Work is Better When You Don’t Need the Money

I discovered Pete Adney because Tim Ferriss interviewed him in a podcast. Up until that point, MrMoneyMoustache was an unknown character to me. I, recently, began consuming his content cause I’m thinking about retiring early.

His blog focuses on personal finance and how to retire early. I don’t need any advice with regards to handling my finances. I need to write my own discovery on how I figured this out back in 2013 with the help of YNAB. The one I’m interested with is retiring early — that one I haven’t figured out.

Pete Adney together with his wife wanted to retire early in their careers. They were both working in software development and were taking home 135k USD per year. By the end of ten years they were able to save up 600k USD and a 200k USD home paid up in full.

From the get-go they were clear about 600k and 10 years. That was enough for them for live the rest of their lives. His coworkers were asking him if he was taking a break or having a vacation. They couldn’t believe that he didn’t need to work forever. They did tease him about returning once he blows up his savings. That didn’t happen.

Here’s how it works, Money Moustache says you need to be clear on how much is your yearly expense. Divide that number by 4% and it will yield the magic number you need. For Pete, he needed 24k USD per year and that equals to 600k. They have one kid. This will differ in relation to where you live, how many you are in the family and your lifestyle.

There are two way to go about this — it’s either you trim down your yearly expense or reach for a higher number. I would suggest to go with the former — embrace a minimalist lifestyle.

I watched a presentation he made for World Domination Summit on How to be Rich and Save the World. One of his points resonated with me:

Work is better when you don’t need the money.

After retiring he didn’t sit on the couch the whole day and watched TV. He did go on to build a carpentry and construction business that he was passionate about. He wasn’t doing it for the money but he says that he loves working manual labor. He built his own man cave that would cater to all his hobbies — playing the drums and having his own workstation.

After our wedding, me and my wife planned on uprooting everything we had in the Philippines. We moved here in Ubud to get a hard reset. We were trying out mini-retirement, coined by Tim Ferriss.

The alternative to binge travel — the mini-retirement — entails relocating to one place for one to six months before going home or moving to another locale. It is the anti-vacation in the most positive sense. Though it can be relaxing, the mini-retirement is not an escape from your life but a reexamination of it — the creation of a blank slate.

The idea of not going to work was a dream for me. No more alarms in the morning, no need to be in the office and have deadlines. I was dreaming about watching TV all day and eating ice cream in bed.

I did for a couple of days and I was happy about it. But it didn’t last very long.

After a week of watching and laying in bed, I was sick. I was having headaches and I was getting fat. Add to the fact that I wasn’t shaving. That week added five years in my life.

Then I started itching to create. I wanted to write, speak in public and make films. So that’s what I did. I vowed to write everyday, attend ToastMasters and collaborate with brands and establishments here in Ubud. I also got into running.

Two months in, now I can’t find the time to sit down and watch movies or read books.

And I wake up at 5AM. It’s been years since I last woke up like that. I watch the sunrise everyday.

Writing, public speaking and making films — I’m not doing them to make money. I’m not a young naive boy who thinks money is bad. Yes I do want to make money from it. But I’m not driven by the idea of money. I do it because I love the craft and I want to help other people.

My work now is definitely better now that I don’t need the money.

We have enough money to live for months even though we don’t have a consistent monthly paycheck right now. It will run out eventually but it’s buying us time to experiment and find what it is we want to do with our lives.

I used to dread going to work. I watch and read during work hours. I know it’s preposterous to admit that, but don’t we all? I would always be on the lookout for 5pm to hit and be out in the office first.

I had this conversation with my wife the other night. I told her that a shift has happened within me — I want more hours for work. I can’t get enough. I have so much to learn but so little time.

I now understand business owners like my dad, uncles and aunts. They would be spending so much time working and it always puzzled me on why they would like to do that. It is different when you have ownership in what it is you’re doing. When you love your job. I know this sounds cliche.

I used to get irritated with the concept of overtime. But now I’m happy to have one extra day to work. My week starts on Sundays. I’m squeezing every bit of time that I can get to learn skills that I want to be good at.

Back then I wanted to escape work, now I want to escape reality to shove in more work.

I am not telling people to quit their jobs on a whim and start doing what they love. That was not our intent when we got here. What we intended to do was rest and relax. We went the other way.

Retirement doesn’t mean quitting a job and not having to work another day. Retirement for me is about having financial freedom and doing whatever it is that we want. Work is not supposed to be done just for the money. I do agree that at a point in our lives we do need to work for the money. But it doesn’t need to be forever.

I am reading Elon Musk’s biography before I go to sleep at night. At the age of 31, Elon cashed out 165 million USD when Paypal was bought by Ebay. Elon had enough money to live multiple lifetimes. He could’ve spent that money buying a home in every continent, be in bed all day and eat ice cream. But he didn’t. He invested that money onto building SolarCity, SpaceX and Tesla.

I’m far in comparison with Pete or Elon but I want to embrace their first principles.

Retire early, stop working for money’s sake and make meaningful work.

Work is better when you don’t need the money.

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