For those who are financially independence or retired early, can you give us a breakdown of a typical day for you? How many hours in the day do you spend doing different things?
"Every day is Saturday, every night is Friday night."
http://the-military-guide.com/2010/09/08/but-but-but-what-will-i-do-all-day/http://the-military-guide.com/2010/10/14/myths-of-military-retirement-and-early-retirement/I'm usually awake by 3-4 AM. I literally start each morning with the surf forecast, and I paddle out 2-3x/week for 2-3 hours each. There's almost always surf on the north or south shores, although some weeks it's too big up north and too small down south. Once or twice a year it's flat all around the island.
Once I know what I'll be doing at dawn, I spend at least 20 minutes writing. I do it every day (even when I don't feel particularly inspired) and often end up going longer than 20 minutes. (Writer's block is a self-inflicted myth.) Usually I split the time between a blog post and the latest book project.
If I'm not surfing that morning then I'll get in some bodyweight exercise, or we'll have heavy yardwork waiting for us. There's almost always a project in the works with my spouse: home improvement, maintenance, repair, or just cleaning out the attic/closets. (This week it's window cleaning & grooming. Oboy!) We visit our rental property every six weeks to do yardwork and maintenance/repairs. We try to limit all of this to an hour or two. We don't have to spend all day doing chores & running errands anymore, so we avoid that whenever possible. We also try to do the outside work in the mornings so that we can spend the hotter afternoons/evenings inside.
We tend to run errands on weekday mornings: groceries, library, shopping, ATM. The stores are less crowded, the clerks are relaxed & chatty, and we can get more done in less time. We stay away from the stores (and off the roads) on weekends, holidays, and rush hours. When I get caught in rush hour I can't believe that I used to live like that 10x/week.
I used to nap for 30-60 minutes almost every day after lunch, but recently that seems to be declining. Maybe it's more protein at lunch, fewer carbs.
During afternoons & evenings I'll read the local/global news sites, social media, and e-mail for a couple hours. I probably spend 30-60 minutes/day e-mailing with other bloggers or answering reader questions. I try to check this forum at least every couple of days or I'm 200+ threads behind. I'll work on our finances or clean out a file. I spend several more hours each day just reading other blogs, websites, & books. I'm a big reader.
I used to train taekwondo 2-3 evenings/week. I've had to give that up due to knee injuries and recovery time, but I probably need to bring in another type of exercise to complement my current routine. That might be walking a couple miles with a 30-pound pack, or maybe yoga. My spouse spends most of her evenings walking with a neighbor for an hour, or doing water aerobics, or Zumba. Most days we're in bed by 8:30-9 PM.
My spouse and I go out a few times a month for meals or visiting friends or a show, but we're hard-core introverts. We have the skills to socialize but we find it very tiring.
Every week I have about an hour of conservator paperwork for my Dad's finances. (He's in a care facility with mid-stage Alzheimer's.) It's typically paying the bills, updating a spreadsheet, renewing CDs or moving money around, swapping paper with John Hancock, and updating the annual report to the probate court. If Dad's going through a medical issue then there may be more hours on the phone with insurance companies and medical billers-- or even a trip to visit him.
I'm a member of an angel investing group which meets for lunch once a month. I also sit on their screening committee, where we spend 2-3 hours/month reviewing pitches and putting together the lunch program. If I'm interested in a startup then I'll spend a couple hours on the following week's due diligence meeting. There may also be an hour or two of additional work each month with the startups that I've invested in, or just more reading to analyze the pitches for the next screening committee meeting. I'm slowly learning that angel investing is hard work when it's done right, and I'm probably heading for the exit on that project.
In the long term we spent the first eight years of our ER on parenting up through high-school graduation. The last four years have been a weekly call or e-mail about college life. Our daughter's generally spent about 3-6 weeks/year at home around semesters and Navy ROTC training, and we visited her at least once a year. She graduates in May so my spouse and I will be spending more time on travel. We think that'll be about 6-10 weeks/year spread among Thailand, the FinCon blogger conference, and either visiting other Mainland friends/family or neighbor island trips. Our daughter's trying to get overseas orders so we'll plan at least one trip each year around her homeport or deployment liberty ports.
Quiet life? You bet. I spent almost half my life in the Navy, and that was plenty of excitement.
Boring? Not to me-- I haven't been bored a single day of the last 12 years. In fact most days I go to bed exhausted and still didn't get everything done that I thought I needed to do.
I still have Ernie Zelinski's Get-A-Life Tree worksheet somewhere in my desk, but I haven't made the time to do anything with it...
