A real life-story of a guy who dared to ‘Retire’ early !!!

At the age of 48, I was fully convinced that my slogging for 24 years in the corporate world had generated enough wealth to secure my family and me for the rest of our lives. Hence, in 2020, I happily decided to say goodbye to the corporate world to experience the 'Real Luxuries of Life.'

It couldn't have been possible to accumulate the necessary capital reserve within such a short span without meticulous financial planning & above all the wholehearted support from my immediate family (that is, my better half & my daughter).

However, in the beginning I was in two minds about my thought. So I decided to discuss the idea with my better half and my daughter for their opinion. Our daughter was 19 years old then and was pursuing her bachelor’s degree in ‘Business Administration’.

I was quite aware of the fact that any wrong decision of mine at that stage could destabilize our comfortable lives. So, I chose to do a thorough future financial analysis keeping in mind my capital reserves. I was confident that such a study would help me in building the platform on which my thought will stand strong. Moreover, I also prepared my future actions and drafted the road map ahead for all of us with great clarity.

Once I was ready with the end-to-end blueprint, I prepared a comprehensive presentation covering; our current net-worth created till that point of time, the month-on-month cash inflow post my exit from working life, which will support all kinds of basic & essential household expenditures, exigency fund, health protection plan, daughter’s supplementary education fund, my future projection towards multiplying the wealth in coming years and so on and so forth. To my utter surprise, none of them were interested in my presentation to know how much liquid & fixed assets we own. Rather they were very cool, happy & supportive of my thought. This gave me immense confidence to convince my mind and heart that my thought process is on the right direction. So, I decided to go ahead!

However, my parents & my in-laws were not at all happy hearing my decision then. They were very much apprehensive about my choice of untimely retirement. They got confused about our month-on-month cash inflow, got worried about our holding on to the standard of living and our future.

Such anxieties are very common for all caring parents, as they always desire to see their child continue to work till retirement age. None of them have heard or seen anyone retiring at such an early age. So, they always believed that slogging till 58 years is essential to accumulate the right corpus for managing a post retired life. Similar thoughts were also there in the minds of other sets of known people as well.

The trend of an early retirement has never been popular in India, and hence I could not find any real-life story, which could have guided me then to draw a reference. So, I decided to plan all by myself, using knowledge and common sense. Few people who are close to me have been a witness to the entire process of my planning.

My Career path: Let me briefly take you through my falling down – getting up – and winning!

Most important phase of Life!

24 years of my corporate working-life has never been smooth. There was a time when I went into a deep depression due to mental stress caused out of excessive workload, pressure of responsibilities that are sometimes overwhelming, corporate politics, worries about unknown situations which may or may not happen, unrealistic expectations from my life, competition of increasing the standard of living and so on.

We all go through tough times!

Not many people know that I had to take an external help to stabilize my mental health, but it did not work. So, I decided and chose to fight back with my own mental condition and help myself to come out of the mess. The process took me quite some time, but all this while, my willingness was so strong, to come out of the ‘self-created depression’ that it actually worked. I got transformed completely to become a different human being. One very important life lesson which I have learnt during this phase, was that "no one can help you if you are not ready to help yourself." Today this has become one of my strongest mental strength, and hence I often try to help people with similar mental health conditions, so that they can come out of it. By now, I fairly have mastered the art of ‘mental health engineering’ and have taken out quite a few young and old people from such disorders. Anyway, coming back to my work-life struggle, sometimes I even was exploited by people/organization to achieve unrealistic sales targets as they knew that I would go all out, being a sole bread earner, take immense pressure and deliver just to hold on to my job. And I did deliver every time. I also encountered recession where layoffs & pay cuts were common practices, and the list of struggles is endless. In the process, I have learnt, that the ‘fear of failure’ often holds you back and makes your dream look impossible to achieve. But trust me, the more you fail the more you are close to achieving your dreams. Coming out of every failure teaches you a lesson and each lesson makes you stronger, confident and fearless. Today, when I recall those days, I feel so proud to have steered those disrupting storms carefully, with great maturity and patience to come out as a winner. Coming to Ambition: Yes, I was always very ambitious with realistic dreams in my eyes and committed to have a successful job career and a good life. Hence strived very hard to grow faster in achieving multiple things which will ultimately help me to increase my materialistic possessions and stand in front of the world with my head held high.

Today, I can humbly say that with the grace of God and support of my family, I could achieve my goals; be it rising up the corporate ladder and earning a fat salary or reaching up to the top position, be it owning number of properties or number of cars of different types, be it accumulating decent cash balance or holding on to other different asset class, be it visiting multiple foreign countries or giving the best lifestyle to my family and so on. But during this whole process, I was conscious that at one point of time, if I don’t shift my focus from running behind ‘growth-growth & growth’, I will land up in a mess wherein all my achievements would have no meaning. I realized that there are many other good things which are equally important in life. So, my first strong decision was to put my family life at the top priority and start working on adjusting myself accordingly.

To have a work-life balance, I modified my working style, where instead of just running behind having a Successful Job Career I also wanted to have a Good Life.

I happily chose my road!

Reality: Like everything in this world has to come to an end one day, ‘service-life’ is no different. It also comes with an expiry date, but in my case, I chose to ‘call it off’ according to my wish in 2020. I've always believed in working smart and planning effectively to retire young and wealthy, rather than working until traditional retirement age.

My intention was never to hold onto my position solely for the shake of making more money and continue serving others to build their businesses. Instead, I aimed to create opportunities for new employment by stepping down when I am done, and I did exactly that!

All throughout my service tenure, I encountered many failures than success. Perhaps those were my steppingstones to jump up higher in life. I was quick enough to learn out of such challenging situations and never repeated similar mistake again.

Every so often I was tested by God with unique difficult situations that knocked me down. But every time I went down, I never gave up, rather bounced back harder and stronger to face yet another challenge. All such adverse situations made me so strong that after a time I was unstoppable and went on and on to accomplish one milestone after another for my organizations and myself. I have created a benchmark which will be hard to match. My corporate journey ended “happily and with many unforgettable memories”.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam once said "Life is very similar to a boxing ring. Defeat is not declared, when you fall down. It is declared, when you refuse to rise up". This one quotation not only inspired me but has changed my life to a great extent. It taught me to face challenges with different attitude. The journey of life is a combination of many interlinked chapters, wherein each chapter continue to build the foundation for the following one. For me retirement is the end of yet another chapter in my life, that has paved the path for experiencing the sweetest journey forward. I am ready with my next set of goals and dreams in my eyes. I was fortunate enough to have worked with so many talented people all throughout my career and have learnt numerous lessons from them. Must acknowledge: The story of my career would have been incomplete without mentioning about the sacrifice made by my life partner. I always considered myself lucky to have a life partner who always believed in me and inspired me to outshine in life. It is not easy to let go one’s own career (in spite of holding master's degree & other professional degrees), just to take complete charge of our home & bring-up our daughter during her formative years.

I always knew that "Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing", but this was not applicable in my case. I was very clear in my mind, acquired adequate knowledge on the fields of my future engagements, invested time to observe the outcome & then moved step by step.

Changeover: For me the transition was very smooth as I was done with sufficient accumulation of capital with zero liability in the market, which can sustain me & my family’s expenditures for lifetime, without disturbing our desired standard of living going forward. Moreover, I was also ready with my ‘Post Retirement Goal Settings’, ‘Sources of Passive Income’ and ‘Future Investment Strategies to grow my Wealth.’ My Area of interest: ‘Financial Research and Data Analytics’ have always been my area of huge interest, but never got the time to explore due to my job commitments.

After two and a half years of extensive study and practice, I can confidently say that I am ready with the ‘right portfolio mix’ that can give me optimal returns. The ‘portfolio mix’ varies from person to person, as it is built, based on several factors including one’s ‘risk appetite’. The formula of adjusting & balancing of investments during market fall or crash is known to me now and so, I can keep my investments protected. There are no such set rules in the market, which if followed will give you a guaranteed growth. Hence, I keep investing lot of time to learn the probable tactics to handle adverse market conditions. Trust me, it is so engaging, exciting and interesting that I sometimes forget about time. Moreover, one always has to keep a close eye on the changes in the market, the time-to-time amendments done to the policies, the changes in geopolitical environment, market insights and so on. Accordingly, one needs to keep ‘reshuffling their portfolios’ (if needed) to get the best outcome. This passion of mine got me introduced to a different community altogether.

My definition of financial freedom post-retirement was very simple: it is the ability to live the lifestyle I desire without having to work or rely on anyone else for money. Sense of satisfaction: When I look back and try to find out what all things that I did was right which helped me in taking such a complex decision so easily and create a path for others to think. Few key points which came out were.

Sense of great satisfaction !

• Never fallen into the trap of “Lifestyle Inflation”.

• Always was cautious about my spending, as I always believed in the phrase- ‘cut your coat according to your cloth’.

• Used my ‘credit cards’ just to take the advantage of the interest free credit period & not to inflate my purchases.

• Always evaluated the 'per unit utility cost' of all my big purchases, like- properties, vehicles etc.

• Never got into a competitive mode with others.

• Never had the habit of impulsive buying.

• Maintained a discipline towards Investments since an early age.

• Always kept squaring off my liabilities from my ‘annual incentive’ pay-outs.

• Happily, square-off all my liabilities by the age of 48 years before exiting my job.

• Never been a victim of personal loan or any other meaningless borrowings.

• Always judged my capacity and repaying capabilities before overshooting my ‘lifestyle’.

• Taking right decision at the right time is an art to success, which only comes after many wrong decisions. In my case I learnt it very quickly.

• Always invested time on ‘Health-Wealth-Knowledge’

• Went on adding value wherever I was (i.e., the organizations I worked with), whatever I did (i.e. justice to the given job role) and whoever I am with (i.e., it may be clients / partners / family members / colleagues / friends / subordinates and so on).

• Never took any shortcuts to succeed but was very tactical in making my moves.

• Always selected growing organizations to work with and never wanted to be a small fish in an ocean.

• Never got carried away with recognitions, positions or money rather went on to hold firmly on the values of life learnt from my parents – ethics, humanity, loyalty, honesty, compassion, kindness, integrity, selflessness etcetera.

• The conscious decision towards ‘family planning’. It might sound funny, but I am sure that by now some people (if not many) have come to realize the importance of such a decision. I got married at the age of 26, and our daughter came to our world in 2001, when I was 29 years.

Today both the set of my parents are very happy to see my smooth transition & quick adaptation of my new role as a young & happy retired guy. The day I decided to move out of the "bondage zone" to experience the "freedom zone" nothing changed, except one most important thing - my string was no more in the hands of my employer, who used to decide my fate, my mental state through their actions and demands (sometimes joyful or stressed), my remuneration, my promotions, my appraisals, my annual leave and so on and so forth. In short, it's all my way now!!!

Living Life on my terms!

After my retirement I made a choice to get involved in all those engagements which kept me busy, gave me mental peace, made me joyful & happy; be it spending time with myself or with my core family, or be it dropping my better-half to school or prepare presentation for my daughter’s appraisal / review meetings / board meetings or be it going out on a long road trips, watching movies/series in the OTT platforms or practicing meditation, visiting both set of my elderly parents or volunteering various social or spiritual events and likewise. In short, to enjoy the freedom of doing all those things which I always wanted to do but never got the time and chance to do.

I feel blesses!

The real ‘peace of mind’ comes from my association with two renowned and internationally famous NGOs – one works towards managing stress with the help of various techniques of ‘mental health engineering / meditation’ and the other is into ‘The Welfare of Senior Citizens’. We all know that happiness can never be measured by anyone else except your own heart, soul & mind – so I always keep working on it secretly. Curiosity: The two most repetitive curious questions which I still come across from friends & distance family members are.

1/ "What am I doing these days?" - On hearing that "I am enjoying & living my life", they seem to become more curious to know how is it getting funded without a job or business? & So comes their following question. 2/ "How am I spending my free time?" - Most of the people in this world seem to believe that if you are not into any service or business then you have all the free time. But no, it is completely a wrong assumption. You will always find some people who will be on a denial mode in accepting the fact that there can be lot many other exciting engagements which can keep you busy, happy, joyful and at peace (post a successful career), other than only continue to earn money from service or business. Such people often are rigid in accepting the concept of an early retirement, as they have not planned well & so can’t even think of leaving their jobs ever before 58 years. Realization: If you think deep, you will often find that we all keep running behind "increasing our lifestyle – i.e., increasing the standard of living”, but while doing so we forget to invest time on things which can “increase our standard of good life – i.e., happiness, joy, peace of mind”. The day I realized; I started working on it to give it a shape.

I could manage to strike a balance!

Believe me there is no end of making 'a little more money', but while doing so you keep inviting stress, anxiety, depression, loose mental peace, time & energy etcetera. I quote Mahatma Gandhi, “There is enough in this world for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed”. One of my key strengths has always been to have a complete control over my greed, and so I could easily step aside from the race and gave up on the extra bit of money making, to take a different path which will keep me relaxed, energetic and allow me to live life on my terms. Self-discovery: We all are born with different qualities, capabilities & planning capacities. If one can judge their own inner strengths/abilities, then it becomes easier for them to align their dreams & goals accordingly to achieve them faster.

Present time: All of us (my core family) are independent individuals, working towards a common goal of “increasing the standard of the quality of our lives”. My daughter is a grownup corporate lady with dreams in her eyes, my better half is an educator involved in imparting the basic foundation of knowledge to children and, shaping them to become global leaders of tomorrow. She took up her dream job once our daughter started going to middle school and was ready to manage herself. My role in this team is to keep both of them protected, secured and joyful, which I am doing with due diligence for last three years. Our world is undergoing radical, disruptive changes at an accelerating speed. Innovation, digitalization, and technological progress fundamentally transform whole industries, reshape consumer demands, and challenge conventional business logics. It is now the time for the Millennials, Gen Z & Gen Alpha to steer the growth of our economy.

Responsibility: I have taken up the job of mentoring my daughter (belonging to Gen Z) so that she can maintain a balance with the pace of the changing times. Aid her with the techniques that can keep her mentally strong, relaxed and support her in overcoming workload stress. Continue to motivate and inspire her to be ambitious, open to accept failures and criticisms, work hard and smart but be calculative, set realistic dreams and work towards achieving those within a set time frame, maintain discipline in investments and plan well to retire early.

While concluding my storytelling, I can proudly say that my hard work and actions helped me in building money, my behaviour helped me in retaining the money and my knowledge and common sense helped me in growing the money.

If you find this interesting, keep an eye out for my follow-up blogs on the processes adopted for financial planning and the strategies that helped me accumulate wealth and eliminate liabilities quickly and easily. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, for taking out time and going through my memoir. Kaushik Sarkar, Mail id: tokaushiksarkar@gmail.com. Disclaimer: This article is a memoir. It reflects my present recollections of experiences over times. Few images were sourced from Google (free downloads).