2 months into RE

[4tify]

Well, 9 weeks actually but who’s counting?

So far so good! Enjoying hobbies and getting exercise daily. Thinking about long term aims but haven’t committed to anything yet.

Question for those ahead of me: I’ve notice a bit of unease around not getting the serotonin buzz from biweekly paychecks and playing the savings game. I know I’ve won the race but having a bit of trouble giving up the addiction. I get that it’s over and I need to move on, but not finding a strategy so far.

How have you found ways to replace the buzz? The “achievements” I’ve been making around, for instance, keeping up with learning or exercise objectives just doesn’t provide the hit. Maybe there’s a thread I haven’t found or good blog post on this?

[NotJen]

Question for those ahead of me: I’ve notice a bit of unease around not getting the serotonin buzz from biweekly paychecks and playing the savings game. I know I’ve won the race but having a bit of trouble giving up the addiction. I get that it’s over and I need to move on, but not finding a strategy so far.

I never really missed the paycheck as much as I thought I would.  I still play similar "games" with money as I did before I FIREd, so that part of my brain is still occupied.  Instead of tracking my savings, I have a budget that I update frequently.  I enjoy coming in under budget and making the cash I retired with last as long as possible before I have to sell any investments.  I still do credit card and bank account bonuses.  I look for tax loss harvesting opportunities and do tax planning to figure out the optimal amount of Roth conversions each year.

[jim555]

Haven't had a paycheck in 7 years now.  The money pile is the paycheck, don't miss the real paycheck.

[cool7hand]

Are you familiar with Tony Robbins's taxonomy for the six human needs? If not, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lbpqcxOPVI.

I ask because I suspect you'll need to figure out which human need provided the buzz you're now missing. Name it, and you'll have a better idea of how to replace it. My bet is on growth.

[NoEllipsis]

I didn't rely on a paycheck buzz the past few years of work. Yes I appreciated having money to invest every month which I don't really have now but I found other things that I enjoy. I used to work out 3 days a week or so when working, and when I did work out I only pushed so hard. Now I work out about 5 days a week and push much harder. I started paying much more attention to food and eating correctly since I feel like food is half the work when it comes to actually start seeing significant physical changes in your body. The past 3 months or so I really started tracking macros and making sure I hit the proper amount of protein daily which has been a new different game that I actually have seen the most changes with.

I also have a semi-significant volunteer position where I put in a full day of work once a week working with marine mammals, it's 6-10 hours on that one day a week (depending on how many animals are there). That gives me the social aspect of being on a team back.

I also found that doing research studies can be a small boost of income. I seem to occasionally find a research study that will pay me $100 for an hour of my time. I did one last week that was $350 for about 2 hours of time. Its enough to get me out of the house and change up my routine a little and it's worth my time. Makes me feel like I can pay for a massage or something special without needing to feel like I'm really spending my own money.

Basically I think it comes down to finding something that you're interested in and get into. Set a new fitness goal, or volunteer goal. Another goal I'm aiming for is donating my first gallon of blood. Once I hit that I'll probably up my goal again.

I also don't strictly invest in index funds so I have some days where a stock or my portfolio pops up, and that gives me joy knowing that even if I was still at my old job I wouldn't make that much money working as I did on this one day of this stocks/portfolios performance in a day/week/month and occasionally a year.

Or like someone else said about managing their investments, I try to harvest gains at a good time so that if things pull back I can just sit and wait things out. I'm guessing the money games I play like this will be less interesting the further away from FIRE I get, it's only been a little over a year for me right now.

[Rubyvroom]

The “achievements” I’ve been making around, for instance, keeping up with learning or exercise objectives just doesn’t provide the hit.

So I don't know if I'm a masochist or what but since I retired in December, I've been choosing to do new things I know nothing about. I've been failing at those things. Kind of a lot.

I may just miss that learning curve I felt when I was working on something big or new at work, but once I finally start to figure it out (not even master it, but maybe see a slight improvement, like fewer fails or slightly better understanding of those fails), I feel pretty good about it. I don't know if it's akin to a money buzz, but it's constantly got my brain firing up. I fall down learning rabbit holes constantly now, not because I set a specific concrete goal for myself, but because I was randomly like "I want to try to grow these Shiitake mushrooms and oh my god there's a lot to this... flow hoods... agar plates... do I need a good set of scalpels? Damn you contamination!! Maybe I can just buy Shiitakes at the store like a normal person... NO! I will grow them myself because... because reasons..."

Spoiler alert: I have yet to eat my own shiitake mushroom but not for lack of trying! :D

Perhaps if you've been focusing on goals that were similar to what you were doing before retiring (exercise goals for example), maybe you pick something completely foreign to you and give it a go. Maybe deliberately choose something you know you won't be any good at. Once you get good at that thing, you might feel a similar buzz.

[4tify]

You make a really good point @Rubyvroom thank you. And good luck on your shiitakes!

I watched the video @coolhand2 and I think you're right about "growth". I'm trying to do some work around mission and values post FI to help me align with things I can do outside my comfort zone but that also "matter" to me. Thanks for the recommendation.

It's interesting you bring up earning @NoEllipsis because I have thought about just trying to earn a little for the hit, but I'm also hoping to try to stay off that treadmill at least for some time. It's pretty tempting though! Thanks.

@NotJen I have been working the spreadsheets but I do find now that I've won the race I'm no longer terribly inspired. I started re-reading Early Retirement Extreme to help remember some of my early inspirations around this path. After more than a decade I think I've lost a bit of touch with that, so hopefully re-reading it will help. Thank you.

[chevy1956]

Haven't had a paycheck in 7 years now.  The money pile is the paycheck, don't miss the real paycheck.

It doesn't bother me one bit.

[jim555]

Today is end of quarter which means quarterly dividends, that is the "paycheck" in retirement.

[boarder42]

I've always got some money scheme going on that was more lucrative than my job. So I never really got excited for a paycheck. Even in retirement I find it more fun to make a few grand a month doing almost nothing but having a couple chat conversations. And then I rent timeshares put now. It's so simple and takes no real effort.