Radical retirement is giving up work as a drudgery taking up work as an excitement, writes TENSING RODRIGUES.
While trying to get rid of some of the stuff in my shelves, I stumbled upon an old copy of Reader’s Digest. Like meeting an old friend after many years, I was quite excited to browse through the fast yellowing pages of the book. And I came across this piece that caught my imagination. It was titled ‘Simplicity Regained’; it spoke of several people who had taken a radical decision to quit their jobs at the height of their career and… well, what they did thereafter differed.
But there was a common thread that ran through all those stories – they enjoyed their life thereafter. Take 42 year old Vicky Stikeman for instance. She was the vice president of a prominent Toronto advertising firm. She quit and simply let be with herself – thinking what kind of life she really wanted. She travelled for six months and then settled down as a self-employed advertising consultant.
Like sometimes it happens, as if things are pre-ordained for you, just a few days later I got a mail in my inbox from LinkedIn. It was a post by Jane Hirt, former managing editor/vice president at Chicago Tribune. She quit that job to
take, what she calls, ‘a career break’. Many of us contemplate something similar; still more would dream of something like that – to just be free like a bird. But very few manage to actually take that radical decision. For some it is just not possible.
As Hirt herself agrees that some, rather many, ‘have to work hard to barely scrape by’. They begin to make ends meet at a tender age, and have to continue that way till they are bent with age. But, I suppose, most of the readers of this paper would not fall in that category. A vast percentage of urban population that has been fortunate to find its daily bread in the organisedsector is today free from the bondage of lifelong labour. They have the option to exercise their choice to work or not to work at a certain point of their life; I mean to work or not to work to earn a livelihood.
No. This choice does not offer itself. We cannot expect to get up one bright morning and find a mail from someone out there which says ‘You need not go to work today; you are freed from bonded labour.’ Not, that will not happen. We have to prepare for that day and type that mail out ourselves; and prepare for it pretty early in our life. Probably at the very beginning of our career. Both because it takes time to make that happen – and a lot of hard work; and also because it is quite a tough move to make. So it requires both mental and material preparation.
Before I proceed any further, let me clarify one very important point. After we begin our ‘radical retirement’ – quit our jobs and… – we are not supposed to be ‘doing nothing’; we need to continue working. Because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop; and the devil does not let us live in peace. He makes our life more miserable than when we were racing against time in overcrowded locals day in and day out. Therefore we need to continue working. The only difference is that now we do what we enjoy doing, not what we need to do to keep the gas-stove burning. Radical retirement is giving up work as a drudgery taking up work as an excitement.
So that forms the basis of two alternate life plans. Both the plans begin the same way: we finish our education and take up some work to earn our livelihood. In plan A we work hard, look for promotions and salary hikes, or job shifts. We take to moonlighting if possible. We maximize our monthly take home packet. Out of that we try to acquire assets: a good house and the possible gadgets to fill it. As our take home increases or with a Diwali bonus and some consumer loan, we upgrade our ‘living standard’.
Soon we are looking for a bigger and posher house, a slicker sedan, etc., etc. That leaves us quite tired and worn out. So occasionally we go out to KFC, Mainland China or Nando’s or Rock Café; once in a while we down a good peg of JW Black Label. (Pardon me if I am getting the names wrong, not quite familiar with these.) We dream of a ‘cooler’ life, but not possible; we have to pump in that much fuel. One fine day we reach our goal: to the paradise via Jaslok.
Now the plan B. At the very outset we decide that we want to make the best of life. We decide that we will work and earn and spend in such a manner that at least by age 50 we will be able to set aside sufficient to take care of our needs thereafter. Not that we ignore our obligations to our family, particularly to our children; our ‘sufficiency’ plan includes all that. We do work hard, but not as hard as to require periodic ‘stimulants’ or ‘sedatives’. More than that we ensure that we enjoy our work, so that itself becomes our play.
The key to that lies in picking a job that maximizes our satisfaction rather than the CTC. If we have jobs that are exciting, we may not even need to retire at 50; even at 70 will do. Promotions, job shifts are not a taboo in plan B; but the motive for these is important. ‘Sufficiency’ is a double column account: we need to keep an eye on both income and expenditure. Say or instance a house: sufficient space, sufficient comfort, sufficient security, that’s all; the rest is superfluous; comparisons are obscene.
The same with gadgets; a clear picture with enjoyable sound is all that we need in a TV; what the neighbour feels about it is irrelevant. And so on. If we enjoy the job we go on. If not, and if our assets permit, we quit; and do what we enjoy. It need not be only painting or music; it can even be growing horse radish on the terrace or cooking food for some old people living alone or doing serious research in 3-lead ECG. That’s the Radical Retirement Plan. Interested?
