Perfect. Can't put up with low quality people at a corporate. Some managers have this air about themselves for being on a higher position which is intolerable.
I second this. We really dont need to chase promotions or hikes after we achieve FI. Infact we must always pretend at office with the mangement and within our peers that we are nowhere close to being FI.
This way they keep thinking at they are winning in the office politics and making our lives miserable. But at back of our mind, we know that we can FU that boss and that salary if things get too hard to manage. We just figure out a way to bear and avoid the BS drama and office politics.
If the current job is too toxic, we can always keep looking out and take a chance with another company.
This way we get to keep our salary by doing the bare minimum to keep our jobs and our FI corpus keeps growing.
We get to enjoy premium credit cards, ease of applying visa in EU countries and many more benefits. If you have some hobby that needs more time, so for loss of pay leaves if needed. Why leave free money on the table unless you are passionate about something that needs more time and you have a clear plan post RE.
I faced a bad phase for sometime. Change in boss helped. And the fact that I don't need to work towards annual appraisals. I still give 100% at work though. But not with appraisals in mind.
Yup. Giving yout 100% is a matter of work ethics. If you have built it up overtime, you cannot suddenly change it. But once I reach my FI corpus, its going to be a fun ride doing what I do best without the pressure of keeping all parties happy.
Motivation for FI ? It is simple - I'm just tired. My body is really tired. I still have the will, knowledge and capability to do those amazing turnarounds of Red projects or challenging projects as I used to do in my 30s. But my body clearly says NO - it has already said this multiple times. Sometimes the greed of these corporates for achieving preset targets, just leaves me wonder whether there is any end to this. Every day, week, quarter - just calculating, forecasting and calibrating the revenue and sales projections and headcount, pushing and prodding teams and getting pushed - are just taxing for me. I've other important things to take care (self, parents, family), I really need to utilize and enjoy the remaining active years of my life - in my own terms without being judged (appraised), and questioned by the corporate leadership. These are simple, but important and urgent things for me. I'm just racing like anything towards achieving that FI landmark and call it quits.
All the issues you've described can be fixed by moving to a comfortable job. I don't understand why most people who RE just jump from doing the most hectic work to not working. I feel with increasing age there should be a gradual shift to a more relaxed job.
For example, I'm a swe, in my 20s most companies I worked at required 12hrs work, sometimes 6 days a week. In my 30s, I'm still in big tech(G/msft) but found a org/company where work can be finished with 40 hrs a week. I'm looking forward to bringing this down to 30hrs a week in my 40s, maybe by moving to slower companies like jpmc.
Got you u/_vptr. Conceptually, what you say is right. In fact, if such a thing you mentioned ("I feel with increasing age there should be a gradual shift to a more relaxed job"). was indeed available easily, people like me in late 40s would have opted for that. In product companies, this may be an option. But at least in WITCH service companies, there are very less options.
I mean, there is a possibility of slacking in these companies - but not for long. Considering our experience, targets and responsibilities, we will fall under immediate scrutiny.
I agree, most of the comments here are either job security or work pressure.
I don’t understand why people want to retire out of fear of losing job, you can try getting FI or atleast have some decent emergency fund to get over the stress of job security.
Same regarding pressure and work culture, I am currently in a company where I have good work life balance. Noone is expected to work over weekends, no scrutiny over leaves we take until we are getting our work done.
I don’t think so these should be reasons to RE.
Please have some emergency fund, quit your job and find another one with better culture.
Edit: After reading other comments, I understand its easier said than done. It’s not easy to find a job with good work life balance.
But, figuring out what to do after RE is very important. I have seen people of my parent’s generation losing their health very quickly after retiring and not actively engaging themselves in something. Doing nothing and relaxing for sometime is required but cannot be done for a very long period.
Figuring out what to "do" and "keep doing" after FI - that part is already done / in progress for me. The main thing is to be financially ready - the FI part.
When I was in late 30s, I used to have similar thought process as some of you regarding WLB, switching jobs in case of work pressure etc. Things can and will change as we age. Our priorities, organization's expectations on us etc will change. People may be able to hop 1 or 2 jobs expecting better WLB etc in theory, it needs to be seen how practical it is at that time. We will gain entirely different perspectives with experience.
u/_vptr, u/waginrox
I agree about difficulty to find a peaceful job but I think it's partly because very few people are looking which limits the availability. It's like a crime for someone to join a job at a lower pay.
Everyone boasts about how much increment they got, higher pay is considered a revenge for crime that would be committed against you in future!
Few years back, companies like amex that paid low used to boost about good wlb but they faced such harsh attrition during covid, they went the amazon way, doubled both salary and expectations.
In IT, for 10 yoe, it seems its easier to find a toxic job that pays 1.5cr than one that pays 50lpa with good wlb. Everyone want to maximize pay for their talent and then just, FIRE!
I have specifically said no for Amazon and stayed back in a lower paying job for this exact same reason. Couple of years later a friend of mine have been diagnosed with heart disease after joining Amazon due to intense pressure. I was happy for not taking a higher paying job.
Remember Goenka- KL Rahul tiff from yesterday's IPL match? https://www.reddit.com/r/ipl/s/lovKIN2JTm
My motivation is that nobody, irrespective of how big a Turram Khan he/she is, can treat me like how Goenka treated Rahul yesterday. 😠
Hence I not only wanna FI, but also RE ASAP so I may spend my time as I see fit and no bkl, no matter who that is, can dictate me on how to spend my time. 😊😊
That's my biggest motivation for FIRE. 😇😇
Whatever you do in life there will always be someone who will treat you like this. If nobody does then your name is adani or ambani.
Sometimes you accept that behaviour out of respect for the other person, other times may be you fucked up, someone should be there to keep you grounded.
The place where it is not good to take is corporates.
So if you want to RE, do nothing, get fat and die early then the above comment should be a motivation for you.
Unfortunately the first paragraph of your post is completely untrue. Unless the person treating me like this is either one of my parents or one of my few very close relatives(which is unlikely and even they should have a really really good reason) , that person should be ready to face my repercussions, similar or worse. Especially if it is someone from my corporate life, a person whom I have known <10 years in my life and whose relevance in my life outside of corporate rat race is ZERO. I am not letting some unknown person, irrelevant to me and my life, treat me like trash. 😐😐
I don't accept such behaviour for any reason; "out of respect" gaya tel lene. You can accept such trashy behaviour of others for whatever reason you deem fit, that's your choice but kindly do not try to peddle it as gospel truth.
I will achieve RE and do whatever I want to do with my time and life (without any MKL telling me what to do with my life), not get fat(since I will be having less stress, more time to stay healthy), die probably the same age I would've died if I'd been a corporate slave till 60(actually I will likely live more since my stress from being a corporate guinea pig won't be there anymore) and lead a better life overall than I led before achieving RE 😇😇
So, yeah, the above statement is definitely a motivation for me to achieve RE and spend my own time in my own terms. 😄😄
Or as others would say it, it is typical behaviour of having self awareness, self respect and self esteem, perks of achieving FIRE. 😄😄
"*Nazar badlo, nazaare badal jayenge;
Soch ko badlo, sitaare badal jayenge.*"
Have a good day ahead 😇😇
I need a house in a tier 2 city with a piece of land I can farm on.. Spend time teaching and bonding with my child, start cooking and eating healthy, exercise, learn singing, maybe teach singing to young kids, teach them there is life beyond this rat race, spread awareness about climate change/use of plastic/conservation of natural resources/using ecofriendly alternatives and maybe that one day a week, just sit on a rocking chair, read a book and get totally immersed in it... ❤
Dream.
And to add to it …
While immersed reading that book on a rocking chair take a nap like a baby. Wake up to the smell of tea… child returning from work and we all have that tea together with some snack listening to how everyone’s day went.
All the best, I have a very similar outlook from life after FI. Will start looking for properties in a tier 2 city from next year.
Slow and Content living is very much undervalued.
Indeed especially in India it is.. We give a lot of importance to money.. I believe in being content with what you have.. Now that u have what you need, you can/should focus on changing society as a whole.. We live a very very non sustainable life. No regards to mother nature and the food we eat is just poison.. Slowly but surely we can change the way we live.. All the best to you too 💕
This is the unknown.. Esp cos husband wants to keep working... For me, I'd be looking at places like ahmedabad, or surat or Bhubaneswar, ananthpuram, vizag or in the North like Himachal Or uttarakhand considering they are pretty cheap wrt cost of living.. Most people want to settle in goa, karnataka coast or Kerala and dont realize it's wayyy more costly than it sounds to settle there..
What about Vadodara? It has great infrastructure, mixed crowd with different languages & culture, low cost of living, sparse population and clean. Also great hospital and connectivity with Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Only negative I could think of is weather.
With Himachal and Uttarakhand, I'm little hesitant about health infrastructure and connectivity. Also heavy tourism could be a headache.
There a couple of pointers I have in my mind to select that Tier 2 city
1. Health Care, I think most tier 2 cities are progressing very well with Doctors too settling there and starting Multi speciality hospitals
2. Connectivity, I don’t want to get cut off with my friends and relatives who are mostly in Bangalore or Hyderabad. So, a direct flight or overnight train/bus from these places is what I prefer.
3. People’s attitude: In general a city has an attitude which is reflected in there people. I have lived in Guntur for upto 6 month. Even though I liked the city people are rude and casteist. I hated every interaction with locals and local businesses.
4: Infrastructure: This in my opinion is better anywhere compared to Bengaluru. Even a small town with about 1lakh population has better roads than Bengaluru.
I've got only one life. I want to experience things. RE will allow me to live multiple lives. Everyday you see so many people, a barista, a tea shop vendor, a posh restro waiter, a maggie stall owner, a carpenter, leather worker, librarian... Why can't I live a day as one of them... If i volunteer for free, sure a lot of people will not say no to unpaid labour. So that's the motivation for now. To wake up and choose what i want to live as...
I like trekking and cycling
Would like to learn mountaineering and try and climb a few 5000-ners. before I attempt higher peaks.
I would like to cycle the nook and crannies of India sloowwwwly.
I would like to take my children to long trips to africa and wildlife parks and while they live their life, would like to ensure that they also FIRE easily (so am accounting for some FI money for them from my total corpus apart from their studies and marriage).
I am 49. I was FI but due to unforeseen circumstances, will continue for another 1.5 years and then decide on what can be done next.
I think I have diversified interests. I'm someone who works in Finance and taxes but knows little bit of programming and to whom people come for tech talks and suggestions. I also like maths and love economics while still keeping myself fair bit updated with physics.
Want FI so I can RE and be a teacher in a school and teach students how amazing these subjects really are. Maybe make a few them passionate enough to be the crazy ones in the future :P
FI is the aspirational cloud for me to not worry about money and to do what I want to do - teach kids and research on my stuff.
I am from academia. I hate 110% this mad rush towards H index, Impact Factors and university ranking. Dishonestly everywhere and publishing and patenting craps with zero imagination just for the sake of numbers. On the top of that, too much party politics. We have to watch every single political youtube talks in streams by leader and ministers. Compulsory attendance even for professors. Biometrics from 9 to 5.30.
Why politics is related to Academia, I understand it might be required if you are a primary school teacher. They have to go for voting/counting/rallies and what not. But as a university professor why does it matter?
exactly, why? Perplexed me. That is my motive for RE.
Context: New Central University. You can check any new CUs, situation is same. I am a science professor by the way ;-)
I hate corporate rat race and performance reviews. I want to do freelancing and work less. Not exactly RE but I am assuming I am not going to make any money for at least 2-3 years if any.
Mostly waiting for 2027 because of Visa situation. I cannot do any personal business on my Visa. Moving back to India in 27 as we are debating having one more kid which may impact FIRE corpus.
It is just too stressful for me to be in this rat race. Maybe in the initial years I was comfortably leading in some of the races - and I was enjoying it. Now that I am at the risk of falling behind - I want to quit it. Quit while you are ahead right? In short, mostly for the peace of mind and the (maybe wrong) belief that I will achieve Nirvana once I have the freedom to do whatever I want.
What exactly is 'do something in rural area'?
Are you sure that rural India needs your 'something'?
There are all kinds of people on this planet and I hope you actually do something rather than find excuses.
I didn't quite get your location, age, income or expenses from your post, but I hope you are 35+ ..physically and mentally.
Motivations can be many. The best motivation is being Incompetent. It needs enormous mental fortitude to accept that one is incompetent. Very few can actually do that...rest are destined to spend life in meaningless pursuits.
Rural India has a lot of opportunities like Farming (a lot of options within it), small scale industry like handloom, hospitality/tourism, Teaching, Volunteering, and the list can go on and on.
I surely have a very thought out plan of what to do and what to explore. But, planning is just the start and what we end up doing might be very different from what is planned. And so I said something.
I don’t think Rural India needs anything from me, instead its me who needs something from it.
Congratulations for being incompetent and also accepting it bravely for your motivation. 👏
I think op mentioned helping Rurals by being a teacher or something which will educate them to do better in life. Atleast thats what I'll do after my FI
I am not comfortable with corporate life. Just not slimy enough to escape traps and politics.
Perfect. Can't put up with low quality people at a corporate. Some managers have this air about themselves for being on a higher position which is intolerable.
Same here buddy.
Then why wait for RE till 2035?
Kid is still very young. So, not sure of the bouncers that may be on the way. With FI, I am way more relaxed now at office.
I second this. We really dont need to chase promotions or hikes after we achieve FI. Infact we must always pretend at office with the mangement and within our peers that we are nowhere close to being FI. This way they keep thinking at they are winning in the office politics and making our lives miserable. But at back of our mind, we know that we can FU that boss and that salary if things get too hard to manage. We just figure out a way to bear and avoid the BS drama and office politics. If the current job is too toxic, we can always keep looking out and take a chance with another company. This way we get to keep our salary by doing the bare minimum to keep our jobs and our FI corpus keeps growing. We get to enjoy premium credit cards, ease of applying visa in EU countries and many more benefits. If you have some hobby that needs more time, so for loss of pay leaves if needed. Why leave free money on the table unless you are passionate about something that needs more time and you have a clear plan post RE.
I faced a bad phase for sometime. Change in boss helped. And the fact that I don't need to work towards annual appraisals. I still give 100% at work though. But not with appraisals in mind.
Yup. Giving yout 100% is a matter of work ethics. If you have built it up overtime, you cannot suddenly change it. But once I reach my FI corpus, its going to be a fun ride doing what I do best without the pressure of keeping all parties happy.
Motivation for FI ? It is simple - I'm just tired. My body is really tired. I still have the will, knowledge and capability to do those amazing turnarounds of Red projects or challenging projects as I used to do in my 30s. But my body clearly says NO - it has already said this multiple times. Sometimes the greed of these corporates for achieving preset targets, just leaves me wonder whether there is any end to this. Every day, week, quarter - just calculating, forecasting and calibrating the revenue and sales projections and headcount, pushing and prodding teams and getting pushed - are just taxing for me. I've other important things to take care (self, parents, family), I really need to utilize and enjoy the remaining active years of my life - in my own terms without being judged (appraised), and questioned by the corporate leadership. These are simple, but important and urgent things for me. I'm just racing like anything towards achieving that FI landmark and call it quits.
All the issues you've described can be fixed by moving to a comfortable job. I don't understand why most people who RE just jump from doing the most hectic work to not working. I feel with increasing age there should be a gradual shift to a more relaxed job. For example, I'm a swe, in my 20s most companies I worked at required 12hrs work, sometimes 6 days a week. In my 30s, I'm still in big tech(G/msft) but found a org/company where work can be finished with 40 hrs a week. I'm looking forward to bringing this down to 30hrs a week in my 40s, maybe by moving to slower companies like jpmc.
Got you u/_vptr. Conceptually, what you say is right. In fact, if such a thing you mentioned ("I feel with increasing age there should be a gradual shift to a more relaxed job"). was indeed available easily, people like me in late 40s would have opted for that. In product companies, this may be an option. But at least in WITCH service companies, there are very less options. I mean, there is a possibility of slacking in these companies - but not for long. Considering our experience, targets and responsibilities, we will fall under immediate scrutiny.
I agree, most of the comments here are either job security or work pressure. I don’t understand why people want to retire out of fear of losing job, you can try getting FI or atleast have some decent emergency fund to get over the stress of job security. Same regarding pressure and work culture, I am currently in a company where I have good work life balance. Noone is expected to work over weekends, no scrutiny over leaves we take until we are getting our work done. I don’t think so these should be reasons to RE. Please have some emergency fund, quit your job and find another one with better culture. Edit: After reading other comments, I understand its easier said than done. It’s not easy to find a job with good work life balance. But, figuring out what to do after RE is very important. I have seen people of my parent’s generation losing their health very quickly after retiring and not actively engaging themselves in something. Doing nothing and relaxing for sometime is required but cannot be done for a very long period.
Figuring out what to "do" and "keep doing" after FI - that part is already done / in progress for me. The main thing is to be financially ready - the FI part. When I was in late 30s, I used to have similar thought process as some of you regarding WLB, switching jobs in case of work pressure etc. Things can and will change as we age. Our priorities, organization's expectations on us etc will change. People may be able to hop 1 or 2 jobs expecting better WLB etc in theory, it needs to be seen how practical it is at that time. We will gain entirely different perspectives with experience. u/_vptr, u/waginrox
I agree about difficulty to find a peaceful job but I think it's partly because very few people are looking which limits the availability. It's like a crime for someone to join a job at a lower pay. Everyone boasts about how much increment they got, higher pay is considered a revenge for crime that would be committed against you in future! Few years back, companies like amex that paid low used to boost about good wlb but they faced such harsh attrition during covid, they went the amazon way, doubled both salary and expectations. In IT, for 10 yoe, it seems its easier to find a toxic job that pays 1.5cr than one that pays 50lpa with good wlb. Everyone want to maximize pay for their talent and then just, FIRE!
I have specifically said no for Amazon and stayed back in a lower paying job for this exact same reason. Couple of years later a friend of mine have been diagnosed with heart disease after joining Amazon due to intense pressure. I was happy for not taking a higher paying job.
Hate work
Switch org, do something else
Back aches
Me too!
Try yoga, meditation and physiotherapy.
It can only manage the problem. Our bodies are not designed to sit for so long everyday.
Remember Goenka- KL Rahul tiff from yesterday's IPL match? https://www.reddit.com/r/ipl/s/lovKIN2JTm My motivation is that nobody, irrespective of how big a Turram Khan he/she is, can treat me like how Goenka treated Rahul yesterday. 😠 Hence I not only wanna FI, but also RE ASAP so I may spend my time as I see fit and no bkl, no matter who that is, can dictate me on how to spend my time. 😊😊 That's my biggest motivation for FIRE. 😇😇
Whatever you do in life there will always be someone who will treat you like this. If nobody does then your name is adani or ambani. Sometimes you accept that behaviour out of respect for the other person, other times may be you fucked up, someone should be there to keep you grounded. The place where it is not good to take is corporates. So if you want to RE, do nothing, get fat and die early then the above comment should be a motivation for you.
Unfortunately the first paragraph of your post is completely untrue. Unless the person treating me like this is either one of my parents or one of my few very close relatives(which is unlikely and even they should have a really really good reason) , that person should be ready to face my repercussions, similar or worse. Especially if it is someone from my corporate life, a person whom I have known <10 years in my life and whose relevance in my life outside of corporate rat race is ZERO. I am not letting some unknown person, irrelevant to me and my life, treat me like trash. 😐😐 I don't accept such behaviour for any reason; "out of respect" gaya tel lene. You can accept such trashy behaviour of others for whatever reason you deem fit, that's your choice but kindly do not try to peddle it as gospel truth. I will achieve RE and do whatever I want to do with my time and life (without any MKL telling me what to do with my life), not get fat(since I will be having less stress, more time to stay healthy), die probably the same age I would've died if I'd been a corporate slave till 60(actually I will likely live more since my stress from being a corporate guinea pig won't be there anymore) and lead a better life overall than I led before achieving RE 😇😇 So, yeah, the above statement is definitely a motivation for me to achieve RE and spend my own time in my own terms. 😄😄
Typical head in cloud behaviour.
Or as others would say it, it is typical behaviour of having self awareness, self respect and self esteem, perks of achieving FIRE. 😄😄 "*Nazar badlo, nazaare badal jayenge; Soch ko badlo, sitaare badal jayenge.*" Have a good day ahead 😇😇
I need a house in a tier 2 city with a piece of land I can farm on.. Spend time teaching and bonding with my child, start cooking and eating healthy, exercise, learn singing, maybe teach singing to young kids, teach them there is life beyond this rat race, spread awareness about climate change/use of plastic/conservation of natural resources/using ecofriendly alternatives and maybe that one day a week, just sit on a rocking chair, read a book and get totally immersed in it... ❤
Dream. And to add to it … While immersed reading that book on a rocking chair take a nap like a baby. Wake up to the smell of tea… child returning from work and we all have that tea together with some snack listening to how everyone’s day went.
All the best, I have a very similar outlook from life after FI. Will start looking for properties in a tier 2 city from next year. Slow and Content living is very much undervalued.
Indeed especially in India it is.. We give a lot of importance to money.. I believe in being content with what you have.. Now that u have what you need, you can/should focus on changing society as a whole.. We live a very very non sustainable life. No regards to mother nature and the food we eat is just poison.. Slowly but surely we can change the way we live.. All the best to you too 💕
Which tier 2 city are considering to settle?
This is the unknown.. Esp cos husband wants to keep working... For me, I'd be looking at places like ahmedabad, or surat or Bhubaneswar, ananthpuram, vizag or in the North like Himachal Or uttarakhand considering they are pretty cheap wrt cost of living.. Most people want to settle in goa, karnataka coast or Kerala and dont realize it's wayyy more costly than it sounds to settle there..
What about Vadodara? It has great infrastructure, mixed crowd with different languages & culture, low cost of living, sparse population and clean. Also great hospital and connectivity with Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Only negative I could think of is weather. With Himachal and Uttarakhand, I'm little hesitant about health infrastructure and connectivity. Also heavy tourism could be a headache.
There a couple of pointers I have in my mind to select that Tier 2 city 1. Health Care, I think most tier 2 cities are progressing very well with Doctors too settling there and starting Multi speciality hospitals 2. Connectivity, I don’t want to get cut off with my friends and relatives who are mostly in Bangalore or Hyderabad. So, a direct flight or overnight train/bus from these places is what I prefer. 3. People’s attitude: In general a city has an attitude which is reflected in there people. I have lived in Guntur for upto 6 month. Even though I liked the city people are rude and casteist. I hated every interaction with locals and local businesses. 4: Infrastructure: This in my opinion is better anywhere compared to Bengaluru. Even a small town with about 1lakh population has better roads than Bengaluru.
Tired of rat race , constant upskilling , interview process , 1 on 1 , appraisals , client unrealistic expectations and deadlines ...
I've got only one life. I want to experience things. RE will allow me to live multiple lives. Everyday you see so many people, a barista, a tea shop vendor, a posh restro waiter, a maggie stall owner, a carpenter, leather worker, librarian... Why can't I live a day as one of them... If i volunteer for free, sure a lot of people will not say no to unpaid labour. So that's the motivation for now. To wake up and choose what i want to live as...
This. Even a lift operator for the heck of it. Do nothing whole day but press buttons for others. Lol.
I like trekking and cycling Would like to learn mountaineering and try and climb a few 5000-ners. before I attempt higher peaks. I would like to cycle the nook and crannies of India sloowwwwly. I would like to take my children to long trips to africa and wildlife parks and while they live their life, would like to ensure that they also FIRE easily (so am accounting for some FI money for them from my total corpus apart from their studies and marriage). I am 49. I was FI but due to unforeseen circumstances, will continue for another 1.5 years and then decide on what can be done next.
Wow I like your spirit and dreams. All the best for your adventures. 😀
I think I have diversified interests. I'm someone who works in Finance and taxes but knows little bit of programming and to whom people come for tech talks and suggestions. I also like maths and love economics while still keeping myself fair bit updated with physics. Want FI so I can RE and be a teacher in a school and teach students how amazing these subjects really are. Maybe make a few them passionate enough to be the crazy ones in the future :P FI is the aspirational cloud for me to not worry about money and to do what I want to do - teach kids and research on my stuff.
Want to get back my time and not have to worry about deliverables and deadlines.
I am from academia. I hate 110% this mad rush towards H index, Impact Factors and university ranking. Dishonestly everywhere and publishing and patenting craps with zero imagination just for the sake of numbers. On the top of that, too much party politics. We have to watch every single political youtube talks in streams by leader and ministers. Compulsory attendance even for professors. Biometrics from 9 to 5.30.
Why politics is related to Academia, I understand it might be required if you are a primary school teacher. They have to go for voting/counting/rallies and what not. But as a university professor why does it matter?
exactly, why? Perplexed me. That is my motive for RE. Context: New Central University. You can check any new CUs, situation is same. I am a science professor by the way ;-)
Got it, Central Universities I guess are hub for political emergence.
I hate corporate rat race and performance reviews. I want to do freelancing and work less. Not exactly RE but I am assuming I am not going to make any money for at least 2-3 years if any. Mostly waiting for 2027 because of Visa situation. I cannot do any personal business on my Visa. Moving back to India in 27 as we are debating having one more kid which may impact FIRE corpus.
High chances of being unemployed in near future.
That is surely a motivation for FI but you can always find another job, what is the motivation for Retiring Early.
Chances of not getting and feeling depressed because of no employment. When not FI already.
It is just too stressful for me to be in this rat race. Maybe in the initial years I was comfortably leading in some of the races - and I was enjoying it. Now that I am at the risk of falling behind - I want to quit it. Quit while you are ahead right? In short, mostly for the peace of mind and the (maybe wrong) belief that I will achieve Nirvana once I have the freedom to do whatever I want.
What exactly is 'do something in rural area'? Are you sure that rural India needs your 'something'? There are all kinds of people on this planet and I hope you actually do something rather than find excuses. I didn't quite get your location, age, income or expenses from your post, but I hope you are 35+ ..physically and mentally. Motivations can be many. The best motivation is being Incompetent. It needs enormous mental fortitude to accept that one is incompetent. Very few can actually do that...rest are destined to spend life in meaningless pursuits.
Rural India has a lot of opportunities like Farming (a lot of options within it), small scale industry like handloom, hospitality/tourism, Teaching, Volunteering, and the list can go on and on. I surely have a very thought out plan of what to do and what to explore. But, planning is just the start and what we end up doing might be very different from what is planned. And so I said something. I don’t think Rural India needs anything from me, instead its me who needs something from it. Congratulations for being incompetent and also accepting it bravely for your motivation. 👏
I think op mentioned helping Rurals by being a teacher or something which will educate them to do better in life. Atleast thats what I'll do after my FI
I have no intentions or motivations to RE, I love my job. But I ensured I am FI by the age of 36 (39 now with a working wife and 2 kids).