The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Kiwi Mustache on March 08, 2015, 11:24:33 PM
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Has anyone reached early retirement and is now living similar to the live of a professional athlete?
Reason I ask is that I personally train for triathlon (a sport which takes 20+ hours per week of training at high levels) and some people in their 50's have retired early and pretty much train like a professional athlete full time.
Has anyone else achieved this or is living like this currently? What's it like?
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I am not FIRE yet. I am a triathlete and many time Ironman. In fairness, 20+ hours a week would only be during peak phase, and only for a few weeks at a time, even if you *are* a professional triathlete. Most of the time you're talking 15 or even 10 hours a week depending on where you are relative to your A race. Many pro triathletes balance other jobs since outside of Chrissie Wellington and maybe Macca, nobody makes/made enough on endorsements + purses to do more than make ends meet.
My opinion/perspective is that triathlon, including IM training, will be a major part of RE for me, but it won't be the dominant part of my day, just part of my routine.
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I was thinking you meant early retirement to live the high life, like many pro athletes.
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See, I thought he was referring the pro baseball player who lives in his van on $800 a month and banks the rest!!
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That's pretty much my fantasy.
I am a runner, and I'm a teacher. Over the years, I've noticed that my training during the school year is pretty inconsistent, and I end up injured at least once or twice. During the summers (aka, my annual pretend-retirements) I'm dead-consistent, and I train like a beast. I put on muscle mass every summer, and I don't get injured. Coincidence? No way! I won't bore you with all the details, but teaching full-time and having children at home makes it pretty hard to stick to a good workout schedule. If nothing else, sheer exhaustion takes over every few weeks.
During the summers, life is awesome. I run more, hike more, cross-train more, eat like a teenaged boy, and sleep as much as I need to. If the legs feel good, I can run longer than planned without throwing everyone's schedules into a tailspin. All of that is pretty much how I envision retirement.
I actually ran into (almost literally) a senior runner a few months ago -- a woman in her 80's whom I see running a few times a week on my way to work. I had admired her dedication and stamina from afar, but when we passed one another, I had to stop and tell her how impressed and envious I was. It was just a quick chat in which she said she was 83 and had run 50+ marathons, but as she turned to go, she said, "The best thing I did for my running was retire and run even more!" I don't even know her name -- she's the Old Runner Lady to me! -- but I want to be just like her when I grow up! ;-)
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I'd live like a professional hiker, if there is such a thing.
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Has anyone else achieved this or is living like this currently? What's it like?
One of my thoughts when people ask me what I do is to say "I'm a professional mountain biker!" or surfer or kayaker, etc...
I use most if not all my free time to do sports so why not?
I may just be vague about who my sponsors are.
I'm not quite at FIRE, but I have taken regular chunks of time of [1-4 months] to pursue my sporting interests.
After 2 months of doing nothing but say kitesurfing and having 2 more months left before working at a desk it feels pretty much what the life of a pro-athlete is like. It starts to feel like the sport is your job. I don't mean that in a bad way. You just spend your day eating, training, prepping your gear and doing your sport. If you are keen you log your results and analyze them to support your plans.
It's a lot like FIRE planning, but using different data/goals.
-- Vik
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I was thinking you meant early retirement to live the high life, like many pro athletes.
I though he meant early retirement to live like a retired pro athlete.
Given that the majority of ex-pro athletes are BROKE within a few years of retirement, I was going to suggest that he not do it. :)
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I raced bikes (very seriously) in graduate school. Easily 20+ hours a week. My degree might have taken a bit longer than it should have, but I was paid modestly the entire time. Looking back, it feels like an early retirement before a period of real work. I took phone calls from my advisor while "working from home". It was great. I miss long rides.
If I could advise one thing with triathlons: it's easy to get sucked down the path of buying unnecessary expensive gear (and most of it is unnecessary). I'd say that as long as you avoid that, ER + triathlons can work out. Entry fees are also exorbitant. I'd minimize those too.