Retirement 10

Fortunately or unfortunately there are no short cuts to sucess. This is coming from a man who in most of my friends and peers eyes was very successfull at a young age. But I never considered myself worthy of the success as I believed it was a stroke of luck as I was at the right place at the right time. So I continued to look for success that I can call the result of my own hard work working like every body else. Alas it is still eluding me. The only good thing is that I enjoy my work fairly well othewise i would have quit long ago.

As I mentioned earlier I have no magic mantra. Let me give some of my goals below:

I would like to retire in next 10 years, preferably in 7 years. Let me also give my concept of reitrement.

1. I do not report to any body except to my family.
2. I do not have to wear a tie or a suit if I do not want to. ( I actually enjoy wearing them but I know given a choice I would not like to)
3. I do not have to wait for a paycheck to arrive at the end of the month to pay for the bills.
4. My house/s have ZERO mortgage. That is right the house/s should be completely paid off with nothing to own to any bank.
5. My monthly income should be more than the monthly income of an IAS officer with about 20 years work experience. This income should come from investments or businesses that i own where i go only because i enjoy working there not because i have to work. I will explain in a future blog the reason for choosing this benchmark.
   
6. I should have adequate medical coverage for me and my family beside life insurance.
   Amounts to be decided after studying data.
   
7. No outstanding loan of any kind-- e.g personal loans, Credit Card loan, car loan etc.
8. I should be able to give a minimum of 10% of my income to things I believe make a difference. I currently am not able to do more than 1.5%. Some of these activities would be things like giving for the cause of girl child, environment, micro finance etc.
9. Travel at least 3 times a year with family to places we want to see together both in our Incredible India and beyond.
10. Give values to my kids that my parents gave to me and my siblings.

Now that I have listed my agenda and criteria for retirement we will go in detail in future. And what I am doing to achieve the same.