I was reading Jason’s post on post-financial independence (
Link here) and was intrigued by the prospect of thinking about life after financial independence. In the post, there’s a couple of financial bloggers who have span out their thoughts on pre & post financial independence weekly schedule which I thought was interesting to ponder around.
Whenever I spoke about to anyone relating to financial independence, there’s a misconception that financial independence equate to retiring from the corporate world and to lazy or sit around doing nothing. Look, there’s a vast difference between financial independence and early retirement, though the same can be said to be congruent with one another. Whilst early retirement isn’t for everyone, financial independence is something every individual should think about attaining as early as possible according to what the circumstances may be for you. Unless you are born from a silver spoon, this does require a vast amount of time and effort to make that happens and by no means that this is an easy task. Just ask around those who’ve done it before us if you are not convinced.
I have written this post to make more of a fun exercise to think about what you can do pre and post financial independence. Remember that whilst you may like working for your employer and continue to do so post financial independence, the ball is in your court and you can tweak to find your own preferred schedule. That is the biggest advantage of reaching early financial independence ahead of time.
Without further ado, let’s see how I would have fared differently (guestimate) pre and post financial independence weekly schedule.
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| B’s Full Time Work Schedule |
Full Time Work Schedule
Work – I do not particularly dislike anything about my work in general but one look at the weekly schedule and you can see that work takes up the majority of the time ahead of all other activities. For anyone with a full time job, the schedule should look pretty much similar to what I have above. The thing is it would have been great to compromise between the two by having lesser amount of time spent on work while increasing the other activities so that you would have a more complete life as a whole. Unfortunately, it is almost entirely impossible to work lesser or even considered part-time for my role as the nature of the work doesn’t allow to.
Physical – I would have loved to get involved more in exercise activities as we all know the importance of doing so but circumstances of the amount spent on work and families make it as such that there are only time to do any physical activities during the weekends.
Fun – Plenty of the fun activities, especially spending time with the kid, blogging, watching tv and surfing internet are done mostly at night after I had my dinner at home. Even so, you can see how these activities are being squeezed very tight because they are mostly the best time available to do these things without much interruption. I often take spending time with the kid precedence over other “fun” activities including blogging, so it depends very much on what time my kid goes to bed.
Social – I am hardly able to squeeze in any social activities these days with friends or colleagues because of family commitments. Things were quite different when I was still single and I have more time on my side to do other social activities with friends. These days, it’s usually just about the Friday night and/or weekend gathering.
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| B’s Guestimate Post FI Work Schedule |
Post FI Work Schedule
Work – This is a lot more leisure and flexible now, given the vast difference from the release of the mandatory 9 to 6 work I have to endure. I foresee over the course of time I will be increasing the pace and amount of work done post financial independence, though it will be entirely on my discretion and choice on what I want to do with it.
Physical – I’d love to increase the physical activities by way miles more than the current state. I think having a regular exercise does wonder to one’s mind and body and I would love to spend more of my time beefing up my health more than wealth.
Fun – I can already see how I”ll be integrating fun a lot with social and physical activities with my son and learning some skills ready to made activities along the way. At the end of the day, it’s about doing whatever you want to do with your life, so this “fun” factor can ranges from anything you find it interesting in your life that you have dreamt to be doing all the while.
Social – I will have some time on catching up with old friends over coffee or simply just remisce the old days when we were still in school. Given the arrangement of time, social activities can fit in almost any days I want it to be, again at my discretion.
Final Thoughts
My weekly schedule will vary differently from each and everyone of you.
You may like to travel, so you might plan to take some long sabbatical out of the country. Some may also like to do more volunteer, so the time could be spent more on doing meaningful social work. Regardless what it is, your schedule will be on your discretion and you have more flexibility to play it around the way it suits your needs and style.
Although this is just a fun exercise, but I’ll encourage everyone to try and think on your schedule now and into the future. You may have thought about it at some point in the past on your head, but to draw and plant them out is an entirely different think altogether. Try them, it’s just a fun way of thinking about financial independence.
Anyone who are interested to do the same exercise can get the template from where I’ve saved mine:
I’ve drawn mine. How are your schedule looking like?
FI will return some control of our time back to us.
Hi Uncle CW
It's really more on the tradeoff for time more than money itself, at least for me.
🙂 freedom of time is what money really buy for us!
Hi Richard
Couldn't agree more with you. Seems like we have the same philosophy 🙂
haha, i just did mine some time back too. Just that I didn't share my template and details: http://frugal-daddy.blogspot.sg/2015/05/purpose-of-your-ultimate-dreams-and.html
This exercise is so fun and "powerful".
Hi Frugal Daddy
Same mind think alike 🙂 thanks for sharing your post.
B,
Nice post FI schedule. Pretty ideal just that maybe one hour to work on personal business is too little.
I think my post FI, I will still devote 20 hours a week min. on work / personal business. This is because this personal business is something I love doing.
As I always repeat, I still believe in finding/knowing your true self, before finding FI!
Hi Rolf
You are right. It probably is too little for me too.
The good thing is i can always increase to any amount of work i want to. 5 hours to 80 hours, the range and decision is all yours 🙂
B,
Want to do a test?
Take 1 month leave and do what you "intend" to do post FI 😉
I'll bet after a month, you'll be glad to start working again!
LOL!
P.S. After 1.5 years of walk here walk there, I decided to work weekends as when every day is Sunday, Sunday soon loses its meaning… And I'm so glad I have my nano-hedge fund and trading business to take care of 🙂
Lucky for this guy.He has a reversal? You think it is so easy to retire early???
We must keep this firmly in our mind. FI will return some control of our time back to us. We have options to walk away.
Retiring from full scheduled work-life to sudden unscheduled life is NOT a flip over switch. It is better that we plan for it; slowly transit to semi and then full retirement. Any sudden retirement may not be that fun.
Happy planning and simulation. 🙂
Hi SMOL
I beg to differ slightly, but i understand what you mean by that.
I have taken a 3 weeks leave in transition to my next job and during this time, plenty of the activities remain on the lazy side which makes it boring. I would argue that because of my characteristic that tends to be forward looking (knowing a job is up next) i can't leisurely engage in activities that ive been wanting to learn. For example, learning a new language, cooking etc. The time to do them is too short, on top of the family commitment i already have right now.
I would tend to agree if the sabbatical is at least 6 or more months, but my wife will probably yell at me and my son kicks me in the butt.
SMOL, I am sure B will enjoy his post FI than slog his precious life for the corporate bosses. How I know? I will join him on the other side. Prove me wrong 10 years from now. Haha.
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Hello Frugal_Daddy and B,
I take you both on at the same time – like B has said in his post, it's just a "fun exercise" – which I think some readers have forgotten… (So serious!?)
1) Frugal_daddy, look at B's post FI weekly schedule. is this you would call a "Life with Purpose"? LOL! Don't hit the face!
2) B, only people who have not found what they want to do in life would play with the idea pre and post FI life.
Don't worry, most people feel that way when they find their current job not fulfilling… Hence the dream to invest to "escape"…
Ask your dad. When he is busy doing what he likes, does a pre and post business life ever occurred to him?
Keep this thought when one day you found what you like to do.
Your exercise It's about I will only do y when I have x.
Some people just jump to y with nothing – no safety net, no trampoline 😉
Wink.
Hi SMOL, Haha. Yours are valid points. You are simply saying to do what we love and love what we do at the same time. That is the highest level that maybe 90% of ppl cannot attain. You are also saying the transition of full time work to zero work is too drastic and to seek a balance. Right? I cannot speak for B too much as I am not under his payroll. :p However, I think B is only bringing a concept across simply in a more direct and fun manner. He is not going to write a 10 pages blog report giving you the transition and what will happen next from this week to next week. There could be a transformation post-post FI schedule that only future B know. To me, and from b schedule, it seem routine swimming and jogging is a joy, which many find pain with. One thing lead to another. Anyway, I hope I am the one prove you wrong 10 years from now. Lol.
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Transition is important. Just like it's better to raise GST by 1-2% each time rather than 6% at one time! Many angry pple now up north! 🙂
Hi Rolf
It's definitely not going to be a rough transition. It's something that ive been doing bits by bits now, integrating them into my life.
Hi B,
Thanks for linking to my post, appreciate it!
Great to see your plans for post-FI, sounds like it should be a pretty good transition once you reach that milestone, since you're already doing some of those post-FI activities already! I think that's the best way to make the most of your life today, within the constraints of full time work.
Keep on working towards that goal, but enjoying life in the meantime!
Cheers,
Jason
Hi Jason
You're welcome 🙂
It's a very rough plan idea though it will surely.be subject to changes as i move on in life. The good thing is post fi it will be much easier to transact the changes than what i have now. The ball is in our own court.
Hi B,
I agree with SMOL that calibration is necessary and it would be good to take a few weeks off at one shot (and not go on a holiday) to test out your schedule.
But unlike what SMOL mentioned, who knows? You might not be tired of it after even a few months. At least, I enjoyed my half-a-year break and look forward to it again sometime in the future.
Hi 15hww
It'll be interesting to have the chance to talk to you more about the sabbatical you took and the recent post you have written.
Like you said, maybe i will enjoy or maybe not. It's definitely going to be subject to changes and i certainly dont mind adapting to it.
B : Great simulation.. All the best and hope to see your sharing on how your post-FI doing soon…
Thanks Richard 🙂 Hope you'll do the same very soon.
Hi B,
Great thought simulating blog. Agree many people are too affixed with the process of achieving FI but once they really done it, they are at a lost on what to do with it..
One thing to point out though: 1 hour for EPL is NOT enough ;p
Hi Aceirus
Hahaha, we definitely need it more than 90 minutes right!!! Will increase the allotment for sure.
HI B,
I had about a year of very low work scheduling (about half my usual pace) and I had such great fun! I really went all out to work the next year. Even now, towards the 2nd year after the break, I'm still highly motivated and riding on the momentum I had when I left the break.
It takes a different environment and mindset to appreciate what we have 🙂 For me, maybe working for 2-4 hrs per day, excluding weekends, will be a very welcome 'retirement phase' for me 🙂
Hi LP
Good to see that you're willing to do the same for a cause such as giving free tuition to the under priveleged. I guess this is something that does really matters to you so I hope you'll achieve one pretty soon.
Hi B,
Great thinking on Pre & Post FI schedule. This make me I have to work out a Post Schedule too even I may not need it another 10-20 years.
David
Hi David
I think the importance of doing this is awareness, and probably not really thinking whether we need it or not in the near term 🙂 Hope to see one from you soon.
no investment?
Hi Anonymous
They'll be on and off every now and then I have extra time 😉
Hi B! Unfortunately, like you, work takes up the majority of my schedule. I can't wait for the day when I no longer have work and have all the free time to do the things that I love. Also, I've noticed that you work more than the standard 40 hours here in Canada! That is a long work schedule!
Hi Jeff
Looking at your work schedule, it appears that we are with the same thinking alike. I hope you'll achieve your target soon and achieve FI soonest and clear those bucket lists you have listed.
haha your wife will not read this right? Later she complain where's her timeslot =P
Hi Foodie
Hahaha, she'll be around when we do all those fun activities together as a family 🙂
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