Recently I was having lunch with an old friend and former co-worker who referred to herself as “semi-retired.” What a marvelous ring that moniker had and I realized that one of the motivating reasons for starting my own home-based business had been that I wanted to work toward semi-retirement. For some reason, however, I’ve gotten off track and actually find myself working more at my business and work stuff now than ever!
I suppose in my mind, semi-retired means less hours and less stress and so far in my home business this has not been the case. While I have the flexibility to a certain extent, there are some of those key pieces to what I consider semi-retirement or even the “retirement job.” Regular income without having to work too hard would be a start, as would some relaxation and pleasure—maybe even the laid-back travel tied into work at the retirement business. To my way of thinking, if it I am going to be in semi-retirement with my home business, there needs to be a lot more fun and a little more sleeping in, and less work, work, work. There should just be less overall grief and having to meet external expectations and schedules, and more independence.
It is still my goal to get my home business to a place where it is not only completely supporting myself and my family, but where it affords me complete autonomy and flexibility to have a more well-rounded and well-balanced life. I cannot help but believe that building my home business is the best way for me to reach both my financial and my personal goals on so many levels. While it may not be happening as fast as I would like and I definitely cannot consider myself “semi-retired” yet—I am still heading in that direction!