The final month

It’s hard not to be quietly happy as I embark on my final month of a 17 year career. Adding to this inner glow is the fact it’s a short month being February, and even further multiplying the joy is the presence of two holidays. Since today is nearly done as I write this, that makes it only 17 working days left…. Sweet !

So how did it come to this, 17 years boiled down to the next 17 days ? I don’t really know myself and will take further time post FIRE to digest and understand it all. Anyway the point of this post is not to gloat, but to reflect a little on where my head is at right now… There are plenty of things to do since in our case, FIRE also involves an international relocation with two young kids. We are lucky to have family helping on the destination side and we already bought some bits and pieces (fridge, washing machine, car) so we can hit the ground running there. We are fortunate to have an empty house ready and waiting for us too! On the departure side it will be somewhat more chaotic, the main thing yet to be booked is the moving company, which is the key job for this week. There’s a long list of other admin tasks (closing bank accounts, credit cards, change of address, etc), but still plenty of time for these.

From a career perspective, I’m keen to end it well. It’s been a happy and successful path over the years so why not end on a good note too... How to do this ? I’m trying to close out loose ends, let go for all other issues to be handed over (doesn’t come naturally for me) and giving a good exit story so that people can understand my decision. This last part is one of the more difficult things. I’ve been reading the MMM forums about how to explain FIRE, whether to tell or not, etc. In our case, I really don’t see the need to go into FIRE voluntarily, but if someone asks me directly I also wouldn’t lie about it. Making things a little easier is the merging of FIRE with geographical relocation, so it’s easier to steer the conversation to the latter. The crux of our decision to move home is down to personal reasons - the desire to live near our extended family, and raise our kids as Australians. This is an easy story for most people to grasp, and it’s also the honest truth. Therefore I tend to leave it at that and not bother about the FIRE part. Sometimes people probe into it, e.g. what will you do there ? can you continue to work in the same field ? etc. I usually answer these honestly and move the conversation into other areas. Am I being evasive or trying to hide my wealth ? Maybe, I don’t know really. But in my experience talking about money matters / relative wealth with the majority of family and friends usually ends badly. I do worry it might leave the other person feeling jealous, that we are “different “ or somehow out of touch with real people. I don’t want to drive a wedge between us and others who might not have much prospect of FIRE, or even any concept that such a thing can be achieved without a winning lottery ticket.

Anyway, in the interest of keeping this briefer than recent posts, it’s a very exciting time and I’m really looking forward to the coming months. I thought I’d be quite stressed by now about the move but it’s not the case and seems to be offset by the eager anticipation of FIRE and finally heading “home”. The end of “work” is not such a big issue. As explained in the Evolving Perspectives of FF post, for some years now I have been coming to the idea that I will continue to work after RE and phase my exit from the conventional career. It’s nice to be able to think about all the different possibilities, projects, hobbies etc on the horizon. And often I have to catch myself and remember to take it slow for the first 6 to 12 months. I got some good advice in the MMM forum along these lines, and to be open to things that come my way rather than trying to initiate/plan everything. I will try my best to follow this.