I see many people trending on the F.I.R.E movement recently, and I thought I should give some of my inputs.

Instead of focusing how to achieve financial independence and retiring early, what I’d like the rest to figure out is what are you going to do if you achieve your freedom?

Tour around the world? I give you 1 year to tour, and I think you be bored.

Do the things I love! What’s the things you love to do, and on a daily or consistent basis then? many people couldn’t answer me after further probing.

My take is this, it should be a smooth transition, and not a sudden transition, when it comes to post retirement life. Allow me to repeat again on my definition of retirement; it basically means financial freedom and able to do the things you like to do without much financial constraints. You can still be working because you enjoy it, and you can choose to not draw a single income from it as all.

My 1/3 rule to living life is this; 1/3 of my time on myself, 1/3 on my family and friends, and lastly 1/3 on the community.

Personally if you can enrich these 3 parties above, I think you can lead a meaningful life. Based on my experience, I witness many retirees who upon retirement, went full steam on touring around the world. Many were 100% on themselves, and the problems of loneliness set in after a few years, and that’s when they realize that they want to be relevant or useful to the society, and hence they went back to work again. A few of them have their children setting up their family, and grandchildren already grown up and doesn’t need the help of the grandparents anymore. That’s when some retirees gets into loneliness, or even dementia. In short, many were lost where they felt no longer useful to the society or the people around them.

Hence, while you are working hard to make your money work, and strive towards your FIRE, at the same time, we should also pursue the things we like to do, on a part time basis. I think the difference between before you retire and post retirement is, in post retirement, you be able to pursue the things you love on a full time basis. Prior to that, it’s part time.

That being said, let’s say you have 20 years before you are going to reach FIRE, one should go try and engage on the things which you think you might like, so that when that day comes, you then will already know what are the things you really enjoy doing!

The framework which I propose is this, whatever you want to do, focus on these 3 parties; yourself, family and friends, and the community.

Myself: Touring around world in 180 days? Work on my body and health? Achieving a 6 pack body? Catch up on my reading? Complete a book weekly? Learn to sing? Learn a third language? Learn a new skills? In summary, I think if you are improving everyday, you are enriching yourself.

Family and friends: bring family on a tour yearly? Catch up with close friends on a bi-monthly basis? Go holiday with friends? Regular mahjong sessions? Help set up business for your siblings or children? Be an adviser/ mentor to your loved ones? And there’s so much more!

Community: Help out in orphanage? Be a mentor to someone else? Be volunteer to your neighborhood?

I’m sure there’s more things for you to do on top of the things I mentioned. Most importantly, you want to live your life based on the framework which I suggest; yourself, family & friends, and community. The thing is, you can start now, and you should do that now, so that at least you know what you really enjoy and dislike. When that day comes, then you can focus on the things you enjoy and do it full time!