Count me among those that consider it a win to just put a project/idea on my to-do list for after FIRE, much less the thought of actually digging into any of them. My to-do list is so disorganized (and is actually in about 3-4 random parts depending on where I am when I think of something to add) that I hope I can figure out what I meant when I RE! I unfortunately assigned myself a project that cannot be delayed until after RE when I popped the question to my BF on our recent vacation. I mean, we could delay it, but it seems silly, especially at our ages, to not get married for up to 2 years after our engagement because we waited almost a year to even start planning! It'll be small - 10-30 people probably. But it's already stressful!
On the RE front, I updated my NW calculations yesterday and found I had hit 3.5% WR on a fairly fat FI budget. So that feels *great*. I should quit now, given how much I hate my job. But, I made a plan to quit 2/19, so it feels irrational or unsafe or something to change my plans. "Good girls" stick to the plan and don't pull the rip cord abruptly before the agreed moment! Also, although our wedding will be pretty inexpensive, might as well save up some extra money for that right? I don't know, though, if I will last 7 more months. I can pretty much guarantee I'm not going to give notice today, but beyond that, who knows? :)
OTOH, I worry about *not* pulling the rip cord sooner. I never had a firm number that I had to hit, just a range, and I am within it. And waiting is just more time of my life I'm missing out on. As anyone does, I want the safety of more money "just in case". Part of it is that a significant amount of the money I am counting on continuing in perpetuity is not just traditional investments. What if it disappeared? But this is perhaps as likely as taking a 75% loss in the market. Yes it can happen, and it would be a disaster, but it's tail risk, and you can't live your life based on tail risk. Well, I guess some people can, but I'm not willing to, though it does nag at me. Which I think is normal. Saving up more money to hit a good benchmark like 3.5% and seeing a Life Coach to prepare psychologically for RE were two things that were going to keep me busy until I could actually RE and not get too itchy in the meantime. Well, I made great progress with the Coach, we've already hit all the topics I wanted to address, so now I have very little to help me bide my time. So I'm getting itchy. Which brings me in a nice circle back to the previous paragraph, where good girls don't FIRE just because they are itchy.