Posts in category "philosophy" - page 3


  • The Role Of Luck

    Luck has a huge role to play in one's success or failure. We should not forget the role of luck in our lives. I am what I am is primarily because of how lucky I have been in many aspects of life. There are people who are more hardworking than I am and yet don't have the results they deserve.

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  • Why Save When You Cannot Enjoy?

    Some one asked "I don't have money before a job so cannot spend and have fun. After finding a job I have money, but I am saving for a future. So again I cannot spend. What is meaning of money? Spend it or save it or what to do?". That got me thinking. I gave them the reply and thought I should expand a bit on my blog so it might help others.

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  • Take Care Of Your Mind And Body

    Whether you are planning to retire early or not, one thing that everyone needs to take care of is their mind and body. It is surprising how little time and care we devote to both in our mad rush to achieve things. Life is not always about goals and achievements. Sometimes it helps to stop and think if that is all that we really want. Did you ever wonder how much time do you actively spend on improving the mind and body?

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  • Money Is Infinite. But Time Is Limited

    I used to have a comfy and very well paying job until I decided to retire early in 2018. I can't imagine why anyone would give up such a good job and ridiculously good benefits that I used to enjoy at work. But at some point in life, it is conceivable that one could slip into philosophy. That happened to me. Money has never been a primary motivation for me, but it did enjoy some importance in my life. After my philosophical journey, money seems so insignificant and unimportant. Don't get me wrong. You need a handsome amount of savings to even consider early retirement. But having made enough, even more money did not make sense at all.

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  • Leaving Inheritance To Children

    When I said I have enough money in my previous post, it was made possible by the fact that I did not account for many things that most Indian's generally consider bare minimum. Take inheritance for example. We did not plan on leaving anything substantial for our daughter. Our thought process is that she should go through the basic difficulties of life to achieve things that she desires. We are probably atypical Indians that think this way. I know this because people have asked if I thought about leaving an inheritance for my kid.

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  • Should You Save For Kids Higher Education

    You know my stance on saving for kid's education. Those who have read my blog or know me, understand that we are unschooling our kid. Most already know that I retired early. I guess early retirement and unschooled kid is probably not a common combination? Or may be it is just my feeling. Because, in this combination, one rarely plans to setup a corpus for kid's higher education. And yet many people ask why I haven't set aside a corpus for the kid.

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  • Life After You Are Long Gone

    Generally life is uneventful and routine until it is not. As long as you are fit and healthy, you are not thinking about what could life of a loved one be if you are suddenly doomed to become non-existent. No one ever plans for death. But it is a required step. Especially for some one who plans early retirement. For the sake of your family, think about how things should be when your life is cut short in an evil twist of fate.

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  • What Will People Think?

    Every time you intend to do something out of the ordinary, your first instinct is usually to stop and think "what will people say or think about what I am about to do". This stigma limits us from doing anything that does not fit in the societal norms. While nobody made any rules about how things should be, as a group we are all guilty of following some unwritten rules. The good thing about these unwritten rules it that we are able to move together in one general direction and solve problems that no one person alone can solve, a bit like autonomous multi-agent systems. The problem occurs when you diverge too far from the crowd. You will be all alone. But in a social setting, that is not all you have to worry about. There is also the issue of people saying things about you behind your back and sometimes even straight to your face. But the advantage of straying away from the crowd is to build something entirely new, great and immensely useful. That is how evolution made us so superior to the rest of the living things.

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  • Practice Minimalism

    After watching my talk on early retirement, one of my friends tells me that while the audience asked a lot of questions, no one asked me "How do I practice the art of minimalism without compromising much on what your heart wishes for?". Well in this case, I am not really sure if minimalism is a personal trait or if it is something that can be acquired. You already know how I started, which was basically after reading about Stoicism.

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  • Motivation Towards a Goal

    Early retirement is possible. It is certainly not easy, but it is simple. Of course, it needs a lot of sacrifices today, for a better tomorrow. You need to save a lot which means your expenses have to be very less to have any meaningful contribution to your retirement kitty. Heck, retiring at 60 with enough corpus to last your whole life is in itself a difficult task. How can you even save for your early retirement. It all comes down to how deeply you want to retire early. It does not just apply for retirement, but anything in life. If you want something very desperately, it automatically tunes not just your conscious, but your subconscious self to work towards it. At that point, none of what you are giving up, or all the hard work you are putting in will feel burdensome. It just feels like a flow and before you realize, you have hit your goal. So ask yourself, is your desire to retire early really strong? Make it a goal only if you have the strongest urge. A goal without enough motivation is hard to realize.

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