What are YOU waiting for?
Regular readers may have noticed that I have a tendency to overthink and overplan things.
Last year I came across a countdown app for iOS which allowed you to set various goals or events then showed how many days were left.
I liked it so much that when I switched to Android this year I looked for something similar. There are hundreds of these things though, and they are basically all the same 🙂
The point isn’t what the app looks like, or even what it does.
The benefit for me is thinking about goals and events, and being more aware of how far away they are.
The image above is from this morning.
We have a couple of really important weddings this month, and I’ll be taking some time off work so I can attend them.
I’ll turn 40 later in the year. Traditionally a big milestone, but I am going to ignore it in favour of my ‘half-life’ birthday at 44.
My current contract at my university is up at the end of next year. Figuring out whether I want to renew it is taking up a lot of brain cycles at the moment.
If I renew, I will get an extra three years that is not renewable. I can apply for tenure if I want to stay longer, but right now I can’t see many scenarios where that happens. Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong, my wife and I should be close to work-optional at that point.
While writing this post I realized I need to add a couple of things: a lecture I’m doing for a high school in a few weeks, and the RetireJapan iDeCo book (coming out at the end of August).
How about you? What are you counting down to?
You can get to work-optional even with a large mortgage? One of the things that puts me off the latter is the thought that it puts anything like early retirement completely out of the question, but am I thinking about this the wrong way? Also, which is your countdown app? The graphics look nice 🙂
Hi Ap21
Not sure about when we’ll get to work optional, but right now 4.5 years doesn’t look crazy. That includes my retirement bonus and us potentially selling my wife’s language school though 😉
I’m working with a range of potential outcomes too, from ‘getting by’ on 3 million a year, to ‘woo-hoo’ on 6 million+ in retirement.
We also have the option to do part-time/freelance work -I’ll probably continue doing presentions and seminars, writing stuff, and even private teaching. My wife is interested in a second career as a counsellor. The nice thing about all of that is that you can pretty much decide when you want to work -we definitely want some longer vacations in the future.
The app is here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.gira.widget.countdown&hl=en
Got it. I tend to be over-cautious with mortgages and inclination to thinking of them as the end of financial freedom, but they don’t need to be. And thanks!
Hi Ap21
A lot of the time they are 🙂
I’m also super-wary of debt, but I think in Japan if you can get a mortgage fixed at a low rate (currently 1%) and have the same amount invested in the stock market, you’re going to do okay in the long run.
Combined with the tax deduction during the first ten years of the loan, I think it makes more sense to borrow (although DragonAsh in the forum disagrees with me: see the full story here: http://www.retirejapan.info/forum.html#/20170521/mortgage-vs-paying-in-cash-5425164/page2/).
I am curious why you are considering not renewing your university gig? Even if you renew and you end up finding something better you can always quit. 3 years guaranteed salary is a lot to give up.
It is. That’s why I’m struggling with the decision.
It’s a great job. The conditions and benefits are excellent. I enjoy the work. It is a prestigious position. It keeps me active but not too busy.
Right now it is also a dead end. I am getting bored, and there seem to be few opportunities to do good work or grow. I find the culture very limiting.
All these complaints are only there because it is such a good job. If it weren’t I’d have something more substantial to complain about 😉
Basically I am getting close to the point where I don’t need a job. I would rather work on the odd freelance project when I want to, and not go into work every morning.
The difficulty is figuring out where the money stops being worth the time. As you say, doing an extra three years will provide us with that much more financial cushion.
The good thing is that I don’t really have to make a decision for another year and a half. I can run the numbers then and see how I feel. Perhaps I’ll be more positive about the experience. Or more determined to quit.
We’ll see. And I will undoubtedly write a blog post or two about the process!