While I advocate being frugal, saving as much as possible, investing in the right instruments and retiring early, there are alternate views which make equal sense. I was intrigued by one such article [internet archive]. The author wonders what is the point of saving millions if you cannot enjoy it when you are retired because you are too old or not in good health. Instead, they suggest enjoying and spending money as soon as possible on the right things of course, instead of diligently saving for a future which may or may not come. No one knows how long they will live.


I suggest you read that article [internet archive] before continuing with my post. It will help you with the context. The author starts off by asking “what is the point of having 1+ million dollars in the bank if your are lying in your death bed”. Totally valid question. Having a lot of wealth is of no use if you cannot enjoy it in the end. There is no point working hard and saving like crazy, sacrificing family, social life and friends. What will you do with all the millions of dollars when you are lying in death bed? It is true that no one died saying “I wish I had more money”.


While I agree with the author in some aspects, it is not necessary that to save a lot of money you have to lose your family, friends and social life. If you are that kind of person, then I definitely would not advice you do it. Work hard, make a lot of money, be frugal and save a lot but not at the expense of losing friends and family. I did not make any of those sacrifices while retiring early. I have had the same rapport with my friends and family during my work life as I had before working and after retiring. Nothing has changed. So yeah, not everyone who retires early falls in that category.


I totally agree with the author that the best years of our life are from 18 years to 40 years. We are in the best health, have money to spend and may not have the burden of loans. We have all the energy to play with kids and go on hiking trips with ease. With age comes various problems like knee pains or not enough energy, vision problems etc. One should certainly enjoy this phase of life. But I would not suggest spending so much that you are left with very little for the rest of your life. You can of course use time instead of money to spend time with family and friends and make memories that will last a lifetime.


I also love the money, health and free time distribution triangles for various life stages. From 15 years to 30 years, you have very little money, but have a lot of health and good amount of free time. From 30 to 50 years, all the three are about the same. After 50, you have a lot of free time and money, but very little health. It is sad, but this how life is. If you could have free time, money and health, that would be the best life. While the author already gave all the tips for wealth and health, I want to reiterate the health aspect one more time.


Try to preserve your health as much as possible. It is easy to ignore when we are young. We can eat and drink anything we like without seeing any adverse effects when we are young. But once you are past 40, you will start seeing all the negative impacts of your life’s decisions. Yet, it is not too late. You can still pick yourself up, dust off and start making changes. Eat healthy, as much as possible. A cheat meal once a week is fine. Don’t punish yourself. Try intermittent fasting. It works wonders in many ways. It helps you build grit and also gives a break to your organs. They can’t be continuously working, trying to digest, detox and cleanse. The positive side effect is losing weight and feeling great too.


Once you have cleaned up your eating habits, you can start adding workouts. You can do anything you like. Playing a sport, running, martial arts, gym, whatever interests you to keep going. And you don’t have to over do it either. Just a couple of days a week of intense exercise and a couple of days of moderate jogging, walking or playing a simple physical game with kids, like teaching them cycling or flying a kite will do. Only thing is try not to injure yourself to the point that you are out of the routine for months. Give yourself a complete break from exercise everyone 3 months or so for a week or two. Very importantly, sleep well. It is one of the most important aspect but gets the least importance. Sleep helps in repairing your brain and body, so you are more energetic and sharp even as you age. Don’t underestimate it.