Early Retirement

I've been thinking about early retirement. Like, really early. Around thirty-seven.

This means I have about seven years to go. It means that I need to get moving if I want to stop working a traditional 9-5 job within the next seven years. Is this even possible? I'm trying to find out by doing some extensive online and offline research. There seems to be a lot out there about women and their relationship with money, and how women need to take more control because they traditionally have left that role up to their husbands, employers, pet cats.

I'm thinking there are a few things that need to happen for me to do this:

1) I need to organize my finances in such a way that I can anticipate what my needs will be over the next seven years and beyond, so I can account for those.

That's a long winded way of saying I need a plan.

This plan needs to show me what success looks like, and break success down into little steps to make it work.

2) I say I don't want to work in a traditional nine-to-five job, but that doesn't mean I don't want to work at all. There's a lot of talk about people 'finding something they are passionate about and getting paid to do it'. People say if I do this, "I'll never work another day in my life". So far I haven't found a job eating gummi bears for a living, so I'm either going to have to keep searching for that niche, niche job.... Or, I need to find a way of getting some passive income flowing my way. See point 1 - planning.

3) Figure out if this is really what I want to do. I put this last, because I'm sure I can change my mind along the way. I think that's something a lot of people think they can't do. This is why people stay in crappy jobs, failing relationships, etc.

So just three easy steps to getting what I want. Now to begin.

Solving the Division of Labour Problem: Outsource

In the early days of living together, my husband and I used to share the housework. It was pretty much a 50:50 split each week. Then it moved to alternating weeks of responsibility. What ended up happening, is that I, true to my word would do all of the cleaning on my weeks while hubby relaxed, but when it was his turn, something would invariably 'come up'. Events, sports, couch time, etc. This lack of responsibility on his part was driving a wedge in our relationship.

When I was growing up, my mother kept the world's cleanest house. It didn't help that I was allergic to practically everything and the mere mention of the word 'dust' would make me break out in hives and unsightly excema. But mom went to every effort to keep everything spotless, so when I grew up and moved out, I'd just do the same - how hard could it be?

Damn near impossible.

Now I'm not saying my husband is a messy person, but I will say that we have different thresholds for dirt. And I prefer to see clear space, not clutter, on the countertop, coffee table, office desk, bathroom floor, etc. We are just two people, 2.5 if you count his daughter, surely we couldn't make that much of a mess? But we do. Once the house is clean, we both enjoy it for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon, but by the time the laundry is done on Sunday afternoon, and the groceries need to be put away, then we have a hard week at work, who wants to clean - it's the thankless task. As Melanie Durrant, Canadian singer put it.

Housework makes me sick, I'm so sure of it
It's like I'm allergic

You have to admit - it's like a punishment
There's no end to it

Why is this important? Because the truth is, for many couples, even though she works as hard as he does at the office or wherever, often the woman in the relationship does more of the household chores. According to one Labor Department study, employed women averaged about an hour more per day on housework than did employed men. Is this fair? Nope. But for some of us, it is how it is.

So how does the modern, career-focused woman cope? Outsource.

We first decided to get a cleaner when we were discussing the age old division of labour battle with some friends. They mentioned their simple solution and we were hooked. The finances worked out for us and we decided it would be something to explore. It was one of the best decisions we've made, though I had to cope through some anxiety and inadequacy issues around telling my very own 'supermom'. It felt like a failure somehow. When I finally got around to telling mom about the cleaner, she said: Good for you, I wish I'd done that when you kids were small! I'd have saved myself hours of scrubbing.

But will it work for you? First you'll have to calculate the value of your time. This might help you determine if it is worthwhile to invest in a cleaner. If it is, I say do it!

I've never regretted the decision or the dollars spent.

Where to start?

It's true. I'm a few months away from thirty, (the new twenty, or so I read) and I'm at odds trying to figure this life thing out. I mean, aren't we all? So what else can I do? Document it? You betcha!

I'm trying to figure it all out: family, friends, relationships, home, career, finances all in the public forum. Why the heck not?

This is where the retired Orange Julius stands go...

Spotted in Martin Place, Sydney on New Years Eve 2009. (Only posted today, because I'm still not sure how to post photos from my phone!) If this is Orange Julius, where's Dairy Queen? I thought they were inseparable. Is there an ice cream cake somewhere in scorching Australia with no home?

Falling off the wagon

Wow - Six months since my last post! What's happened since then? Why did I fall off the wagon? Plenty of reasons (excuses): I got busy finishing my Master's degree, I was busy getting out of a stagnant work environment, progressing my career, making new friends, enjoying summer, reading good books, learning to swim, getting outside. I was busy accomplishing all of my New Year's Resolutions from last year!

But now I've got a clean slate - or so the calendar page tells me. I've got a chance to make up some new goals and accomplish those. But I want to blog about fun things, too... Let's see what transpires.