Episode Summary:
In this week’s episode, we bring back the original friends on FIRE to give Maggie advice and counsel as she embarks on her early retirement journey. The original friends on FIRE are Mike’s dad Jack and his long-time friend Mark, who met at work, became fast friends and retired at 42 and 55. We first interviewed them on episode 78, and now they are back to advise Maggie on this specific stage of her early retirement journey. We talk about celebrating the change, taking risks, acclimating to a new environment, directed vs. undirected lifestyles, and the process of throttling back after going 90mph for so long.
Episode Notes:
In this discussion with Jack and Mark, we cover many topics, including:
- Jack and Mark share their stories of retiring and exiting Corporate America.
- Why they decided to leave their jobs.
- Taking risks.
- Enjoying the process of putting the pieces together.
- Acclimating to your new environment and having a plan for how you’re going to approach things.
- Focus on making it a celebration.
- The idea that Maggie can do anything she wants, and have time for it.
- Writing down your core values, what’s important to you.
- Change and how the body tends to resist change, but it can be exhilarating.
- How to face your fears and not be afraid.
- The process of throttling down and how it took them years. When you’re used to running 90mph and then you jump into retirement, it takes a while to throttle back and relax truly.
- How quickly you will fill your time with other things.
- Don’t make big life decisions right away, instead, test things out and take notes.
- A directed lifestyle vs. an undirected lifestyle.
- The idea that once you relax, a new vision for your life will appear.
- Reinventing yourself in early retirement.