24. THE HAPPINESS OF PURSUIT

 

24.  THE HAPPINESS OF PURSUIT

 

“Bringing happiness and meaning into your life by undertaking a quest” -- Chris Guillebeau

Yes, happiness is what you shall be aiming for throughout your lifetime. It's more so after your early retirement. When you have financial and time freedom, you need to look for something to do that makes you happy. 

Do you know what you want to do if you retire one day?

The question is: have you figured out what you want to do that makes you happy after early retirement? 

Perhaps previously you used to spend forty to sixty hours a week in office. After a day's hard work in office dealing with demanding bosses, uncooperative colleagues, unsatisfied customers, and below-average subordinates, you just wanted to rest. By the time you reached home, you were so tired that what you could do was to have dinner then sit down at sofa watching television to relax. You didn't feel like doing anything else. 

You haven't really had time to think about what are the things that make you happy in life. Just because you haven't figured out what makes you happy in life and you are clueless what you want to do in life after retirement, you decide to stick on to your job until you reach 60 or even 70. 

If you haven't figured out what makes you happy in life and what you want to do yet, you shall retire even earlier and take charge of your own life. When you retire, you have more time to think about it and plan for it. 

I remember one day after my early retirement, I had a dinner with my ex-colleagues at majestic revolving restaurant atop Kuala Lumpur Tower. 

One of the country managers asked me, "Vincent! You are still so young! Why do you retire so early! What a waste of your talent and experience!" 

Another ex-colleague asked, "I understand that you decided to retire early so that you could spend more time with your dad who is in his 90s. But why can't you hire a home nurse to take care of him while you continue to work? You are an overpaid domestic helper to your dad. With your experience, you could make more money working and use part of the money to get a domestic helper to take care of your dad at home." 

The third ex-colleague was curious about how I’ve spent my time. "What do you do then besides spending time with your dad? Watching TV? Reading newspaper? Come back to join us! We need your experience!" 

My early retirement decision explained

Even though I appreciate deeply their care and concern, I was really determined on my early retirement decision. 

As they were asking me all sorts of questions, I stood next to the floor-to-ceiling windows overseeing the beautiful Kuala Lumpur skyline and replied, "Look outside the window! Isn't Kuala Lumpur beautiful? Isn't the world beautiful? There are so many ways to live a life, so many things to do in life. Why shall I confine myself sitting in a cubicle in an office building and forgo the opportunity to explore the beautiful world outside?”

I continued, “I have worked for more than twenty seven years. Life is short. Life is unpredictable. Life is fragile. Your life and my life can be cut short anytime. I'm just trying to gain more time so that I can refocus on what's important in my life.”

Looking at their curious expressions, I smiled and said, “My first priority is to spend more time with my dad so that he can have a happy winter years. His time is running out. What he needs is not more money from me. How much can he eat a day? He is not even allowed to eat meat more than the size of two pieces of fish ball a day. And with his limited mobility, he can't even sit in a car for more than two hours. He spends more of his time at home.”

“Hiring a domestic helper to take care of him while I continue to work? His lunch is at 11.00 am, dinner at 5.00 pm and sleep time is at 7.00 pm. I will miss having meals with him if I continue to work.”

“My time spent with my dad is different from my domestic helper's time spent with him. I'm his son. He is my dad. A domestic helper can’t replace responsibility of a son. What I can do for him is to spend more quality time with him, taking meals with him, making him happy. As long as he is happy, I'm happy.”

“I do this because I don't want to regret one day. I already regretted not spending enough time with my mom when she was still around. She left us within twenty four hours due to an accident at home causing head injury. And I don't want to repeat again with my dad." 

I ended with this, "Besides my top priority - taking care of my dad, I want to be able to do things that I enjoy, do things that I didn't have much time to do before. I still have some unfulfilled dreams from childhood days. I still have some life’s bucket list to check. I want to buy time with early retirement to pursue my happiness in life. I want to explore my other potential as a person outside of work. I want to live life fully. And I need more time to do all that. It's as simple as that." 

I guess it's very hard for everyone to comprehend my decision to retire early 3 months short of reaching 50. It was my own present to myself for reaching 50 in life. I don’t blame them. I’m the odd one out in this society anyway. Only 2% out of the world’s working population wish to retire before 50.

But my early retirement decision is very simple. 

Basically, I just want to have more time to treasure love for my family, for my friends and for those I care about. I want to be able to cherish others.

I also want to treat myself well. I want to become the full potential of myself beyond having a successful career. 

I just want to be happy. 

What should you do if you choose to retire early after achieving your financial independence?

For those who opt for early retirement after achieving your financial independence, it's very crucial that you find something you love to do that makes you happy. 

You need to keep yourself busy after retirement. It's not what the misperception of what retirement means: sit at home doing nothing. 

You shall have minimum two to three main focuses to pursue. If possible, by pursuing these main focuses, you will also learn something new and have a sense of achievement. 

You can rekindle your passion for piano or guitar which you learned during your school days but you haven't had the time to hit/strum another note ever since.

You can now watch YouTube and learn more about cooking. You can become a YouTuber yourself!

Or you can be like my friend in Canada learning new things in flower arrangement and calligraphy. 

If you love exercises, you can spend more time in the fitness centre participating in all types of group classes - yoga, Pilates, Zumba, TRX, etc which you haven't had the time to enjoy previously. 

You can take a class in Taekwondo or Karate. 

You can sign up for online courses on topics of your interest. 

You can also read more books, or even write a book. 

You can travel more often spending time in places you enjoy. 

Anything that keeps you happy, you must start doing them, keeping yourself busy with a purpose, making the best of your precious time.

The happiness of pursuit

One of my most favourite books about happiness is called, "The Happiness of Pursuit" written by American author Chris Guillebeau. It's about how anyone can bring happiness and meaning into his or her life by undertaking a quest. 

This book has affected me deeply on how I shall live my life after early retirement. In his book, he sets the criteria on what 'quest" means:

·       A quest has a clear goal and a specific end point. It has a beginning, and an end.

·       A quest presents a clear challenge. By design, a quest requires that something be overcome. It shouldn't be easy.

·       A quest requires sacrifice of some kind. For example, to pursue a big dream, you must give something up along the way. 

·       A quest is often driven by a calling, a deep sense of purpose or deep sense of mission. You feel driven, pushed, highly motivated to keep going.

·       A quest requires a series of small steps and incremental progress toward the often long, slow-and-steady goal.

How anyone can bring happiness and meaning into one’s life

Chris Guillebeau further shares in his book how ordinary folks like you and me managed to bring lots of happiness and meaning into their lives by undertaking a quest. Here are some inspiring examples of the quests:

·       Bicycle around the world 

·       Jump in 168 lakes in two of the largest U.S. and Canadian national parks 

·       Master karate in Kyoto, Japan, as the first step to becoming Ninja

·       Create a life oriented around "serial crafting" projects

·       Travel from the United Kingdom to India without money 

·       Walk across the United States 

·       Leave Wall Street to live in a monastery in Manhattan 

·       Circumnavigate the world's oceans on a 38-foot sailboat as the world's youngest solo sailor 

·       Knit or crochet 10,000 handmade hats 

·       Publish a body of work promoting innovative design 

·       Commit to a radical focus on his health and write down everything he ate for 1,000 days

·       Document life through an extensive series of personal annual reports 

·       Complete the life list written at 16 years 

·       Take, edit, and publish one million photos 

·       Run the Marathon des Sables 

·       Attend a game at every Major League Baseball stadium 

·       Read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in one year 

·       Practice "Rejection Therapy" for 100 days and post the results on YouTube 

·       Train her own guide dog 

·       "Climb" the right ladder by pursuing a career as an independent musician 

·       Leave behind a traditional life in South Korea and become an advocate for female Asian travelers 

·       Walk across Turkey, ending at the Iranian border 

·       Master the art of stand-up comedy 

·       Cook a meal from every country in the world 

·       Travel through Southeast Asia with 11-year-old niece 

·       Devote his life to mastering the preparation of sushi 

·       Run 250 marathons in a single year 

·       Move to Israel and hike the National Trail 

·       Establish a community focused on ultrarunning 

·       Set the world record for the most sighted birds 

·       Produce the world's largest symphony performance 

·       Bicycle from Alaska to Patagonia with twin 10-year-old sons 

·       Set the world record for running marathons in the most countries 

·       Fulfil every goal on late wife's life list

·       Travel and photograph America's Route 66 

·       Become fluent in at least five languages 

Closer to home, I have a few runner friends who have been undertaking a quest to run 100 full marathons (42km). A few of them have already completed their challenging yet inspiring quest. 

My young cousin is a 9x Ironman triathlon finisher. It’s an inspiring quest. He is continuing his quest to complete in more Ironman triathlon championships. 

My young cousin and runner friends have found a lot of happiness and meaning by undertaking their challenging quests respectively.

 

My own happiness of pursuit

I’m grateful to have achieved financial independence and retire early before my 50^th birthday. With the lifetime freedom I have now, I can freely undertake any quests that bring true happiness, meaning and purpose into my life. 

To start it off, here are three quests that I’m undertaking currently: 

·       Happiness of pursuit #1 (relational): Give my dad my time

I love my parents. I lost my mom in 2015. My dad is 96 years old now. The greatest gift I can give him during his winter years is my time. I know that when I give my time to my dad, I’m giving a portion of my life that I will never get back. But that’s perfectly okay. My dad is well worth my time, just like how my mom was well worth my time. Afterall, without them, I’m not even who I’m today.  

Hence, My personal quest is to take very good care of him, to have daily meals with him, to engage in healthy daily conversation with him, and to spend quality time with him for the rest of his life. 

Since my mom’s passing away in December 2015, he hasn’t had a person whom he can talk to daily at home. He lost his life companion. With his lunch hour at 11.00 am and dinner time at 5.00 pm, I had challenges to have daily meals with him at home with a 9-to-5 office-hour job. 

My dad usually sleeps at 7.00 pm and wakes up at 4.30 am daily with frequent toilet visits at night. By the time I reached home from work, it was almost time for my dad to sleep. 

My dad is extremely happy with my decision to retire early and spend time with him. He enjoys my company and daily conversation very much. I can now have daily meals with him too. I think the depth and length of conversation that I’ve carried out with my dad over the last 3 years after retirement is more than the previous 30 years combined. 

You see, I was much closer to my mom. During my mom’s presence, I talked to my mom much more than to my dad. Over the last 3 years, my dad and I have become closer. I’m glad that during his winter year, I can still deepen my relationship with my dad. 

·       Happiness of pursuit #2 (athletic): complete 100 full marathons before 75 years old

I love running. I don’t run to add days to my life. I run to add life to my days. Running has taught me that I’m capable of so much more than I ever imagined. 

Since I started running in 2010, I have been inspired by some runner friends to undertake a quest of my own to run 100 full marathons as well. 

Running marathon is a training ground for my will, determination, mental power, endurance, and persistency. And finishing a marathon teaches me not to give up easily and anything is possible, not only during the race but in life too.

Meb Keflezighi, U.S. Olympic Marathoner, once said, “Like the marathon, life can sometimes be difficult, challenging and present obstacles. However, if you believe in your dreams and never ever give up, things will turn out for the best.”

To date, I have completed 32 full marathons (42km) in 7 countries, namely Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar and Malaysia. Out of which, the most memorable full marathon races were Tokyo Marathon in Japan, Hong Kong Marathon, Bali Marathon in Indonesia, Taiwan Rice Heaven Tianzhong Marathon and  Kaohsiung Marathon in Taiwan, and Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon and Kuching Marathon in Malaysia.

In order to fulfil my quest of completing 50 full marathons before I turn 75 years old in 2042, I need to finish three to four full marathons a year for the next 22 years. 

Every race needs at least 12 to 16 weeks of arduous training an preparation. Finishing 3 to 4 full marathons a year for the next 22 years sounds like a torturing, daunting task indeed. As my age is catching up and running speed is becoming slower,  this pursuit of happiness is not going to get any easier. In fact, it’s going to get tougher and more challenging as years pass by. I’m not even sure if I still can run when I reach 70 years old. Only time will tell. 

As of now, I’m determined to complete this quest of finishing 100 full marathons, if not by 75, at least in this lifetime. If possible, I hope to run full marathons in as many countries as possible. Unless any unforeseen physical health issue pops up or my legs give up on me, I will press on and never give up. Afterall, running brings me great joy, happiness, peace and meaning in life.

·       Happiness of pursuit #3 (exploration & self-discovery): cover 47 prefectures in Japan, including a 100-day solo cycling trip, before 65 years old

I have a strong desire to explore the world, to see the world. Travel really opens my heart, broadens my mind, and fills my life with stories to tell. I feel fulfilled through travel. 

Now that I have lifetime freedom without having to apply for annual leaves at work, I want to cover the earth as much as possible before it covers me. And since my wings already exist, what I have to is fly. (Of course, with covid-19 pandemic, no travel is allowed. I can’t wait for the day I can travel overseas again.)

There are 195 countries in the world, including 48 countries in Asia today. I have only been to 17 countries. Unlike some world travellers who love to collect immigration stamps on their passport, I don’t have the deep burning desire to step foot in every country in the world in my lifetime. 

I’m the type of traveller who loves to keep going back to the same country, the same location, even the same hotel. I also love to keep going back to the same eateries, sit at the same table, eat the same local food.

I love Japan. I love Taiwan. I love Thailand. I love Asia. And I just keep going back to these countries and other countries in Asia.

Since my first trip to Japan running the Tokyo Marathon in 2018, I’ve been falling head over heels in love with Japan. I have visited Japan three times thus far. I was supposed to visit Japan the fourth time in March 2020 but I cancelled my trip due to covid-19 pandemic. 

There are 47 prefectures in Japan. I plan to undertake a quest to cover every single prefecture in Japan before I turn 70. Hopefully by the end of my pursuit of happiness in Japan, I can become half Japanese speaking fluent Japanese language. 

Greatly inspired by my university mate’s 100-day solo cycling trip in Japan, I’m motivated to include a 100-day solo cycling journey into my 47-prefecture quest. 

I am so looking forward to finding lots of happiness and meaning as I undertake this quest for many years to come.

·       Happiness of pursuit #3 (documentation & creative): Take, edit, post 1,000 instagrammable photos within four years

Since I purchased iPhone8 in March 2017, I have started to fall in love with mobile photography. I find photography to be very therapeutic. It allows me to collect moments, not things, which fits perfectly well into my current minimalist lifestyle. It’s a new learning for me. I’m now full of curiosity, eagerly learning about how to shoot good photographs for Instagram. It’s all about the art of seeing.

Now I enjoy capturing the beauty of life and this world, especially during travel and exploration. Photography makes my travel and exploration even more fun, more exciting. I start to discover interesting places I have never discovered before. I start to see beautiful things from angles and perspectives that I have never realised before. It makes me appreciate God’s wonderful creation- the beauty of the world, even more. 

I intend to document my exciting travel discovery of Japan and other Asia countries through travel photography, perhaps even writing and video. 

Once I can start to travel again after covid-19 pandemic, I intend to take, edit, and post 1,000 instagrammable photos on Instagram within a four-year period. That’s about 250 instagrammable photos / posts a year for four years.  

This will allow me to share the beautiful destinations I have visited, exciting travel journeys I have embarked, and life moments I have captured. This quest also allows me to polish up my photography skill and find a lot of happiness, joy and meaning. It’s a lot of fun too!

·       Happiness of pursuit #4 (documentation & creative): publish a book

My dad has an unfulfilled dream. He wants to write a book. He wants to document his life in Langkawi, Kedah through a memoir. Regrettably, since he lost his right eye sight to glaucoma many years back, he can read daily newspaper for up to 30 minutes a day only with his left eye. Even for his left eye, it has a lens implant for his glaucoma treatment. He once shared with me , “Writing a book is one of my dreams that I can never fulfil in this lifetime. I should have written a book when I was much younger and with good eye sights.” 

Like father like son, I also have a dream to write a book. 

I’m not a born writer. I was educated in Chinese primary and secondary schools. I don’t write well, especially in English. However, this deep desire to write a book in my lifetime keeps firing up in my belly.

I have attempted to write through blogging and article submission to local newspaper over the last few years. I have even attempted to write a book a few times but I always ended up struggling with what topics to write, or running out of ideas half way through writing. In fact, writing a 1,000-word article is much easier than writing a 100,000-word book. 

Despite all the failed attempts, the fire in my belly still burns strong. I vow to finish writing a book to fulfil one of my dreams. By doing so, I’m not only fulfilling my own dream, I’m helping to fulfil one of my dad’s unfulfilled dreams as well. I don’t want to live until my dad’s age and have regrets.

This book is the result of my years of frustrations, disappointments, trials and errors. I finally managed to complete writing this book in 2020. Despite all the challenges, I am experiencing tremendous happiness of pursuit. By undertaking this quest, I find meaning and purpose. I am doing this not only for myself, but for my dad too. 

To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure if I’m able to find a book publisher who is willing to publish for me. I’m not even sure if this book is good enough to be displayed at local bookstores. 

If I fail in getting the support of a book publisher, I will then opt for e-book self-publication instead of a physical book through local publisher. 

No matter what, I have come this far and I’m not going to give up now. Even after book publication, it’s still a long journey to make the book successful. I’m worried that perhaps no one will even read at all.

As uplifting and positive as always, my dad then encouraged me, “For sure there will be people who read your book. Either one person or one hundred.”

If you are reading this book (either physical copy or eBook), I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you for being one of the readers who helps me to fulfil mine and my dad’s dream. Thank you! 

Meanwhile I hope you find the book content to be beneficial and inspiring to you. 

This book-writing quest that I’m undertaking is not completed yet even after the book is published. I will need to learn about how to market, promote, distribute, and talk about the book, etc. 

Ultimately, I hope there will be at least 1,000 readers who are interested in the content of this book. I may not reach the number. But I will never give up trying.

This quest is tough, but definitely an exciting one. I believe I will draw a lot of happiness and meaning out of it. 

·       Happiness of pursuit #5 (self-discovery): Fulfil the rest of my life list

I still have a list of life list to fulfil. The top there are:

i)      I hope I’m able to take up a 6-month or 12-month language or summer course in a local university in Japan, or Taiwan one day.

ii)     I hope I can devote more of my time to old folks homes or involve in a great cause for the elderly one day.

iii)    I hope I can write my second book one day (if the first book is successful. Otherwise, this will be my first and last book.)

I will not be making them into quests with specific time to complete as of now. But should I finish any of my happiness of pursuit in #1 to #4, I will then add on a new one from my life list. 

 

How Alibaba’s Jack Ma brings happiness and meaning into his life

Alibaba’s Jack Ma is someone I really admire and respect. Not so much for his wealth or his great success with Alibaba, but more so for his life values and perspectives.

When all the successful entrepreneurs and leaders are working into their senior years, Jack Ma retired early from Alibaba at age 55 in 2019. To Jack Ma, it’s not all about work, money and power for him. He wants to dedicate the rest of his life to pursue educational work, philanthropy, and environmental causes.

It's definitely not an easy thing for a wealthy, powerful successful person to let go of wealth, power and status. But Jack Ma did it. 

And I know for sure Jack Ma didn’t retire, sit at home and do nothing. Besides having more time to pursuing his life-long quests in educational work, philanthropy, and environmental causes, he has even more time to explore and pursue his other interests and passions. 

·       He recently became an orchestra conductor confidently using the baton to direct an ensemble of musicians.

·       He was acting as one of the characters in a Chinese opera.

·       He co-sang a song with a famous artist in China and it was recored into a single.

·       He produced a martial-arts movie and acted as one of the martial arts Kungfu masters along with some of the most famous Kungfu martial arts movie stars in the world.

·       He sang in many of Alibaba's company functions.

·       He rocked the stage as a rock star with a rock band in his farewell party for his early retirement.

As you can see, Jack Ma’s life is nothing short of boredom. He is truly living his life as colourful, as vibrant, as full as ever. He is exploring all areas of his full potential. He shows me how to live a full enriching life full of meaning, purpose, excitement, and happiness.

 

Undertaking your own quest that brings happiness, meaning and purpose into your own life 

Imagine if you still have your unfulfilled childhood dreams today, with your time freedom, you can then be like Kristen Goldberg, who has a quest to complete her life list she first created when she was 16. No modification was permitted to her life list. 

Imagine if your inner child has been screaming inside of you, trying to remind you to be a creative person all these years, you finally have the time freedom to pursue your first-love in drawings and paintings. You can now rekindle back your first-love, improve your drawings and paintings and hold your first ever art exhibition a few years later.

Imagine if you want to be a digital nomad, traveling to all the exotic countries in the world, now you have the time freedom to undertake a quest to be a wanderlust.

Got the idea now? 

Go figure out what brings you long-term happiness. 

Once you figure that part out, you can then turn one or all three of your main focuses into a quest after early retirement.

It means that you need to find one to three things you love and make them your sole focuses for a long period of time, not just a couple of weeks. 

It means that you need to make it specific, with a start and an end. 

Since it's advisable to undertake one to three quests to keep you happy, I would like to suggest that you consider these five categories: 

i)      exploration and self-discovery (travel, retreat, etc) for the adventurous side of you and for you to discover your other potentials

ii)     creative, documentation, academic (music, painting, writing, reading, cooking, photography, learning new foreign language, taking master’s degree, etc) for your mental health and creativity

iii)    athletic (sports, fitness, games, etc) for your physical health

iv)    relational (family, relationship, friendship, etc) for your emotional well beings

v)     activism (social causes, etc) for your calling in life

 

More examples to spark your ideas:

·       You may want to give yourself a challenge or rather a quest to participate in every single different group fitness class taught at your fitness centers within a year. 

·       Instead of just learning about flower arrangement, you may want to set your quest to change the flowers in your living room every week for a year. And none of the flower arrangement shall be the same. 

·       You may want to travel to one new country every year for the next ten years and document down your journey on a travel blog.

·       You may want to learn about photography by taking and editing photos with your smart phone, then posting on your Instagram once a day for 365 days. Who knows! You may become the next IG influencer!

·       You may want to broaden your culinary horizons by preparing a different dish each day for a year. If you want, you can also make your cooking sessions into video and upload onto YouTube. Who knows! You may become the next YouTube sensation!

·       You may want to stay in a foreign country and learn the foreign language there for three to six months.

·       You may want to cycle around the whole Malaysia covering all the states within a year and write about your journey. 

·       You may want to join a new non-profit-organization that you are passionate about and actively involving in all charity activities for a year.

I hope by now you have more than enough exciting ideas on what you can do to make you happy after your early retirement! 

Whatever your quests are, it's all about letting go and letting yourself free. It’s all about letting a little bit of risk into all areas of your life. It's all about letting your full potential within you blossom. It’s all about uncovering all your hidden talent and potential. It’s all being true to yourself. It’s all about the happiness of pursuit. 

Do what you love and love what you do. Live the life you love and love the life you live. Throw some challenges into it and have fun! Happiness shall follow you all the days of your life! 

 

Something new and exciting may greet you during your quest

While undertaking your quests and pursuing what you love most in life, you may accidentally venture into something new and exciting along the journey. 

A Taiwanese corporate high-flyer who used to hold high positions at Shell retired at age 47. He decided to become a street musician playing guitar and singing in Kaohsiung weekly. He lets go of his ego. He is having fun. He is happy. He is fulfilling his childhood dream of being a street performer. 

Later on, he started to pursue his passion to write. From publishing his first book, unexpectedly he now has a few books under his belt writing about his early retirement and cruise travel. Then one leads to another. He has been invited to give talks in corporate offices, universities and community centres, radio talk shows, tv talk shows, etc to share about his books and his personal experiences. He is not only living the life he loves most after his early retirement, somehow his happiness of pursuit has led to a new career as an author in Taiwan.

Just like him, if your passion is writing and you write a book and become an author, you may be invited to some speaking engagements, to have a book tour, or to become a brand ambassador for some related products. 

I know of a few friends who are excellent bloggers. They share their experiences in property, personal finance, cooking and recipes. They get invited to talks and seminars with handsome fees for their engagement. They also manage to generate income from their blogs. Their passions have successfully generated passive income for them even while they are still working full time. 

If you love cooking and you manage to upload your cooking recipe into YouTube, you may become a famous YouTuber one day sharing what you love most. 

These are all the possibilities when you put your heart and time to do what you love. 

You will never know – out of doing what you love after your retirement, you may generate some very good extra pocket money for your travel and living expenses. To a blessed few, their passion may turn into a new career for them. 

Of course, your ultimate goal is not to make money. Your ultimate goal is to find happiness, meaning and purpose as you undertake your quests. 

Should money flow your way as a result of what you do, it’s definitely an added wonderful news. And it’s highly likely possible. However, it’s merely a bonus, a by-product. 

Never lose sight of your original purpose to bring happiness and meaning into your life. 

May you be inspired to discover the many hidden talents and passions of yours and undertake your own quests after retirement. 

And of course, you don't have to wait until you retire to do all that. You can start now - wherever you are.

SECTION 5

 

Life after Retirement:

Health, Happiness, Gratitude, Being Significant 

 

“If you have health, you probably will be happy. And if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it’s not all you want." -- Elbert Hubbard

F I L L

Financial Independence, Live Life 

 

achieving financial independence from 9-to-5 job before 50

Book manuscript written in 2020 & blog articles published in 2021 by Vincent Khor

Photo by Tabea Damm on Unsplash