Hey Crew!
It’s mid-year, when I usually stop and take stock of goals and progress. This year that happened a bit early, because of a call with my academic advisor from Uni.
With the degree finishing next year, she asked if I’d thought about what comes after. A job? A masters?
Shit. That’s a fair question.
What am I actually doing?
The answer came quickly: I don’t want to work for someone else. I want to build something for me.
Why I went back to school in retirement
I retired early enough that most people I knew were still years from finishing their careers when I stopped working. I didn’t go back to university for a job. I went back because retirement gave me time, and I wanted to use some of it learning the theory behind work I’d spent decades doing by feel. I had the hands-on experience. I wanted the bigger concepts too. I also wanted to be the first person in my family to graduate with a degree. A little point of pride.
That chapter ends in October 2027.
But then what?
It already has an answer
When I actually looked at what I’d built since retiring, “then what” wasn’t much of a mystery. None of it had ever made it onto a list of achievements. It was just a bunch of things I did because sitting still has never really been an option for me. That’s the answer.
The community I built because I was lonely
I retired at 35. Nobody else I knew had. My problem was specific: I didn’t want to spend a Tuesday afternoon beer with a 65-year-old, however lovely he was, because being retired was the only thing we had in common.
So I built the community I wished existed: a Facebook group for people who’d retired early and wanted to talk to people who’d actually done it too. It’s grown to 3,000 members. The appetite was much bigger than my own loneliness. A lot of people want to retire early by moving abroad and reclaiming a decade or two of their life while they still have their health, instead of waiting until a government tells them they’re allowed to.
The Discord happened almost by accident, started to give my own options students somewhere to share trades and ask questions. It’s since turned into a proper trader education operation, and one I’m genuinely proud of watching grow into something people rely on.
Writing to show people a different angle!
I love writing the how-to articles most, because they challenge people’s assumptions about how they’re “supposed” to retire. I’m not just trying to inform people. I want to give them permission to see there’s another way to live, one they get to choose instead of the one society hands them.
That instinct is also why I wrote two books. The Three Levers of Freedom is the blueprint I’d use if I had to hit FI or FIRE all over again from scratch, written so someone else can pick it up and pull the same levers in their own life. The Ultimate Mini-Retirement Guide is for people who aren’t ready to fully retire early but still want to reclaim time now, not at 65.
Then the guides. One covers escaping Australian tax residency to live, and be taxed, somewhere with a lower or zero rate: releasing the government’s tax handbrake. The other walks US expats through their filing obligations abroad, so digital nomads and retirees stay compliant instead of getting hit with a fine.
The moments that hit me the most
Of everything, this is the part I’d do for free.
With traders, it’s watching the lights go on. The moment someone realizes they can build a repeatable income stream with options that replaces a 9-5. That’s when they stop treating it like a hobby and start treating it like their new income, and their new life.
With people moving abroad, it’s helping them work through the tax question, the cost of living, the visa maze, the “will I actually be happy there” question, until it clicks into a plan that lands them somewhere they love, paying less tax, living a life they actually want. I’ve helped a couple of people make that move so far. I want to do a lot more of it. There’s nothing quite like sitting with someone while they figure out their own version of freedom.
The life underneath the work
None of this has been just work, either.
Panama was my landing spot right after I retired. Spain is home now, for at least the next few years. Visas are sorted, and a dog might finally be on the cards. I’ve picked up Spanish along the way, currently B1-B2. Hiking is where I actually switch off, especially the multi-week walks, when my brain finally stops running in its usual air-traffic-controller mode and just goes quiet for a while. I ran the Florence Marathon in 2024, despite hating running, purely to prove I could. I did a half marathon in San Sebastián to celebrate turning 40, then ate my way through the city guilt-free.
But the thing that’s actually changed me is going home.
I get back once a year, maybe once every 18 months. Every time, I’m more aware of how much time I have left with the people there, especially my dad, as he gets older. Mathematically, there’s a real chance I have fewer than ten visits left with him. That number changes how I show up when I’m home. It’s also the reason any of the rest of this matters. The travel, the hiking, the freedom. None of it is escape. It’s what the freedom was for.
Building a life, not just a network
The speaking invitations were never something I planned for, and I still haven’t fully gotten used to them landing in my inbox. You’ve heard me talk about a few of those trips already this year.
Friendship, though, has been the hardest part of this whole life, and the thing I’ve had to work at most deliberately. Old friendships don’t survive on their own. You have to actually call, and show up when you’re in someone’s part of the world. New ones take even more effort. In Spain especially, I’ve had to consciously build and keep a social circle, because it’s easy to sink into your own bubble. It’s paid off. I’ve got an eclectic little group of friends now, spread across the US, Spain, Ecuador, Panama, Mexico, and more.
The pattern was obvious when I took a second to look
None of this started as a plan. The community started because I was lonely. The Discord started because my students needed somewhere to talk. The writing started because I wanted people to see they had options. Each one solved a real problem at the time, and each one led into the next. The community taught me what people actually needed. The writing turned that into something useful. The writing led to speaking invitations, and those led to a life full of people I never would have met otherwise.
None of it was a plan. It just compounded.
What FIRE actually bought me
Retiring early didn’t buy me a beach chair. It bought me the ability to choose all of this on merit instead of necessity. I built a community because I wanted to. I wrote a book because I had something to say. I help people move abroad because it’s the work I’d do even if nobody paid me for it. That’s the actual case for FIRE, not an early finish line.
OK cool bro, but then what?
October 2027 closes the degree chapter. Given everything above, it was never going to be the end of building anything. I know myself well enough for that. What I haven’t told you yet is what’s next. I’m already deep into some real strategic planning about the chapter after this one, and it looks nothing like anything on this list. It scares the shit out of me. In the good way.
That’s Part 2.
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Cheers
Andy
Somewhere on a train between Krakow and Warsaw