The Health Benefits Of Early Retirement Are Priceless

If you don't have your health, no amount of money is worth it. As someone who has been writing about early retirement and the FIRE movement since 2009, let me emphasize the health benefits of early retirement in this post.

There are many benefits of early retirement. Full control of your time is often the most cited benefit. Greater happiness sooner is another.

However, the health benefits of early retirement are the most important positive of leaving the work force early. Our goal should be to retire while we are healthy!

Mance Rayder, The King Beyond The Wall once said, “The freedom to make my own mistakes is all I ever wanted.” After leaving Corporate America in 2012, his words have never rung more true.

If I wanted more money, I would have stayed in my investment banking job for the rest of my career. But I longed for the freedom to choose after my 13th year.

Being absolutely free is priceless. Unless you love what you do, it doesn’t matter how much money you have. If you’ve still got to take direction from someone else, you'll always feel at least a little bit trapped.

But besides glorious freedom, there are also incredible health benefits I’ve noticed after leaving the permanent workforce. Let me share some with you.

Health Benefits Of Early Retirement

When I was working a full-time job from 1999 – 2012, I had the following ailments:

  • Plantar fasciitis (1999-2001 the worst period)
  • Frequent allergic reactions (throughout)
  • Chronic lower back pain plus sciatica (1997-2003)
  • TMJ (2010 – 2012)
  • Teeth grinding (2010 – 2012)
  • Golfer’s elbow (2011-2012)
  • Tennis elbow (2008-2011)

During the last year of work, my TMJ got so bad that I went to a dental specialist and paid $750 out of pocket to have him shave down my rear molars.

The idea was to create grooves in my teeth so my mouth could shut more easily, thereby relieving the stress from my jaw muscles. The procedure helped lessen the pain by roughly 30%, but that still left 70% of unwanted discomfort.

Can you imagine going to the dentist to purposefully drill down your teeth? That seems absolutely nuts to me now!

The Chronic Pain Went Away After I Retired Early

By the sixth month after leaving my job, EVERY PAIN went away. If I knew that my TMJ and jaw pain would have gone away so soon, I would have tried to negotiate a severance sooner! However, while you're in the thick of work, it's easy to continue the path of gutting things out.

Perhaps my health problems would have gone away even sooner than six months after retiring. However, the first three months were filled with excitement and worry.

I kept wondering whether I had made the right move. I had other job opportunities come up that I kept on rejecting. But after a while, not working just felt natural because I had an outlet, Financial Samurai, to share my thoughts.

I firmly believe that STRESS is the main source for many of our health problems. Except for an occasional allergy attack, I no longer suffer from any of the above mentioned chronic ailments. It's been three years since I left work, and work stress was clearly the source for most of my problems.

For more details about how stress can negatively affect your physical and mental well-being, see a paper on the US Library of Medicine's website. Let's look at other health benefits of early retirement you could receive if you decide to retire early as well.

You'll Probably Look Better As Well In Early Retirement

Here are more health benefits of early retirement.

1) Weight Loss

Besides the disappearance of chronic health issues, early retirement allows you to take better care of your body. When I first began work, I gained 20 lbs to 180 lbs within the first year at 5′ 10″. Getting fat got me down because I was so used to being trim due to all the sports I played growing up.

After leaving Manhattan for San Francisco in 2001, I got down to about 165 lbs, but I was always battling back the 170 lbs mark. By the end of my first early retirement year, I got down to 158-160 lbs and stayed there for two years due to all the exercise. There were also no more constant wining and dining of clients at high caloric, fancy restaurants.

Do you remember running around the neighborhood as a kid with all your friends? I do. Every day after school we’d go out and skateboard for three hours a day before dinner. When we're working, there's no play time between 4pm – 6pm anymore. For many, leaving the office before the sun went down was unheard of. Just like how compound interest creates great wealth over time, compound lack of activity creates great girth after several years.

My exercise frequency went up from 2X a week to 4X a week on average. The duration of exercise also increased given there was never really anywhere to go by a certain time frame. We’d play tennis for three or four hours sometimes without a care in the world.

Plenty of exercise plus a good diet surely should help one’s quality of life and longevity at the margin. Have you ever wondered how much money you’d be willing to forgo to live just one more year? Probably a lot the older you get!

Although I'm still not in ideal shape today, I look normal for a guy my age trying to take care of two young children. I'm at peace with hovering at around 168 pounds in middle age.

2) Less / No Gray Hairs / More Hair In General

The first time I found a gray hair was at the age of 34. I was sitting in the barber’s chair when I kept seeing what I thought was a reflection off my left side. The grey hair was a shock, that reminded me how quickly we age. Of course I pulled it out, contrary to my barber’s advice. “If you pull it out, 10 more grey hairs will grow back in its place!” she said.

I thought 34 would be the beginning of the grey hair avalanche. But instead, I haven’t had a grey hair since, and I’m 44. No longer was I wondering whether I made the right move to retire early. There wasn’t any money worries either since I had picked up a consulting job to supplement my passive income streams.

Another interesting phenomena I noticed is that my hairline doesn’t seem to be receding as quickly any more. It began started receding when I was 33 during the height of the financial crisis. But it’s seemed to have stopped for the past two years. Unfortunately, I’m unable to grow back hair where hair used to be, but I’ll take a slowing recession any day!

3) Naturally Feel More Confident

When you’re in better shape you feel more confident. When you’re more confident, you enjoy life more. And when it’s evident by everyone around you that you’re a happy person, more opportunities arise.

I told myself, no, I swore to myself in 2012 that I would never go back to work if I could successfully negotiate a severance. I remember the week where the fate of my severance was in limbo because I accidentally e-mailed back an old work file that contained client contact information. Thankfully everything turned out fine, especially since I emphasized I wasn’t going to work for a competitor.

Except for competitors looking to hire me immediately after I left, the first year of early retirement on the work front was quiet. But since early 2014, I’ve received multiple attractive consulting offers that just came out of casual conversations and referrals. I’ve never advertised my services to any corporate before.

Optimistic people are like magnets. When you're confident, people of all sorts want to connect. This is true in your professional and personal life.

Nothing Is More Important Than Your Health

I cannot overemphasize the health benefits of early retirement. The pandemic and so many people dying due to the coronavirus really puts into perspective how important our health really is.

If there's one time to start eating well, exercising, and getting in great shape, it's now! The more in shape we are, the less we will be negatively affected by viruses. And if we have a family, the more healthy we are, the higher the chance that we will live longer.

A lot of people who’ve never achieved early retirement have bashed the early retirement movement. I even penned a very frank post before pulling the rip chord called, The Dark Side Of Early Retirement and The Negatives Of Early Retirement Nobody Likes Talking About.

Many of the arguments still hold true now that I'm years past normal work life. However, if your body is crying out in pain, you owe it to yourself to discover a more congruent occupation.

When I’m sick, I’m willing to give any amount of money just to feel better. If you are experiencing chronic health issues, there’s a high chance the source of your ailments is due to the stress from your job.

Does that prestigious title or all that money really matter if you are feeling horrible? You might even be cutting your life shorter by a year or two due to so much stress. We haven’t even touched upon mental issues such as depression and anxiety that work stress can create either.

It's been over nine years since I left Corporate America, and it's become so abundantly clear how much work stress is killing us.

If you find a way to get out or work at a more fulfilling, and less stressful job, please strongly consider taking a leap. The older you get, the more you will cherish your health.

Don't look back and regret having chased money and prestige. Chase happiness instead.

Plans To Retire Early Again

I had a good early retirement run from 2012 – 2018. Then I decided to work more online to boost my passive income streams during the pandemic. There must be some type of inherit desire to earn once you have a child. Also, I believe parents have a strong desire to provide and earn as well.

However, I've noticed some annoying health issues pop up during and after the pandemic as well. I'm sure stress and worry manifested these problems. It’s hard when you and your partner both don’t have jobs, but have two young children to raise in San Francisco.

However, with a strong stock market and real estate market, our family has enough passive income to provide for a comfortable lifestyle. I'm bullish on real estate and plan to invest most of my incremental dollars in real assets.

Let's hope the economic recovery continues! The amount of wealth that has been created since the pandemic began has been quite an unexpected surprise. As a result, I'm using this newfound wealth to buyback some health by taking things easier in 2025 and beyond.

The health benefits of early retirement far outweigh trying to make more money that I don't need. To me, it's is obvious that retiring early is far superior than retiring rich. You can always make more money, but you can never make more time.

Use The Best Retirement Planner: Boldin

If you’re serious about building wealth and retiring comfortably, sign up for Boldin’s powerful retirement planning tools. They offer a free version and a PlannerPlus version for just $120/year—far more affordable than hiring a financial advisor.

Boldin was designed specifically for retirement planning, offering a holistic approach to financial management. Beyond just focusing on your stock and bond portfolio, Boldin integrates real estate investments, guides you through Roth conversions for tax minimization, and addresses many other real-life financial scenarios we all face.

There's no more powerful retirement planning tool to help you finish rich than Boldin today. 

Diversify Your Retirement Investments Into Real Estate 

Investing in stocks and bonds in your 401(k) or IRA are classic staples for retirement investing. However, I also suggest diversifying into real estate—an investment that combines the income stability of bonds with greater upside potential.

Consider Fundrise, a platform that allows you to 100% passively invest in residential and industrial real estate. With over $3 billion in private real estate assets under management, Fundrise focuses on properties in the Sunbelt region, where valuations are lower, and yields tend to be higher. 

There is a multi-decade demographic shift towards lower-cost areas of the country thanks to remote work. Technology has enabled more people to work from home or anywhere in the world. Post-pandemic, this trend has only accelerated. 

I’ve personally invested over $300,000 with Fundrise, and they’ve been a trusted partner and long-time sponsor of Financial Samurai. With a $10 investment minimum, diversifying your portfolio has never been easier.

Fundrise investment dashboard for Financial Samurai

Book On How To Eliminate Chronic Back Pain

If you are experiencing any type of chronic pain (not just back), I highly recommend picking up a copy of Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Dr. SarnoI've been back pain free for over 15 years despite playing tennis 2-4X a week, after having crippling back pain in my early 20s. I couldn't even drive to work for a while because my sciatica was so bad.

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rick
rick
11 months ago

Excellent,I retired at 62 (2018) with a state pension and military reserves pension.My wife retired from nusing last year (2023) life is god.
Rick

Grand Dad Helper
7 years ago

Thanks for the post. After a high tech company in Sacramento laid me off with a significant number of other managers I was scared. I immediately jumped into consulting for a software company making more money than ever. The stress level was off the charts and every illness know in me family showed up at my door. I had to take more meds as the months went by. But my retirement savings also did very well and an individual 401k allowed me to put away a great deal. I dumped the software consulting job after a couple years and am just taking 1-2 year contracts until the magic 59 1/2 y.o. I’m feeling so much better.

When my mom got older she was getting stress about just paying her monthly bills. She had enough saved and a pension to live on her own forever. She went to live with my sister and all the financial stress went away. She is 94 and her health is as good as you can expect for a 90 year old. Those are the kinds of things i am writing about in GrandDadHelper.com

Lindsey
7 years ago

I could not agree more! I am 35, working towards retiring early, have a few more years to go. I had the job from hell that was taking a significant toll on my health. I left that job 2 years ago and moved to a much less stressful position that only requires about 30 hours a week ( I negotiated a higher salary for less responsibility and hours). The lower stress and fewer hours have totally changed my life. I lost 30 pounds, my back pain and chronic headaches are gone, I now bike to work and have time for my family and time to put into growing my real estate portfolio. Life is too short to stay in a job like that.

Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck
9 years ago

I approach my Wealth and Health in the same regards. The earlier you plan your wealth the earlier and longer you can reap the benefits. The same goes for your health. No one wants to be rich and sickly or poor and extremely healthy (Even though I would choose to be poor and healthy) for that matter. I think both should be held in the highest regards when evaluating oneself. Great article.

Eric
Eric
9 years ago

My wife and I are 49 and are both retiring in the next 2-3 years. This is possible because we have always been dual income and more importantly, started saving 15% or more of our income since we graduated from college in our early 20’s. Both of our 401k’s have seven figure balances and I also have a defined benefit pension plan with medical benefits and cost of living increases. Two of our three children will be in college in 3 years but we also started saving for that when they were born so they can graduate with little or no debt. The big mistake I see people make is waiting until their 30’s or later before they get serious about retirement planning and saving. Many also spend on things that we have never had such as boats, motorcycles, RV’s, or expensive new cars. We didn’t buy a new car until both of our homes were paid off at age 48. The only thing we splurged on were some nice family vacations over the years which I would do all over again.

Another big part of our decision to retire early is the crazy marginal tax rates we pay – about 55% for our top rate and an effective federal and state rate of 43% last year. We no longer will work for the government for over 5 months each year!

Erik
Erik
9 years ago

I truly believe that corporate life is ruining many people’s lives without them even knowing. Working for so many hours is not how we should live.

I have a few points to add on to your article: Weight Loss is a huge part of it. People eat horribly when they are at work. You get so hungry sitting at a desk and need to just snack on whatever is available. This is not healthy. Also, you go home and you are too tired to make food, so you go out to eat. It is a cycle that is tough to get out of.

Eventually, I hope to work about 25-30 hours a week and be able to make a decent income. At my age and income, I’m content at where I am at; however, I definitely would be happy if I had more time to relax and hang out with friends.

Thanks for the article Sam and keep up the good work,
Erik

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[…] you’re making $500,000 a year in household income as a worker bee, you’re probably going through a lot of stress due to the amount of hours you are working plus the amount of taxes you are paying. Society […]

Simple Is The New Green

I personally think 40+ hour workweeks, cubicle dwellings and tyrant bosses are incredibly unhealthy. We are not meant for this and it is causing a host of ailments. I was experiencing health problems, so I left. I always try to tell “kids” in their 20’s to not get into debt and the habit of living paycheck to paycheck. You just never know when you need to leave. Living a simple life brings soooo much more joy than a fat paycheck… at least it has in my experience. An additional benefit is that early retirement or part time work usually has us treading much lighter on the environment, so that is an added bonus even if not the main intent.

Miranda
Miranda
9 years ago

I made the choice to choose a career that I enjoy, find meaning in, and is lower stress. And I love it. I see every single day the impact my work has to improve the quality of people’s lives. On the flip side, it’s a lower paying field, with no benefits. My master’s degree cost more than double what I make in a year. So saving to be able to retire at 60 requires serious sacrifices in my daily life, such as not participating in any event with friends or family that costs money. So retiring early is highly unlikely. But at least while I am working I am enjoying it. I do sometimes think about the options I would have had if I had spent a decade in a high paying field first. I just couldn’t do work, though, that didn’t make the world better. So I deal with the consequences of that choice.

David
David
9 years ago

Hey Sam-

This is a timely post for me. I am in my mid-20’s and herniated a disc in my lower back about 6 weeks ago. I went from being very active and playing lots of golf to hardly being able to walk. It really made me question what the point of saving so much for retirement was if my body wasn’t going to be there for me to enjoy it! Luckily, I am doing better now but back pain/sciatica is terrible!

PK
PK
9 years ago

I wonder, too, about the health effects sitting down for as many hours as we North Americans tend to do – 8 hours at work, .5-2 hours driving, then more hours sitting on the couch or in front of the computer at home. Followed up, of course, by sitting to eat, then lying down – there just isn’t a lot of work done by the middle 1/3 of an average person’s body.

I find, personally, if I don’t deadlift for a few weeks, I actually get sharp lower back pains that come on randomly until I start up again… and my hamstrings and lower back tend to get the most sore after intense workouts. I’ve seen some studies on the ‘sitting too much’ phenomenon, but I wonder if it’ll be the public health crisis of the currently-working generations.

P Sizz
P Sizz
9 years ago

Sam,

Wow, it is fantastic to see a PF blog specifically reference the mind-body connection and how worry, stress, and anxiety (especially about finance issues!) are directly correlated to health concerns. Reading Sarno was life-changing for me, cool to see you give him a shout.

Armen
Armen
9 years ago

I retired August 15, 2013 at age 47 after making big bucks when my cancer drug got FDA approval. I liked making cancer drugs, but hated the stress and the douchebags I worked with.

I call August 15th “Emancipation Day” and celebrated it in 2014 and I will this year too!

I have had many of the same health benefits that you mention. Like you, I bemoaned the lack of play time between 4-6, and also the lack of a summer vacation like when we were kids. Now every day is like summer vacation! I go running in the afternoon, read books, meditate, go to the beach with my dog.

Everyone told me not to quit, because I would become bored and fat. Well, after 2 years I am not tired of it yet, not even close. And I’m not fat, in fact I’m in really good shape!!

Michael
Michael
9 years ago

I think it is perhaps one of the best things that we can do to focus our efforts on being able to generate other incomes as soon as possible and then start working towards being able to free up time to do other things that can reduce the stresses that we might have.

Larry
Larry
9 years ago

Not so much stress-related, but definitely work-related: Last year I had to complete a major project at work using software that required infinite repetitions of a command using the CTRL and SHIFT keys at the left side of the keyboard. This put my hand in a clenched position many hours a day, and I eventually noticed trouble extending the middle finger of this hand, in that the finger joint was snapping rather than opening smoothly. Hey, what good is it to have such a finger if you can’t extend if to give someone the finger?

This was diagnosed as a well-known condition called a “trigger finger,” which in some cases responds to a cortisone shot and in extreme cases requires surgery. (The orthopedist said my case was not that severe.) But a funny thing happened following my retirement in July 2014 at age 66. Since I was no longer abusing my hand, I realized a few months ago that the trigger finger had completely cleared up on its own. Small case, perhaps, but it’s nice I have my full range of motion in that finger back, so now I can give anybody and everybody the finger whenever I want!

Mike H
Mike H
9 years ago

Health is so much more important than a high paying job. I’ve been fortunate to get out of a job that wore me down, get a severance and then move on to another job that doesn’t wear me down. My health is all the better for it. Neck and back pain is an absolute killer!

Mike

Matt A.
Matt A.
9 years ago

This is exactly why I want to retire early. There are numerous studies where stress is linked to poor health.

I come from a family of people with high stress, and picking a career in consulting wasn’t my best health choice! I’m hoping with a frugal lifestyle and extreme saving habits, I can be semi-retired by 38 or 39.

A goal without a plan is just wishful thinking.

Retire29
9 years ago

I left working on Wall Street earlier this year because the cost of living just completely overtook the salary. I could have stay for several more years and made a great salary, but why? Now, my salary more than covers our cost of living, and I’m on track to retire (~4 years) around the same time I would have been hitting my inflection point on Wall Street. The move has removed depression and suicidal thoughts, and I’m doing so much better than ever before.

I can only hope my transition to retirement yields even more benefits!

Thanks for posting!

Eric

theofficialjohnandre
theofficialjohnandre
9 years ago

To play devil’s advocate, a lot of people pass away as soon as they stop working. So I think it’s important to stay BUSY for your entire life, but more importantly, you need to find a job that doesn’t really grind you down. You need a reason to stay alive.

Look at Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, Jack Lalanne, etc. These guys kept working up into their 90’s, work keeps you alive.

Scribe611
Scribe611
5 years ago

Ahh, theofficialjohnandre, but these people you just mentioned probably loved what they did for a living! I don’t make big bucks (and never will), but we low paid folks have even greater issues when planning our retirement. Instead of giving up several trips to Maui, or Paris, we have to face the reality of giving up three meals a day in order to retire sooner. I agree that job stress is indeed killing us, and I have a whole collection of stress-related issues. I’ve worked in a call center environment for about 15 years, and I’ve read that most burn out a lot earlier than this. I think I burned out about 10 years ago, but I can’t leave. I need the good insurance my company offers to pay for the results of having the high stress job for so long. I have created a count down timer for my retirement (I’m 54 now) and I can’t wait to be free. I just hope I can hit the mark right on the bubble that will allow me to eat pretty good and enjoy what life I’ve got left instead of being constantly worried about making it from month to month while having a decent place to live. Trading one stress for the other isn’t going to help.

Austin
Austin
9 years ago

Try having two kids under three. Retired or not. In fact, you’d want an office job for the escape! I do not envy stay at home moms. But, in general, you’re right.

Jason
9 years ago

Sam, looking back on your experience now, if you were starting out again from scratch knowing what you do now, would you have taken a different path that didn’t require the 13 years of stress and health issues, and perhaps take a more balanced approach to life? Or do you think it’s worth it to get to where you are now?

In answer to one of your questions, I definitely don’t think ruining your health and well-being is worth it for ‘glory’ – glory to me would be living a great, healthy, meaningful, balanced life. Even though I’m on the ‘work hard to make money path’, I’m constantly looking at the other paths out there, and not sure I want to stay on this one for many more years…

Oliver
Oliver
9 years ago

I cannot describe to my friends intelligently, the simple pleasures of dropping what I’m doing in a second and walking to up to river with the dog in the sunshine on some ideal Tuesday afternoon – because I can. This costs me nothing, and gives my butterflies in my stomach – it’s not the river or the walk that does that. It’s the choice I have that gives me the butterflies. And I promise you, not a day goes by in my work life where I don’t appreciate it. I’m constantly reminding my wife how great it is to have our lives like this. If there’s one thing that scares me out of bed in the mornings, it’s the thought of losing my choice.

Oliver
Oliver
9 years ago
Reply to  Oliver

…Crohns or no crohns!

Ol
Ol
9 years ago

Reading through all these comments and replies, I’m harbouring for a FB ‘like’ button. I sort of want to acknowledge other peoples good opinions and replies!

Like.

Oliver
Oliver
9 years ago

Sam, I think your journey from corporate America into self employment is in contrast to my own, and yet I share your views about the mental struggles between work, money and lifestyle – seems its a question that repeats itself depending on what’s immediately happening in one’s business life at that time.

I suffer from crohns disease of which I unfortunately have to admit was brought on by stress – although it took me a while to admit it! For me, it was the stress and anxiety of starting/running my own business, as apposed to my cushy job at IBM. This doesn’t mean I regret leaving the day job because I don’t. I know within myself that the drive to go it alone was too strong and still burns within me. Perhaps it’s a curse or perhaps it’s good thing – ask me on my death bed!

What I can be sure of is that everyday I get up I’m excited, anxious, stressed, happy, proud, stimulated, passionate, and sometimes very grumpy (weekends just get in the way!) but it’s not what I do, it’s who I am. And every year I get a little older (I’m 36) I get a little wiser and handle everything a little better. The stresses that caused my crohns in 2010, I would not even lose a wink of sleep if it happened now. Hindsight’s a bitch! When it comes to health, we’ve all got our bag of spanners, right?

FYI: For all the reasons for and against you growing your business, cashing in, or continuing. I’d wager that whatever you decide to do, and whatever advice you take on, your decision will be founded more on your personality rather than the mechanics of a deal or money.

Nicole M.
Nicole M.
9 years ago

I totally agree about the stress part! Our bodies can handle acute stress, but we didn’t evolve in an environment where chronic stress was common place like it is today.

Smart Money MD
9 years ago

I definitely have seen a correlation between stress (work or lifestyle related) and health problems. When I was spending 14+ hour days working or preparing presentations during my residency, I definitely ate more junk food, exercised less, gained weight, and had various muscle aches. I remember getting neck spasms and lower back pain frequently with poor sleep hygiene and probably a weaker core as well.

My colleagues in comp sci and I-Banking had similar complaints: teeth grinding, muscle pain, tics…etc.

Health is most important. Reminding myself of these problems helps me focus harder to reach Financial Independence sooner.