RETIRING AT 35

I'm retiring in a few weeks, at age 35.

For the first time in my professional career, I'll have the chance to enjoy a month-long (or more?) vacation. The longest I've gone on VL since after college is only two weeks. So I'm really looking forward to the long break.

As I mentioned in my past entries, this is my 35th birthday gift to me: freedom!

Freedom to:

1. Wake up to no-alarm clock days
2. Attend morning yoga sessions (without worrying that I'll be late for work)
3. Run all I want
4. Read all I want (lots of books in line)
5. Nap when I want to
6. Take long hot showers
7. Spend time with my family (My parents and sister are scheduled to come home soon!)
8. Spend time with my nieces
9. Maybe even bring / fetch my niece S to /from school (I'd love that!)
10. Spend time with my relatives (Balikbayans by September!)
11. Meet up with friends
12. Practice my make-up skills
13. De-clutter the condo
14. Pack for SG
15. Organize a garage sale
16. Try out simple, budget recipes
17. Organize files
18. Do photo shoots with my Hubby
19. Plan out the next chapter of our lives
20. Enjoy DVD marathons
21. Watch films at the cinema for free (Yey, free!)
22. Walk around the city (Confession: I haven't seen all of Manila. What a shame!)
23. Volunteer for charity work
24. If I have extra money, maybe enroll in more fashion / hair / makeup workshops
25. Do nothing

The list excites me! But I have to admit, the no-more-payday reality is haunting me. But I know I / we will survive. Sandali lang naman. Hindi naman ito forever. We've saved a bit, of course. But we don't plan to drain the "Singapore Dream fund" dry.

This is where our childless by choice stance comes in handy. No child will go hungry with our decision to "retire" now, nang sabay. If ever, kami lang ang magugutom. Hahaha! (Thank God our families have pledged to feed us pag nagkagipitan. LOL.)

So how do I plan to survive the no-payday-for-awhile reality? I've been reading "simplifying your life" articles. And I'm actually inspired to try the ideas! Operative word: try. My recent ukay-ukay success may have been the first step towards...zen. Hmmm...

Sharing with you ideas to Simplify Your Life, from ZenHabits.net:

The Short List
For the cynics who say that the list below is too long, there are really only two steps to simplifying:

1. Identify what’s most important to you.
2. Eliminate everything else.

Of course, that’s not terribly useful unless you can see how to apply that to different areas of your life, so I present to you the Long List.

The Long List
There can be no step-by-step guide to simplifying your life, but I’ve compiled an incomplete list of ideas that should help anyone trying to find the simple life. Not every tip will work for you — choose the ones that appeal and apply to your life.

One important note: this list will be criticized for being too complicated, especially as it provides a bunch of links. Don’t stress out about all of that. Just choose one at a time, and focus on that. When you’re done with that, focus on the next thing.

1. Make a list of your top 4-5 important things. What’s most important to you? What do you value most? What 4-5 things do you most want to do in your life? Simplifying starts with these priorities, as you are trying to make room in your life so you have more time for these things.
2. Check out their website for the complete "Long List"