If you don’t have your health, no amount of money is worth it. As someone who has been writing about early retirement and the FIRE movement since 2009, let me emphasize the health benefits of early retirement in this post.
There are many benefits of early retirement. Full control of your time is often the most cited benefit. However, the health benefits of early retirement are the most important positive of leaving the work force early. Our goal should be to retire while we are healthy!
Mance Rayder, The King Beyond The Wall once said, “The freedom to make my own mistakes is all I ever wanted.” After leaving Corporate America in 2012, his words have never rung more true.
If I wanted more money, I would have stayed in my investment banking job for the rest of my career. But I longed for the freedom to choose after my 13th year.
Being absolutely free is priceless. Unless you love what you do, it doesn’t matter how much money you have. If you’ve still got to take direction from someone else, you’ll always feel at least a little bit trapped.
But besides glorious freedom, there are also incredible health benefits I’ve noticed after leaving the permanent workforce. Let me share some with you.
Health Benefits Of Early Retirement
When I was working a full-time job from 1999 – 2012, I had the following ailments:
- Plantar fasciitis (1999-2001 the worst period)
- Frequent allergic reactions (throughout)
- Chronic lower back pain plus sciatica (1997-2003)
- TMJ (2010 – 2012)
- Teeth grinding (2010 – 2012)
- Golfer’s elbow (2011-2012)
- Tennis elbow (2008-2011)
During the last year of work, my TMJ got so bad that I went to a dental specialist and paid $750 out of pocket to have him shave down my rear molars.
The idea was to create grooves in my teeth so my mouth could shut more easily, thereby relieving the stress from my jaw muscles. The procedure helped lessen the pain by roughly 30%, but that still left 70% of unwanted discomfort.
Can you imagine going to the dentist to purposefully drill down your teeth? That seems absolutely nuts to me now!
The Chronic Pain Went Away After I Retired Early
By the sixth month after leaving my job, EVERY PAIN went away. If I knew that my TMJ and jaw pain would have gone away so soon, I would have tried to negotiate a severance sooner! However, while you’re in the thick of work, it’s easy to continue the path of gutting things out.
Perhaps my health problems would have gone away even sooner than six months after retiring. However, the first three months were filled with excitement and worry.
I kept wondering whether I had made the right move. I had other job opportunities come up that I kept on rejecting. But after a while, not working just felt natural because I had an outlet, Financial Samurai, to share my thoughts.
I firmly believe that STRESS is the main source for many of our health problems. Except for an occasional allergy attack, I no longer suffer from any of the above mentioned chronic ailments. It’s been three years since I left work, and work stress was clearly the source for most of my problems.
For more details about how stress can negatively affect your physical and mental well-being, see a paper on the US Library of Medicine’s website. Let’s look at other health benefits of early retirement you could receive if you decide to retire early as well.
You’ll Probably Look Better As Well In Early Retirement
Here are more health benefits of early retirement.
1) Weight Loss
Besides the disappearance of chronic health issues, early retirement allows you to take better care of your body. When I first began work, I gained 20 lbs to 180 lbs within the first year at 5′ 10″. Getting fat got me down because I was so used to being trim due to all the sports I played growing up.
After leaving Manhattan for San Francisco in 2001, I got down to about 165 lbs, but I was always battling back the 170 lbs mark. By the end of my first early retirement year, I got down to 158-160 lbs and stayed there for two years due to all the exercise. There were also no more constant wining and dining of clients at high caloric, fancy restaurants.
Do you remember running around the neighborhood as a kid with all your friends? I do. Every day after school we’d go out and skateboard for three hours a day before dinner. When we’re working, there’s no play time between 4pm – 6pm anymore. For many, leaving the office before the sun went down was unheard of. Just like how compound interest creates great wealth over time, compound lack of activity creates great girth after several years.
My exercise frequency went up from 2X a week to 4X a week on average. The duration of exercise also increased given there was never really anywhere to go by a certain time frame. We’d play tennis for three or four hours sometimes without a care in the world.
Plenty of exercise plus a good diet surely should help one’s quality of life and longevity at the margin. Have you ever wondered how much money you’d be willing to forgo to live just one more year? Probably a lot the older you get!
Although I’m still not in ideal shape today, I look normal for a guy my age trying to take care of two young children.
2) Less Gray Hairs / More Hair In General
The first time I found a gray hair was at the age of 34. I was sitting in the barber’s chair when I kept seeing what I thought was a reflection off my left side. The grey hair was a shock, that reminded me how quickly we age. Of course I pulled it out, contrary to my barber’s advice. “If you pull it out, 10 more grey hairs will grow back in its place!” she said.
I thought 34 would be the beginning of the grey hair avalanche. But instead, I haven’t had a grey hair since, and I’m 44. No longer was I wondering whether I made the right move to retire early. There wasn’t any money worries either since I had picked up a consulting job to supplement my passive income streams.
Another interesting phenomena I noticed is that my hairline doesn’t seem to be receding as quickly any more. It began started receding when I was 33 during the height of the financial crisis. But it’s seemed to have stopped for the past two years. Unfortunately, I’m unable to grow back hair where hair used to be, but I’ll take a slowing recession any day!
3) Naturally Feel More Confident
When you’re in better shape you feel more confident. When you’re more confident, you enjoy life more. And when it’s evident by everyone around you that you’re a happy person, more opportunities arise.
I told myself, no, I swore to myself in 2012 that I would never go back to work if I could successfully negotiate a severance. I remember the week where the fate of my severance was in limbo because I accidentally e-mailed back an old work file that contained client contact information. Thankfully everything turned out fine, especially since I emphasized I wasn’t going to work for a competitor.
Except for competitors looking to hire me immediately after I left, the first year of early retirement on the work front was quiet. But since early 2014, I’ve received multiple attractive consulting offers that just came out of casual conversations and referrals. I’ve never advertised my services to any corporate before.
Optimistic people are like magnets. When you’re confident, people of all sorts want to connect. This is true in your professional and personal life.
Nothing Is More Important Than Your Health
I cannot overemphasize the health benefits of early retirement. The pandemic and so many people dying due to the coronavirus really puts into perspective how important our health really is.
If there’s one time to start eating well, exercising, and getting in great shape, it’s now! The more in shape we are, the less we will be negatively affected by viruses. And if we have a family, the more healthy we are, the higher the chance that we will live longer.
A lot of people who’ve never achieved early retirement have bashed the early retirement movement. I even penned a very frank post before pulling the rip chord called, The Dark Side Of Early Retirement and The Negatives Of Early Retirement Nobody Likes Talking About.
Many of the arguments still hold true now that I’m years past normal work life. However, if your body is crying out in pain, you owe it to yourself to discover a more congruent occupation.
When I’m sick, I’m willing to give any amount of money just to feel better. If you are experiencing chronic health issues, there’s a high chance the source of your ailments is due to the stress from your job.
Does that prestigious title or all that money really matter if you are feeling horrible? You might even be cutting your life shorter by a year or two due to so much stress. We haven’t even touched upon mental issues such as depression and anxiety that work stress can create either.
It’s been over nine years since I left Corporate America, and it’s become so abundantly clear how much work stress is killing us.
If you find a way to get out or work at a more fulfilling, and less stressful job, please strongly consider taking a leap. The older you get, the more you will cherish your health.
Don’t look back and regret having chased money and prestige. Chase happiness instead.
Plans To Retire Early Again
I had a good early retirement run from 2012 – 2018. Then I decided to work more online to boost my passive income streams. There must be some type of inherit desire to earn once you have a child.
Now that Joe Biden is President, I plan to retire again by 2022. I’m tired and need a break. The lockdowns forced me to build more wealth since so many other things were shut down.
I’ve noticed some annoying health issues pop up during the pandemic as well. I’m sure stress and worry manifested these problems.
However, with a strong stock market and real estate market, our family has enough passive income to provide for a comfortable lifestyle. I’m bullish on real estate and plan to invest most of my incremental dollars in real assets.
Let’s hope the economic recovery continues! The amount of wealth that has been created since the pandemic began has been quite an unexpected surprise.
Note: If you are experiencing any type of chronic pain (not just back), I highly recommend picking up a copy of Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Dr. Sarno. 
I’ve been back pain free for over 15 years despite playing tennis 2-4X a week, after having crippling back pain in my early 20s. I couldn’t even drive to work for a while because my sciatica was so bad.
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Thanks for the post. After a high tech company in Sacramento laid me off with a significant number of other managers I was scared. I immediately jumped into consulting for a software company making more money than ever. The stress level was off the charts and every illness know in me family showed up at my door. I had to take more meds as the months went by. But my retirement savings also did very well and an individual 401k allowed me to put away a great deal. I dumped the software consulting job after a couple years and am just taking 1-2 year contracts until the magic 59 1/2 y.o. I’m feeling so much better.
When my mom got older she was getting stress about just paying her monthly bills. She had enough saved and a pension to live on her own forever. She went to live with my sister and all the financial stress went away. She is 94 and her health is as good as you can expect for a 90 year old. Those are the kinds of things i am writing about in GrandDadHelper.com
I could not agree more! I am 35, working towards retiring early, have a few more years to go. I had the job from hell that was taking a significant toll on my health. I left that job 2 years ago and moved to a much less stressful position that only requires about 30 hours a week ( I negotiated a higher salary for less responsibility and hours). The lower stress and fewer hours have totally changed my life. I lost 30 pounds, my back pain and chronic headaches are gone, I now bike to work and have time for my family and time to put into growing my real estate portfolio. Life is too short to stay in a job like that.
I approach my Wealth and Health in the same regards. The earlier you plan your wealth the earlier and longer you can reap the benefits. The same goes for your health. No one wants to be rich and sickly or poor and extremely healthy (Even though I would choose to be poor and healthy) for that matter. I think both should be held in the highest regards when evaluating oneself. Great article.
My wife and I are 49 and are both retiring in the next 2-3 years. This is possible because we have always been dual income and more importantly, started saving 15% or more of our income since we graduated from college in our early 20’s. Both of our 401k’s have seven figure balances and I also have a defined benefit pension plan with medical benefits and cost of living increases. Two of our three children will be in college in 3 years but we also started saving for that when they were born so they can graduate with little or no debt. The big mistake I see people make is waiting until their 30’s or later before they get serious about retirement planning and saving. Many also spend on things that we have never had such as boats, motorcycles, RV’s, or expensive new cars. We didn’t buy a new car until both of our homes were paid off at age 48. The only thing we splurged on were some nice family vacations over the years which I would do all over again.
Another big part of our decision to retire early is the crazy marginal tax rates we pay – about 55% for our top rate and an effective federal and state rate of 43% last year. We no longer will work for the government for over 5 months each year!
I truly believe that corporate life is ruining many people’s lives without them even knowing. Working for so many hours is not how we should live.
I have a few points to add on to your article: Weight Loss is a huge part of it. People eat horribly when they are at work. You get so hungry sitting at a desk and need to just snack on whatever is available. This is not healthy. Also, you go home and you are too tired to make food, so you go out to eat. It is a cycle that is tough to get out of.
Eventually, I hope to work about 25-30 hours a week and be able to make a decent income. At my age and income, I’m content at where I am at; however, I definitely would be happy if I had more time to relax and hang out with friends.
Thanks for the article Sam and keep up the good work,
Erik
I personally think 40+ hour workweeks, cubicle dwellings and tyrant bosses are incredibly unhealthy. We are not meant for this and it is causing a host of ailments. I was experiencing health problems, so I left. I always try to tell “kids” in their 20’s to not get into debt and the habit of living paycheck to paycheck. You just never know when you need to leave. Living a simple life brings soooo much more joy than a fat paycheck… at least it has in my experience. An additional benefit is that early retirement or part time work usually has us treading much lighter on the environment, so that is an added bonus even if not the main intent.
I made the choice to choose a career that I enjoy, find meaning in, and is lower stress. And I love it. I see every single day the impact my work has to improve the quality of people’s lives. On the flip side, it’s a lower paying field, with no benefits. My master’s degree cost more than double what I make in a year. So saving to be able to retire at 60 requires serious sacrifices in my daily life, such as not participating in any event with friends or family that costs money. So retiring early is highly unlikely. But at least while I am working I am enjoying it. I do sometimes think about the options I would have had if I had spent a decade in a high paying field first. I just couldn’t do work, though, that didn’t make the world better. So I deal with the consequences of that choice.
Choice, that is all we can ever ask for!
Glad you have an enjoyable career that has meaning. I think a majority do not!
Hey Sam-
This is a timely post for me. I am in my mid-20’s and herniated a disc in my lower back about 6 weeks ago. I went from being very active and playing lots of golf to hardly being able to walk. It really made me question what the point of saving so much for retirement was if my body wasn’t going to be there for me to enjoy it! Luckily, I am doing better now but back pain/sciatica is terrible!
Hope u feel better and read Dr Sarno’s book tonight! If you’re not feeling better within two months, I’ll buy you a drink if we ever meet up. And when you do feel better, you can write an article for me on how you got to your state in the first place!
I wonder, too, about the health effects sitting down for as many hours as we North Americans tend to do – 8 hours at work, .5-2 hours driving, then more hours sitting on the couch or in front of the computer at home. Followed up, of course, by sitting to eat, then lying down – there just isn’t a lot of work done by the middle 1/3 of an average person’s body.
I find, personally, if I don’t deadlift for a few weeks, I actually get sharp lower back pains that come on randomly until I start up again… and my hamstrings and lower back tend to get the most sore after intense workouts. I’ve seen some studies on the ‘sitting too much’ phenomenon, but I wonder if it’ll be the public health crisis of the currently-working generations.
It’s irreversible the negative effects of LT sitting according to what I’ve read, but that seems so pessimistic.
Man, haven’t deadlifted in maybe EVER! My knees might break :)