“Let there be Light (saber),” and there was a Lightsaber.

Vader saw that the lightsaber could be a force for good or bad, and he tried to separate the light from the darkness. Vader called the light “Retirement” and the darkness he called “Work”.

And then there was a blog.

A blog about the difficulties of turning the page to the one of the last chapters in life.  We go to school, get a job, get married, have children, and eventually retire.  

All of the early chapters come naturally. Choosing when to retire has no obvious finish line. 

I am on my path to a somewhat early retirement at 53.  In the next year, or two, I will be closing the work chapter of my life and I am looking forward to what could come after. 

This blog will be about my struggle to retire. Retirement for me is an emotional battle. Many people don’t know what to do in life once they retire and this blog will be about my journey, how I got here, and where I think I am going. 

I will write about my path to be able to retire early.  I have followed the F.I.R.E. movement for many years.  FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early.    For me the F.I. part is mostly complete and I am focusing on the R.E. part which for me is more about being Ready Emotionally to retire.  

Retiring is about having freedom.  It is the ability to do what I want when I want vs doing whatever work wants me to do for my paycheck.  Retirement is about spending my money and defining my fun.  

Once I have enough money work becomes a distraction.  Work which was so core to life is now a question mark.  If I don’t enjoy my work why would I work? It is not easy to give up work after doing it for 30 years. It is ingrained in us.

I have an angel on one shoulder saying I have enough money, have fun, and the devil on the other saying more is always better.  Retiring is as much as emotional as it is financial.  We are told to go to work as part of growing up. We spend close to half of our life in a career.   No one tells us when to stop. 

This emotional fight is real and as a metaphor I equate it to “The Force” as two different sides are pulling on me.  

The Dark Side of always chasing more money, one more work planet to conquer, one more galaxy. The Light side of enjoying the simple things in life. Such as family, friends, and unstructured time.

I never thought it would be this hard to leave work.  It should be easy. I plan to post twice a week my thoughts on work, FIRE, retirement, and what comes next.

One year from today is my retirement date.  May the force be with me.

Tune in for the epic battle.