If you find yourself fantasizing about the fun things you would do in retirement, why wait? You may be able to make your dreams come true right now!
Putting off your retirement dreams might not make sense after you read this list of ways to retire before you retire. In many cases, you might be able to absorb your retirement dreams right into your daily working day. In other cases, you might be romanticizing something you anticipating happening in retirement that you can - in reality - make happen right now. There are a number of ways you can bring forward your retirement dreams into today's working reality. Let's take a look at 6 of them.
1. Travel On The Company's Dime
Many of us dream of travelling during retirement. An opportunity to get away from the rat race by literally getting away from it is an ideal way to jump into retirement. Travelling to destinations previously visited can also be a fascinating experience. By observing the changes that have taken place, it may be like having two vacations with one single destination.
Traveling is challenging with the chore of daily work responsibilities getting in the way. Wouldn't it be refreshing if you could combine your work with your passion for travelling? It turns out this is not that tough to accomplish if you are willing to compromise a little.
Many companies will pay for staff to attend relevant conferences as attendees. If you are prepared to spend a portion of your travel time sitting in on conference presentations and mingling with like minded professionals, you may find your employer receptive to a proposal that you attend.
The odds increase that your employer will approve if you offer to actually present at a conference or host a booth to help market your company's products or service. Being willing to interact with clients or potential clients during the conference will go a long way to building the case that you should attend. And the more willing you are to entertain clients, such as having dinner with them once the conference closes, the more likely the answer will be yes.
If you employer agrees in principal that is makes sense for you to travel to a conference but cannot justify the cost, you may not be completely out of luck. By offering to forego training in exchange for the benefits you will gain through the conference, you may be able to draw money from a different budget line item to help finance your conference attendance. A word of caution however: you may be forced to later miss out on training that you would have preferred to receive.
Budget is a major obstacle to being able to travel to conferences with expenses paid by your employer. If you're close to gaining approval, but it looks like they will be unable to find the full budget amount, offer to pay for a portion of the travel yourself. If you are willing to pay for transportation in exchange for hotel, conference and a meal allowance paid by your employer, you might find that to be a winning strategy. You may be able to transport yourself in an extremely frugal way - such as driving yourself without fuel or mileage reimbursement. Were your employer forced to pick up that cost, it might be very high, depending on the location of the destination.
Even if you have to contribute a portion of your travel costs yourself, its tough to beat a deal where a vacation is partially subsidized by your employer. If they can contribute funding for food and hotel accommodations, not to mention paid time away from work, you might be able to push back your retirement date by months or even years.
2. Get Rid Of Your Awful Boss
A significant number of future retirees try to fast track their retirement date due to one single factor: they hate their boss. Bosses are a significant factor in the lives of working Americans. The average working American spends nearly one third of their life at work, and sometimes it can be very difficult to let go at the end of the day. You may physically leave work, but conflicts can continue to replay in your mind well past quitting time.
Having a boss you hate might actually be helping you retire sooner. By not being willing to attend after work functions with your boss, you may be avoiding costs such as when it is your turn to pay for a round of drinks. Likable bosses might cause you to extend yourself and offer to drive to offsite events with your boss as a passenger.
If you are confronted with a desire to retire based primarily on hating your boss, you need to be very careful you don't compromise your retirement to get away. Hating your boss to a significant level might tempt you to retire sooner than you can afford. By crossing the threshold into retirement too soon, you won't notice the effects until much later in life when your options to deal with a financial shortfall are significantly reduced.
The only sure fire way to deal with a boss you hate is to find a new job. If you are approaching retirement age, that might seem like a very tall order. But if you are at risk for long term jeopardy to your retirement due to a dysfunctional relationship with your boss, you really do need to look out for number 1.
Even if moving to a new job with a tolerable boss means you must delay your retirement, it very likely will be a worthwhile trade-off. With a boss you do not hate, you'll get back much more than the money you would have earned to put toward your retirement. A truly likable boss might even make you question why you are so anxious to retire at all
3. Give Back Through Volunteering
If you look forward to retirement so you can begin to give back to your community through volunteering, you're living in a fantasy world. That might sound harsh, but there is no legitimate reason you cannot volunteer within your community while concurrently being employed. In 2016, 62.6 million Americans aged 16 and older volunteered for an organization at least once during the year.
Volunteering does not need to be an enormous time commitment. Preparing and serving food accounts for 1 in 10 activities performed by volunteers in America. If you have the ability to assist - even occasionally - in food preparation or serving, you'll find takers for your services somewhere in your community.
One aspect of volunteering that may collide with your employment situation is that of the mission of your job. If you do not believe the work you perform is meaningful, it might be that you are romanticizing the sense of accomplishment you'll get in retirement from volunteering. Your job has a significant influence on your self esteem, and if it lacks a mission that aligns to your values, it may feel like your days are being wasted.
You can help fill that gap long before retirement by finding a job that more closely aligns to a mission you think is valuable. If that means a pay cut, you may discover the trade off is worth it. Leaving work each day satisfied that you have made a difference is a very difficult sensation to replace regardless of the size of your paycheck.
4. Get A Helping (Green) Hand
Gardening is a popular hobby among retirees. The nurturing of plants can help replace the absence of children to a degree. The results of hard work in the summer yield crops in the fall that can help stretch a retiree's food budget.
But how much of that hobby is actually fun? Sure, trimming plants may require a certain level of expertise. And making sure that what grows in your garden is what you actually want growing there takes specific planning and effort to weed.
But what about routine tasks like soil preparation in the spring and fall? And regular watering? Even weeding can be a significant pain in a large garden. If your desire to tend to your garden in retirement stems from your belief that to do it effectively takes time, then maybe you should consider hiring a student to help you out over the summer.
Students don't always have loads of time available to them, but during the summer they sure do. With many students finding sources of income through the access economy, the opportunity to water your garden twice a day might be a perfect compliment to the other gigs they complete daily to make their earnings. Should you have more tasks that require the services of a younger, more able bodied individual - such as digging or moving rocks - a student might be the perfect choice.
By bringing on that kind of help right now, the limited time you have available today might allow you to spend the time in your garden that you will actually enjoy.
If you find yourself in the garden for long stretches in the spring time attempting different design ideas, you may want to change your methodology and explore software tools that can accelerate that process. Every design you try in your garden takes effort and physical toll. In software, the effort is a mouse click. And if you don't like the result, you can start over again in a flash. Further, by putting your ideas into a software system, you can more easily communicate work you need done to either landscaping professionals or summer student help.
If your garden has special irrigation needs that cannot be accomplished through the use of a summer student, you can easily explore automation options. Many systems control water usage better than even a seasoned gardener, resulting in higher crop yields for a lower water bill.
Living in a condo is no reason to delay gardening. Many kits are available today to allow you to take advantage of indoor gardening for smaller plants like herbs. We are on the cusp of an agricultural technology tsunami, where indoor growing will not only be feasible, it will eclipse the production of traditional agriculture of today. The notion of a 3D printer will be applied to food and allow you to grow real crops in tight spaces. By efficiently harnessing electrical power and conserving water, these systems will produce yields in a cost effective way. And given they will grow right in your own home, the freshness of their yield will be second to none.
5. Dress Like A Retiree
If your job requires formal attire, you may pine for a retirement in which you only wear casual clothing. Suits, dresses, and especially shoes can cause a variety of discomforts, and in some cases even lead to severe problems such as arthritis.
At work, if the option for casual Friday does not already exist, you may want to suggest it. If your work can withstand a more relaxed Friday, you might find that your dreams for a more comfortable retirement become less urgent. Casual Fridays also help bring other levels of job related stress down a notch.
If you cannot make casual Friday happen, maybe its tome to investigate the fabrics used in your formal clothing. It may be that you can locate clothes that are formal in appearance, but share fabric composition with your more comfortable clothes.
Formal clothes are also often tailored to fit. So if you have clothes that you have worn for an extended period of time, it may be that your body shape has changed and the time has come to have a tailor re-evaluate the fit of your ensemble. If you wash your clothes at home, it may also be that they have shrunk in the wash. Either way, a simple adjustment may go a long way in your clothing comfort.
Shoes are often a burden, but you can talk to an orthotist to get shoe recommendations that might help comfort as well as overall health. If you lack access to one, you can still investigate shoes made of lighter, more comfortable materials that do not compromise a formal look.
6. Cut Costs (Starting In Your Driveway)
Many potential retirees assume that once that day arrives they will magically be able to live on less. But this compromise in lifestyle demands major discipline. With extra time on your hands, odds are good you will find a way to spend it, which will also likely involve spending money.
If you are serious about a retirement lifestyle in which you life on less, its not only important to try to bring that behavior forward, its pretty much essential. If you attempt to live on less today and can't, then that's a pretty strong indicator that you will fail to live on less in retirement.
If you want a meaningful test of your frugality, the #1 item you can eliminate that will shave thousands of dollars off your spending each year is your car. If you can sell your car and live a normal life afterward, that is a very strong indicator that you actually can handle the challenge of living on less in retirement.
Your car may be costing you $10,410.96 per year if you are someone with a $30,000.00 car you have financed and you have an average driving record. By eliminating your car, you will immediately get rid of the ownership, fuel and insurance costs that go with it. You will still need some budget amount to get around, but the actual travel you complete each year can likely be replaced with a budget of about $2,000.00 if you use services like Uber or Lyft or rent a car in situations where your needs are more demanding.
Summary
So there you have it: 6 ways to retire before you retire. By over inflating the value of these hobbies and aspirations, you may be ignoring ways you cam make them happen right now while you are still working. Not every situation will entirely replace the experience you may be able to have in retirement, but the trade-off will be a more enjoyable period of pre-retirement years.
Have you incorporated retirement dreams into your daily life? What changes did you make? Did those changes affect when you actually retired?