▲ Wealth and freedom are not a dream. A former lawyer retired early and lived on dividends at the age of 53, but still regrets the three financial mistakes he made when he was 20…
Many people who aim to retire early have to plan carefully to earn enough net worth in a shortened time frame, leaving little room for error. Major investments with no return or large, unnecessary purchases can derail wealth growth and delay retirement plans.
Alex Trias, a 53-year-old former tax lawyer, successfully retired at the age of 41. He currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal with his wife Noki, a former nurse who also retired early, and their daughter Evie, relying on dividends from their investment portfolio to support their lives. His annual salary before resigning was six figures, and he was frugal like most FIRE people, including buying clothes from discount stores, taking public transportation, and keeping the number of household items to a minimum to keep the cost of living low. . But Trias still regrets some of the things he did in his 20s. He believes that if he had not made the following three financial mistakes, he would have been on the road to financial freedom more smoothly.
Mistake 1: Deliberately pursuing “differentness” everywhere
Being unique and unconventional does not mean usefulness, nor does it guarantee success. In an interview with CNBC, Alex Trias said that whether it was in terms of career or personal finance, he also realized that going off track is not always worth it: “In my 20s, I wasted too much time and energy trying to become extremely wealthy. Be creative, rather than becoming extremely competent.”
Early in his legal career, Trias learned a lesson about work mindset from a mentor. The mentor compared Trias’s work as a solicitor to a seafood vendor shucking as many oysters as possible. Although Trias would be more interested in imagining this rigid job as “looking for pearls”, for him, as long as he focuses on “shucking oysters” The only purpose is to make work easier and smoother.
Trias realizes that in legal work, some practices are sometimes called “Best practices” for a reason. When he was young, he once thought that he could only progress in his career by standing out or trying to reimagine some time-tested strategies. However, he now thinks that the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” holds more promise than he thought.
Mistake 2: Mistakenly believing that “timing” of investment is more important than “habit”
Real wealth takes a long time to accumulate, and short-term returns are difficult to rely on. Alex Trias said that his biggest financial regret is not the expenditure, but the thought: “I used to think about buying low, waiting, and then selling high. I can’t explain the anxiety and waste caused by this mental framework. “
Trias advises young investors not to try to time the market, but to develop a habit of saving and investing: “One of the things that really works is to develop an almost unconscious habit. No matter what is happening in the world economy, and no matter whether you think stocks are being Overestimating, saving and investing repeatedly every time food comes out.”
Trias continued that everyday investors do not need to pay attention to and worry about their investments all the time. It is not worth wasting time and stress. He believes focusing on your net worth month by month or even year by year can be counterproductive: “Don’t worry too much about the end result, but focus on the habits you’re forming.”
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Error 3:Overestimating one’s life needs
There are many things that you think you should have, but in fact you have no interest at all. Alex Trias said that when he and his family first moved to a foreign country, he was surprised to discover how few the family actually had in terms of material and financial needs.
Trias once believed that for a family to be happy, they must have at least four bedrooms and a list of items; but fortunately, it didn’t take long for him to realize that he could live a happy life with less money. .
He said that he and his wife no longer needed any of the things they thought they would need in retirement: “It took us about six months of living in a more streamlined way to realize that not only did we not need them, we actually didn’t want them. .”
Perhaps some people’s idea of a comfortable retirement life is to be able to afford a personal chef, or eat every meal in a restaurant, etc. Trias recommends that you explore while you are young to find out what you really want your retirement life to be like, and then think about how to achieve this goal. It may be easier than you think.
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2023-10-28 13:45:00
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