Author Topic: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?  (Read 31705 times)

FrugalSaver

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How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« on: January 07, 2019, 06:46:27 PM »
That’s my personal target. < 800 working days. On one hand seems so short. On the other so long. I could FIRE now but would prefer the added pad and paying off a couple more rentals.


AccidentalMiser

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2019, 07:09:32 PM »
I deleted my RE date from my calendar, tore down my monthly countdown list, replaced my “retire on” date in my spreadsheet with one ten years in the future.

Dwelling in counting days was making me unhappy, so I stopped.  I have about the same number to go as you do, if I decide to stop, but they’re not going to pass more quickly by counting them.

Focus on something else, that’s my advice.

obstinate

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2019, 06:04:31 AM »
I motivate myself by thinking about how I’ll run out of money, be on the streets, and probably die of cancer if I don’t.

Freedomin5

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2019, 07:05:12 AM »
I focus on making each day as painless as possible. I don’t focus on the RE date.

DaMa

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2019, 07:12:01 AM »
Just think about it one day at a time!  I would say to myself, if I work 10 more minutes, I get $x.  And at the end of the day, I would think that's $y more in the bank.

Loretta

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2019, 07:15:35 AM »
Honestly I would try to take as much accrued leave as I could to spend the fewest days actually at work.

patrickza

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2019, 07:37:08 AM »
When you're close adding those extra years has a huge impact on your net worth. You're probably earning a decent amount in dividends, massive growth on a big portfolio and still have a salary.

I'm motivated by how much more I'll have to live on by just staying the course. An added bonus is that shares are pretty good value at the moment, so I'm buying more on discount!

FrugalSaver

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2019, 11:00:15 PM »
Honestly I would try to take as much accrued leave as I could to spend the fewest days actually at work.

That’s a great point. I have over 100 sick days that are basically use it or lose it

jlcnuke

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2019, 04:19:38 AM »
Honestly I would try to take as much accrued leave as I could to spend the fewest days actually at work.

I get 11 paid holidays and 30 days PTO per year now. I take every single one of them every year. Every time I hear a friend/coworker talking about how they lost days or just "got them paid out" instead I cringe... give me my freedom and let me enjoy life now! Not just when I finally finish working for good...

Kay-Ell

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2019, 01:16:24 PM »
I would give myself permission to emotionally de-invest in work and make other goals, outside of finance and caree.  Set fitness goals, hobby goals, vacation goals, home improvement goals, organizational goals, learn a new language goals.  Invest in your friends and family outside of work.  Whatever it may be, make a conscious effort to begin living your FIRE life outside of 9-5 M-F.  Find things that round out your life and that will enhance your eventual FIRE.  Work is now just a thing you do during set times of the day and week. 

GuitarStv

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2019, 01:18:58 PM »
You have to poop every day, but will only be able to make your employer pay for the toilet paper and flushing water for a limited period . . . so enjoy these halcyon days.

BPA

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2019, 01:21:19 PM »
I deleted my RE date from my calendar, tore down my monthly countdown list, replaced my “retire on” date in my spreadsheet with one ten years in the future.

Dwelling in counting days was making me unhappy, so I stopped.  I have about the same number to go as you do, if I decide to stop, but they’re not going to pass more quickly by counting them.

Focus on something else, that’s my advice.

I wish I had done this. Instead, I obsessively watched my countdown ticker.

And the worst for me was the last month. It seemed to take forever and my job was stressing me out so badly.

For kicks, I just calculated out how long it has been since I FIREd: 1118 days.

FIRE@50

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2019, 01:37:08 PM »
Honestly I would try to take as much accrued leave as I could to spend the fewest days actually at work.

I get 11 paid holidays and 30 days PTO per year now. I take every single one of them every year. Every time I hear a friend/coworker talking about how they lost days or just "got them paid out" instead I cringe... give me my freedom and let me enjoy life now! Not just when I finally finish working for good...
I take all of mine every year because they are use it or lose it. If i could get paid for that time, I would take less PTO.

FrugalSaver

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2019, 09:36:20 PM »
I deleted my RE date from my calendar, tore down my monthly countdown list, replaced my “retire on” date in my spreadsheet with one ten years in the future.

Dwelling in counting days was making me unhappy, so I stopped.  I have about the same number to go as you do, if I decide to stop, but they’re not going to pass more quickly by counting them.

Focus on something else, that’s my advice.

I wish I had done this. Instead, I obsessively watched my countdown ticker.

And the worst for me was the last month. It seemed to take forever and my job was stressing me out so badly.

For kicks, I just calculated out how long it has been since I FIREd: 1118 days.

Conversely how long has the 1118 days seemed like?

BPA

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #14 on: January 10, 2019, 04:55:12 AM »
I deleted my RE date from my calendar, tore down my monthly countdown list, replaced my “retire on” date in my spreadsheet with one ten years in the future.

Dwelling in counting days was making me unhappy, so I stopped.  I have about the same number to go as you do, if I decide to stop, but they’re not going to pass more quickly by counting them.

Focus on something else, that’s my advice.

I wish I had done this. Instead, I obsessively watched my countdown ticker.

And the worst for me was the last month. It seemed to take forever and my job was stressing me out so badly.

For kicks, I just calculated out how long it has been since I FIREd: 1118 days.

Conversely how long has the 1118 days seemed like?

Early on in FIRE I was aware that time seemed to pass more slowly. My life has changed a great deal for the better and it makes my life before December 18, 2015 seem almost like another life.

Linea_Norway

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2019, 05:19:29 AM »
That’s my personal target. < 800 working days. On one hand seems so short. On the other so long. I could FIRE now but would prefer the added pad and paying off a couple more rentals.

In your case, I wouldn't be motivated to work for another 800 days. I would just FIRE and find some part time side-gig that would provide the padding.
You could at least work less than full time.  DH and I went to 80% and that already feels like being rich.

SKL-HOU

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #16 on: January 10, 2019, 10:08:10 AM »
Honestly I would try to take as much accrued leave as I could to spend the fewest days actually at work.

That’s a great point. I have over 100 sick days that are basically use it or lose it

I would start taking plenty of mental health days or stay at home with the slightest headache or illness. :)

friedmmj

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #17 on: January 17, 2019, 06:14:27 PM »
After tomorrow, I need to work exactly 1000 more days (in work days which is 53 months in total actual time).  I can't help but count every single day in my head.  Been doing that since about 1,500 days. On one hand, it is exciting to reach through this "thousand day barrier" but it still seems so far away.

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #18 on: January 17, 2019, 06:28:58 PM »
I kept a countdown for fun.  Towards the end, it is easy to put things off until you retire.  I'd say, go ahead and start being retired now.  Take a nice vacation, pick up that instrument, read that book, visit that old friend, make that house repair.  It'll distract you and "train" you for retirement.  If possible, I'd try to negotiate part time work. It wasn't in the cards for me, but would have been a great way to transition.

ScreamingHeadGuy

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #19 on: January 17, 2019, 07:23:39 PM »
You have to poop every day, but will only be able to make your employer pay for the toilet paper and flushing water for a limited period . . . so enjoy these halcyon days.

In addition to using the bathroom I enjoy charging my phone at work.  Because I am an evil man.

happy

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2019, 04:05:13 AM »
I didn't count the days, but kept a journal of monthly updates. I set financial and other goals for each month and had every month roughly mapped to FIRE.Every month I would enjoy updating the figures and seeing whether I was ahead or behind. If I had some financial revelation or just wanted to muck around with figures or ideas I would write in the journal in between as well.  Sometimes I just offloaded my frustrations and longing to finish up. Days was too intense but monthly felt like a reasonable scale to count down.

I also did all the things that others had mentioned...if I was sick, I took a sick day and stopped saving up my sick leave.  I kept using up my annual leave.  I tried to use up more study leave.

I also worked out the things I could stop doing.  I stopped having a 5 or 10 year plan. I chose things that suited me at the time without worrying about how it might look in 5 years time. I stopped doing things just because it would look good on the CV.  I made sure I noticed that I had done a task that needed updating say every 3 years for the last time. As time got closer it got even better...lots of stuff gets renewed annually and I could mark off the last time.

I started reducing and clearing out my office. I stopped keeping stuff that I might need "one day"....if it didn't look to be helpful in the near future I got rid of it.

I also stopped fretting about some new change that was being heralded that would likely effect me in 3-5 years time. Others would waste energy getting worked up, but I would just let it go if I judged it would come after I finished up.  For example the medical board looked to be threatening some complex revalidation procedures at one point, I hoped it would come after I finished up but at one stage it appeared imminent. Fortunately everyone came to their senses and what was proposed was reasonable and wouldn't effect me.

1000 days seems such a long time but time passes. Make sure you do something to enjoy those 1000 days whilst they are passing.

fattest_foot

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #21 on: January 18, 2019, 08:56:42 AM »
I started a countdown with something like 1200 working days left. I wish I hadn't.

I lucked out in that we had a few pay raises and the market did better than expected over the years, and so it knocked a few hundred off.

We've still got about 500 working days left though, and it just seems like so many days.

So I'm also going to advise you not to keep track.

koshtra

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #22 on: January 18, 2019, 09:49:25 AM »
Heh. I made a conscientious plan with my boss to leave in five months, wrap up my projects, do everything right... and then a couple days later I walked into his office and said, "I'm really sorry, man, but... this is my two week notice." Once that stable door was open, this pony was going to bolt :-)

Mr. Green

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2019, 10:29:50 AM »
I started my countdown with about 800 days left myself. Since a countdown that high was discouraging, I used weeks instead. I actually kept a sticky pad at my desk and every Monday I'd pull one off and write the next lowest number. I got a lot of satisfaction from it but because it was only once a week I didn't obsess over it.

FIRE 20/20

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #24 on: January 18, 2019, 05:43:15 PM »
When I realized I was about 2 years out - so a little closer than you are - I decided to make an effort to improve my life at work.  I had been frustrated by not getting a promotion that everyone agreed I deserved but paperwork and re-org. chaos kept getting in the way of.  So I moved to a new role within the company to a position that came with a promotion.  I stayed in that high stress role for the minimum amount of time (6 months) and transitioned into a very low stress role.   I started to use my PTO.  Over the past 18 months I've taken about 5 weeks of PTO on top of the roughly 5 weeks of PTO accrual.  I have only worked 3 full pay periods (80 hours in 2 weeks) in the past 7 months.  I've taken vacation days, sick days, half-days, worked just M-Th for the heck of it, etc.  Because I'm in an easy, low stress role with no real supervision as long as I achieve objectives, I don't even know if anyone realizes how little I'm in the office and if they have noticed they don't care.  Even with all of that I'm still getting great performance reviews, and I think that's due in large part to the fact that I don't care about doing crap for show but I focus my time and effort on the things that really matter.  My team has earned a great reputation.  Most of that is the team itself, but some of it is the fact that I have been able to say no to the stupid stuff that I might otherwise have felt pressured to take on.  As a result team can kick butt on the important stuff. 
For me, achieving about 80% of my FIRE goals has made work a lot better.  However, I realize that much of that is due to being in a role with a lot of flexibility within a large company.  A lot of that is luck that other people might not have, but some of it was the result of looking for, finding, and getting into a role that's a good fit. 
« Last Edit: January 18, 2019, 10:39:30 PM by FIRE 20/20 »

lollylegs

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #25 on: January 18, 2019, 06:27:54 PM »
I find having a countdown tracker helps me, today I have only 1441 days to go.  Every Friday, last thing before I leave I cross another week off the calendar.
To get through work I have stopped going to meetings, last year I only went to four. I just accept meeting requests, don't go and generally nothing happens, if I get asked I apologise and make up some excuse - that single thing has reduced so much stress at work for me. The four I went to I really needed to put in an appearance.
I do only the minimum professional development I need to do to maintain currency, I use my sick leave ( i have months and months of it) when I start feeling stressed out. I've also made a real effort to just step back and not be the one volunteering for work/commitees/ projects - instead I have been mentoring some of the younger staff in this direction, accepting that I'm not going to move up the ladder any further but getting some satisfaction helping newer staff advance their careers. It a strange space but I have always been so invested in my career I feel like I need to start the 'letting go' sooner rather than later.
I've also started spending more time working on my own hobbies at home, things I always put off because I was tired from work. I no longer check my emails at home - it was hard at first but its really helped me switch off from work more.
...and I read a lot here, especially the posts of people who have retired or are in that last year.
can't wait till that countdown is on 0 and I walk out the door for the last time!

wglennreid

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #26 on: January 18, 2019, 08:02:31 PM »
I have 622 days to my plan to retire. I am already FIRE but also motivated to financial pad.  However, I am struggling with anxious feeling that I am in a 'waiting to move on with my life' mode and every few days think about the things I can be doing or planning to do now if I was not working anymore and about the limited number of years I would have to do them.  I am planning on relocation for one.  Also, I sort of have mixed feelings about my career and am trying to ignore work thoughts, feelings or regrets that come up, like should I apply for a promotion if one comes up, do I need to go out on a 'pinnacle of my career' by getting another higher position, or why did I not try to get that promotion a while back?  I am curious if those of you have similar feelings, thoughts or regrets.

Linea_Norway

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #27 on: January 19, 2019, 02:15:39 AM »
I have 622 days to my plan to retire. I am already FIRE but also motivated to financial pad.  However, I am struggling with anxious feeling that I am in a 'waiting to move on with my life' mode and every few days think about the things I can be doing or planning to do now if I was not working anymore and about the limited number of years I would have to do them.  I am planning on relocation for one.  Also, I sort of have mixed feelings about my career and am trying to ignore work thoughts, feelings or regrets that come up, like should I apply for a promotion if one comes up, do I need to go out on a 'pinnacle of my career' by getting another higher position, or why did I not try to get that promotion a while back?  I am curious if those of you have similar feelings, thoughts or regrets.

You are not FIRE, but FI.

As you are already FI, why don't you switch to working parttime? Then you will have some longer weekends to think about your RE plans and start doing the things you want to he doing.

soccerluvof4

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #28 on: January 19, 2019, 04:03:06 AM »
I have 622 days to my plan to retire. I am already FIRE but also motivated to financial pad.  However, I am struggling with anxious feeling that I am in a 'waiting to move on with my life' mode and every few days think about the things I can be doing or planning to do now if I was not working anymore and about the limited number of years I would have to do them.  I am planning on relocation for one.  Also, I sort of have mixed feelings about my career and am trying to ignore work thoughts, feelings or regrets that come up, like should I apply for a promotion if one comes up, do I need to go out on a 'pinnacle of my career' by getting another higher position, or why did I not try to get that promotion a while back?  I am curious if those of you have similar feelings, thoughts or regrets.


You are not FIRE, but FI.

As you are already FI, why don't you switch to working parttime? Then you will have some longer weekends to think about your RE plans and start doing the things you want to he doing.




I'm with Linda-Norway on this. Unless there is some golden parachute at the end of this countdown your not telling us about I'd check out now and do something part time 20-25 hours a week. Get on with your life.

PhrugalPhan

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #29 on: January 19, 2019, 03:44:34 PM »
Like the OP, if I count only work days, not weekends - holidays - annual leave - etc, I am probably just under 1,000 days until golden handcuffs kick in, though I can tell you the number of years, months, and weeks to go (ugh).  Like others have mentioned I try to concentrate on other things (my finances, gym workouts at lunch, charge my phones at my desk, and so on).

I think the biggest thing is to find something you are ok with for your job to get through your last years.  Me... I wish I was doing well on that front.  I had ok to great projects for well over a decade, and then I got put on the "project from hell" over a year ago and am trying to get taken off of it to no luck (yet).

fuzzy math

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #30 on: January 19, 2019, 07:58:19 PM »
1960 work days left ugh. When you find that motivation tell me how to double it


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BudgetSlasher

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #31 on: January 20, 2019, 08:23:55 AM »
Honestly I would try to take as much accrued leave as I could to spend the fewest days actually at work.

That’s a great point. I have over 100 sick days that are basically use it or lose it

There is 10% gone if you manage you use all of them . . .

plus any vacation time you have already, plus any vacation and sick you will earn in the next ~33 months.

If you earn sick and vacation each at 1 days a month thats another 66 days or 6.6% of your 1000 days you don't have to work.

Is it 1,000 calendar days, or 1,000 work days? You could mentally cut the number again if you haven't already excluded weekends and holidays. If you have already then the length of time (calendar) that you have to work is longer and you will have more leave in the above calculation.

partgypsy

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #32 on: January 20, 2019, 11:41:00 AM »
I deleted my RE date from my calendar, tore down my monthly countdown list, replaced my “retire on” date in my spreadsheet with one ten years in the future.

Dwelling in counting days was making me unhappy, so I stopped.  I have about the same number to go as you do, if I decide to stop, but they’re not going to pass more quickly by counting them.

Focus on something else, that’s my advice.

Totally. Don't even think about it. Think about plans with loved ones during the week or on the weekend. What you are going to cook or bake. New exercise routine. You know, life. I am 10 years off from retirement the less I think about it the better : )
« Last Edit: January 20, 2019, 11:44:46 AM by partgypsy »

WynnDuffy73

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #33 on: January 20, 2019, 05:57:22 PM »

To get through work I have stopped going to meetings, last year I only went to four. I just accept meeting requests, don't go and generally nothing happens, if I get asked I apologise and make up some excuse - that single thing has reduced so much stress at work for me. The four I went to I really needed to put in an appearance.


I love this. I literally laughed out loud when I read that.  Sounds like something from a Seinfeld episode.

I would love to do this but I’m stuck with the opposite extreme.  My boss is a micro manager who insists that I facilitate the meetings and then proceeds to tell me exactly what the agenda needs to be.  She never leaves us alone. 

WynnDuffy73

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #34 on: January 20, 2019, 06:25:25 PM »


For me, knowing I could theoretically walk out of the door if my boss asked me to do something truly unbearable makes getting through those final 5 years much easier from a mental standpoint. I now mentally celebrate every paycheck as one notch past scenerio #1. That 1 additional paycheck means $x amount more in my eventual Social Security check, $x amount more in my safe withdrawal rate, etc.

 

 
« Last Edit: March 30, 2022, 06:28:39 PM by WynnDuffy73 »

FrugalSaver

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #35 on: January 20, 2019, 06:40:06 PM »
I heard Ray Dalio is lresicting a 40% market drop. That may throw a kink in things.

FIRE 20/20

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #36 on: January 20, 2019, 07:04:11 PM »
I heard Ray Dalio is lresicting a 40% market drop. That may throw a kink in things.

So the top is in?
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/top-is-in/4200/

Linea_Norway

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #37 on: January 21, 2019, 01:00:32 AM »
I heard Ray Dalio is lresicting a 40% market drop. That may throw a kink in things.

He must be the richest man in the world, if he can predict market drops.

For DH and me it would be great, A 40% drop means getting a large mortgage on our house and buying stock. Which we would otherwise do the year after when we FIRE. A drop would be very convenient for that.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2019, 04:18:25 AM by Linea_Norway »

FrugalSaver

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #38 on: March 24, 2019, 01:01:36 AM »
Went below 750 working days left (if I don’t count any sick or vacation time)

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Linea_Norway

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #39 on: March 24, 2019, 04:20:06 AM »
We are trying to push our date foreward towards the beginning of 2020. So maybe only 10 months left, including vacations and working 80%.

The original plam was October, but as we are getting so close, working longer feels more and more meaningless.

We are planning to relocate and for that reason, it feels a little like putting our life on hold. Just waiting for the time we can start selling our house for real. Ideally we should have to move out when we leave our jobs.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2019, 04:23:11 AM by Linea_Norway »

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #40 on: March 24, 2019, 05:52:54 AM »
I just refuse to hope for time to pass so I have no countdowns. I know that my student debt will be gone in roughly 3 years, which will be a fun game changer, but I plan to live A LOT of life in those 3 years, so I'm in no rush to see that time disappear.

If I don't like something about my life or job, I change it.
I'm done waiting for anything and I have no patience for being unhappy.

I also have no FIRE goal, so that helps.
I have literally no idea where my career will go because I'm sure I'll just keep changing it as my goals evolve.

Rubyvroom

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #41 on: March 25, 2019, 11:30:55 AM »
I feel like it has gotten more and more difficult for us to "hold the line" the closer we get to our exit dates. When we were 3-4 years away, we were just focused on making steady progress and still found excitement in small achievements, like changing cell phone carriers and saving $X per month, or biking more and seeing a reduction in gas spending. With a longer timeline, those little spending adjustments still had a noticeable impact on our numbers.

The closer we get to RE however, the less motivated we are to make small changes, because it feels like the work it takes to investigate, decide, and transition any normal recurring expenditure is hardly worth the minor incremental change it would make to our finances over such a short timeline. We know we will have far more energy and time to min/max life when we are no longer working, so this 0.0-1.5 year timeline has felt like a dead zone when it comes to motivation.

Also, we realized last night that if my SO continues to work until October 2019 as we had planned, his total income for the next 7 months is less than the monthly market increases/decreases in five of the past twelve months. The market could literally provide us with 7 months of his income or sweep it away in just one monthly move, and it just makes that additional 7 months of work feel like kind of a moot point (even though we need it financially).

So I'm definitely not answering the OP effectively, because we too are struggling with motivation. I am a GoT nerd so the best way to describe how this "home stretch" feels is to draw a comparison to Hodor vs. doorway of zombies... ugh that sounds bleak LOL.

rantk81

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #42 on: March 25, 2019, 12:09:16 PM »
How about counting down to something else instead?  My current Google Drive "Countdown" spreadsheet shows 667 more days until the Jan 20 2021 presidential inauguration.  Find some date that means something to you, and count down to that -- maybe a planned vacation date?

OurTown

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #43 on: March 25, 2019, 12:34:42 PM »
I get it.  I wish I was closer to my date, but I'm not.  I like the idea of using a measurement of time that makes it seem closer.  Weeks "feel" like they just fly by, so xx-weeks until FIRE might be a good measurement.

Gremlin

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #44 on: March 25, 2019, 07:06:31 PM »
I used to count "back".  What do I mean by that?

I had a calendar where I entered meaningful events that happened - holidays, special achievements, key life events. 

My countdown would be to my end date, but instead I used to consider what I was doing x days prior.  For example, if my countdown was at 257 days it might be that it was 257 days SINCE the family went on holidays to <<insert place>>.  Inevitably those events wouldn't seem that long ago and would motivate me further that the time remaining wouldn't be that far away.

Mrs Gremlin thought I was a bit mad when I'd constantly ask "Do you remember when we..., that doesn't seem so long ago does it?", but she recognised it helped me.  She also laughed the day before I finished up when I asked her whether she remembered yesterday afternoon.

Linea_Norway

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #45 on: March 26, 2019, 01:55:50 AM »
I feel like it has gotten more and more difficult for us to "hold the line" the closer we get to our exit dates. When we were 3-4 years away, we were just focused on making steady progress and still found excitement in small achievements, like changing cell phone carriers and saving $X per month, or biking more and seeing a reduction in gas spending. With a longer timeline, those little spending adjustments still had a noticeable impact on our numbers.

The closer we get to RE however, the less motivated we are to make small changes, because it feels like the work it takes to investigate, decide, and transition any normal recurring expenditure is hardly worth the minor incremental change it would make to our finances over such a short timeline. We know we will have far more energy and time to min/max life when we are no longer working, so this 0.0-1.5 year timeline has felt like a dead zone when it comes to motivation.

Also, we realized last night that if my SO continues to work until October 2019 as we had planned, his total income for the next 7 months is less than the monthly market increases/decreases in five of the past twelve months. The market could literally provide us with 7 months of his income or sweep it away in just one monthly move, and it just makes that additional 7 months of work feel like kind of a moot point (even though we need it financially).

So I'm definitely not answering the OP effectively, because we too are struggling with motivation. I am a GoT nerd so the best way to describe how this "home stretch" feels is to draw a comparison to Hodor vs. doorway of zombies... ugh that sounds bleak LOL.

This resonates with me, although it does not hit me with having less focus on savings. But spending lots of time on hobbies is put a bit on wait, until we are no longer working. Of course, we still have our camping trips on longer holidays, but we are not doing as much as we could the whole year round. Last year we often went on a night (winter) camping in the weekend, but that happened so often, while we still worked full time, that it was actually stressful with all the packing and unpacking. This year we haven't bothered to do that in a weekend. But we will do it in the longer Easter holiday, for more than just 1 night, which should also be more relaxing. We do make normal 2 hour skiing trips, or something similar in the weekends, but that is in crowded forest together with all the others who have weekend.

For the spending, we have switched to insurances, phone plan and other stuff that is as cheap as it can be. For the rest we are sitting waiting out our time, because we know our home situation will change completely. Yes, we do small cosmetic changes to our home, because it will be sold within a year. But we don't invest into any major improvements. We have done a good job in selling stuff we don't need.

I keep most of my focus now on staying healthy, lowering my stress levels, getting enough sleep and hopefully with that getting my slightly too high blood pressure down without medication. We also want DH to get rid of his heart issues while he is still working and his access to a health insurance that gives priority to treatment.

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #46 on: March 26, 2019, 04:52:40 AM »
I just refuse to hope for time to pass so I have no countdowns. I know that my student debt will be gone in roughly 3 years, which will be a fun game changer, but I plan to live A LOT of life in those 3 years, so I'm in no rush to see that time disappear.

I like the idea of not wanting time to disappear...it just means you are getting closer to the end of life! That said, I do have several different countdown clocks tied to specific dates at which, e,g, retirement benefits vest or become available to me. They range from 2 to almost 8 years away. When things feel more difficult, I look at the near term goal, and I say “That isn’t really that far away.” When it lightens up, I notice how much closer the 8 year goal is. Falling below 100 months in the distant goal was helpful psychologically, because I find that a month goes by amazingly quickly.

Metalcat

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #47 on: March 26, 2019, 05:47:32 AM »
I just refuse to hope for time to pass so I have no countdowns. I know that my student debt will be gone in roughly 3 years, which will be a fun game changer, but I plan to live A LOT of life in those 3 years, so I'm in no rush to see that time disappear.

I like the idea of not wanting time to disappear...it just means you are getting closer to the end of life! That said, I do have several different countdown clocks tied to specific dates at which, e,g, retirement benefits vest or become available to me. They range from 2 to almost 8 years away. When things feel more difficult, I look at the near term goal, and I say “That isn’t really that far away.” When it lightens up, I notice how much closer the 8 year goal is. Falling below 100 months in the distant goal was helpful psychologically, because I find that a month goes by amazingly quickly.

For me, it's not about being closer to death, necessarily, it's about really enjoying life NOW and not wanting to waste this time that I have.

Sure, I have things I'm looking forward to: possession of my new home in June, a major trip in a year, my student debt finally being paid off in a few years (I only make minimum payments), etc, etc

However, I'm not impatient for any of these dates to arrive, I'm not counting down anything, and I really don't have a very good sense of how long it is until any of these things happen.

I actually have a dreadful sense of macro time in general, I'm not good with dates and can't tell you how long ago anything was. Macro time is very amorphous for me, it's all kind of a blur now. 

Why? Because I really enjoy my life and try to live in the present, and the time will pass in the background, which means at some point new and fun realities just appear.
In the meantime, I really want to enjoy *this* time before it disappears.

Once I decided to stop living for the future and really committed to the present, my life rapidly got A LOT better and rather quickly.

I immediately became far more demanding at work, I started making more time for friends and family, I bought the home I *really* wanted, and completely reorganized my life priorities in general. I just stopped making excuses for not living really really well.

If something isn't working for me right now, I start fixing it *right now*. I spent my entire life being future-focused and I never realized how it was such a slippery slope into just wasting my life.

I had 3 years that were just kind of a blur of stress and work. I see those as largely wasted years and never want to live like that ever again. No one was forcing me to, I just felt like I "had to" because of arbitrary savings goals that I had *set for myself*. I put myself in prison, for no good reason.

A brilliant therapist once asked me "whose job do you think it is to make sure your life is a good one?"

There used to be this laundry list of things I would do "once the debt is gone" or "once we retire".
No more.
I mean, things will change once I no longer have a $3000/mo student debt repayment, but it's no longer "once the debt is gone we will be able to...", now it's "I'm so curious to see where we'll be at by the time the debt is gone."

I now protect my present day happiness and satisfaction with ferocity and I actively challenge myself every time I find myself pining for the future.

I used to look to the future like a hungry person longing for a meal. Now I look to the future like someone who is nice and full after a good lunch but who knows that they're going out to a really nice restaurant for dinner.
I'm looking very forward to it, but I'm in no rush because I'm already full and I don't need it right now to feel good, but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy to know how much I'll enjoy it down the road.

FrugalSaver

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #48 on: April 14, 2019, 10:36:28 PM »
< 730 working days left (not counting any vacation days)

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How do you motivate yourself to work 1,000 more days?
« Reply #49 on: April 15, 2019, 12:22:26 AM »
I have small targets

Each Friday I celebrate another week of success at work or in the household (if it was a good week)

Every weekend I remind myself of the things I am grateful for

Each 2-4 weeks I review my mortgage and mentally tick off making the target that I need to

Every few months I do a mini-big-celebration if my partner and I have met our FIRE goals for that time span

I have a rule that each time I make my monthly target at work (i.e., the figure that my FIRE goals are dependent on), I give myself 10% of the excess and put that into a happy fund.

Each time I pay off a house we have a big celebration too.

You need to celebrate tiny, small, medium, big and gigantic milestones...make FIRE an enjoyable journey! Try to make it a rewarding game rather than a long marathon. And make sure you are vocal about your successes too, because a joy shared is a joy doubled. And be grateful for the little successes.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!