuff that falls off the back of a truck. I have worked at a vast number of businesses, (I was a field technician) and met a vast number of people. If there was someone who wasn't skimming a little off the top, I think I would have remembered him or her. They ranged from the extreme, a dedicated bank employee who never took leave, because she was running two sets of books: one for her, and one for the bank, to a colleague who was talking VERY long distance daily at company expense. There is an 'accepted' norm in any company; but nobody will tell you what it is, and it's not in the company rulebook either! Proceed with caution.

So, I planned on working for myself, even if I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do, but I had enough money to take some time off and work out what to do next. As it turns out, a few months later I ended up in a different city, with an instant family, which changed my situation, and priorities, quite radically. The different city is interesting in that it was a geographical relocation. It's often said that if you have problems, moving doesn't help, because you take your problems with you. There is a profound difference between running away from something, and moving towards something. In South Africa, there have been a lot of people leaving the country on the basis of 'crime and grime', and they move elsewhere.

That's fine, but what is annoying is how vocal they get justifying their flight, usually by whinging to anyone and everyone about how bad it is 'back home'. These people should be avoided. Many others have left for similar reasons, but their motivation was different: they were moving towards something. They get to a new country, work hard, and get on with their lives. It's equally true that if you want to advance in any work situation, you have to move! This is simply because it's new people, new situations, and new problems.

It was a matter of weeks before I was employed again, in a small dot-com company, whose procedures were quite different from my previous experience. I've never been to a job interview where I was asked, before the interview was over: "Can you start right now?" I did. Interesting times, indeed. Promotion was rapid, as were the pay increases, which I never had to ask for. That was very pleasant, as the boss was notoriously tight-fisted; the general admin lady would sidle up to me on payday, as if she was doing something secretive and forbidden, hand me my pay slip and whisper: "You've got another increase!" Weird place.

My next 'retirement' was 5 years later, and involuntary, but it was easy to see it coming, so planning for that one was pretty simple.

That's when I finally retired from the corporate world to work for myself.

I can say that I have never worked so hard, with such long hours, for so little money.

The perks are OARSUM though!