It is a time of hardship for many. There’s so much misery of illness, death, unemployment, and people waiting in food pantry lines. Even for those who still have an opportunity to earn income there’s health worries and income insecurity. For some essential front line workers they’re overworked with little power to make things better for themselves. Then there are the deniers. Those who push for everyone to suck it up and get back to work regardless of safety. No wonder anyone who has been financially preparing for many years can still feel it’s callous to mention early retirement.

I struggle to find the right words to promote the worthy goal of early retirement without first considering whether it’s insensitive. But should we not mention it? There are things to be considered before bringing early retirement up during these trying times for those who are about to announce their retirement or those who are already happily in it.

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Could It Be Callous To Mention Early Retirement In Today’s World?

This pandemic’s selectively ravaged job market has done a number on many people through no fault of their own. Unfortunately, this world does its best to pick winners and losers. We can’t and won’t always win. Even the best will eventually suffer the sting of loss. We accept it, make corrections or changes to better our odds of winning the next round, and move on. Those who pitifully whine about it are avoided. Try whining about your previous job treatment or anything else at a new job interview and see how far you get. 

Nobody likes a sore loser. But the only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner. Early retirement is certainly winning. So yes, depending on how we handle things, it can be callous to mention early retirement.

Today’s trying times share hardship similarities to when I retired young in 2009. 

My company had been in constant cycles of laying people off even before the recession. But once the recession hit they took it to another level. I was FIRE ready in 2008 but stayed another year. I hoped to be selected for downsizing to secure the boost of a happy paid severance send off, but it never came. Many others who were dismissed were personally and financially devastated. 

When I decided it was finally time to leave, my mentioning early retirement was met with different reactions. Some congratulatory, some with envy, many said I was insane, and others I later heard were wishing me failure. I tried to handle the issue with sensitivity and I still couldn’t avoid negative reactions. But that doesn’t mean I was callous regarding my early retirement success during a time of hardship for many people. 

Pointers To Avoid Being Insensitive When Talking About Early Retirement 

Don’t Gloat- 

Early retirement is an accomplishment to celebrate, not boast about. Early retirees have to make financial decisions over a long period of time to reach the milestone. Other people make different financial decisions. There is no need to consider ourselves superior, it’s just that we had and have different values. Nobody enjoys having someone’s success rubbed in their faces. If asked, then simply share future plans as if everything is normal regardless of the economic and pandemic turmoil. There is nothing wrong with doing well and expressing optimism about the future. 

Keep Your Portfolio To Yourself –

I never earned enough to accumulate a million dollar portfolio even with my frugal living habits. My salary never hit six figures, but I still considered myself wealthy. It’s not what you make but what you keep that makes you wealthy. I knew that most of my peers likely didn’t get the big bucks either. Instead of mentioning my portfolio amount when the subject came up, I talked about my strategy to fund my lifestyle budget and how I structured things. Embrace the concept of stealth wealth and focus on the income bracket you will be happily living in. It would cross into callousness to stick your portfolio amount in other’s faces in this environment just as it would have when I retired during the recession. 

Be Honest – 

Nobody enjoys having smoke blown up their keister. I would honestly say that although I would miss some of my work and peers, not all of it would be missed and left it at that. Then I would say that although it may appear like I’m crazy and in a midlife crisis to some, I was looking forward to pursuing my interests and passions and that our paths may cross again. My retirement may include other paid opportunities that come my way. I made sure that it was understood that my early retirement was the result of years of plan execution that included financial discipline and some sacrifices to make it happen. Early retirement wasn’t easily won.

No Guilt Or At Least Don’t Show Signs Of It – 

Haters will look for any signs to latch onto to justify their hard feelings. Showing guilt because of these hard times will give them ammunition. Something that will certainly add to any success guilt you may already have. Focus on being successful because of setting aside your unprofitable dreams over many years, delaying gratification, and developing disciplined lifestyle habits that supported the financial responsibility to be able to retire now. 

Ditch Pride and Ego –

It could be callous to mention early retirement now while so many others are not doing well if we do so through pride and ego. Early retirement is winning the game big-time. It’s beyond reaching a special status. But there’s no call to go to the other’s locker room to scream that you won and they lost. Instead enjoy and celebrate your victory and start thinking about ways to improve things  for you and others where you can. 

If that doesn’t fully work for you, then just think that leaving your job means possibly creating a job opening, saving someone’s job, or providing an opportunity for someone else to advance that might not otherwise be there. That is certainly what I thought when humbly mentioning my early retirement during a bad economic time for so many. That and deciding to choose my words carefully to be more inspirational than controversial. 

Some final food for thought. In the end, after so many years have passed since I retired, it isn’t what anyone else thought about my retirement that matters. What matters is how I feel about the way I treated people in my early retirement victory. I think most people would find that to be true.