How To Retire 6 Months Every Year
(Page 3 of 22)
May/June 1970
By Irv Thomas
I have since cut my monthly costs to $220 by eliminating the TV (it turned out there were not many lonely hours), newspapers (I'm happier and have much more time without them), and cigarettes (this just seemed to drop of its own weight when I got the bicycle.) And there is still some slush left. I'm convinced that I can do quite well without the phone, for instance.
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It may sound, by now, as though I'm leading a sterile, ascetic existence - but nothing could be farther from the truth. I don't mean to imply that I am only spending $220 per month, but merely that this is the cost of my necessary support. A few well-chosen and inexpensive activities keep my hours well filled, and my life is richer and more rewarding right now than it has even been within my memory. No small part of this is the immediate prospect of a half-year of total removal from the rigors of the rat-race.
At this point you are probably wondering what is the big secret. How is it done?
Well, it's really a series of little secrets - a kind of mental tug of war with yourself. You keep the lid on until you think something is going to explode, and then you let off a bit of steam - but in another direction. That is to say, you reward yourself when the pressure is too great . . . but in such a way that you move in the direction you want to go instead of sliding back in the direction you are trying to get away from. It is difficult to select an illustration, because the reward must be a very personalized thing, and if I give an example that doesn't happen to turn you on, the point may be lost. But I shall try anyhow, so keep that caution in mind.
During the period I was going through automobile withdrawal, and before I had my bicycle to compensate, the dreary weekends of relative confinement started to weigh heavy. All that beautiful northwest country around me, and I could not get out to it. Renting a car would be far too expensive; talking a friend into a country drive would only rub in the deprivation I was going through and bus rides leave me cold. But then ferry boats are something else again!
Seattle has long ferry routes out to country islands in the Sound, and for a cost of just a few dollars for the whole day, I was in another world. I returned much refreshed and laughing to the skies at those poor people busting up the freeways to get away from town! That was a piece of creative withdrawal - I removed the pressure, at the same time moving closer to the goal. I also fortified myself with knowledge of a relief valve that I could call upon again.
Replacement is another technique. This is really a longer term reward that fills the gap left by something you've given up. Let's say you've got the habit of fraternizing down at the corner bar every Friday night and you always drop ten or fifteen dollars before Saturday morning rolls around. So you make the Great Sacrifice. Don't, for God's sake, try to sit home on Friday night with a book or TV. You'll be back in the bar within two weeks. Find something you've always wanted to do that involves other people, for that is really what you're looking for. Try a neighborhood discussion group or volleyball at the high school gym. Even if it, too, costs money. The important thing is that you're breaking an addiction, and each one you break gives you that much more confidence.
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