March 3, 2023: A Step-By-Step Guide To Never Retiring And Living The Semi-Retired Life
Part One: Assessment Of Your Situation
That’s from Barcelona—my new favorite city—with the incredible Sagrada Família Church in the background.
With the Never Retire newsletter’s February series—and month-long trip to Spain and Italy—complete, it’s time to make good on my promise for March.
Here’s what I will do: Starting with the February 3rd installment, I will take each Never Retire checklist item I introduced last month and expand on it in great detail, with a focus on my journey to living the semi-retired life now and, hopefully, for the duration.
The goal: After writing March’s 20 posts in 31 days, I will publish a long-ass 21st post that includes all of the preceding content. So you get to read each post as it comes out, but then have one article to refer back to with everything—all 20 Never Retire checklist items.
While some items lend themselves to more detail—generally and from my story—than others, I will go as deep as possible in every post, evolving and updating my thinking around each point.
This is part of the beauty of what we do here: We’re not dealing in static subject matter.
Only paid subscribers have complete access to every post in March. So now is a great time to sign up or upgrade to not only be able to see each post in its entirety, but to support my work as a freelance writer.
Subscribe now for $5/month or $50/year. Sign up as a founding member, pay once and never pay again. You’ll be set for life.
Never Retire Checklist Item #1: Assessment Of Your Situation
In Spring of 1995, on the eve of my 20th birthday, I moved away from home.
To Miami. For my first full-time job in radio.
The gig paid $26,500 a year. Or roughly $2,208 a month, before taxes. That was not a lot of money. Not even 27 or so years ago. Especially in one of the nation’s most populated regions—South Florida.
I should have—I wish I would have—realized then that I’d Never Retire.
Of course, I didn’t. The thought wasn’t part of my vernacular.
I was following the typical trajectory: upward mobility on the way to traditional retirement.
Anything less would have been selling myself short. A failure.