A new article on Yahoo Finance today caught my attention. It was about Millennial Retirement Planning that I couldn’t agree with more. But why limit this to a Millennial generation issue? As a Leisure Freak in the tail end of the Boomer generation, I have had the same mindset for many years. I know of others in my age group that are also fully on par with the Millennial mindset. A mindset that was so well written about.

The article says that the Millennial generation sees retirement totally different than their parents did. Why slog away at a job until age 65 before being able to retire and do what you want to do. Why not do that now? This is exactly my Leisure Freak retire early and often mindset. What I like most about this article is people redefining retirement and work. I grow tired of all the cliché retirement definitions being pushed on society as the norm.

Employee or Self Employed

The article discusses how the Millennial generation sees themselves working forever. Not in despair but because they will be doing something that they can be passionate about. The story was offered of Michael Solari who loved financial planning. After getting laid off from a corporate job he started his own financial planning firm. He doesn’t see himself ever retiring as long as he is capable of continuing. He still advises saving and investing. But he has created a lifestyle that allows for the flexibility to get the work life balance that is perfect for him.

As far as I am concerned. When doing something you love to do. Doing what you can be passionate about. Doing something that offers you the freedom of a balanced lifestyle. That is what I would define as a type of retirement. You are doing exactly what you want to do. That is exactly why I felt I was still living a retired life when I took on a high paying job that I was very interested in and passionate about learning. I may call myself in retirement number 2 since leaving that gig. But it is all part of my Leisure Freak early retirement adventure.

Extreme Early Retirement

The article provides information about Jacob Lund Fisker. Creator of the EarlyRetirementExtreme website. It detailed how his super frugal lifestyle allowed him to save a large portfolio. One that generates enough income for him to live a retired life in his 30s. Jacob even says you must be willing to be weird, frugally wise that is. I admit that his level of frugality is more than I would be willing to live by. But it works for him. I have to assume he has many followers who would agree with it.

This is where I say I have lived and still live a smart frugal and balanced life. I cut out everything that wasn’t important to our happiness. The trick is not feeling like we are living a deprived life. However everyone’s frugality threshold is different. I am sure Jacob’s threshold is much different from mine. But his extreme frugality allowed him to retire far earlier than I.

Partial Retirement

Partial retirement is covered and defined as a little difficult to pull off. That’s because you have one foot as working forever and the other as retired early. Basically balancing working less to meet the bills and still living your lifestyle through budgeting. There are two people offered as examples. One works about half the year and takes the other off to pursue his passions. The other splits her time between her two passions, writing and acting. They both love what they do and the freedom it provides.

This is close to my “retire early and often” lifestyle. Other than with me my retirement is funded and anything I pursue is gravy. The point I want to make here is that by changing the way we look at work and retirement. Where we can be in “our zone” doing what we are passionate about, both retirement and work can coincide within the same space.

Concludes with the Bottom Line

In conclusion the article quotes David Bradley. A 23-year-old self-employed Millennial who says ““The retirement experience should be lived throughout life”.  It continues with some great insight and ends with him saying “So why not start now if we can?”.

This is a great article by Amy Fontinelle, Investopedia.com titled: Retirement Planning The Millennial Way. You can read it on the Investopedia Site or at Yahoo Finance. Note: The Yahoo site will have mixed reviews in the comment section which any early retirement article strangely brings out the critics and haters.

My conclusion about Millennial Retirement Planning and how the Millennial generation are redefining retirement is that I would like to say that this isn’t limited to a single generation and shouldn’t be. People of all ages and generations would benefit from changing the way they view work and retirement.

Do you think this new retirement mindset has legs or will it pass with only minor participation?