You military veterans are familiar with Clausewitz' "fog of war".
For those who haven't had to study military strategy or early 19th-century Prussia, he wrote one of the classics. One of his most famous quotes is "All action takes place … in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are."
It's the perfect military metaphor for early retirement: the "fog of work".
When we're at work, most of us are focused on our, ah, work. We're not able to work on something else, either. In the rare (or perhaps occasional) moments when our laser-keen focus wanders off task for a second or two, we're just taking a mental break. It's like recess at elementary school, with less running around. All too soon the task at hand (or our conscience) puts us back on the job. This routine goes on for hours!
When we're not at work, we're probably either getting ready to go to work or taking care of the responsibilities & chores that support work. Errands, domestic routine, childcare. When we're slumped on the couch channel-surfing the TV we're still watching comedies about work or thinking about what needs to be done before we're going back to work tomorrow. Even if we're raising a family we're training them to, uhm, get ready to go to work.
During those few times a year when we don't have to go to work within the next day or so, we're working at playing. It's a chance to get away from the routine, have new experiences, and socialize. Drive the country. Fish that lake. Hike those mountains. Occupy that beach. Downtime, not maintenance or upgrades. It goes on for a week, maybe two (woo-hoo!) before we stop working at playing and start working at getting ready to go back to work. Woo hoo.
So… we've planned most of our life around work. We do a lot of work, whether it's productive or not. But when do we get around to planning our life?
Let's not kid ourselves-- what we call "planning" is mostly a series of isolated short-term actions along a random walk toward a vague goal. "Dude, that college campus was so cool, I have to escape this loser high school and go there!" "Hey, I could spend the rest of my life with this person." "Someday I'd like to raise a baby." "Eh, no latté today, I'm saving money." "Hunh, what's this new 'target retirement' fund in my 401(k)?"
We're "saving money" to buy a house or to go back to school. (Gotta learn more about the housing market soon. And we're going to school someday-- maybe even next year!) We "plan" to "go back to school" so that we can earn more money while we do more work. We "contribute to our retirement accounts" so that we can retire some day. (Maybe even next decade!) But no one, not even nuclear engineers, plans our latté quota to project the savings cashflow and its compounded growth into a specific calendar date when we're going to start school, buy that house, and accumulate enough savings to retire. Heck, we're lucky if we spend any of our annual time off on "long-term" planning beyond the next meal or social activity.
Our planning could be successful. Many people know how to live frugally-- no McMansions or SUVs or private schools. Generally two or fewer kids. Many established families have math skills, checking accounts, homes, and investments. At face value they appear to be basically financially literate-- or have the potential to become financially literate.
Perhaps the common factor is fear of money. If people sat down with financial software they could put together a net worth sheet and a cashflow statement. Many would be surprised. Some have lost money in the stock market and feel that their portfolio has yet to recover, others have no idea how much they spend now or how much they will spend in retirement. Even when income is higher than outgo, the response is "Yeah but..." followed by "What if?" or "I don't want to have a problem with..." or even "What will I do all day?" The real problem is that they've never had time to reflect on these questions, let alone do anything about them. They're too busy working. They've never even heard of the 4% rule, let alone "Work Less, Live More" or "Your Money Or Your Life". But some of them will achieve net worths that are double most ERs-- without having any idea whether they can retire!
The "fog of work" can continue for months, years, even decades. Maybe work is fun, maybe planning is too hard or even scary, or maybe we're too busy with the daily minutiae to focus on the long-term picture.
But one day something clears the fog for a few minutes. Maybe you go to work for the 6,473rd time and realize "Whoa, this isn't fun anymore!" Maybe there's no 6474th time because you've just been laid off. Maybe you have a health crisis or a family emergency and you're not going to "regular" work for a while. Maybe you realize that you have no cashflow, let alone compounded growth. As that fog creeps back in around your ankles and up your legs, you appreciate that your current strategy (if you have one) just isn't going to carry you to victory anymore. But we'll take care of that real soon. Whoops, gotta take care of this other thing for a second. And soon the fog of work returns you to its smothering embrace…
So the long-term planning happens sporadically, randomly, and superficially-- if it even happens at all. No wonder the concept of retirement is so foreign, even frightening.
Clausewitz' "fog of war" teaches military commanders to plan, adapt, and re-plan. They'll never get enough information to fully understand the situation. They'll never have enough time to figure everything out, let alone to develop a perfect plan. The longer they delay then the fewer options they'll have (or the enemy will remove all their options). The only solution is to pull their heads out of the tactical situation for a minute, stop hoping for the answer to present itself, and look at the bigger picture to see where they can go. Break free. Then go there. Now.
It's the same for the "fog of work". People have to give themselves a break from their daily busy-ness to practice living retirement without a huge catch-up To-Do list. No traditional cross-country family vacation or painting the house or writing the Great American Novel… just "being" for a while instead of "doing". After a two-month sabbatical, how many would be interested in going back to work? If we had enough money (and confidence) to not return to work, perhaps we'd move easily into parenting, exercising, cleaning & improving the house, rediscovering our non-work interests, and doing whatever we wanted without having to sign a contract or make a deadline.
Whisk away the fog of work. Heads will clear after a couple weeks of naps, long leisurely walks, and family discussions. Instead of worrying about "now" or "dinner" or "tomorrow's meeting", the focus can shift to the future and a plan for getting there. Suddenly there's time to design a budget, to read that Bernstein book on asset allocation, and to develop a savings plan with a retirement portfolio's Monte-Carlo survival analysis. There's time to read an entire Ernie Zelinski book and finish his "Get-A-Life Tree". Try doing that on a Thursday night after a 12-hour day.
Free of the fog of work, many of us would return to the office after a sabbatical and think "What a bunch of toxic crap." (At least one of you ERs had that epiphany.) With the BS bucket filled to overflowing, the planning would be promptly executed and swiftly implemented. No more random walking but a sure stride to the nearest exit.
In a military career, a good "sabbatical" opportunity pops up after leaving the service. It could be after retiring from active duty, or after leaving active duty for the Reserves, or even when making a clean break from the uniform. Some high-school and college teachers get shorter summer sabbaticals. A similar opportunity in a civilian career would seem to be after a corporate sabbatical (if companies even still do this) or a layoff.
-------------------
This essay grew out of swapping e-mails with a veteran who's well on his way to ER. (Despite his occasional protests to the contrary!) I've been writing about military aspects of ER but I think this crosses over to everyone, military or civilian. This looks like the other-than-financial part of a chapter titled "How Do We Get There?"
Your thoughts? Any additions or changes?
For those who haven't had to study military strategy or early 19th-century Prussia, he wrote one of the classics. One of his most famous quotes is "All action takes place … in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are."
It's the perfect military metaphor for early retirement: the "fog of work".
When we're at work, most of us are focused on our, ah, work. We're not able to work on something else, either. In the rare (or perhaps occasional) moments when our laser-keen focus wanders off task for a second or two, we're just taking a mental break. It's like recess at elementary school, with less running around. All too soon the task at hand (or our conscience) puts us back on the job. This routine goes on for hours!
When we're not at work, we're probably either getting ready to go to work or taking care of the responsibilities & chores that support work. Errands, domestic routine, childcare. When we're slumped on the couch channel-surfing the TV we're still watching comedies about work or thinking about what needs to be done before we're going back to work tomorrow. Even if we're raising a family we're training them to, uhm, get ready to go to work.
During those few times a year when we don't have to go to work within the next day or so, we're working at playing. It's a chance to get away from the routine, have new experiences, and socialize. Drive the country. Fish that lake. Hike those mountains. Occupy that beach. Downtime, not maintenance or upgrades. It goes on for a week, maybe two (woo-hoo!) before we stop working at playing and start working at getting ready to go back to work. Woo hoo.
So… we've planned most of our life around work. We do a lot of work, whether it's productive or not. But when do we get around to planning our life?
Let's not kid ourselves-- what we call "planning" is mostly a series of isolated short-term actions along a random walk toward a vague goal. "Dude, that college campus was so cool, I have to escape this loser high school and go there!" "Hey, I could spend the rest of my life with this person." "Someday I'd like to raise a baby." "Eh, no latté today, I'm saving money." "Hunh, what's this new 'target retirement' fund in my 401(k)?"
We're "saving money" to buy a house or to go back to school. (Gotta learn more about the housing market soon. And we're going to school someday-- maybe even next year!) We "plan" to "go back to school" so that we can earn more money while we do more work. We "contribute to our retirement accounts" so that we can retire some day. (Maybe even next decade!) But no one, not even nuclear engineers, plans our latté quota to project the savings cashflow and its compounded growth into a specific calendar date when we're going to start school, buy that house, and accumulate enough savings to retire. Heck, we're lucky if we spend any of our annual time off on "long-term" planning beyond the next meal or social activity.
Our planning could be successful. Many people know how to live frugally-- no McMansions or SUVs or private schools. Generally two or fewer kids. Many established families have math skills, checking accounts, homes, and investments. At face value they appear to be basically financially literate-- or have the potential to become financially literate.
Perhaps the common factor is fear of money. If people sat down with financial software they could put together a net worth sheet and a cashflow statement. Many would be surprised. Some have lost money in the stock market and feel that their portfolio has yet to recover, others have no idea how much they spend now or how much they will spend in retirement. Even when income is higher than outgo, the response is "Yeah but..." followed by "What if?" or "I don't want to have a problem with..." or even "What will I do all day?" The real problem is that they've never had time to reflect on these questions, let alone do anything about them. They're too busy working. They've never even heard of the 4% rule, let alone "Work Less, Live More" or "Your Money Or Your Life". But some of them will achieve net worths that are double most ERs-- without having any idea whether they can retire!
The "fog of work" can continue for months, years, even decades. Maybe work is fun, maybe planning is too hard or even scary, or maybe we're too busy with the daily minutiae to focus on the long-term picture.
But one day something clears the fog for a few minutes. Maybe you go to work for the 6,473rd time and realize "Whoa, this isn't fun anymore!" Maybe there's no 6474th time because you've just been laid off. Maybe you have a health crisis or a family emergency and you're not going to "regular" work for a while. Maybe you realize that you have no cashflow, let alone compounded growth. As that fog creeps back in around your ankles and up your legs, you appreciate that your current strategy (if you have one) just isn't going to carry you to victory anymore. But we'll take care of that real soon. Whoops, gotta take care of this other thing for a second. And soon the fog of work returns you to its smothering embrace…
So the long-term planning happens sporadically, randomly, and superficially-- if it even happens at all. No wonder the concept of retirement is so foreign, even frightening.
Clausewitz' "fog of war" teaches military commanders to plan, adapt, and re-plan. They'll never get enough information to fully understand the situation. They'll never have enough time to figure everything out, let alone to develop a perfect plan. The longer they delay then the fewer options they'll have (or the enemy will remove all their options). The only solution is to pull their heads out of the tactical situation for a minute, stop hoping for the answer to present itself, and look at the bigger picture to see where they can go. Break free. Then go there. Now.
It's the same for the "fog of work". People have to give themselves a break from their daily busy-ness to practice living retirement without a huge catch-up To-Do list. No traditional cross-country family vacation or painting the house or writing the Great American Novel… just "being" for a while instead of "doing". After a two-month sabbatical, how many would be interested in going back to work? If we had enough money (and confidence) to not return to work, perhaps we'd move easily into parenting, exercising, cleaning & improving the house, rediscovering our non-work interests, and doing whatever we wanted without having to sign a contract or make a deadline.
Whisk away the fog of work. Heads will clear after a couple weeks of naps, long leisurely walks, and family discussions. Instead of worrying about "now" or "dinner" or "tomorrow's meeting", the focus can shift to the future and a plan for getting there. Suddenly there's time to design a budget, to read that Bernstein book on asset allocation, and to develop a savings plan with a retirement portfolio's Monte-Carlo survival analysis. There's time to read an entire Ernie Zelinski book and finish his "Get-A-Life Tree". Try doing that on a Thursday night after a 12-hour day.
Free of the fog of work, many of us would return to the office after a sabbatical and think "What a bunch of toxic crap." (At least one of you ERs had that epiphany.) With the BS bucket filled to overflowing, the planning would be promptly executed and swiftly implemented. No more random walking but a sure stride to the nearest exit.
In a military career, a good "sabbatical" opportunity pops up after leaving the service. It could be after retiring from active duty, or after leaving active duty for the Reserves, or even when making a clean break from the uniform. Some high-school and college teachers get shorter summer sabbaticals. A similar opportunity in a civilian career would seem to be after a corporate sabbatical (if companies even still do this) or a layoff.
-------------------
This essay grew out of swapping e-mails with a veteran who's well on his way to ER. (Despite his occasional protests to the contrary!) I've been writing about military aspects of ER but I think this crosses over to everyone, military or civilian. This looks like the other-than-financial part of a chapter titled "How Do We Get There?"
Your thoughts? Any additions or changes?
I had learn to relax and do nothing at all, just for short periods of time. That was not trivial. 
I did take Art 100 in college Pass/Fail, supposedly for fun 
