occasional SO
isn't that an oxymoron? It's either occasional or significant :P
Well he's occasionally significant so....;-).
At least you always have the barkinator to keep you company.
haha. Well I think The Barkinator is currently my SO (in a platonic non romantic kind of way). At least she's FIREd and can go off an do all the fun early retiree stuff with me unlike the occasional SO who still works. Which is why he's an OSO ;-). Currently dealing with what direction, if any, that relationship should go.
Its funny because this morning (a Sunday) when I was walking the dog someone made a comment about how nice the weekends are so that we can do long walks or runs with our dogs. I said something about how nice it would be to be early retired (they don't know I am) and you could do that everyday. Their face scrunched up and they said " yeah but what would you do after that? You'd be so bored!". Um...no.
Ha! Those comments from people are too funny. Well before I thought much about retiring personally, I never thought that retirement meant boredom for others. I've always known people who were retired, and even those that lived pretty simple lives, still never seemed to be bored in their retirement. I would like to have more of a sample of that type of feedback regarding my own early retirement expected in 9 months, which isn't all that early in life compared to many on this forum, yet still earlier than pretty much any primary breadwinners that I know IRL and 15 years before I'll get SS benefits. I'm mostly keeping it a secret from about everyone until it's a sure thing and I put in my notice at work in 8 months plus work out any remaining potential PT work. The reasons for keeping my FIRE plan mostly to myself are:
1) Circumstances out of my control could delay my retirement. While the odds look good, I don't want to put out the word that I'll FIRE in early June only to have to cancel for some reason by the time it gets here and look like a idiot.
2) I don't want my employer to catch early word and have me start documenting every little thing and cross-training someone and otherwise making my last year a PITA, whereas now I have my own quiet office and plenty of flexibility.
3) I might end up staying on part time, at least till year-end or until the following spring, so then not fully retired at my target date. I will probably offer to work PT 1-3 days per week, which is one reason I won't feel bad about not giving them more than a month notice. If they value my skills as they should, they will accept my part time offer.
4) I could simply change my mind and decide to work OMY full time, looking like an idiot if I had said I was retiring.
5) I don't want to jinx my FIRE plans in general.
I've leaked some general retirement comments (usually no specific timelines) to some family members and friends and have received comments like, "don't rush it", and "you're too young to retire" (including from two ladies who are about 10 years younger than me, one who is a SAHM), and "what will you do?" (ironically, from my retired BIL, who seems to stay busy). When I've made the same general comments to a couple guys I know well (age 53 to 65), they didn't really comment about me and just turned it around on themselves to say that they like working or have to work longer. Most recently, when I texted about it to a friend in his 50's who lives 80 miles away, he responded, "are you getting lazy?" I actually have one coworker who I've been pretty open about the specifics, and he seems to relate and is wanting to do the same thing, except he's 10 years older than me. It will be a lot more interesting (entertaining?) to get the reactions from more fiends, family, coworkers, and others when I can announce that I've already given notice along with a specific date or that I've already retired!