🍃 Why I don't want to RETIRE EARLY

I’m not joking. I don’t want to retire early!

If you’re healthy, occasionally have free time, don’t have to worry about food and water, yet still dream of retiring early—read this.

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“Retire early” and becoming “financially free” have become such universal life goals lately, but I think they can be a dangerous trap. 🪤

Becoming “financially free” is usually defined by having your investments generate more income than your expenses.

By reaching that, it technically means that you can maintain your current lifestyle without doing more work.

Sounds good? Keep reading…

Most people from the older generation I know spent their whole lives dreaming of retiring early.

They worked so hard, sacrificed their physical and mental health, and gave up relationships for money. They used their money to bought some real estates and now live off the rent from these real estates - So technically, financially free!

But by the time they finally quit their jobs and retired, they didn’t know what to do.

They got bored, questioned their lives, and ended up scrolling TikTok all day, every day.

Some even went nuts—literally. 😨

Most of them even went back to work because they couldn’t stand the boredom.

How did retiring early go from a dream to a nightmare?

1. We know what we DON’T want, but we never clarify what we DO want.

“I don’t like my job.”

“I hate deadlines.”

“I don’t like 9 AM meetings.”

If these are the reasons we want to retire early, that’s a problem.

Let’s say I’m retired now. By 9 AM, I’m no longer in a Zoom meeting—yay! 🎉

But would I feel happy? No! Because now I’m lying in bed, scrolling Instagram, still feeling like crap.

The problem was never the 9 AM meeting; it’s that I don’t know what I want to do at 9 AM.

Now, let’s try clarifying what I do want.

By 9 AM, I want to do a stretch session with incense burning in my living room, the window open, and handpan music playing in the background 🍃

The moment I clearly imagine the scenario, my brain feels joy and starts figuring out a way to make it happen—NOW.

Sure, there’s a 9 AM meeting tomorrow. But I can do this at 8:45 AM instead.

The next day, by 8:45 AM, I’m stretching, incense burning, window open, handpan music playing. And I feel AWESOME.

By 9 AM, I’m in the Zoom meeting—but here’s the magic: I no longer hate the meeting! I’m no longer thinking “Uh I wish I can retire now!”

That’s why I don’t HAVE to retire early—because when I clarify what I want in life, I can achieve it NOW.

This applies to everything—from small things like a morning stretch to big things like visiting Antarctica 🇦🇶

I already have four close friends who have visited Antarctica—WAY before they became “financially free” or retire.

2. We hate boredom.

The consequence of not knowing what we want—and then retiring anyway? Severe boredom.

When I was little, I always looked forward to summer vacation. But when it finally came, I ended up spending most of my time watching videos in my room.

How did that happen? Because I never defined what my “summer vacation” actually was!

And in today’s economy, if we don’t define our ideal life, the market will define it for us—by offering the latest, fastest, cheapest, most addictive entertainment. Right now, that’s short videos 🤳

What happens to a kid dreaming of summer vacation is exactly what happens to an adult dreaming of early retirement.

That’s why, instead of setting retiring early as my life goal, I’m setting “knowing what I want to experience today” as my life goal.

3. We don’t like losing money.

We love making money. Seeing the number in our bank account go up brings us joy.

But when we retire, our spending is capped by our old assets.

Since we no longer have to make more money, how do we feed our brains, which LOVE achievements and progress?

By shifting the goal from making money to saving money!

I can’t believe people who used to run million-dollar businesses now spend their days collecting coupons and browsing e-commerce sites to save 50 cents.

Also, I’m on a “workation” in China right now, and Chinese apps are making saving 50 cents feel like winning the lottery. What’s happening in China will eventually happen everywhere. Think Temu and Shein.

That’s why I don’t buy into “retiring early.”

I know after I become financially free, I’d still want to make money and work on something.

And I know before I become financially free I can still live my dream life while making money.

These two phases aren’t that different after all, if we live everyday intentionally.

Then why set “retire early” as a goal and push myself to optimize my life around maximizing income?

Every optimization comes with a trade-off.

It can be relationship, heath, and life experiences.

For example, I’m taking my mom and grandma on a family trip right now. And honestly I have very little work bandwidth when I’m on family trip. But I will never regret having these trips.

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If you want a sneak peak into my “workation” in China. Here’s an unlisted silent vlog that you can only access from this Trillion’s Cafe’s newsletter.

Enjoy! Let’s see how many of you actually got here to find out about this 😉

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I don’t think my dream life starts only when my investments generate more income than my expenses.

I think my dream life starts the moment I intentionally live it—like right now, writing this email.

What do you want to experience today?

Best,
Aliena Cai

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Aliena Cai | Teaching UX Design at Fast Track UX 🚀

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Okay, I admit it. It was actually me 😅

I spent some serious amount of time saving $0.5 on a fruit cup the other day (here with Chinese apps) and actually felt proud of myself.

Then I realized I fall into the exact e-commerce design traps I warned my mom about, lol.