What No One Tells You About Early Retirement

Last year my net worth hit a level where I felt comfortable enough to actually stop working and be okay financially.

So by the end of last year, I said to myself, let me try out the whole Financial Independence, Retire Early thing.

That has been one of my main goals since 2015 when I quit my corporate job. At that time, I was trading about 12 hours of my day for a paycheck and felt like my life wasn’t really going anywhere.

I didn’t get any satisfaction out of my job, and I started reading books like The 4-Hour Work Week. I also learned about Mr. Money Mustache, who retired in his 30s and was living a frugal life.

Those ideas of having the freedom to do anything you want with your time appealed to me as a corporate warrior who felt boxed in. So I went for it.

Fast forward to 2025, and I’ve accomplished pretty much all the goals I set out for myself at that time. Granted, I thought I would hit those targets about 5 years earlier, but hey, we’re here.

What is financially comfortable

I don’t feel comfortable sharing exact numbers about my income and net worth because of a few reasons. Mainly because it’s not relevant. Money is situational.

What I mean is that the amount of money depends on where you live and how you live.

I live in a town called Leeuwarden in The Netherlands, where the cost of living is much lower than a place like Amsterdam. I own the apartment I live in with my wife, and I have a mortgage with 1.7% interest. I bought the condo for about the equivalent of $150K. It’s now worth at least 100K more.

And I’ve been paying off the mortgage since 2017. I don’t know exactly how much debt I have outstanding, but at 1.7%, I don’t care.

My passive income from my books, courses, and a rental property that I own is about $15K to $20K.

And I have seven figures in liquid assets (stocks and cash). I use about 30% of my assets to trade stocks. I’ve averaged about 30% annual returns since 2020, so that’s a decent amount of profit that I view as income, not as money for retirement. I haven’t spent that yet, and I’ve been using it to grow my net worth through investing in stocks.

All in all, I’m financially comfortable based on my lifestyle and where I live. My wife and I are planning to buy a large home this year. But even if that home will be a million bucks, I can sell some of my stocks and use it as a down payment and get a mortgage for 600K to 700K. At current interest rates, that’s about 3,500 bucks a month.

What about kids? We’re lucky we live in The Netherlands, where there’s pretty good government support when you get kids, nearly free education, and health insurance that’s not super expensive. So I’m not worried about that. And I have no issue with downgrading my own lifestyle in case we’re lucky enough to get kids.

I’m not going to stop working

Now, here’s my main takeaway about this early retirement thing.

I don’t like to have too much free time. I simply end up spending more money compared to when I’m working.

Over the past six months, I’ve traveled a lot, which obviously comes with costs. Plus, after a while of doing nothing, I get restless.

I don’t have that many hobbies. I’m also not a DIY guy or someone who likes to do chores around the house. I also can’t see myself surfing or golfing all day. I’m just not that type of guy.

My hobby is my work. Just saying that makes me realize how lucky I am.

For my entire adult life, I wanted to be free of “the shackles of society.” I wanted to break free from the 9 to 5. I wanted to “opt out” or “unsubscribe” from the whole rat race.

But here’s the thing: What are you going to do next when you opt out?

What comes after financial independence?

This is the point where it turns into a philosophical discussion. What are you going to do with your life once you’ve met your basic needs? The reality is that most people never really get to that point.

But we have to be honest. Whether you actually become financially free or not, you’re always in motion… figuring things out, doing new things, enjoying life, getting stronger, better, you name it.

In a way, not much changes when you have some money. Warren Buffett has this phrase that he often repeats, which goes something like this: You and me are the same. I just get to travel faster than you do. But that’s about it.

He’s referring to his private jet, which is pretty much the only true luxury that Buffett possesses. Other than that, he goes through the same motions every day.

You wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, do your work, eat lunch, etcetera, etcetera. Most of our lives are all the same.

The funny thing is that everyone wants to find out on their own. Just look at the number of people who are yearning to quit their job and travel the world.

The older I get, the more I believe that the purpose of life is to be useful. I’ve been looking at life that way for many years, but I also wanted to be financially comfortable. But having a bunch of money doesn’t really give any meaning.

When you spend the money, you might have nice things and experiences, but you get used to them. And the rush you get when you buy something new or do something new is never lasting. So you end up chasing the next hit.

But when you dedicate your life to making yourself useful to your community or society in general, you always have something to do. You will never be bored or restless.

What is balance?

What’s the right amount of work versus rest? I wish I had a straightforward answer, but the truth is that balancing is a continuous act.

This is why your career and money do matter. If you have a job that you hate and isn’t very accommodating when it comes to free time, you feel caged.

So it helps to work with people who understand that life isn’t only about work. Some careers, like investment banking, don’t allow for flexibility. But if that’s what you signed up for, you should pay the price.

Most of us want to have a level of freedom. You can also have that when you’re employed. The idea that you can only be free if you work for yourself or if you’re financially independent is not true.

Now, here’s the thing. Most people who want to have freedom and flexibility at work don’t take that freedom seriously. If you’re employed, you have to do your best at all times. I’ve met plenty of people who didn’t respect their jobs and bosses. That’s not a good attitude.

The right attitude is to always make yourself useful and try to do your job the best you can. Whether you’re employed or work for yourself doesn’t really matter as long as you’re properly compensated.

Never retiring

I’ve also played around with the idea of never stopping with work. To be honest, I think that’s what I want more than retiring, period. I can’t see myself just going through life doing a bunch of fun stuff. I love doing fun stuff after a period of work.

But rest without work isn’t satisfying.

And over the last few months, I took a lot of rest. Granted, I got married and traveled a bunch. But there were a lot of periods where I was just knocking about.

But I also did some work because I just couldn’t stop completely. I love my work too much, plus I have this drive to make myself useful.

I don’t want to stop working and writing. Since the past week, I’ve committed to a handful of new projects, and I’m planning to relaunch my weekly newsletter again.

So expect new content from me every Monday.