If you are in your 40’s and yearning for a different life, here is a blueprint

For the exit you have dreamed about

Success is its own trap.

You could be fairly successful, and still want to try something wildly different.

Such fantasies live within almost all of us.

But for a 40 something years old, these fantasies are particularly intense.

You ask why ?

Why 40's

Because the decade of 40–50 is a very different kind of decade.

Its a decade where we are not young, so all the inexperience and green-ness has been converted into wisdom ….. and we aren't old either , so the intensity and curiosity of the youth still lurks.

Call to adventure

And this calls for adventure. A calibrated adventure. In our youth, the adventure was capped by the ability to spend, and the fear to experiment. The weight induced by the society, to be practical, productive, pragmatic.

But in 40’s those societal norms seem like an outdated script, that was just used to herd the population into not going off the rails….

But not really a recipe for our native creative brilliance to shine through.

And that's why, its intense in the 40s. The feeling of trying something. The pull of the experimentation. The willingness to explore what life could have been…. and might just be !

A 40 something scientist, who has worked for 15 years in the industry, wants to be a writer. A finance writer. Who has never written an article outside his narrow discipline, ever.

Possibility…

But such is the human condition. Humans want to feel possibility. Its native to their species.

The possibility feels exciting. humming. Life like. And the lack of possibility is the exact opposite. Mundane, quite, almost without life.

So we want to feel possibility. We want to feel the excitement it infuses. It feels life-like. It feels revitalizing.

Constraints

But… Alas… As sweet as this intersection of wisdom and energy sounds, Midlife also comes with something that might feel constraining at first sight : Responsibilities !! Kids, education, mortgage, car payments, and what not.

The problem with responsibilities is, its very hard to distinguish essential from nice-to-have. We think we need everything we have. We cant strip anything of that away.

But that's the anathema of re-invention. You don't meta-morph into someone else (scientist to a spiritual coach), while taking along all and everything that you had ever accumulated. The impulse to take everything is real. Indeed. But the necessity of it is virtually zero. Metamorphosis needs stripping first. And then some re-building sure. But stripping comes first. You have to strip away all that is non-essential. To gravitate towards the essence.

Untangling constraints

So even though constraints might feel limiting, and weigh on you heavily, understand this : Weighing those constraints, and stripping things that shouldn't go into your new identity, is like a necessary step to the new form you want life to take. These constraints are therefore, not a gatekeeper, but rather a ticket, that propels you into the new form. By measuring, brooding over, and stripping the non-essential you are checking-off all the pre-requisites of transformation.

So if you need to finally sell the house to access that equity, consider it. If you want to move from the place and setup a camp elsewhere to lower the cost of living, consider it. If you want to go from a high paying cushy job, to freelancing and running after gigs for a while, consider it. Consider everything. Or nearly everything, that might enable this transition.

What is mini-retirement ?

A mini-retirement is your pause… a hiatus on the highway of life. Where you pull over, regroup, re-evaluate, ask questions seek answers, and join back with a renewed focus. A focus on being your authentic self, and contributing to the world with your essence. Your native identity and persona.

This pause is essential. Because it allows you to reflect. Create space, where clarity can emerge. Slowly, but surely.

Here is where the I vehemently disagree with the side-hustle crowd. The proponents of which state that you need to be building something on the side, and grow it up until the new business can carry you. This might be ok for a 25 years old, or even a 30 years old. Who are working up their roles in the hierarchy, not burdened by the time cost of raising a family, and not having to take care of kids and aging parents. This is mostly not workable for a 40 something old, who has all kinds of engagements asking for his attention. But the 40 years have something, that the younger ones don't : Capital to rely on for a while. Capital to enable that pause. And this is where mini-retirement comes in. A time for re-invention and re-creation where you can almost act as if retired. And if you have enough of a pause, a new identity can emerge.

The Big Question (s)

The big question in retirement is finances, which is always talked about. The retirement is supposed to be a time of leisure and entertainment. And ofcourse some people would want a higher purpose to aspire to. But in mini-retirement, this is not primarily about finances. Finances still occupy a very strong position, but mini-retirement fundamentally asks two questions:

1. What form do you want to take in this new life
2. What time do you have to adopt this identity

The first question is a question of your inner child. What does it want to pursue. Now notice that this thing doesn't have to come out fully formed before you embark on this journey. Absolutely not. The answer to the question itself can evolve over time. That's why its a blue print. You have a somewhat vague idea of where you want to be headed. The path will become clear, and the road will emerge ahead, once you embark on it. So take note. Its not an answer set in stone, and carved all the way. Discovering and sculpting that answer is also part of the journey.

The second question is the question of resource. How long do you have to experiment with the new identity, form a sustainable path from it, and be able to generate income to support. The answer here is nuanced too. If you have 300K saved, and you can trim some expenses, to bring cost of living down to 4K a month, you can put the portfolio in a market based fund, and hope to sustain yourself for 10 years ! Here is the math.

A 300K portfolio analysis for mini-retirement

Of course its subject to sequence of returns risk, market meltdown, etc etc, all the usual financial caveats, but make a note of this : So is everything else. In a rapidly advancing world, everything is subject to everything. Your current job too. Your future job as well. So the market risk is the risk of existing in the world. Would you not rather take that risk ?

If you have more than half million saved, yet not quite to the retirement portfolio of 1.5–2 million, the math still becomes better. Here is a meltdown of a 600K portfolio. Notice what happens

A 600K portfolio analysis for mini-retirement

Something a bit striking. The portfolio does not meltdown. With the assumption of a 10% return, the portfolio is actually, slowly, climbing up ! Again, its subject to market risks, not all years will yield 10%, sequence of returns risk can damage the portfolio, etc etc, all the usual financial caveats, but here is the key point : You are not retiring, like retiring retiring. You are retiring to re-invent. So you are building some kind of internal capital. A capital which is a form of security, compounding alongside this portfolio. So while the portfolio might take a hit due to market changes, your internal self is continuously compounding and mitigating that risk. That's something that traditional finance and analysis can almost never take into account, by definition. They cant see, whats not here yet…. but will surely be.

Call to adventure

So mini-retirement is the blue print I wanted to give here. Just enough money, to make the plunge, and sustain for a couple of years. Years of exploration, invention, and re-invention. And believing in ourselves enough, to say we will figure it out. The blueprint might sound tenuous. And for some people it might be. But for those, who the discomfort of staying in a ‘stable’ profession, exceeds the risk of going out there and trying a few things, this is a very viable path.