It seems that retirement is what most people are longing for. Many think that after a long 30-year or so tenure, moving to suburb or beach-side area is bliss and a dream come true.

I once envisioned my retirement to be that way, even as an entrepreneur. But not anymore.

Why I don’t want to retire

Retirement is no fun. I learned this from my father.

My father is, finally, getting prepared for his retirement (he is 70 years old) after a 15-year extension beyond the retirement age averaged at 55 years old. Why he postponed his retirement?

He has his lifelong hobby that he has transformed into a successful business some 40 years ago and still doing well today. Yet he is still working as a Commissioner for a multi-national trading company. Business and busy-ness are two things that he can’t separate one from another.

My father biggest reason is: Life’s so dull without doing any business.

The second reason is being his friends and colleagues are passing away one after another. What bother him is that they are becoming ill, anxious and depressed after their retirement.

So, yes – I don’t want to retire.

Should you work and not having fun at all?

The reason why so many people are stuck with their dead-end jobs is because they need to save and invest for their retirement. The result: No fun and all work (some do learn to be happy with their job, but many just simply can’t.)

You need to live your life to the fullest. My vision of this is by having as many mini-retirements as I want (thanks to Tim Ferris for the inspiration) while being financially independent from my passive income (thanks to Robert Kiyosaki for the inspiration.)

The only way to achieve the above is through entrepreneurship (mini-retirements are actually possible if you can arrange remote working and telecommuting for your job – But working for a boss is just not my idea of having fun…)

So, should you work and not having fun at all? Absolutely not. However, you should work and have fun at the same time for the sake of your well-being. How? Entrepreneurship is the right answer :)

What if I still want to retire and not thinking about work anymore?

Well, it’s your life – You can decide whatever you like for yourself.

However, you need to think of ways to fund your retirement.

Back to my father’s case, he has a life-long best friend that has become so financially independent, that he and his wife travel the world for 8 months a year and have fun for the rest 4 months.

What’s his job? He is a retiree with no job and no company to run. But he has done a great job preparing anything: He has invested in properties in top-notch locations (translation: always on demand) that gives him plenty of passive income to support the lifestyle. His only “proper” work is looking for new real estate properties to invest in, which can be done while he travels. What a retirement life!

Why you should become an entrepreneur before you retire

Running a successful business can buy you investments that will yield you passive income to support your lifestyle (not by living cheap as many do.) Entrepreneurship can also prepare yourself an “empire” to pass to your children – Helping them to cut their way into entrepreneurship for a better future.

Starting out a business before you retire helps you to establish it faster, better and stronger, in such a way that when the time comes, you can retire and switch gear to be a business owner in seamless ways.

Of course, there will always be risks, but they are well worth it. In fact, the biggest risk of all is not taking risk at all.

Ivan Widjaya
Entrepreneurship rules
Image by chaosandcreation.