What is it for him? He has already quit his job. He must be eating, sleeping and watching TV whenever he wants, enjoying himself - Isn't that what you thought about me?
Nothing wrong with that.When we hear retirement, that is what we would imagine in our head.
But what I did was not retirement. I just got out of corporate life. That is all.
But I am still working for my happiness.
This episode is to share on what I am doing now.
If you think, What am I going to do knowing that, then please feel free to skip this episode.
For others, Hi. My name is Vijay Mohan. You are watching - investment insights.
You all already know. The important reason for me to leave the job is "Time".
The time we are going to be in this world is very less. So it became important for me to spend that time useful for me and my folks.
Also I wanted to spend time for others as much as I can. That was my intention.
All that intention is good. But did I execute that right? I can say 50/50.
So the 8 hours I am saving by not going to job can be categorized in 3 buckets.
First is knowledge. The time I am spending to develop my knowledge and skill.
I thought that this would take 30% of my time. But I way underestimated this one as I am spending most of my time on this.
Before leaving the job, I might have read only a total of 5 books in my whole life.
I can easily say that I did not have time then. But that would not be true.
For whatever reason, I was not interested in reading books.
But after leaving the job, as I have declared myself in the YouTube video that I am going to improve my knowledge, I had to read books at least for that.
Actually I should say that I started hearing books as they are all audio books.
Here in US, we can easily check out audio books from library and hear in our phone.
I try to finish at least one book in a week. In the past 8 months, I must have read at least 30 books.
This is a different world. Once we know the taste of this world, Netflix, Amazon prime would lose to it.
Investments, Behavioral, Biography, Philosophical - there are just too many interesting books.
If you are interested in reading books, follow "Alex and Books" in twitter.
He recommends great books for each category.
Next Twitter. Last year, a friend asked me if I am in Twitter.
Twitter? People just share where they ate and where they went for bathroom there. Who wants to hear those. - I said.
What are you talking about? There are lot of good things shared in Twitter. Go and check it out - My friend suggested.
So I got curious and opened a Twitter account just last year.
To my surprise, what my friend said was 100% true. There is just plenty of good information shared in Twitter. Just that we should follow the right folks.
Many break complicated subjects into simple twitter threads that we can easily follow.
Sahil bloom shares many interesting mental models, bias etc in his twitter handle.
10-K diver, breaks down complex business concepts into easily digestable twitter threads.
David Perrel shares really good strategies to improve our writing skills.
Like these, there are many interesting content creators in Twitter.
Twitter threads are super fast to gain knowledge compared to reading books.
If you want to improve your knowledge in a fast lane, definitely follow smart folks in Twitter.
Next - hearing podcasts. This is also something that I started doing recently.
For now, I am focusing only on Finance related podcasts. Here too, there are just too many good podcasts.
We can hear podcasts from many interesting people like Elon Musk, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Daniel Kahneman etc.
All these are English podcasts. I am not familiar with Tamil podcasts.
If you have time, I would encourage you to try podcasts in a field of your interest. You will definitely learn a lot.
So books, twitter and podcasts - these are all the sources that I am using for developing my knowledge.
Then this YouTube channel. For each 10 minute episode that you are watching, there is at least 3 days worth of effort.
I do not have any separate team for managing this as many think. I am the only one in my team.
For each episode, I do research. Once I learned well about that topic, I try come up with script that explains the concept in a simple way.
Then recording, editing and adding subtitles - I spent at least a total of 24 hours for each episode.
This also helps in developing my knowledge. We can learn something from reading.
When we try to write that as a script, that knowledge enhances for us.
But when we try to present that after writing the script, that knowledge gets etched in our mind.
That is what happening to me as well. So this YouTube channel is not useful just for you, but is also a big help for me to develop my knowledge.
All these are the time I am spending to develop my knowledge and skills.
Next - Health. When I was working, I had some exposure to physical activities.
I usually play Badminton, Frisbee, cricket with kids in the evening.
After quitting the job, I tried to increase that physical activity by going out for walking everyday.
45 mins in the morning and 45 mins again in the evening - I try to walk close to 6 miles everyday.
It just got slowed down because of peak winter.
I thought walking would be a boring thing to do. But we can easily convert that into an enjoyable one.
What I am doing is, I am using this walking time to hear audio books and podcasts.
That is working out for me pretty well. Both knowledge and health target achieved. Two birds in one stone.
If I have to skip walking for a day, that makes me feel very guilty. Now walking has become part of my daily routine.
If you would like to increase your physical activity, give this technique a shot.
Third - I was planning on spending more time with the family after I leave the job. But that did not go as well as I thought.
I am still available for kids 100% for the time. But I was thinking of playing more with them, cooking more at home - but that did not happen as well as I thought as I did not have enough time.
What happens when we take a kid to a candy store? It would run around without knowing what candy to pick right?
Same thing with me. I am running around YouTube, books, twitter etc.
I am hoping to get adapted to the new way of life in next months. I have to wait and see.
I had some concerns before I left the job.
I was worried that if I suddenly have a lot of time in hand, I might start playing in stock market trading.
But it turns out to be not a concern at all as I do not have any time for that.
One of the concern my wife had was, if I am not working, it might affect me psychologically as I am not going to engage with other folks in day to day life.
But actually I am talking to at least 20 folks every day.
Just that it is not over the phone. But I respond to at least 20 questions in LinkedIn, Email and YouTube comments.
I give my guidance from what I know. That social engagement itself is good enough to address that concern for her.
Another concern she had was whether I would lose my identity if I quit my job.
When I was working I had the title "Senior Director". I also had a team to say "yes, Boss". But if I leave the job, all that would be gone, losing my identity and purpose. That was her concern.
A valid concern. But to my luck, you all supported me very well and made this channel a big success.
Now I have a bigger purpose than I had while I was working.
Comments from last episode is the proof for that. So now she does not have that concern as well.
By the way, thank you all for taking the time to add comments about what you learnt in this channel in last episode.
Those comments are not just making me proud, but it is making my whole family and friends proud. Thank you again.
Through this YouTube channel, there are other good things that are happening to me as well.
Bringing all like minded friends under one roof. Give and Take policy.
Like, I will learn from you. You can learn from me.
Next opportunities. I am getting many business collaboration opportunities.
So far, nothing suited me and so I have not accepted anything yet.
But regardless of whether we are accepting or not, having that option itself is a power right? That is a nice side benefit that I did not expect.
Other than these, public attention. Really speaking, I am not ready for this yet.
Couple of months ago, one of our subscriber saw me going on a walk while driving his car.
He parked the car in a nearby parking lot and came by to talk to me.
I told him that I am not a big shot for you to stop over and come and talk to me.
But I was proud that our channel has a good reach, that someone can identify me in the road in Chicago suburbs.
Many funny incidents happen as well. Some time back, one of my friend called me over the phone.
"I watched your video. Why did you leave the job? Are you planning on doing financial consulting?" he asked.
I said, "No no. I am just going to focus on my YouTube channel."
"Oh, you can make that much money from YouTube?", he asked and I replied, "No. No. It is just peanuts".
He then immediately asked, "How are you managing your daily expenses then?". I wasn't expecting that question and I did not know how to respond.
I just said, "Well, my wife is still working right?". For that, he laughed and said, "Wow, how many others are planning on doing this..."
"Just me." I responded and laughed. If you are planning for early retirement, be prepared for conversation like this.
This is how my life is going on now. I do not have any feeling that I have quit my job.
I am as busy as I used to be. In fact, I am even more busy now.
The difference is, I used to do that work for someone for money. But I am doing that work for my self satisfaction now. That is all the difference.
We will soon meet again in another episode. Thank You.