I made enough money selling my company to retire at 40 and do whatever I want. That was 10 years ago.

The biggest difference that has made, is the time I have available to ponder and consider all aspect of my life, without the disruption of work. It has lead to some interesting conclusions, in particular, my expectations and motivations to get rich and what advice I would give to my kids and friends in their life quests.

Retiring young is not quite as I expected. Its been good, but different than I imagined. The biggest shock is how few people are in the same boat as you. Virtually everyone else works. You often end up spending your time with old retirees 20-30 years your senior, and get a very different perspective on life.

Sure you meet people your age, but its either when they are on vacation or the weekend. Soon you realize they have totally different goals to you, in the little time they have. Either total rest or party like crazy. You end up spending a lot of time on your own, mainly because you have so much free time.

Sure, I have travelled a lot and tried so many hobbies, but that only takes up so much time. Buying cool cars and expensive toys is fun for a while but gets boring much quicker than you think. You soon run out of things to buy that interest you.

The only genuine riches is having peace of mind and internal satisfaction with your own life.

Now most of my time is spent working in my garden, building and trying interesting things. I spend my time working, but only on activities I enjoy doing.

For me, it has put into perspective the importance of choosing a career that you enjoy. I was very fortunate to get in the situation I am in now, and it would be hard to reproduce the same level of success consistently. What is far more achievable, and gives similar results is finding a career you love doing. That will effectively give you the same life that I have.

Of course you also need to realize how good you already have it and not to chase an unattainable dream of riches. That takes wisdom. I am always dissapointed when I hear people say they can fix everything with money. They only say that because they dont know what its like to have money. Thats why big money remains so elusive, very few people have experience with it. Most of the advice you get is from business trying to take it from you.

Bottom line. The happiness that you hope to gain by attaining wealth, already resides within you. You just need to learn how to turn it on.