truenorth418
Full time employment: Posting here.
I enjoy reading threads about the many euphemisms people use to disguise the fact that they are early retired. The recent thread about feelings of failure upon early retirement touched on this theme a bit as well.
The truth is, I left MegaCorp 2 and a half years ago at age 47 and I still find it awkward to use the word "retired" when other people ask me what I'm up to now. This is especially the case among close friends and family. "Consultant", "managing my investment portfolio", "on hiatus", "just chilling" are all euphemisms I have used.
Achieving financial independence and having the ability to walk away from corporate America was a long standing goal of mine and one of my accomplishments I am most proud of. It took many years of careful planning and sacrifice. The question is, why am I not more comfortable telling people about this?
This recently came up during a reunion with some old college friends of mine. Many of them are struggling in their careers, unhappy, feeling a little trapped. I purposely avoided talking about myself and how I am enjoying life in ER. And it dawned on me that the reason I am uncomfortable talking about ER with other people is because I don't want to make them feel bad. The truth is, I am in an awesome place in life, and they're not, and I don't want to make them feel worse by bragging.
Anyone else feel similarly? Any other reasons you hide your FIRE accomplishments from close friends and loved ones?
The truth is, I left MegaCorp 2 and a half years ago at age 47 and I still find it awkward to use the word "retired" when other people ask me what I'm up to now. This is especially the case among close friends and family. "Consultant", "managing my investment portfolio", "on hiatus", "just chilling" are all euphemisms I have used.
Achieving financial independence and having the ability to walk away from corporate America was a long standing goal of mine and one of my accomplishments I am most proud of. It took many years of careful planning and sacrifice. The question is, why am I not more comfortable telling people about this?
This recently came up during a reunion with some old college friends of mine. Many of them are struggling in their careers, unhappy, feeling a little trapped. I purposely avoided talking about myself and how I am enjoying life in ER. And it dawned on me that the reason I am uncomfortable talking about ER with other people is because I don't want to make them feel bad. The truth is, I am in an awesome place in life, and they're not, and I don't want to make them feel worse by bragging.
Anyone else feel similarly? Any other reasons you hide your FIRE accomplishments from close friends and loved ones?