10 Career Skills for Early Retirement

View from the Sears Tower Chicago - BIG Business

THE.CONTENDER 's career has been short and sweet. He is now officially semi retired* after only 13 years on the job - lucky B******. So it is hard to call it a career really.

As a graduate THE.CONTENDER went straight into a process improvement role (adding new computer planning systems, training, creating reports and interactive tools) and actually enjoyed 90% of the experience and learnt a few tricks along the way.

 

This post is about some of the amazing skills learnt on the job. Specifically how THE.CONTENDER has since applied them in his quest for early retirement and how THE.CONTENDER will use the skills in the future.

First here is a list of 10 business skills that THE.CONTENDER learnt from work and considers highly beneficial in his personal life. This will be followed by a section on how they can be used in respect to financial freedom / early retirement:

1. Discipline -  THE.CONTENDER had to act like an adult from now on. Work had to be completed on time and correctly. Mistakes cost money and made THE.CONTENDER loose face let alone slowed down my career advancement.
    
2. Project management - THE.CONTENDER was meant to deliver projects on time and get everyone involved......at lest that was the idea, this really took some practice! It was one hell of a learning ride on the way. From the indemnity of being pulled up in front of senior management for a delay to being proud of oneself in delivering a valuable time saving tool to my colleagues.
   
   The project management skills eventually set THE.CONTENDER up to succeed. THE.CONTENDER considers project management as one of the hardest skills to learn and actually excel at. If you are good at it you will build significant trust making you the go to guy to get something done.
    
3. Learning business interpersonal skills - simple communication, adjusting your style to the person you are dealing with, listening attentively to that person and addressing their concerns (Or in THE.CONTENDER 's early career telling them they were wrong because they were.... so there! Opps! I was right 80% of the time, sort of :)
    
4. Independence and Responsibility - booking business travel to go to different countries, planning your own workload, deciding on priorities (and what to ignore). Taking ultimate responsibility for your appraisals - without significant effort how will you get noticed.
   
   
5. Time management - work on what was really needed 80:20 rule (80% of results come from 20% of the work) - THE.CONTENDER is adamant that you work on the really important stuff, complete 80% of it and move on - but how many people work that way! So THE.CONTENDER learnt how to delegate it onto someone who will actually finish it o
    
6. Critical thinking - Why do we want to do that? Is it worth the effort? What will other people think?
    
7. Mentoring - Really this is all about networking. Two main benefits :
   
   1. Learning who and how to influence to get your way
   2. To get a promotion - Sorry THE.CONTENDER's opinion.!
   
   What THE.CONTENDER really got out of mentoring was crystalisation of my thoughts towards EARLY RETIREMENT through the interrogation \ questioning process - :)
    
8. Computer skills - reporting, basic programming, websites, writing training documents. Computer allow you to get things done quickly and in our data overload world if you have the right skills analyse the data to get to the real problems and opportunities and present them in a way that conveys the importance of you message. Get noticed.
    
9. Change management / influencing - possibly the hardest skill to learn and master and the biggest problem THE.CONTENDER had in this short career.
    
10. Presentation skills - Professional training in this area is invaluable - watching a playback of a presentation you give followed by some professional coaching - the end result is astounding. Maybe one day THE.CONTENDER will post his video in the future......
    

Not forgetting the need to be paid A reasonable salary for the work- more you earn the faster it is to retirement ;)

THE.CONTENDER has no way mastered any of the skills but all are highly useful compared to some of the education THE.CONTENDER had in school (please see THE.CONTENDER's post on missing education skills)

So THE.CONTENDER has provided a list of "boring" but must have business skills lets have a chat how actually each skill can contribute to early retirement and a successful private life. Please read on.....

1. Discipline - the number one skill for early retirement? If you cannot control those urges to over consume you will struggle to save at the 50% rate that will get you to early retirement fast. Self control is a key part of growing up and being responsible for your life and your actions you will come across as more mature and hence be given more responsibility that is usually shortly accompanied by greater pay.
   
   Maturity is also important in your private life in choosing and wooing a mate who you can  hopefully marry and have a family. THE.CONTENDER is biased in this regard as he adores his family, it is the BEST thing that has ever happened to him. I hope everyone gets to experience it.
    
2. Project Management - what a great set of skills, how to make a concise, actionable plan and see it to fruition. THE.CONTENDER has used the techniques to set out the THE.CONTENDER tribe financial freedom plan and our plans for the future move to the French countryside.
   
   Project management has helped us feel confident in our plans as we track our progress towards early retirement (watch those investments grow). I have covered of some of the key aspects of how we use a simple spreadsheet, calendar and whiteboard in our monthly family reviews over a glass of wine here: financial freedom planning tool post 
    
3. Interpersonal skills - At school and University THE.CONTENDER was in competition with everyone else - he had to be an individual due to the school system (except when playing team sports). Did this contribute to his dominant personal profile and that THE.CONTENDER did not do touchy-feely very well when he left education? Who knows. In business THE.CONTENDER found that interpersonal such as touchy-feely, listening and influencing skills were critical to success. THE.CONTENDER was was too forceful or tactless starting out you could say, so was unable to drum up support for some of his great ideas and career ladder quickly :)
   
   To obtain Financial freedom you need to observe and seamlessly interact with the world around you. This allows you to take time, reflect and ultimately understand you and your family's needs. What is the point if you plow on with frugality and financial freedom plans if your wife is not on board? Financial freedom only happens if everyone agrees and wants the goals - interpersonal skills are critical to making this happen. THE.CONTENDER has lots to say about this in later posts.
    
4. Independence - Independence is the cornerstone of Freedom in THE.CONTENDER 's book. Being able to look after yourself and your family, not relying on handouts from the government and family. You are able to attend to minor health conditions, grow some of your own food in hard times and make sure there is a roof over your head.
   
   Independence skills are not spoon fed to you in life. You have no choice you have to get on with it (the earlier the better and it wont be a shock when you leave the family home). In work if you don't get the job done you will get the sack. If you can't keep employment unfortunately you might find yourself out on the street, reliant on the kindness of strangers. Work helps you to be decisive, proactive and push yourself to achieve - a lot of the skills needed to be independent from employment in the first place.  
    
5. Time Management - THE.CONTENDER is so glad he is actually good at this one. With two kids to organise (toddler and a pre-schooler) THE.CONTENDER needs a bang on to the minute routine. THE.CONTENDER has to get them up, ready then drop off the eldest to state funded pre-school (mornings only) and then keep the toddler entertained until the lunchtime pick up followed by lunch etc... Being on time and organised is critical. One of the great compliments THE.CONTENDER gets from the mothers is that THE.CONTENDER is coping well looks healthy and relaxed - how does THE.CONTENDER do it with two kids? Praise indeed. Ahhhhh the joy of being boring old organised, kids are in a set routine, eat and sleep on time. THE.CONTENDER gets less tantrums to deal with as food is in the tummy on time and they get good sleep. This allows THE.CONTENDER time to write this blog.
    
6. Critical Thinking - being able to consider a problem from many different viewpoints / opinions is incredibly useful in business - you are prepared for anything. Getting things done is much easier. (please see a previous post for more information on critical review - Tickling the THE.CONTENDER awake). To be financially free you really need to be critical about what the perceived normal is. Lets consider this - keep most of your money in cash and get 1.5% interest while inflation is running at 3% but the REAL inflation rate is 5% - to whose benefit it that! Clearly not yours. You are saving the minimum into your pension fund and the provider is taking a huge cut but you can retire at 65 - why?
   
   Financial Freedom is all about being different, standing out from the norm because think differently and critically. In order to be financially free you need to take responsibility for your finances and your life choices to reach your ultimate goals.
    
7. Mentoring -  In THE.CONTENDER's opinion business mentoring is all about asking questions and listening. The coaching is to try to get the individual to think things through himself and also help that individual to network. So taking this home it helps with family conflicts / selling an idea asking the RIGHT questions, listening, reassuring and comforting. Mentoring skills should greatly benefit interactions with your kids and their own development.
    
8. Computer skills - Hopefully you are a computer whiz with spreadsheets, documents, email, e-commerce ;) etc. before you start work.  In work you find out it is no good just making some namby pamby, pink document with size 48 orange text to seek peoples attention with no real answers or end product of substance. In work you learn how to use computer skills to develop tools to be used by PEOPLE other than YOU. You have to make sure they are usable and used (THE.CONTENDER created tools to manage product stocks and optimising portfolio profitability using simple Microsoft tools although he had access to the latest bells and whistles technology and programmers).
   
   Financial Freedom spreadsheet planning tools are a key objective of this blog - how can they be used to analyse and control spending, work out the magic retirement number and track progress in getting there.
    
9. Change management / influencing - Financial freedom planning is a complete change in mindset for you and your immediate family. You need to be clearly focused on longer term goals.
   
   Our Early retirement goal is putting the skids under our careers which is hard for some people to contemplate. In particular our parents were very skeptical of our ideas (quite a change of mindset for the baby boomer generation they were borne into). Initially they thought thought we were being irresponsible parents and committing TAD (Tribe Assured Destruction). This is where change management and influencing skills come into play....
   
   Generally THE.CONTENDER has found proof is in the pudding. You need to prove it will work (we shared detailed plans and how we were progressing) - this requires a lot of effort in a manner that it is easy to understand from the other persons point of view. What reassurance do they need to see and hear? (we had back up plans and we are moving for the kids benefit as well as our own)
    
10. Presentation skills - Presenting yourself well is oh so important in life. The example of a formal presentation is less likely in your private life but lets consider some of the skills. Meeting new people and building relationships - first impressions are really important. Looking good (not expensive), good eye contact, friendly demeanor and at peace with yourself all make a huge difference in making new friends and mutually beneficial contacts.
    
    Q&A - actually listening, summarizing and answering the question that was asked of you....
    

So learning all of the boring business skills was worthwhile after all! THE.CONTENDER made some money for his investments, learnt a whole raft of real life skills, had the pleasure of meeting, working and socialising with some really nice people. One other thing THE.CONTENDER got to visit some ace countries for work.

We all need to "work". A large percentage of people in society have to work out of necessity until retirement at 65. Financial freedom is not necessarily about giving up work but choose what you want to do. THE.CONTENDER would not be very happy if he could not "work" in the future. THE.CONTENDER just wants to choose what he does as: work enables you to meet different people with unique outlooks on life, learn new skills and use those grey cells in your head from time to time.

Embracing the opportunity to learn and build relationships while working helps build the skills and resilience needed to thrive in life. In order to learn some of the skills above why not volunteer for a role that is alien to you. Ask for all the training you can get, play the corporate games, learn a bit of politics (perhaps we have the next Winston Churchill on our hands)?

THE.CONTENDER at the tender age of 16  attended a Q&A session with a group of six engineers at Cardiff University - THE.CONTENDER asked:

"Do you enjoy your jobs?"  the reply from one of the group, that really inspired me at the time, was  "That is actually the first time I have been asked and it is is the best question I have ever had. Yes!" the rest of the group of engineers agreed.

Enjoy work, embrace its challenges and you will learn something new and make friends for life along the way.

THE.CONTENDER

*semi retired - THE.CONTENDER is a full time dad to infants - that is a full time job \ career in itself! Once the little terrors (they are no problem really;) have their own school lives THE.CONTENDER will need to find challenges to fill the time. If it is a bit of consultancy work using the knowledge built up from industry so be it or can it be something different. THE.CONTENDER is considering: his own health business, grow some of his own food and sell the rest perhaps write a book. Time to update the life plan we have developed but not quite time for a bucket list yet as THE.CONTENDER is only 36!

Welcome New CONTENDER Readers! Please take a look around.

Here you can find out about THE.CONTENDER and the purpose of the blog is or perhaps browse the all posts list, have a look at the pictures on the notice board. Please feel free to play with the planning tools and checklists.


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