During COVID I felt like I was thriving.

I changed jobs twice and recently finished a temporary assignment. I moved condos early in the pandemic knowing that I would need more natural light and a space to work that wasn’t my kitchen table. I have been able to continue to build my savings for retirement.

I am grateful for all that I was able to accomplish during this time, but honestly that feeling is gone.

Letting Go of Ambition

Two years ago, I had an opportunity to apply for an executive leadership development program.

I was excited about it, but as I was filling out the letter of intent, I started having second thoughts. These are difficult jobs, often with a great deal of stress, long hours and honestly the pay bump wouldn’t have made much of a difference given my short runway to retirment.

I had also just come back from two weeks in Barcelona, one of my happy places. It is actually one of my happy places. I feel super relaxed there and have managed to make friends with some of the locals. The quality of food and life is better that in Canada. There is so much history and culture.

Barcelona, and Europe in general, was starting to feel like home.

Reframing My Thinking On Retirement

This experience started to reframe my thinking on retirement — do I really need to work until I’m 65?

I am fortunate to have a pension plan that I have been contributing to for almost 14 years and I am vested in my plan so can retire at any time. By having made smart choices in investing, I have also been able to create streams of passive income to become eligible for a retirement visa.

Maybe retirement really is a number and not an age.

I reached out to speak to someone at my pension plan that I have been contributing to for 12 years now. We talked about how it all worked and he dropped a nugget of information on me that I didn’t expect.

The Only Way To Make A New Path Is To Travel It

One of the things I have been reflecting on is when will I know the time is right to make the move.

Honestly, I’m not sure that I will ever know when it is the right time. The perfect moment doesn’t exist. With good information in hand, solid planning in place good decisions can be made.

A new chapter in my life is going to start soon and I look forward to sharing it with you.