Published: May 16, 2022 Last Updated: November 16, 2024
Many people think that to retire they need to be millionaires. The modern day education system trains people to think that they go to school to get a good education in order to get a good job. Then after working at your job for decades, you can finally retire at 65 and enjoy your old age. That form of thinking fits the industrial age not the information age. In this piece, we will revisit this notion about when and how we retire.
“All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.”
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Rethinking Retirement
What comes to mind when you think of retirement? Is it being 65 or 70 and not being have to wake up early in the morning to go to work? Is it not having to listen to a boss who lacks people skills and gets on your nerve or not having to deal with clients who annoy you yet you have to smile at them?
Who wants to retire? You do. But the way the economy is going it seems like people will be forced to work until they die. One injustice is that you have old, ancient people in the workforce who refuse to leave. You have many older men and women in their 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s who are still in the workforce in senior management positions in government and private sector, and they refuse to leave.
Maybe it’s greed or lust for power that keeps ancient people hording opportunities while squeezing out qualified, younger, middle class workers from rising up the ranks. One example that everyone in the world can recognize is in the UK. Look at Queen Elizabeth as one example, she sat on the throne for so long that her son, Prince Charles, who should have taken over the throne long ago, is now in his 70’s. I believe she acted wrongly in not doing proper succession planning of the throne with her son, Charles.
All government workers and senior company employees should be forced to retire at 55. Then society will have to structure itself for great succession planning. It will cause a complete shift in the way we run the world because bad actors will not run things until their mid 80s or 90s. Retirement packages will be available to people in their 50s. High salaries would be paid to people at all levels. Young workers would have a good hope of progressing up the ranks of companies they work for.
I had an uncle who worked in several middle management positions over his many years. He even worked for government in a good position. He was expecting a very nice retirement when he reached 65. He got to 65 in fall and by the spring of the following year he was dead. His retirement living was fool’s gold but what does that matter because he was dead.
You need to rethink what retirement means to you personally. The world has no incentive to change its entire structure of extracting man’s labour for profit. As a realist, you can educate yourself and plan to opt out of the system by having a plan to retire in 12 years! A new vision of living in harmony with nature, of living simply and stress free, and being blissfully happy could be yours.
Gardening Is Key
Gardening is absolutely one of the most important factors in retiring early. You see, every day we eat. Food is important to the survival of humans. However the spread of cheap and readily available food in groceries, supermarkets, and big-box retailers gives people a false sense of food security.
People tend to believe because there is food now, there will always be food in the stores. One thing the pandemic episode of 2019 to 2021 has taught us is that the food supply system is fragile and can be broken if government officials are determined to shut it down.
China has created a bottleneck in global shipping with the lockdown of over 25 million people in Shanghai due to fears over the pandemic. It is only a matter of time before greater food shortages begin to show up in the supply network.
Gardening is key to retiring early because God makes the trees grow and gives all its delicious fruits. There is no disruption in the supply chain between the trees and heaven.
Start Now
I heard a joke once about when is the best time to plant a tree. The answer is 20 years ago. This is followed up by the next question, “when is the 2nd best time to plant a tree?” The answer is right now. If you want to retire within 12 years, the thing is that you have to start now. You have to be focused like a laser on the goal of getting to retire.
You simply cannot allow friends, family, work-life, or anything to distract you from the goal of retiring in 12 years. If you truly want something bad enough, you will move heaven and earth to make it a reality.
In meeting the 12-year retirement goal, you have to run the numbers. That is, you have to do the maths to be sure that you can have enough to live a comfortable life during retirement. You may want to look at what you are willing to sacrifice or how your lifestyle might change.
I watched a story about a woman who opted to live in a tiny home on someone’s land in exchange for doing work and helping out with chores on the land. She worked as a gig worker doing online work to make a modest income each month. But her expenses were so low that she was able to travel more and see the world. This was most important to her and she structured her life to make this dream a reality. She’s hit her retirement vision.
Get Land
My vision for you to obtain retirement in 12 years involves you having access to food to sustain you over the long run. You need to obtain a piece of vacant land. If you are poor and can’t afford a house and land, then just buy yourself a piece of land. You need a minimum of two acres of land to get you started. If you can get five acres, you’ll definitely be in a very good position for a larger family. Make sure your land is away from the city or the suburbs.
Here are something so keep in mind when buying the land. First buy land outside of the densely populated areas. If you have to two hours to drive to your land, then that is okay. Next, make sure that you have water on the land. A river or stream running through the land is a good thing. Make sure that land is not a water sink. Make sure that the land is not the lowest point with water from surrounding areas collect because you’ll have a swampy area on your hands.
Make sure it is cheap. Don’t get tempted to overpay for the land. If it is not the right price point, you can offer that price or keep looking for another piece of land. Don’t give up. And seek divine help to lead you to a piece of land prepared for you.
Plant Fruit Trees
Once you secured the land, you will need a large selection of fruit trees. You might want to have between 20 to 40 fruit trees on your land. I would suggest that 1/3 of your land (or 1 acre) have fruit trees, berry trees/bushes, and a few ornamental trees. The other 1/3 of the land (or 1/2 acre) can be cultivated toward growing vegetables and crops you each annually like carrots, potatoes, lettuce, celery, beans, cucumbers, spinach, kale, etc. The final third of your land could be dedicated for your living and relaxation.
If you cannot afford to plant 20 fruit trees all at once, then buy 2, 3, or 5 this year to start. Put them in the ground immediately to grow. We discuss an excellent method of planting fruit trees in this article. One free method of getting random berry trees is to hang up a bird feeder on the land where you want the berry trees. Bird will come and eat the feed and they will poop out seeds from berries they have eaten elsewhere. You’ll have free berry trees in a few years.
Save & Invest
The bank workers and financial “gurus” tell you to save and invest. They tell you the stock market has best returns, or this or that is the best place to put your money. They never say that they make money off commissions you pay them for all this investing.
The best investment is in your land when you are focused on the goal to retire in 12 years. If you need fencing. Buy it and put it up. If you need a walkway, buy bricks when available. Every material that you buy today is money saved on the cost of purchase next year.
Always keep in mind that you want to have a food forest available to you as you get older so that you do less work with more returns. You don’t need to retire a millionaire if you have a food forest to keep you well fed. You just need enough to pay basic living expenses.
Conclusion
Life is more important than becoming a wage slave just to make money to survive. Life is a gift to be lived fully. Many people who realized that the rat race is really a human-trap, have opted out and found their bit of paradise. It might mean lifestyle changes. You might have to give up that dream of owning the Ferrari and settle for that small car.
Millions of people around the world are chasing the American dream of a house with a white picket fence. Why? Because that is the dream they were sold in order to keep them a slave to the industrial era. America exported its vision of a society and this vision was very profitable for the banks which created mortgage instruments to help finance this dream, and get richer for it.
You want to retire. You can do it in 12 years. Until next time, continue to learn and grow.
