Just a little reflection as I transition into full retirement. Curious of how perhaps some of you made the peaceful transition in similar situations.
Like most here, I have always been a big goal setter pursuing an early retirement date and "the number" to flip the switch and say go. The date was always 55, but the number changed as I moved the goal posts many times due to lifestyle creep driven by a lucrative and fortunate self-employed career. I am one of the lucky ones in that I enjoyed most of what I was doing so my motivation to retire was based more an arbitrary date/portfolio value, as opposed to fighting the grind. Well, 55 came and while all systems were a go, I suppose a combination of being hardwired to "hunt & kill" my whole career and my niche being very lucrative, I just wasn't quite ready to give up the fight. My solution was to start intentionally "downshifting" my business which basically involved draining my existing pipeline of business (without any focus in refilling) and cherry picking the clients/business I wanted to work on. For the first year or 2, I battled with my competitive nature from time to time, but slowly found I was becoming ok with not winning when I saw a piece of business go to a competitor I would have otherwise pursued. Fast forward to today at age 57, I find I have really made peace with laying down my sword and these last couple of years were really helpful to my transition.
How long did it take you to really make peace with the transition, particularly if you ran your own business or were in a very lucrative career?
Like most here, I have always been a big goal setter pursuing an early retirement date and "the number" to flip the switch and say go. The date was always 55, but the number changed as I moved the goal posts many times due to lifestyle creep driven by a lucrative and fortunate self-employed career. I am one of the lucky ones in that I enjoyed most of what I was doing so my motivation to retire was based more an arbitrary date/portfolio value, as opposed to fighting the grind. Well, 55 came and while all systems were a go, I suppose a combination of being hardwired to "hunt & kill" my whole career and my niche being very lucrative, I just wasn't quite ready to give up the fight. My solution was to start intentionally "downshifting" my business which basically involved draining my existing pipeline of business (without any focus in refilling) and cherry picking the clients/business I wanted to work on. For the first year or 2, I battled with my competitive nature from time to time, but slowly found I was becoming ok with not winning when I saw a piece of business go to a competitor I would have otherwise pursued. Fast forward to today at age 57, I find I have really made peace with laying down my sword and these last couple of years were really helpful to my transition.
How long did it take you to really make peace with the transition, particularly if you ran your own business or were in a very lucrative career?