Semi-retired in my 40s

Was I semi-retired in my 40s? I would argue the time spent working in the recreational dive industry in my late 20s and early 30s was semi-retired. Although I received a salary, I felt like I was getting paid to have fun and it felt like I was saving money by not paying for diving experiences.

I was becoming a little concerned, I was now mid 30s and had to make a decision, do I continue in the low wage diving industry or do I return to a career? I chose to start a new career in training and education; this was really an extension of being a diving instructor with better pay, conditions, leave entitlements, job security and the all important retirement benefits.

During my dive instructor working period, I made some superannuation payments along with employer contributions on my behalf, but this was grossly under what I should have been putting away. I wasn't salary sacrificing as I paid the bills but funds were tight, overseas holidays evaporated but most weeks were like a holiday as I led tours within Western Australia anyway.

But, during my mid 30s I was accepted into state government employment. I now had a pretty decent salary, eight weeks paid leave, one day per week working from home and I was accruing long service leave entitlements. Sure I was back in full-time employment but it was Monday to Friday with one day per week working from home.

Even better, I joined the Government Employees Superannuation Board (GESB) where my employer contributions were deposited into my account without the mandatory 15% contributions tax deducted. I was now accruing a decent retirement benefit with all the fantastic conditions attached to state government employment.

The eight weeks paid leave was the selling point, that's two months off per year where I traveled overseas, dived the South East Asian region from Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. There were also trips to Europe and the United States, no point getting all these holidays and sitting around home trying to save money.

Sure, I didn't get paid to take people scuba diving anymore but my now more than generous salary easily covered that. I was still working as a part-time instructor at a number of dive centres as a part-time employee as well part ownership of a dive business for a while.

I also renewed all my diving equipment, untook renovations on my property, updated my car, made extra contributions to my retirement account, got myself a university education and then there was the travel both in the state, interstate and international.

These days I don't work part-time in diving anymore although I keep my membership current for possible future references. My summer Saturdays are spent at the Royal Perth Yacht Club as a crew member racing a S97 cruiser. Whilst my dingy days are over, the Saturday afternoon race is a highlight of the week.

The club also has mid-week races with Saturday being very competitive, Thursday evening is the twilight race that really isn't a race, this is a cruise with no spinnaker for down-wind legs, mostly inexperienced crews enjoying time on the Swan River. We generally refer to this race (of sorts) as a booze cruise with further drinks and BBQ up the club afterwards.