Just over 6 months ago I handed in my badge and embarked on a new adventure with the Snook: early retirement. I really wasn’t sure how it was going to go. Would I get bored without a 9-5 job? Would Rodd and I get sick of spending all our time together? Was our planned budget unrealistic, and we’d have to become penny-pinching misers?

I’m happy to report that the answer to all those questions was a resounding NO.

Finances

Our gross income has dropped considerably without my salary, and it’s down about 75% on what we earned in the first half of the year. That was pretty scary for me at first, and we had regular sessions to review our budget and so Rodd could show me that we were still on track. We earned the bulk of our income through dividends on our stock portfolio, as well as returns from a few other investments we have. (Wages consists solely of Rodd’s tour guide income, as I promised myself not to even consider getting a job for six months.) Here’s a Sankey diagram that Rodd created showing our sources of income and what we spent it on.

The spending breakdown* is accurate, thanks to our tracking in You Need a Budget, but there are a few things that aren’t in there yet that are billed annually in the first half of the year (like Home & Contents insurance, for example). It also doesn’t include anything related to our renovation, as most of those costs came in the first half of the year. There are also still some tax issues we are sorting out from our time in Munich with tax agencies in the US, Australia, and Germany (😭), but hopefully that should all be resolved in 2025 and our tax situation will get way simpler. I’d also like to double the charitable donations in 2025. But even with those adjustments, we’re still pretty confident that we’re living well within our planned budget.

Overall, if you take these 6 months of outgoings (taxes + spending), multiply it by 2 (so 12 months rather than 6), and divide it by our current portfolio (savings + investments), we had an effective drawdown rate of 1.8%. That’s well within the 4% rule target, which is great as we’re ideally aiming for it to last more than 30 years.

And numbers are fine, but how does it feel? I said to Rodd yesterday: I don’t feel like I’ve been depriving myself of anything. We moved back into the house; we had a European holiday (granted, the long flights were paid with FF miles!); we went to some great shows and concerts; and we were able to absorb unexpected costs like a new fridge. If anything, our latest budget review showed us that there’s room for us to spend more without feeling too guilty. We’ve been able to give some generous gifts to support others and I’m looking forward to doing more of that.

* This is the point when I acknowledge again the huge amount of privilege involved here. Between us we had 40+ years in the tech industry, 16 of those at FAANG companies. Our mortgage is fully offset, and we’ve paid off our college loans. Neither of us is dealing with chronic illnesses or disabilities. We don’t have kids. We live in a city where we don’t need to own a car, and in a country with a functioning public healthcare system. We aren’t in immediate danger of our house burning down. 😢  We know how lucky we are, and we aren’t going to take any of it for granted.

Personal projects

When I quit my job, there were several people who expressed confusion over what I’d do with my time. Beyond moving and setting up house, I had a lot keeping me busy. Some highlights:

• I designed, built, and organised my dream craft room and office.
• I finished off a number of knitting and mending projects, and I did a heap of sewing. I made myself two new shirts, as well as placemats and two sets of cushions for the house.
• I cut up my AWS dresses and shirts and turned them into 14 bucket hats, which I raffled off to support dementia-related charities. All in all, I raised over $2400 for dementia support and research.
• I gave talks on financial independence as well as AI and creativity, and I attended a couple tech conferences as well.
• I revamped this blog and have been making regular updates to both it and RoaldDahlFans.
• I got a library card and I’ve actually managed to read a few books! We’ve also attended several library talks and events. I’ve also gotten back into video gaming and even managed to finish a few games.
• I’ve been to more concerts, plays, movies, and festivals in the last 6 months than I have in the previous two years combined.
• I’ve caught up with a lot of old colleagues and friends, for coffee chats, boozy lunches, and dinners that I wouldn’t have had the energy to do while I was working full-time.

Missed opportunities: I’d hoped to have focused more on my health, namely building strength and riding my bike. Unfortunately I badly injured my hip during the move back at the end of August, and it’s taken me several months of rest as well as physio sessions to start to recover. It also meant I had to pull out of some scheduled volunteering.

Looking forward

Now that I’m finally on the mend and our renovation project is nearing completion, my big personal focus areas in 2025 will be on physical health and giving back. I’d like to start lifting weights and putting some kilometres on my bike, and maybe lose some weight if I can. (I keep trying to justify to myself putting Ozempic in the budget, but I’m not quite there yet. 😂) In addition to increasing our charitable donations, I’d also like to do more volunteering in the community. I’ve already started strong with volunteering for the Sydney Festival, and I’m looking to do more. I’m also open to mentoring chats (whether in-person in Sydney or via videoconference) if folks are interested and want to reach out.

Beyond that, Rodd has bought us a couple Discovery Passes for rail travel and we are planning to visit more of regional Australia. First up will be trips to Mittagong and Canberra!

I’ve had a few folks reach out with job opportunities and I’ve had some ideas for part-time jobs for myself, but there’s no pressure and I haven’t made any serious steps in that direction yet. This has been the most surprising thing for me: I really don’t miss work. I miss the people, of course, but not the stress or the travel or the busy-ness. I like being in charge of my day, and organising my schedule around our lives. I like spending time with Rodd, and with my friends and family. I’m not bored, and I’m not looking for a job to give my life meaning at this point.

Things are good. 🩷