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- The reality of early retirement doesn't always match up with the perception.
- While early retirement offers a sense of freedom, there are also some unexpected elements that early retirees need to adjust to.
- This mostly requires a shift in mindset: Dealing with an identity crisis and new sources of motivation, realizing that you'll feel the same as before early retirement, and getting out of your comfort zone.
Early retirement is full of surprises.
While there's a new sense of freedom and liberation, according to many early retirees, there's also a few unexpected elements that may require some adjustment in early retirement.
For example, some early retirees face an identity crisis and need to find a new source of motivation. Others realize an initial increase in happiness doesn't last forever. Some also learned how to get out of their comfort zone - but that, in the long run, is a positive thing.
Here, early retirees talk about the ways they didn't expect their life to change after retiring early.