The New Retirement Trend That Says Waiting Until 65 Is A Huge Mistake
kali9 | Canva I lost my mother when she just 76 years old. “She died young,” people mourned. But I mourned her retirement being riddled with “almosts”: almost enough money, almost enough health, almost enough freedom to truly enjoy her final years.
My mother’s story didn’t spark my approach to micro-retirement, but it cemented my conviction in it. Long before she passed, I built breaks into my career, pausing between jobs, securing extended time off, and prioritizing experiences along the way. Watching her health decline as cancer ate through her bones, all while seeing her retirement slip away, reminded me that waiting for the so-called right time is a gamble.
Fulfillment shouldn’t be something we postpone. What if the ‘golden years’ of retirement never come?
What if, instead of waiting, we took retirement in doses, starting now? Here are a few ideas:
Milles Studio / Unsplash+
Inspired by the concept of micro-dosing on substances (although I never actually tried that method, if I’m being honest), I call it Micro Retirement, tiny bites of freedom woven into work life. It’s not a pause button; it’s a lifeline to the present.
We’ve all heard this advice: “Work hard, save everything you can, and save your dreams for your retirement.” The idea being that money is the key variable for driving fulfillment. Or in math speak: y(money) → fulfillment — where saving is the magic formula for a fulfilling life down the road.
My mom’s life wasn’t easy, and money shortages were a constant looming over her life (and thus mine growing up). When my grandmother passed away, she left her some money, the first time we experienced monetary relief, and then her brother (my uncle) took her to court claiming the money. My parents lost and had to take a 4th mortgage in their 70s and 80s, respectively.
Retire early
On the retirement front, however, she was smart (or lucky). As a teacher, she was able to retire at 55 and enjoy a solid pension. She utilized her time off to do many things she couldn’t have done earlier in her life: She met my older sister in India, travelled with her, and even visited the US a few times. She invested in her hobbies, learned languages (French, English, Russian and Yiddish), took jewelry-making classes and many other courses.
After 30 years of work, she got almost 20 years of retirement, before cancer took that time away.
Experiment with retirement
I’m not sure when or why or how, but early-ish in my life I developed a different view on life, work and retirement, weaving in experiences and rest.
Example 1: Living off your savings
I took my first dose of micro-retirement at 26. With 10 months’ salary from my military release package, I took time off to finish the degree I’d juggled during my service. While my father worried about employment, I thought:
“How awesome is it to live comfortably for 10 months despite not having a job”
Example 2: Accept a job while pre-securing a long vacation
My next uncommon step was to start my first out-of-the-army job while pre-securing a 10-week vacation 4 months into the job. Instead of assuming it was impossible, I asked for it and they said yes.
Why would they say yes? Well, finding great talent is so hard and costly for companies that they are unlikely to skip a great employee for a short term “cost”. By the way, when I returned, I was given the role of team lead.
Example 3: The only true time off is between jobs
Before leaving that company, I lined up my next job. Between jobs, I claimed 4 weeks of pure freedom.
Time between jobs is the closest thing to retirement: no emails, no deadlines, no stress. How often do you switch jobs? Exactly. Take the time.
“Job pauses aren’t for parents or the less privileged,” some readers wrote to me.
In my experience, taking a break doesn’t have to translate to extensive travel or eating your savings. Sometimes, it’s just about slowing down — stepping away from the grind for a little while to reset, even if that means enjoying simple moments in your own city.
After having kids, my microdosing focus shifted from extended travel to finding joy in smaller experiences closer to home. Grabbing coffee or lunch with friends in the middle of the day, or trying something new, like a trampoline workshop. These pauses didn’t require elaborate planning nor a big budget; they were about reclaiming time in everyday life.
Over time, I could better articulate my intuition: Retirement shouldn’t be an all-or-nothing game. Instead of deferring gratifications and happiness, why not optimize for fulfillment throughout life?
We grind, we save, we wait. But what if later never comes? We might get sick or, worse, die. If we get to age in good health, we might not have the money to fulfill our plans. Perhaps we have to give our money to our kids or do some house repairs. And even if we’re not sick and have the money, our bodies are much more limited in our 60s and 70s than in our 30s, 40s, and even 50s.
In my mom’s case, even during her retirement, she didn’t have financial stability, and unforeseen events (family feud) made it worse. Eventually she got sick and passed away younger than most. Her decision to retire early paid off, giving her the time to pursue her hobbies and be more present in her family’s life.
Micro retirement
Good Faces / Unsplash
A podcast a friend shared, where they referred to some great books: Die with Zero and 4000 Weeks, led me to rethink my mental model of optimizing for fulfillment. From the old fashioned approach:
f(money) → fulfillment to: f(health, wealth, time) → max(fulfillment)
Meaning we should consider three variables to drive fulfillment: your health, wealth, and time.
When you are young, you have the gift of time and health, but probably you lack wealth. You can hike with friends, travel via buses and crash in hostels. Later in life, when time is scarce, wealth can enhance your experiences
Balance your health, wealth, and time to create your own fulfillment before variables vanish.
What fills your tanks? Is it time with friends and family? A ski trip? Define it, then maximize the equation now. What makes you happy, and what trade-offs do you need to make to generate more of that?
Hack your hesitations (or yes, you can!)
When I urge my friends and peers to micro-dose on retirement, I hear the same justifications as to why they can’t do what I did.
- I can’t take time off. I need a job.
- I can’t take time off, because I need health insurance for my family!
- I have a mortgage to pay.
- I rent my apartment. I can’t pay rent AND travel.
I get it. There are responsibilities like jobs, mortgages, rent, insurance. But there are always workarounds: COBRA covers healthcare, subleases offset rent, and unpaid leave exists.
Replace ‘I can’t’ with ‘How can I?’… prioritize life now because the future might not come. Stop waiting to fulfill your dreams when you retire, and have all that imaginary future money and time. Invest in experiences today while you have your health, family and friends. I assure you, you can do it too.
Pick a date. Block your calendar. Take the first step. What’s stopping you?
Your first micro-retirement experiment
Here’s your first step to making it all happen.
Financial planning:
- Calculate your monthly expenses.
- Identify funding options: savings, sabbatical, remote work, home exchange, etc.
Career integration:
- Pick a time in the next 12 months for an extended break. Consider times when many people are OOO this summer. Next winter?
- Review company policies on sabbaticals.
- Plan around natural job transitions.
- Negotiate extended time off during the hiring process.
Life design:
- Decide how long you can step away (3–4 weeks).
- Mark your calendar as out of office. Don’t let things get scheduled on those weeks, so you won’t have excuses.
- Plan activities impossible during normal work vacations or in traditional retirement
Life is too short and unexpected to wait for a retirement that might never look the way we imagine.
Micro-retirement is about investing in life earlier, while you’re healthy, able, and surrounded by the people who matter most. Whether it’s a month between jobs or a sabbatical you negotiate up front, creating these pockets of freedom can transform how you live.
How can you carve out your own micro-retirement?
The only thing standing between you and your first micro-retirement is the decision to make it happen. What will you do? Wait for someday, or claim your time now?
A nine-time Google award winner and Columbia MBA with 25 years of leadership, Sivan Hermon pairs an engineering foundation with a data-driven, strategic approach to transforming businesses and building high-performing organizations.
