An issue I always have with early retirement is whether it is morally acceptable. When retiring early from a skilled profession you are depriving society of a big contribution you could have given, that was also expected and invested in by society. Utilising a power dynamic by having more money and knowledge to capitalise on other people exacerbates this issue.
How are you dealing with this? Are you of the mindset that you do not owe anything to society? That it is completely fair, as you earned that money and there is a perfect market that trades all aspects in a meritocratic fashion (e.g., delayed consumption should be gratified this hard)? Or that you were not just lucky to have the talents to earn so much money?
Look at it from the opposite angle, I’m opening up that position for the next person.
I personally never feel like I owe society anything. I’m fortunate to have a well paying job, but that doesn’t saddle me with guilt, but instead gratitude. I’m grateful for the opportunities I have, and I try to make the best I can with them. However, I do intend to become very active in causes without any expectation of pay. I also intend to start businesses and whatnot free from the obligation to make money, not because I feel obligated, but because it makes me happy.
Here are some causes I intend to work on:
And so on. I expect to be very busy once FI, but I don’t be busy with a regular 9-5. I don’t want to do it now because I’ll need to find a way to profit from it; once FI, profit isn’t necessary and perhaps unwanted.
Did you think about if the decentralised applications will have an impact as high as you are currently providing for society? I would be really careful when evaluating if something does have an impact. If your decentralised platform never has any realistic chance to be adopted by mainstream the impact might be really low. Even for lemmy the impact might not be enough, as it might be too complicated for a normal person.
Making video games and helping small business by investing also seem like they have a low benefit for society and are more to be psychologically fulfilling for the early retiree.
My goal isn’t to maximize my beneficial impact on society, it’s to not be a burden on society while pursuing things that interest me. The decentralized platform interests me, and it’s not going to cause harm.
I could do a lot more, but I don’t feel obligated to. Once I’m FI, I’ll spend some of my time giving back, and all of my time will be spent on things that interest me.
Thank you for this mindset as someone who works under a person that could easily retire early but won’t (which is fine by me, mostly). My career’s vertical mobility and associated higher pay is stunted by this, as I do not wish to seek a different employer.