You Don’t Need a Job to Have a Fulfilling Life

Many people considering early retirement might be worried that their life will feel a little empty once they no longer have a job to go to everyday. And it’s true that having a job takes up a lot of hours in the day. So the question that every early retiree needs to answer is:  are you going to feel bored and unfulfilled when you’re not working anymore? 

We were certainly worried about this when we retired early. And with good reason. Our jobs took up a substantial portion of our lives every week. If we weren’t at work, we were getting ready for work, commuting to work or recovering from work. Even weekends included some amount of catching up from the previous week or getting ready for the upcoming. Me-time was fleeting and precious.  

Given the huge amount of your week and your life just focused on work, its critical to transition to early retirement with a plan. Otherwise you might find yourself at loose ends by mid afternoon once you’ve finished working out, catching up on the news, doing chores and all the other things that make up daily life.

We retired more than a year ago and found that with a little planning, our life is more than full. In fact, we don’t even have enough hours in the day to do everything we want to do.

We’re going to show you what a typical week in our early retirement looks like. Of course, what we do each week really depends on which city or country we’re in. This month we’re in Malta so our activities are inspired by what’s available here. 

Because it’s us, we like to plan each week in advance. Planning the week in advance might sound a bit uptight but it helps us ensure that we’re covering off all the key activities we’ve chosen for our early retirement. Those activities are spending time in nature, living like a local in different countries and working on our creative projects. 

Having a nice mix of all those activities during the week means that we always feel productive and fulfilled in early retirement. There’s no letting life pass us by while we’re on the couch watching Netflix. 

Here’s what we did this past week in Malta…

Monday

We always like to kick off the week with a big excursion in nature. After spending a couple decades locked in an office, one of our big focus areas in early retirement is to spend as much time as possible outdoors. And of course, having our dogs with us makes it that much better. So we always dedicate at least one day a week for a big hike somewhere beautiful.  

Here in Malta, there’s lots of great hiking by the Medditeranean. This Monday we followed a path along the coast overlooking some gorgeous cliffs. It was a breezy day with very changeable weather…one minute the sun was shining, the next it was a little rainy. But either way, it was relatively warm and we felt great about Malta being our choice for January.  

Tuesday

Even though we’re traveling, we don’t spend everyday being tourists. So Tuesdays are all about our creative projects. In fact, we usually spend around three days a week working on our YouTube channel and our blog. Sometimes we’ll do this in a cafe but typically we work in our Airbnb.   

Three days a week might sound like a lot of work but we’ve found that having a somewhat challenging project has made the transition from full time work to full time retirement a lot easier. 

We have the satisfaction of creating something that other people enjoy. We’re constantly learning new skills and stretching our brains. And it helps us stay connected to the larger financial independence and travel communities. That’s probably the biggest benefit of our creative project: all the new friends we’ve made over the past year of having a youtube channel. 

Wednesday

On Wednesdays, we get into being tourists. This is the primary reason we’re traveling instead of staying in one place. We want to see the world and learn about the culture and history of different places. This means spending hours getting lost in the historic centres and really soaking in our latest destination.

Here in Malta, we’re staying in the town of Sliema, so we took a short ferry ride to get to the historic city of Valletta, which is famous for being one of the smallest capital cities in Europe.

We spent a couple hours touring the major sights, including the national library, the grandmaster’s palace, and a lot of churches. We also went out for a very decadent meal at a traditional Maltese restaurant. 

Malta is a very expensive place to visit so when we do eat out, we want it to feel like a special occasion. For us, food is an important way to get to know the local culture so we really appreciate these moments.  

Thursdays 

On Thursdays, we’re back at our creative projects. So this means spending a few hours sharing ideas and editing videos and a lot of other tasks that we really enjoy.

Spending time together on these projects has been something new for us. We’ve never worked together like this before and it’s given us a lot of learning about the importance of good communication skills. After 13 years of marriage, we’ve been surprised about how much more there is to learn about each other. Another side benefit to early retirement. 

Friday

On Friday, more culture. But this time we headed indoors for an in-depth look at Malta’s history. This Friday we both wanted to go to the same sight, which was the St John’s Co-Cathedral. This is a cathedral from the 1500s built by the Knights of St John who ruled Malta for three hundred years. 

The cathedral is absolutely stunning. As soon as we stepped in the door, we could see why it’s the top attraction in valletta. And the admission price includes an audio tour so we got a full dose of the history of the Knights at the same time. 

Of course, while the dogs go most places with us, they couldn’t come into the cathedral. So we each took turns hanging out with our little fellows while having a cappuccino nearby.

Saturday

Saturdays are for me-time. Even though our lives aren’t stressful at all, it’s still nice to have some down time after a week of running to sights and working on our projects. So we like to set aside some time to catch up with family, catch up with laundry, go to the market, maybe cook a special meal. 

This Saturday we ended the day with a lovely walk in our neighbourhood with an incredible view of Valletta across the bay. Having these relaxed moments helps us feel like our latest destination isn’t just a tourist stop, it’s a place we can call home for a month. We don’t need to spend every minute of the day rushing to the next attraction. We can just enjoy everyday life wherever we are.

Sunday

On Sunday, we’re back on our creative project. And that wraps up a week combining physical activity, exploration, learning, self-indulgence and creativity — everything we could hope for in our early retirement.

Of course, this is a high level view of our whole week. If you want to know what a typical day of early retirement looks like, we recommend the video right here.