3046: Before You Retire - Powerful Lessons from Mini Retirement by Chris of Keep Thrifty

Summary

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Optimal Finance Daily, Episode 3046: "Before You Retire – Powerful Lessons from Mini Retirement by Chris of Keep Thrifty"

Hosted by: Diania Merriam
Date: February 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Diania Merriam presents and reflects on an insightful post by Chris of Keep Thrifty, sharing hard-earned lessons from his ongoing “mini-retirement.” The episode explores the emotional and practical preparation needed before full retirement, highlighting the importance of vision, identity, and structure during periods away from traditional work. Through both Chris’s and Diania’s experiences, listeners are encouraged to approach retirement as more than a financial milestone—it's a deeply personal transformation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Don’t Retire From Something; Retire To Something

• Chris’s Experience:
  • Signals the importance of planning not only for what you’ll leave behind (commuting, workplace politics) but, even more, for what you’ll actively move toward.
  • Example: During his mini-retirement, Chris created a robust roadmap for how to use his time—working on the Thrifty app, writing articles, redesigning his website, spending quality time with family, volunteering, exercising, reading, and engaging with his church.
• Essential Lesson:
  • Discontent and boredom can result from a lack of positive direction in retirement.
  • Quote:

    "If your only goal in retirement is to not have to work, you'll probably find yourself unsatisfied and even bored when you finally get there." (03:02, Chris from Keep Thrifty)

  • Takeaway: Construct a vision for your life after retirement before you get there.

2. Prepare Mentally, Not Just Financially

• Chris’s Realization:
  • Most people define retirement readiness by financial markers; mental and emotional readiness is often overlooked.
  • He candidly discusses the challenge of shifting his identity from his profession (“engineering manager”) to other roles (“writer, a coder, a husband, and a father, and a Christian”).
• Validation and Self-Worth:
  • The absence of professional validation (like a paycheck or title) can create an identity void.
  • Quote:

    "Whether you know it or not, you identify yourself as a breadwinner, a hard worker, or by your job title. When you retire, those all go away and you have to know what's left to fill the void in your identity." (04:23, Chris from Keep Thrifty)

• Takeaway: Invest in understanding yourself and developing new sources of meaning well before retirement.

3. The Importance of Structure

• Life Without Structure:
  • The influx of free time can be overwhelming and potentially unproductive without intentional boundaries.
  • Chris recounts the early swings between overwork and neglecting family or vice versa. Establishing routines brought balance to his days.
• Setting Rhythms:
  • Shared morning coffee with his spouse, focused work blocks, evening family time, and scheduled volunteering became anchors in his week.
  • Quote:

    "By defining clear boundaries and structure, we've been able to turn the blessing of free time in retirement from something good to something great." (06:09, Chris from Keep Thrifty)

• Takeaway: Creating routines and guarding precious time enhances fulfillment during a mini or full retirement.

Practical Advice for Listeners

• Take a “practice run” through mini-retirements or extended sabbaticals if possible.
• Build a vision beyond leaving your job—think about how you want to use your time and develop your non-professional identity.
• Lay out a loose but intentional schedule for your days in retirement.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Vision is key:

  "Make sure to develop a vision for what you want in retirement before you get there." (03:43, Chris from Keep Thrifty)

• Mental Transition:

  "The good news is that I'm getting a chance to learn this lesson now that I'm not defined by a job title or a paycheck so that I'll be in much better shape when real retirement comes." (05:35, Chris from Keep Thrifty)

• Structure elevates:

  "Extra time is good. Extra time with structure is great." (05:52, Chris from Keep Thrifty)

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Diania Merriam’s Reflection (08:34 onwards)

Diania enthusiastically supports the idea of mini-retirements and shares her own transformative experience from a two-month sabbatical walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain:

• Identity Beyond Work:
  • The journey revealed new qualities in herself—particularly nurturing traits—which became central to her core values.
  • The people she met weren’t interested in her prestigious career; they cared about her journey and personal growth.
  • Quote:

    "None of the people who I met while walking the Camino cared about my fancy corporate job...They asked me about my experience walking the Camino. They wanted to know what I was learning and how this experience was making me a better person." (09:13, Diania Merriam)

• Shifting Priorities:
  • After returning, her focus pivoted from career achievement to generosity and helping others.
  • Quote:

    "This sense of generosity has been something I've carried home with me and has become one of my most important core values." (10:12, Diania Merriam)

• Advice:
  • Diania strongly encourages anyone who can to seek a life adventure away from work, emphasizing the profound self-discovery it enables.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:10 – Chris introduces the “mini-retirement” concept and his hopes
• 03:02 – The importance of retiring "to" rather than just "from"
• 04:23 – The challenge of replacing work-based identity
• 05:52 – How unstructured time can derail fulfillment
• 06:09 – Building routines to maximize free time
• 08:34 – Diania shares her sabbatical experience and reflections
• 10:12 – Lasting value of newfound generosity and identity shift

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Conclusion

This episode delivers actionable, personal, and deeply honest insights on preparing for retirement—emphasizing that purpose, identity, and structure matter just as much as your finances. More than just financial advice, Chris and Diania encourage listeners to proactively shape a life that retirement will enhance, not just fill. Their advice is clear: test-drive retirement through mini-retirements if you can, and focus as much on self-discovery as on your savings.

“Your optimal life awaits.”

Transcript

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[Chris from KeepThrifty.com]

Learn [e-mail] TradeSmart this is optimal Finance Daily. Before you retire Powerful Lessons from Mini Retirement by Chris of keepthrifty.com I can't believe that we're already six months into our one year mini retirement. It feels like just yesterday that I was packing up my belongings at work and at home as we flipped our.

[Podcast Host]

Life upside down to try something crazy.

[Chris from KeepThrifty.com]

This mini retirement has been an opportunity for me to practice real retirement, and I'm so grateful to have this opportunity. I've learned some important lessons that will help me down the road when I finally leave the workforce permanently. No matter where you are on your retirement journey and whether that's going to be traditional retirement, early retirement, or a mini retirement, keep these in mind to help you make the most of your time. Number one, don't retire from something.

[Podcast Host]

Retire to something.

[Chris from KeepThrifty.com]

Imagine yourself on the first day of your real retirement. You've been looking forward to getting your time back, and now it's finally yours. This is going to be awesome, right?

[Podcast Host]

Okay, so now what?

[Chris from KeepThrifty.com]

It's common to get really focused on what you won't have to do in retirement, like commuting and workplace politics. But if your only goal in retirement is to not have to work, you'll probably find yourself unsatisfied and even bored when you finally get there. It's really important to create a vision for your retirement so you know what you're retiring to. When we planned our mini retirement, I knew that I had features I wanted to add to the Thrifty app, a huge list of articles to write and thoughts on a Keep Thrifty site redesign. In addition, I wanted to spend more time with Jamie, coffee dates and daytime hikes, and with our girls, walking them to school and volunteering in the classroom. If I found myself with extra time I thought I might take an online coding class or two, spend more time exercising, get back into reading fiction books, and get more involved in our church. As a result of planning ahead, I haven't had a bored moment in the last six months, other than when I was waiting on hold this morning with our health insurance provider. Looking forward, I've easily got enough things I'd like to do to keep me busy for years, so make sure to develop a vision for what you want in retirement before you get there. Number two when preparing, focus as much on your head as on your finances. If someone asks you when you'd be ready to retire, you might pull up a spreadsheet with projections on the growth of your investment accounts. Understanding when you'll be financially ready for retirement is great, but do you know when you'll be mentally ready? You might say right now. After all, wouldn't it be great to stop working today? But there's a lot more to the mental transition than just wanting to stop working. We spend so much of our lives working before retirement that the shift can be a difficult adjustment. Whether you know it or not, you identify yourself as a breadwinner, a hard worker, or by your job title. When you retire, those all go away and you have to know what's left to fill the void in your identity. When I was working, I got bi weekly validation of my contributions through my paychecks. I had the benefit of feeling like I was part of something bigger. When people asked what do I do? I had an easy answer. Engineering manager. Since starting the mini retirement, I found myself struggling with whether or not what I'm working on is valuable. If people aren't paying, is it actually worth something? In the last six months, I've had the chance to redefine my identity. I'm not an engineering manager. I'm a writer, a coder, a husband and a father, and a Christian. Understanding who I am outside of my job has been one of my toughest and most valuable lessons from this mini retirement. Looking back, I know I spent a disproportionate amount of time in the last several years focused on the dollars over time, on understanding myself. The good news is that I'm getting a chance to learn this lesson now that I'm not defined by a job title or a paycheck so that I'll be in much better shape when real retirement comes. And number three, extra time is good. Extra time with structure is great. Remember that list of things I said I wanted to accomplish in mini retirement? I've had a lot more time to work on them. But for the first several months of my mini retirement, I was way out of balance. I've had wild swings from week to week. One week I'll get a ton of fun work done, but sacrifice time with Jamie and the girls. The next week, I'll spend wonderful moments with my family but suffer from an itch to exercise my creative muscles. Now that we're six months in, I've started to develop more of a rhythm of what my days and weeks look like, and the balance is much better. Every morning, Jamie and I have coffee together. After we drop the kids off at school, we spend an hour of quality time chatting, playing cards or planning a vacation. After this, it's work time until the kids come home from school. After they're home, the laptops are closed 99% of the time until they go to bed. Those hours are precious and we want to protect them. We've also scheduled when we volunteer in the kids classrooms to make sure we're fitting this in. It's important, but easy to let slip. By defining clear boundaries and structure, we've been able to turn the blessing of free time in retirement from something good to something great. I feel like I'm now using my time to get bits of everything I had hoped for. As you look toward retirement, consider what your schedule might look like to make sure you're investing your time in all of the things that are important to you. What to do before you retire Taking a mini retirement is a great practice session for real retirement. We've learned some important lessons that will help us when we're ready to finally retire for good. As you work toward your own retirement, take these lessons to heart. Build a vision for what you want your retirement to be.

[Podcast Host]

Create a loose schedule that allows you.

[Chris from KeepThrifty.com]

To make the most of your time and ensure you've developed a solid identity outside of your day job. If you can get all those checked off before retirement, I'm sure you'll have a great one. You just listened to the post titled before youe Powerful Lessons from Mini Retirement by Chris of keepthrifty.com this message is brought to you by Apple Card.

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[Chris from KeepThrifty.com]

I'm a big fan of mini retirements and sabbaticals. Not only does it allow you to test drive what full retirement might look like, but it can also help you mentally disconnect your identity from your profession. I experienced this during my first sabbatical in 2017. I took two months off of work to walk 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. It was an incredible life experience for many reasons, but one that really stands out to me is that it helped me see that I am more than my work. You see, none of the people who I met while walking the Camino cared about my fancy corporate job with my high profile CL and an office in the Empire State Building. Literally, no one asked me what I did for work. They asked me about my experience walking the Camino. They wanted to know what I was learning and how this experience was making me a better person. I used to think of myself as an aggressive New Yorker, but on the Camino I was shocked to see that I have some real maternal instincts. I felt a strong urge to take care of the people around me. I'd often walk up to strangers and adjust their packs so they would bear more weight on their hips rather than their shoulders. I carried more water than I needed because I kept meeting people who needed water. Many women are known to be nurturers and they sometimes take care of everyone around them to their own detriment. I have never been that kind of woman. Admittedly, I was pretty self centered most of my life. To see this nurturing side of me come out so effortlessly was simply thrilling. This sense of generosity has been something I've carried home with me and has become one of my most important core values. After returning from the Camino, my approach became much more oriented towards how I can help the people around me and this has been extremely gratifying. So all that being said, if you're able to take a break from work and have a life adventure. I highly recommend it. And that should do it for today. Have a happy rest of your day and I'll see you on the Thursday show tomorrow, where optimal life awaits.