Tim Ferriss’s Mini-Retirements: More Achievable Than Ever

What if retirement didn’t have to wait until you’re 65? Tim Ferriss popularized a revolutionary concept in The 4-Hour Workweek that flips traditional thinking on its head. Instead of saving up for one long retirement at the end of your career, you can take multiple “mini-retirements” throughout your life—extended breaks of several months where you live out your dreams and explore the world.

While Ferriss’s book came out in 2007, the rise of remote work and digital nomadism has made his vision more achievable than ever. Keep reading to discover how you can design your own escape from the 9-to-5 grind.

Tim Ferriss on Mini-Retirements

In The 4-Hour Workweek, entrepreneur, consultant, and life coach Tim Ferriss argues that you don’t need a million dollars to have a millionaire lifestyle. He says you can do it by following a four-step process, which he illustrates with the acronym DEAL: Define, Eliminate, Automate, Liberate. The goal of the DEAL process is to gain ourselves enough time to do the things we’ve come up with in our dreamlines (the timelines applied to dreams).

Ferriss contends that the best way to live out a dream is to take a mini-retirement. A mini-retirement is a months-long hiatus from work during which you live out one of your dreams. Unlike traditional retirement, you can have many periods of mini-retirement throughout your life. Ferriss spends most of his mini-retirements traveling. So, this article uses the term “mini-retirement” to specifically refer to relocating to a new place for several months.

(Shortform note: Ferriss recommends that you disengage from work, but he also gives advice on ways to work during your mini-retirement. The implication is that you can choose whether or not to work during your mini-retirement.)

The Benefits of Mini-Retirements

Ferriss argues that a mini-retirement is a better way to travel than a vacation or sabbatical because, when you’re mini-retired, you have enough time to truly experience a place. Vacations are so short they’re exhausting; to see a lot, you have to binge it. Sabbaticals are longer, but they happen only once or twice.

Another advantage of mini-retirements is that they can be more cost-effective than vacations. Renting an apartment is a lot less expensive than staying in hotels and hostels, so spending a month living somewhere else might not be any more expensive than a week-long vacation.

(Shortform note: The The 4-Hour Workweek was published in 2007. Since that time, the cost-effectiveness argument has become even stronger. The rise of remote work has made longer-term rentals more available and competitively priced, while hotel costs have generally increased faster than long-term accommodation costs.)

Addressing Your Concerns About Travel

You might be afraid to go on a mini-retirement and find yourself coming up with excuses not to do it. Here are some common concerns and ways to alleviate them:

• “I don’t know where to start.” Ferriss recommends that, whenever you plan to go somewhere new, you should organize a week of language classes. Schools will often help you with logistics such as finding an apartment, and you’ll get to know people right away.
• “Travel is dangerous.” Ferriss writes that most major US cities have more violent crime than many of the countries he has visited. Traveling usually isn’t any more dangerous than staying home. Check the US Department of State for travel advisories, and avoid places you’re not comfortable visiting.
• “My kids could get lost or hurt.” A mini-retirement is safer than vacations in this regard because it’s more like regular life. On vacations, you’re constantly visiting different, crowded places, and there are lots of opportunities to get split up. Ferriss recommends that you train your kids to be more independent and to have them memorize phone numbers and addresses so they can find their own way.
• “My kids might misbehave.” Ferriss says you can bribe your children by paying them per hour of good behavior and docking them for bad behavior.

Ferriss advises that, if you’re traveling with your children, you should start by taking a short “practice mini-retirement.” The smaller commitment will help you and your kids ease into the concept. Also, The 4-Hour Workweek includes a fear-setting exercise that can further help you get past concerns you have about mini-retirements.

Airfare Tips

Since mini-retirements typically last several months, you don’t need to focus on the ultra-budget travel tactics used for short vacations. You’re establishing a temporary home base for an extended period, so it’s worth spending extra on conveniences such as direct flights to make your journey more comfortable. It’s always nice to get a deal, though, so do the following to save on airfare:

• Buy tickets either three months in advance or at the last minute.
• Leave and come back Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
• Buy a ticket to the major airport closest to your destination. Once you arrive, buy a ticket to your exact destination with a local airline, which will be cheaper.
• Use a credit card with reward points for your muse expenses, and then use the rewards for flights. (Ferriss uses the term “muse” to refer to a business you start with the goal of making money using as little time and effort as possible.)

What to Bring

Travel is a good excuse to narrow down your possessions because going away forces you to evaluate what you have—you have to either bring things or store them. It might be hard for you to get rid of things. Capitalism has trained us to believe that, if we buy something, it’s valuable. But, once you get momentum going, it becomes easier to let go of things. Having fewer possessions can also make you happier—less physical clutter means less mental clutter.

Don’t bring too much when you travel. How much luggage you have significantly affects your trip; you have to carry it and store it. Bring only the things you really need. Ferriss recommends bringing only these items:

• A week’s worth of clothing
• Copies of important documents
• Debit card, credit card, and cash in the local currency
• A lock for hostels and lockers
• Digital dictionaries
• A travel guide
• A laptop—if you’re a writer. Otherwise, if you need to access your computer while you’re away, use remote desktop software in an internet cafe.

Ferriss says you can convince yourself to pack light by doing the following:

• Bring a “settling fund.” This is money you’ve put away to buy anything you left behind and discover you do in fact need, or to buy anything that’s annoying to bring (e.g., umbrella, sunscreen). Err on the side of bringing less because you won’t need as much as you think you will. Ferriss’s settling fund is $100 to $300. 
• Plan to borrow things. For example, if you’re going on a whale watching tour, someone else on the trip will definitely bring binoculars, so you don’t have to.

How to Plan a Mini-Retirement

Ferriss lays out four steps to plan for a mini-retirement. (Note that not all mini-retirements require all four steps.)

1. Assess your finances. Write a list of your assets and how much they’re worth, incoming cash, and expenses. What can you get rid of? For each item, consider how much you use it, and determine whether it creates more stress than it’s worth.
2. Fear-set. Fear-set one of your dreamlines (timeline for a dream) or a one-year mini-retirement in Europe.
3. Choose where you want to go on your first mini-retirement. You can stay in your own country, but it’s easier to get out of the working mindset somewhere with a different culture. To find a place:
   • Pick a place to start, and then wander until you find somewhere you like.
   • Choose a place you know you like, and do some short trips in the area.
   • Ferriss recommends Argentina, Thailand, and Berlin if you’re looking for a low cost of living and somewhere easy to start.
4. When appropriate, start your mini-retirement itinerary. 

Mini-Retirement Itinerary

This itinerary covers the time from three months before you leave until a week after you’ve arrived.

• Three months before:
  • Apply the 80/20 rule to your belongings.
  • Look into travel medical insurance.
  • Figure out what to do with your current home, whether that’s ending a lease, renting/swapping, or selling.
• Two months before:
  • Set up autopayments for your bills with credit or debit cards.
  • Get credit cards for all your checking accounts, set the cash advances to $0, and leave them at home. They’re to protect against accidental overdraft.
  • Give your accountant or a trusted family member power of attorney so they can sign documents for you while you’re away.
• One month before:
  • Set up mail forwarding to someone you’ll pay to email you descriptions of your mail.
  • Get all needed vaccinations.
  • Try remote desktop software to make sure it works.
  • Make sure you continue to get paid by resellers and distributors. If your muse’s fulfillment house accepts checks, switch to direct deposit, get the fulfillment house to handle them, or get people to use PayPal or send their checks to your power of attorney.
• Two weeks before:
  • Make copies of your important documents.
  • Change your phone plan to something cheap.
  • Change your voicemail message to tell people you’re away and won’t be checking your voicemail and to provide your email address as an alternate method of communication.
  • Set up email responders to tell people how often you’ll be responding.
  • If you’re an employee, set up a way for your boss to contact you.
  • Find accommodation. Ferriss recommends you start with a hostel and choose an apartment after you get there. This way you can check out neighborhoods and talk to locals before making a longer commitment.
  • Optional: Get foreign medical evacuation insurance.
• One week before:
  • Decide a batch schedule for your routine tasks. This helps you maintain discipline to do them once you’re traveling.
  • Save digital copies of important documents to a USB drive.
  • Pack, store your things, and move in with a family member or friend until you go.
• Two days before:
  • Store your car safely.
  • Cancel auto insurance.
• First morning and afternoon after arrival:
  • Tour the city on a hop-on-hop-off bus and bicycle to check out apartment neighborhoods.
  • Don’t buy souvenirs. Wait until the last two weeks of your stay for souvenir shopping.
• First evening after arrival:
  • Get an unlocked mobile phone with a prepayable SIM card.
  • Set up apartment showings.
• Days 2 and 3 after arrival:
  • Sign a one-month lease on an apartment. Start with one month in case you don’t like the place.
• Move-in day:
  • Buy local health insurance.
• A week after move-in day:
  • Get rid of anything you brought that you don’t need.

Learn How Mini-Retirements Fit Into DEAL

To learn more about mini-retirements in the broader context of Ferriss’s DEAL (Define, Eliminate, Automate, Liberate) process, check out Shortform’s guide to The 4-Hour Workweek.