Trigger Events

I have thought a lot about retirement lately. As you can tell from my posts about downsizing and fading to early retirement, there are various ways to extricate oneself from W2 employment. Although there are many benefits to stay employed and choose work, it occurs to me that there are some absolutes to leave. I call these trigger events.

Whether positive or negative, trigger events are a promise to ourselves that when certain criteria are met, employment will be left in the dust. Whether subconsciously or not, we tend to hold tight to these belief systems in the worst of times.

If it ever gets to…then I’m out.

The Price of Entry

In order to consider compiling a list of trigger events, one has to be in a reasonable enough financial position to leave employment at any given time. There are multiple names for this state of grace. Some call it financial independence. Some call it FU money.

Financial independence, in my opinion, describes the economic freedom to never work again if needed. Whether passive income from stocks, rents collected from real estate, or some other side hustle that pays the bills, there is a perpetual money machine in place.

FU Money, however, is not as stable footing. In this scenario, one might have a few years of expenses saved up but not necessarily be financially independent. They are able to say FU to their current boss and lounge around for six months, but they eventually will need to find new income sources.

Either flavor works for our purposes.

Positive Triggers

Trigger events don’t necessarily need to be negative. There are a number of positive triggers that may be an impetus to leave the work place.

Net worth, for instance, could be a motivator. Possibly some distinct number will be determined to be enough. Or how about when passive income streams meet current spending needs? That also may be a wise time to leave the work place.

Trigger events aren’t always monetary either. Age is a common reason for leaving a beloved job. Another is meeting a personal goal, milestone, or finishing an important task. It is not uncommon for an employee to wait until adequate skills and resources have been gathered in order to allow retirement without harming the parent company.

Negative Triggers

Negative trigger events are more interesting to me. These are especially important to financially independent individuals who choose work over retirement. Given the economic necessity is lacking, there is room to create a list of non negotiables.

Theses triggers could be just about anything under the sun.

I’ll leave when I have to work nights and weekends.

There is no way I’ll travel for this job ever again.

If my boss leaves, this place won’t be tolerable anymore.

The argument is that when certain criteria are met, the cost/benefit ratio starts to sag in the wrong direction. Should one stay in a job that is intolerable if the financial drivers are no longer present?

Why Now?

Why am I bringing this up now? It so happens that recently one of my negative trigger events occurred unexpectedly. In my mind and heart, I had planned that if this lever was ever flipped, I would leave my clinical nursing home practice and focus on my hospice directorship only.

I have this luxury given that I am securely financially independent, and my lazy side hustles provide extra income in addition.

This shift would mean that, for the most part, I would give up seeing patients completely. While undeniably my life would become easier and I could have even more free time to pursue my interests, I have to say that this prospect is giving me pause.

The dream of medicine, the calling, has travelled with me since childhood. It has haunted my dreams and stoked my innermost wishes. It has been a fervent goal, a title, a window into the secret reality of humanity, and a crushing burden.

Am I ready to leave?