Inspiration for Your In-Life Retirement
Every once in a while we all need a little inspiration, a light at the end of the tunnel, a star to guide us on our journey, or just a kick in the ass to get us off the couch so we can start living life to the fullest. An in-life retirement (link to what is an in-life retirement) is time off from the routine and constraints of ‘real life’ to chase our dreams, to cast off into an unexplored world, to finally feel as if we are captains of our destiny. It’s time to embrace the philosophy of Retire Every 3 Years and redress the regrets accumulating in your mind. Here is some inspiration for your new life.
Write a Book
This one is personal as I’ve spent part of an in-life retirement writing Retire Every 3 Years (link to the book). Writing is not only a great hobby, but it will improve mental health, provide clarity for our thoughts, is a great way to begin building passive revenue streams, or turning a hobby into a career.
Whether as a hobby, a side hustle or career, the need for writers has never been greater – perhaps AI will change all this, but we’re not there yet. How to approach a career in writing will depend on your desired outcome. If it’s going to be a hobby you enjoy, then the best approach is to write what makes you happy. If you’re looking to profit from writing, then you’ll need to take a more strategic approach. For novelists, you can certainly generate some revenue from any topic, but there are certain genres that make up a majority of book sales. For bloggers, you’ll also need to optimize your content to be able to monetize your site which requires technical skills beyond putting pen to paper. No matter the goal, an in-life retirement gives you the time to write.
Seasonal Work
This is a great option for those just getting started with cyclical retirement as it provides a source of income while still embarking on an adventure. There are opportunities all over the world to work in the wild year round, attracting tens of thousands of seasonal workers to jobs at national parks, ski resorts, kids camps, dude ranches, tour operators as well as non-profits such as the Pacific Northwest Trail Association and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. There are also plenty of international opportunities, like working as tour guide in Europe, teaching English in Asia or picking fruit in Australia. There are an endless number of exciting opportunities which can help you embark an in-life retirement while still earning an income.
While seasonal work is often geared towards the under 30 crowd, there are plenty of opportunities for those taking this journey at a later stage of life. A number of supervisor and management positions are required to look after all the seasonal employees. The resorts, camps and parks need both technical staff like cooks, maintenance technicians, and drivers as well as professionals such as marketers, accountants, and general managers.
This is exactly how I began living the Retire Every 3 Years life. I would work summer jobs in Alaska, then use the winters to travel the world. Not only was it an adventure, but it helped me build a community of globetrotters, an incredible network of individuals that helped inspire and motivate me through the years.
Coolworks.com and Season Workers are a few great resources to start your search if you’re interested in seasonal employment as a springboard to starting your cyclical retirement journey.
Take a Thru-Hike
Our in-life retirement encourages us to take a breath of fresh air so why not take this literally, and venture into the great outdoors. Thru-hiking is conquering a trail from start to finish, nothing but you, your backpack and nature.
Technically, a thru-hike any length, but for an in-life retirement you should be focusing your efforts on one of the many long-distance trails that crisscross wilderness areas around the world. Most people will think of the Appalachian Trail, but there are dozens of trails worldwide to consider for an in-life retirement. You could tramp through shires, headlands and glacial carved valleys of Middle Earth hiking the 3,000 kilometer (1,864 mile) Te Araroa in New Zealand. The 6,166 kilometer (3,830) Great Italian Trail will take you from the towering Dolomites through Tuscany, along the Amalfi Coast and finally finishing in Santa Teresa Galura on the island of Sardina. The Grand Hokkaido Trail, nearly a 1,000 kilometers longer than the Appalachian, travels across Japan’s northernmost island. There’s the El Camino de Santiago, Pacific Crest Trail, Trans Panama Trail, among a dozen more that will give you a sense of purpose, and reconnect you with the natural world.
Learn a Language
One important trait to succeeding with cyclical retirement is to embrace your curiosity, and learning a language is a great way to achieve this. There are numerous benefits to learning a language: open up career opportunities, improve memory, learn better listening skills, offer a deeper connection to other cultures, and boost your confidence.
While digital learning – with apps like Duolingo – is a great way to start this journey, nothing substitutes speaking the language with locals. Immersive language programs are popular with students, but can also be suitable for older travelers, but this is usually meant for people that have some limitations with their time. With an in-life retirement you could live a year in-country which is the best way to truly become fluent in a language. By speaking with locals day-in and day-out you are taking a more practical approach, learning not only the vocabulary, but also learning to interpret body language, social cues and understanding how to use idioms. With an in-life retirement you could become a polyglot in a just a few cycles.
Get Fit: Mental and Physical Wellbeing
Our physical and mental wellbeing is the most important factor in having an enjoyable life, and these go hand-in-hand. The psychologist Guy Goodwin wrote that “physical illness increases the risk of developing severe depressive illness” in his study on the associated physical disesease and symptoms as related to depression.
The number one excuse for not going to the gym or focusing on our mental health is the lack of time. In reality this excuse doesn’t hold water as it only requires about 2% of your time to stay fit. Also, an excellent study found that exercise improves workplace performance so you could easily claw back that 2% by embracing exercise. But the reality is our days are busy, and most of us would rather use our downtime enjoying life that suffering on a treadmill or, even worse, the tortuous stair climber. We are time poor, and exercise is the easiest thing to cut on our to-do list.
Not only will an in-life retirement give you the gift of time, it allows you to discover new ways to exercise. Most of us don’t like the gym. They’re often too dingy and dark or too bright and pretentious. There’s the muscle heads tossing around weights and the ultra-marathoners running a 1,000 miles. It’s not for everyone. With all this time on your hands you can explore non-gym ways of exercising. Swimming, hiking, cycling, team sports, kayaking, paddleboarding, home gyms and just about any other type of movement is great for the body and soul.
Being time poor can have an adverse impact on our diets. How many people sitting in fast food drive-thrus are justifying their decision with the excuse that they wouldn’t be there if they had more time to cook a proper breakfast or prepare a healthy lunch. With an in-life retirement you will have the time to shop, prep, cook and enjoy healthy meals. Proper diets take time and discipline, but you can’t have the latter if you never start.
This same theory goes for taking care of our mental wellbeing. One important factor will be removing mental stressors from your life. According to an American Psychological Association study, money and work are the two biggest stressors in our lives. With cyclical retirement you will be removing or limiting these two factors, which will reduce chronic stress, leading to a happier and healthier life. For those with addictions that are negatively impacting their lives, an in-life retirement is a golden ticket to getting professional help without negatively impacting your career.
A focus on mental and physical wellbeing should always be a part of your in-life retirement plan. The habits and strength you’ll gain from a holistic approach to well-being will be beneficial for the rest of your life.
Volunteer
Retire Every 3 Years believes in finding our ikigai, which posits that doing good works is a critical variable to achieving wellbeing in our daily lives. Volunteering doesn’t have to be purely altruistic, nor should it be as doing something mutually beneficial is more a more sustainable approach than something being one-side. Research has found that volunteering leads to lower rates of depression and anxiety, especially those over 65. It also gives us purpose, allows us to express empathy, and has tangible benefits to our mental and physical health.
If you’re curious about volunteering a great place to start is the National Council of Nonprofits, the largest network of nonprofits in North America. For those in Europe, the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations is a good resource. There are plenty of organizations around the world in need of good people looking to make a difference.
As with all aspects of life, having a routine is important to keeping us grounded. Even if volunteering isn’t the main thrust of your in-life retirement it can help provide stability during your year off, offering an opportunity to give back even as you chase down those regrets.
Launch A Business
For aspiring entrepreneurs, an in-life retirement is a dream come true. Most of us have envisioned owning our business, being our own boss. Masters of confectionary selling creative cupcakes from their corner bakery. The accountants with a rolodex of clients launching their own firm. Those leaning back in their office daydreaming of guiding travelers on hiking tours in national parks. Yet, nearly all of us never make it past the theoretical phase, and those that do usually abandon the plan as they only realize they can’t juggle their job and starting a business.
Cyclical retirement is the perfect vehicle for achieving your dream of owning a business. It gives you the financial freedom and time to focus on this exciting adventure. You will have a long runway to dream up recipes, network with clients, or set up your tour company. It also provides a fail-safe, an out if we discover that we’re not built to run a business – just because you like to bake a few dozen cupcakes doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll still have that passion when you wake at 5am to bake hundreds of cylindrical sweets. You will have accounted for your in-life retirement so there is an exit strategy, the option to return to the workforce, content in the fact that you gave it your all.
Start or Raise a Family
Western populations are in decline. Japan is expected to have one-third less people by 2060. South Korea is on a similar trajectory. Italy has been losing people for the last 20 years. Even China, who just a few decades ago implanted their one-child policy to stymine growth, has seen it’s reproduction rate fall below replacement levels. Many of the world’s liberal democracies have stopped growing.
The reason cited most often for not having kids is finances, work/life balance and personal independence. Retire Every 3 Years can help alleviate these concerns as it offers a guide to financial independence, provides the ultimate work life balance, and affords the time to still enjoy personal independence during the journey through parenthood.
An in-life retirement can be beneficial for those at any stage of starting of raising a family, whether as a couple or a single parent. It affords couples the energy, time and stress-free space to create a new life. The same can be said for prospective parents looking to adopt. Couples could possibly alternate their in-life retirement, having a parent at home for two-thirds of a child’s life.
