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Today, in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

• 🕹️ Why the financial independence game is changing in the 2020’s

• 🗺️ My journey to semi-retirement, what is semi-retirement, who is a good fit for semi-retirement, and why consider it

• 🔢 How to calculate your semi-retirement number, plus the downsides

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🏝️ Ultimate Guide to Semi-Retirement

Early retirement is overrated.

While I appreciate some of the values behind the FIRE community, I’m not a huge fan of early retirement.

One reason: I actually enjoy working.

I also see high-achievers obsessively chasing a FIRE number, which comes at the expense of fulfillment during the journey.

Contrary to popular belief, you can unlock financial independence sooner. But not in the way you might think.

The new game? Semi-retirement.

These days, heaps of online writers talk about FIRE, but not many talk about Semi-FIRE. Yet, it offers a practical alternative path to building a wealthy life.

In this newsletter, I’m going to break down what semi-retirement is, who it’s a good fit for, why semi-retirement, and how to calculate your own semi-retirement number.

The financial independence game is changing 🕹️ 

Over time, I realized each financial independence pathway is a different game you can play (with different rules).

In the 2010’s, the popular games were:

• Work 9-5, climb the corporate ladder, and retire at 65 with a pot of gold

• Play the startup lottery in your 20’s and 30’s, hit 1 jackpot, and transition to investing in your 40’s

• Work a normal job in your 20’s and 30’s, but save and invest 30%-50%+ of your income to FIRE in your 40’s

Now in the 2020’s, I expect the number of games people play to explode due to the rise of part-time work, remote work, and adoption of AI technology.

Let’s discuss the game of semi-retirement.

I’ll share my experiences first:

My journey to Semi-Retirement 🗺️ 

To be honest, I stumbled upon semi-retirement by accident on my journey to financial independence:

• For the first 10 years of my adult working life, I focused on growing my tech product management career.

• During this time, I accumulated an investment portfolio, which I don’t touch and let grow. (Although, I recently discovered it generates enough income to cover 60%+ of my living expenses in Mexico City.)

• In 2019, I took a travel sabbatical, which gave me a taste of flexibility and freedom. I was hooked. I sought to integrate this flexibility into my work and life.

• In 2023, I left my last full-time role and started my entrepreneurial journey. Since then, I’ve offered product consulting, 1:1 coaching, cohort-based courses, ads, and affiliates. This covers all my expenses, while I save and invest the rest.

The good news is that after running the numbers, I discovered that I will not need to return to a full-time tech job if I maintain my current lifestyle and expenses.*

I can continue working on what I enjoy: teaching, coaching, and consulting.

_{*Caveat is future expenses, including kids and health expenses. I’m working out a plan that factors in these costs.}

What is Semi-Retirement? 🤩 

This is how I define semi-retirement:

This lifestyle is made possible by growing an investment portfolio that generates enough income to cover partial living expenses, while the rest is covered by your semi-retirement working income.

Here’s the trade-off:

One popular version of semi-retirement is Barista FIRE, which is where freedom-seeking professionals switch to a less stressful job (eg Starbucks baristas) that generate income and covers health insurance expenses.

While I’m skeptical that former high-skilled professionals will enjoy a service job, I know many who would like a creative role or their own business.

(Nothing wrong with service roles—my mom owned a restaurant—but I just haven’t seen this transition happen.)

Here’s who I think would be suited for semi-retirement:

Who is a good fit for Semi-Retirement? 👫 

Semi-retirement is a good fit for a person or couple who:

• Wants to experiment with retirement, but isn’t sure if full retirement is right for them

• Live in Tier 2 global city (Austin, Melbourne, Mexico City), which is lower cost than a Tier 1 global city (San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney)

• Has a working spouse (with the goal of semi-retiring both people)

• Has no kids or they’re old enough to have moved out of the house (since kids are expensive)

• Work as a remote consultant, freelancer, or entrepreneur

In other words, semi-retirement is a good alternative for someone who realizes they would keep working in retirement—albeit on things they actually enjoy (while managing costs).

Now let’s talk about why semi-retirement:

Common mistakes made by Early Retirees 🙅