The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Post-FIRE => Topic started by: dougules on December 04, 2019, 10:16:09 AM
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I'm curious how many folks here picked up old hobbies in FIRE they hadn't done much with while working. I haven't played piano in a long time, and I wonder if I'll take it back up when I have more time.
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Actually, I picked up a few new hobbies, dropped the planned hobby of travelling and grew totally disinterested in the hobby of writing software for myself instead of as a profession.
I had expected to travel the world and had my bucket list of locations. So, I did a couple of trips in the first 11 months of FIRE. The second was to Mexico where I fell sick with GBS. I went through a one-month hospital stay and months of learning to walk and struggling with double vision. My neurologist does not want me to travel, especially to locations where I might fall sick as my GBS could be retriggered, effectively killing all of my traveling plans.
During my recuperation, I got interested in the birds outside my window (nothing else to do since I could not read or watch TV). I ended up ordering a bird feeder from Amazon and relocating a bath near it. I ended up with endless entertainment and a desire to learn more about birds. I found a great community of birders on this forum who gave great advice and guidance (Thanks @wenchsenior and @Parizade).
So, now I got interested in making sure I had a great bird environment in my back yard. When the local Audobon had a native plant sale, I ended up buying a couple of milkweed plants and I suddenly had Monarch butterflies visiting and a whole crop of Monarch caterpillars. I decided that I am now going to make sure that one part of my garden is going to be a butterfly, insect and hummingbird garden. I have spent the last couple of months planning out my butterfly/insect/hummingbird garden. I cannot wait till spring when I can start implementing it.
I pulled out my old DSLR and tried taking pictures of the birds and butterflies. I used to be a poor photographer who mostly used the automatic mode and did not know the basics of composition or the technical aspects of photography. So, the University of YouTube has been a great educator. I abandoned the kit-lens and splurged for a couple more lenses, a telephoto, and a prime (cheap) lenses. And a tripod. I have started shooting in RAW instead of jpeg and am using the free RawTherapee to process my photos (still a work in progress).
TLDR; Lost the planned hobby of traveling and found 3 new hobbies, birding, butterfly gardening and photography.
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Actually, I picked up a few new hobbies, dropped the planned hobby of travelling and grew totally disinterested in the hobby of writing software for myself instead of as a profession.
I had expected to travel the world and had my bucket list of locations. So, I did a couple of trips in the first 11 months of FIRE. The second was to Mexico where I fell sick with GBS. I went through a one-month hospital stay and months of learning to walk and struggling with double vision. My neurologist does not want me to travel, especially to locations where I might fall sick as my GBS could be retriggered, effectively killing all of my traveling plans.
During my recuperation, I got interested in the birds outside my window (nothing else to do since I could not read or watch TV). I ended up ordering a bird feeder from Amazon and relocating a bath near it. I ended up with endless entertainment and a desire to learn more about birds. I found a great community of birders on this forum who gave great advice and guidance (Thanks @wenchsenior and @Parizade).
So, now I got interested in making sure I had a great bird environment in my back yard. When the local Audobon had a native plant sale, I ended up buying a couple of milkweed plants and I suddenly had Monarch butterflies visiting and a whole crop of Monarch caterpillars. I decided that I am now going to make sure that one part of my garden is going to be a butterfly, insect and hummingbird garden. I have spent the last couple of months planning out my butterfly/insect/hummingbird garden. I cannot wait till spring when I can start implementing it.
I pulled out my old DSLR and tried taking pictures of the birds and butterflies. I used to be a poor photographer who mostly used the automatic mode and did not know the basics of composition or the technical aspects of photography. So, the University of YouTube has been a great educator. I abandoned the kit-lens and splurged for a couple more lenses, a telephoto, and a prime (cheap) lenses. And a tripod. I have started shooting in RAW instead of jpeg and am using the free RawTherapee to process my photos (still a work in progress).
TLDR; Lost the planned hobby of traveling and found 3 new hobbies, birding, butterfly gardening and photography.
Do you miss traveling? I really want to travel after FIRE, and I think I would probably have a hard time if that were to happen to me.
EDIT: I just looked up Guillain-Barre, and that sounds pretty rough. I hope you're recovering well.
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Do you miss traveling? I really want to travel after FIRE, and I think I would probably have a hard time if that were to happen to me.
EDIT: I just looked up Guillain-Barre, and that sounds pretty rough. I hope you're recovering well.
Yes, I do miss traveling. Only consolation is that I can travel in the US as well as India (since I have immunity there). Maybe Western Europe also. But I so wanted to do South East Asia, parts of Africa and lots of Central and South America which I will not be doing :-( . I also wanted to hike the Appalachian trail, but may not do that. This one hurts!
I am almost at 85% of normal. I did not expect to reach even this level. GBS is worse as you age, those in their 20's bounce back completely. I am very happy to reach this level of recovery. Thanks for asking.
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Do you miss traveling? I really want to travel after FIRE, and I think I would probably have a hard time if that were to happen to me.
EDIT: I just looked up Guillain-Barre, and that sounds pretty rough. I hope you're recovering well.
Yes, I do miss traveling. Only consolation is that I can travel in the US as well as India (since I have immunity there). Maybe Western Europe also. But I so wanted to do South East Asia, parts of Africa and lots of Central and South America which I will not be doing :-( . I also wanted to hike the Appalachian trail, but may not do that. This one hurts!
I am almost at 85% of normal. I did not expect to reach even this level. GBS is worse as you age, those in their 20's bounce back completely. I am very happy to reach this level of recovery. Thanks for asking.
Great to hear of the progress you made! I remember you posting this (on the 2018 thread maybe?) and am glad to hear things have gotten even better than when you had posted that you were, I think, somewhat optimistic and working hard on recovery. My husband had GBS as a child and I think he is very lucky not to remember most of it and to have only a scar from the tracheotomy and a restriction on getting certain shots. I do understand his full recovery is literally largely due to having been hardly more than a toddler when he got it, but I wonder about the passage of time. Is there no chance that a decade or so of time without a relapse might open up more options to you again? Anyway, here's to your health and an admirable story of making lemonade out of lemons. I always fear I would not prove myself as resilient in similar circumstances.
As for me, I feel like maybe I didn't have hobbies before I FIREd? Like I didn't have time to pursue anything seriously. I have been trying to become fluent in Spanish most of my life, so I'm a bit more dedicated to that now and paring back on some of my volunteer obligations may give me the space to do it. I guess volunteering was a hobby I went back to, and really hard core. A bit too much, TBH. And I'm reading a *lot*, if you can call that a hobby. It's what I spent most of my summers and after-school as a child doing. I've also been a casual+ hiker most of my adult life and this summer I did a bucket list thru-hike, and hope to do more in the future.
So yes, I guess so! I also want to pursue new hobbies for sure. I'm trying to get into gardening, for instance. And I'd love to dance more. I never did it enough to call it a hobby, but I'd be so happy if I could find a salsa group or something like that.
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Yes, maybe? I am learning Spanish with renewed and sustained interest, and I didn't have time for something like that while working. I had done short spurts of learning languages before travel but those were mainly in college (except Icelandic before visiting Iceland but I didn't take that very far.
I've upped my volunteering (mostly got into that during my full time work days pre-kids) and since I have two small kids I'd say I'm still somewhat "employed/occupied" by watching them when my caretaker is not.
I've definitely upped my cooking but only the more elaborate stuff had "died off" during the kid+work part of my career because to be mustachian you gotta cook!
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Great to hear of the progress you made! I remember you posting this (on the 2018 thread maybe?) and am glad to hear things have gotten even better than when you had posted that you were, I think, somewhat optimistic and working hard on recovery. My husband had GBS as a child and I think he is very lucky not to remember most of it and to have only a scar from the tracheotomy and a restriction on getting certain shots. I do understand his full recovery is literally largely due to having been hardly more than a toddler when he got it, but I wonder about the passage of time. Is there no chance that a decade or so of time without a relapse might open up more options to you again? Anyway, here's to your health and an admirable story of making lemonade out of lemons. I always fear I would not prove myself as resilient in similar circumstances.
Thank you. Yes, it was the 2018 cohort thread that I posted this on.
Yes, I am hoping that some of the restrictions will be lifted. But in 10 years, I turn 70, so the passion to travel might not be there :-(
As for me, I feel like maybe I didn't have hobbies before I FIREd? Like I didn't have time to pursue anything seriously. I have been trying to become fluent in Spanish most of my life, so I'm a bit more dedicated to that now and paring back on some of my volunteer obligations may give me the space to do it. I guess volunteering was a hobby I went back to, and really hard core. A bit too much, TBH. And I'm reading a *lot*, if you can call that a hobby. It's what I spent most of my summers and after-school as a child doing. I've also been a casual+ hiker most of my adult life and this summer I did a bucket list thru-hike, and hope to do more in the future.
So yes, I guess so! I also want to pursue new hobbies for sure. I'm trying to get into gardening, for instance. And I'd love to dance more. I never did it enough to call it a hobby, but I'd be so happy if I could find a salsa group or something like that.
That is quite a bit on your plate. Volunteering, a new language, and reading. Those are great ways to give back and keep the brain exercised. And you get your physical exercise with the dance. Perfect!
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Mostly I have extended current hobbies like vegetable gardening and napping! I haven't touched old hobbies like piano playing and am even thinking about getting rid of the piano.
I have been able to return to hiking and camping, which I loved when I was younger. I stopped because life got in the way: married a partner who hated such things ( he tried and didn't complain much but I could tell he hated every minute), then kids, then single mother hood, then "chronic fatigue syndrome" which eventually turned out to be an autoimmune disorder. I've been working on chronic achilles tendonitis, weight loss and general fitness and was able to complete a 6 day day hiking and camping trip ( slept on the ground in a 2 man tent) and more recently just weekend camping and day hikes. Still haven't gone bush with a pack and a tent on my back, but its a work in progress.
I travelled a lot when I was in my 20s, and then had a fair bit of work travel..and I was over travel. I had a few remote weird places on my bucket list, but no real ambition or plans to get there. In fact I planned my retirement around homesteading my other favourite thing. Then I met a great travelling buddy through an MMM meetup, who was the only person I knew who had heard of most of the places on that list, and also wanted to go. So I've travelled for 2 and a half months this year...way more than I ever thought I would. I've ended up a bit conflicted about this....there are a few more quirky destinations I'd like to see, and now a great travel companion to go with, but this seriously impinges on my homesteading.
Sigh, first world FIRE problems.
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Mostly I have extended current hobbies like vegetable gardening and napping! I haven't touched old hobbies like piano playing and am even thinking about getting rid of the piano.
I have been able to return to hiking and camping, which I loved when I was younger. I stopped because life got in the way: married a partner who hated such things ( he tried and didn't complain much but I could tell he hated every minute), then kids, then single mother hood, then "chronic fatigue syndrome" which eventually turned out to be an autoimmune disorder. I've been working on chronic achilles tendonitis, weight loss and general fitness and was able to complete a 6 day day hiking and camping trip ( slept on the ground in a 2 man tent) and more recently just weekend camping and day hikes. Still haven't gone bush with a pack and a tent on my back, but its a work in progress.
I travelled a lot when I was in my 20s, and then had a fair bit of work travel..and I was over travel. I had a few remote weird places on my bucket list, but no real ambition or plans to get there. In fact I planned my retirement around homesteading my other favourite thing. Then I met a great travelling buddy through an MMM meetup, who was the only person I knew who had heard of most of the places on that list, and also wanted to go. So I've travelled for 2 and a half months this year...way more than I ever thought I would. I've ended up a bit conflicted about this....there are a few more quirky destinations I'd like to see, and now a great travel companion to go with, but this seriously impinges on my homesteading.
Sigh, first world FIRE problems.
I'm kind of curious to hear the more quirky obscure places on your list. I'm hoping for some offbeat travel in FIRE.
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Nunavut, Yukon, NW Territories, Greenland, Svalbard, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Antartica....
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Nunavut, Yukon, NW Territories, Greenland, Svalbard, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Antartica....
Those sound pretty cool (but expensive)
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Nunavut, Yukon, NW Territories, Greenland, Svalbard, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Antartica....
Cool! Literally.
Based on your list, I'm sure you'll also like the Outer Hebrides and the Lofoten Islands, if you haven't already been there.
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Cooking, Definately more fishing and now will be doing alot of ice fishing. First year of fire I read more books than I think I did in my life.
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Nunavut, Yukon, NW Territories, Greenland, Svalbard, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Antartica....
Those sound pretty cool (but expensive)
They are really cool, and yes travelling to remote places is not cheap
Nunavut, Yukon, NW Territories, Greenland, Svalbard, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Antartica....
Cool! Literally.
Based on your list, I'm sure you'll also like the Outer Hebrides and the Lofoten Islands, if you haven't already been there.
I have already been to the Outer Hebrides, and the Lofotens are also on the list. The thing is though I have a homestead to organise!
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Yes. I used to do some quilting and sewing, but mostly had given it up for a number of years. We rent a place in a senior park in Florida for 4 months in the winter and they have a quilting group that meets once a week to sew for 5 hours. I have really gotten back into quilting and even bought myself a used frame to quilt on with my new midarm sewing machine. I also volunteered to do tax returns for VITA when I was down in Florida, but now I am finding it too hard to remember everything you need to know because they will do tax returns that can be quite complex. My husband and I also pack bags with food for low income families that go to schools every Friday.
Travelling has also filled a lot of our time. We usually travel in the Fall. We took our camper and went out west for over a month; did the east coast the next fall; and this last fall, travelled through Europe for 3 weeks.
Happy, that sounds amazing! If you go to the Shetland Islands, I would visit the Orkney Islands also. There are archeology sites from the Neolithic period that are amazingly well preserved.
Miss Prim
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Another Michigan quilter here! I do far more sewing now than I did pre-FIRE.
I also took up knitting. Always wanted to try it, and it is good therapy for arthritic hands.
I wouldn't call these hobbies, but I cook far more and try to focus on nutrition and exercise. I try to stick with vegan eating. I say try, because I've had highly variable levels of success.
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Nunavut, Yukon, NW Territories, Greenland, Svalbard, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Antartica....
I visited Yukon, NWT, and Antarctica this year! You must add South Georgia to this list - absolutely amazing.
And the answer the original question, I hadn't painted in years and in the last year I had the opportunity to paint a couple times and loved it... I plan on doing much more next year - but what to do with the finished paintings?
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Nunavut, Yukon, NW Territories, Greenland, Svalbard, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Antartica....
I visited Yukon, NWT, and Antarctica this year! You must add South Georgia to this list - absolutely amazing.
And the answer the original question, I hadn't painted in years and in the last year I had the opportunity to paint a couple times and loved it... I plan on doing much more next year - but what to do with the finished paintings?
Nice. I'm always impressed by people that are good at visual art. I just don't have an eye for it.
I saw your blog. You know Bob Ross was inspired by Alaska, right?
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Newly FIREd and picking up cooking and bread baking. I only like to do the time consuming cooking/baking when I have days off.
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Actually, I picked up a few new hobbies, dropped the planned hobby of travelling and grew totally disinterested in the hobby of writing software for myself instead of as a profession.
This is interesting. I'm a software developer myself, and since I started working in this profession, I find myself being a lot less interested in writing software in my free time. Pete a.k.a. Mr. Money Mustache himself has been a software engineer, and I never found a single word from him about writing software after being FIREd. This scares me a little. I hope my profession hasn't ruined my passion..
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Actually, I picked up a few new hobbies, dropped the planned hobby of travelling and grew totally disinterested in the hobby of writing software for myself instead of as a profession.
This is interesting. I'm a software developer myself, and since I started working in this profession, I find myself being a lot less interested in writing software in my free time. Pete a.k.a. Mr. Money Mustache himself has been a software engineer, and I never found a single word from him about writing software after being FIREd. This scares me a little. I hope my profession hasn't ruined my passion..
When I was working as a software engineer, it was the total amount of screen time that I didn't want to increase in my spare time. I have only twice programmed something private to solve my own problem.
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Actually, I picked up a few new hobbies, dropped the planned hobby of travelling and grew totally disinterested in the hobby of writing software for myself instead of as a profession.
This is interesting. I'm a software developer myself, and since I started working in this profession, I find myself being a lot less interested in writing software in my free time. Pete a.k.a. Mr. Money Mustache himself has been a software engineer, and I never found a single word from him about writing software after being FIREd. This scares me a little. I hope my profession hasn't ruined my passion..
If it really is one of your top passions, I would imagine you'll eventually pick it back up after maybe some time off. I think taking on only the projects you enjoy on the timeline that suits you would be way different from building software to do something you may or may not be passionate about on a timeline that probably isn't your natural rhythm.
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Actually, I picked up a few new hobbies, dropped the planned hobby of travelling and grew totally disinterested in the hobby of writing software for myself instead of as a profession.
This is interesting. I'm a software developer myself, and since I started working in this profession, I find myself being a lot less interested in writing software in my free time. Pete a.k.a. Mr. Money Mustache himself has been a software engineer, and I never found a single word from him about writing software after being FIREd. This scares me a little. I hope my profession hasn't ruined my passion..
If it really is one of your top passions, I would imagine you'll eventually pick it back up after maybe some time off. I think taking on only the projects you enjoy on the timeline that suits you would be way different from building software to do something you may or may not be passionate about on a timeline that probably isn't your natural rhythm.
I might do another software project, but in an area, I know nothing about it. The thought of doing something in areas that I know about is totally uninteresting.
I was thinking about learning machine learning and I have an idea for an interesting application in my hobby, birding. This ticks all the boxes, very intellectually stimulating, a real-world problem, and interesting (maybe only to me).
The only problem is that is #4 on my list of hobbies, so may never get to it :-)
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I wouldn't say I picked up old hobbies, just that I have much more time to do them. I've become a bit obsessed with jigsaw puzzles. And Lego. When I was working, it was all I could do to build the set on the box. Now I'm learning how to build my own things using all those parts I accumulated! There have always been boardgames, but now in addition to playing I do some reviewing and other content. I write fiction (make a little money off this, so the IRP can crucify me), read a lot more, learn languages and I've taken up baking. It's all stuff I did pre-fire, but now i can really sink deeply into stuff and not be so scattershot.
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I actually find myself going the other way. When I was working I used my hobbies, mainly weaving and other fiber arts, as a way to decompress and relax. Now that I am >3 years FIREd I no longer need my hobbies as much anymore. I still enjoy weaving but I don't do it anywhere near as often as I used to.
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Nah, not really. My body is too beat up to go back to routine weightlifting. I play less golf as well. I have new hobbies like walking, hiking, travel, and carpentry (turned into a nice profitable side gig).
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I actually find myself going the other way. When I was working I used my hobbies, mainly weaving and other fiber arts, as a way to decompress and relax. Now that I am >3 years FIREd I no longer need my hobbies as much anymore. I still enjoy weaving but I don't do it anywhere near as often as I used to.
That's unexpected but makes sense. What do you do instead now?
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I'm really enjoying property maintenance and renovations post FIRE, something I never used to get into. Also, working on cars as a hobby has proven far more enjoyable than doing it for a living!
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I actually find myself going the other way. When I was working I used my hobbies, mainly weaving and other fiber arts, as a way to decompress and relax. Now that I am >3 years FIREd I no longer need my hobbies as much anymore. I still enjoy weaving but I don't do it anywhere near as often as I used to.
That's unexpected but makes sense. What do you do instead now?
The days seem to fly by. Yard work, reading, walking, cooking, game nights, seminars and cleaning pretty much fill my days.
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Yes, Since FIREing in 2017, I have gotten back into distance running (now faster than college...not as fast as high school) and playing my viola. Also, I have added coaching cross country (something new) with two of my childrens' teams and am learning to play my viola with a looping pedal so I can be a one-person band too.
Livin' the dream!
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Post-FIRE, I had hoped to take up regular exercise (running) and get back into Archery; however, I’ve had no little inclination to do either.
I have started writing a novel though (something I have wanted to do most of my adult life).