I love a good road trip. The way I define a good road trip is I am going somewhere I really want to be. I am excited about the destination but I don’t have an unrealistic timeline to get there. On the other hand. Taking to the road with a mindset that I have to frantically beat the travel, traffic, and distance odds to get there by a certain time is not a good road trip. Because anything that delays me or gets in the way of a tight arrival time leads to high frustration and stress.

You see I believe in enjoying the ride. Taking my time to see the sights and just relax into every turn of the highway. I have an idea of when I want to reach my destination. I even have hotel reservations along the way for those longer drives to get there. So there is no need to drive all day and night or to full fatigue and road weariness.

There is a PLAN but all within a reasonable timeline based on the reality of the distance. But I also planned for some sightseeing detours, some padded time for the surprises or the unexpected. All of which can be either good or bad, etc.

If only I had this same good road trip mindset on my journey to financial independence and my first early retirement. Maybe then my last few years of career number-one and my life back then would have been so much more enjoyable.

I am a patient freak. I did have a 10 year early retirement plan. The problem was I let the job drag me down in the final years. All of the corporate bull crap and ridiculous demands consumed me.

I should have just stayed focused on my plan and the parts of the job that I actually enjoyed.

I was fully engaged in my plan. But the plan was all about the financial aspects of the financial independence journey. You know. The saving and investing, budgeting and smart spending. It was obvious I needed the job to reach my financial goals. But with my focus on the destination I didn’t consciously plan for the pot-holes, flat tires, detours, construction cone-zones, encountered road-rages, and everything else the career highway can and will throw at me.

Maybe it is because I am older now. Maybe it’s that I was able to have an encore career where I followed my passions and interest. Maybe it’s my second early retirement that has made me wiser.

Now that I am in the final two months of my early retirement side hustle. I can see clearly where I went wrong before.

If I had kept a road trip mindset on my journey to financial independence and early retirement I would have:

Realistic Time-Frame –

Given myself enough time to get there. I did pretty well here. I had a 10 year early retirement plan. I can see if I had tried to cram all I needed to accomplish into a shorter than realistic time horizon how I would have been even more stressed and frustrated. There is a lot of financial ground that needs to be covered to get to the FI destination. In fact I was stressed when I decided I wasn’t ready to pull the plug-in my tenth year of my plan. I stayed another year.

I let a delay bum me out. That final year was less than enjoyable. I have only myself to blame.

Enjoy The Ride-

During the last few years of my first career my company was going downhill. There were constant layoffs, increased responsibilities and never-ending demands. That is exactly what I still think about first when recalling my career there. In that is the problem. I forgot to focus on what I liked about that career and job. I was still spending part of my time doing those things I enjoyed. But instead I let myself be consumed by everything that was wrong with what was happening.

Not every journey is going to be traffic free or without its obstacles. But there is always a lot of nice cruising to focus on. I should have concentrated on the parts of the job that I still enjoyed. Remembering that having a job is just as much a part of the FI journey and needed to reach my destination as all the financial plans that I made.

Plan Time to Sight See–

I knew I was going to live a “retire early and often” lifestyle where I would pursue opportunities of interest that were aligned with my passions. Although I poked around looking at areas I would target I was over-consumed by my current job. I planned on retiring first to decompress. Then start identifying my passions and the positions I would look at in detail.

A better plan would have been to take the time to identify these things and do in-depth looking around before leaving. Even if taking some time off was on the table. This knowledge would have helped cement in my mind my future direction. It would  have been adding something else to look forward to.

Split the Trip–

Once I reached that certain date to secure what was left of my pension benefit I should have considered splitting the journey. Split it by making a change to a new opportunity. One that was aligned with my passions before reaching full financial independence or early retirement readiness.  Even before meeting my pension eligibility date it would have been a good time to think about an internal company transfer to a different department and job. Instead of driving straight through a plan at the same company or job that was no longer enjoyable no matter how much I focused on the parts I did like. I should have made a move to something that could be.

This is the “Life is short” move. A job was still required to reach my destination. But if while sightseeing I found the perfect gig I could have decided to take it then and used it to finish my FI journey. I see where I could have tried harder to do this and at least saved myself the misery of year number eleven of my ten-year plan.

I certainly think much more highly of my encore career that I retired from because it was aligned with what I wanted to do and my passions.

Conclusion

Life is short. Do what you can to enjoy the ride by having a road trip mindset on your journey to financial independence and early retirement.

Are you enjoying your ride to Financial Independence?