Did your hobbies or lifestyle tastes change when you removed the workplace?

[msbutterbean]

Hi, all. We are still years away from FI, but I like to try on different possibilities in my daydreams, especially around where we'll move next and what that property might look like. I think especially about the hobbies I love now, and how I might create more time and space for them, for instance vegetable gardening. But there's a part of me that wonders if I need some of these things in my life now because they are such a contrast to what I spend my working time doing. And once that working piece is eliminated, will the whole balance change? I'd love to hear your experiences. Thanks.

[Financial.Velociraptor]

Money is like a personality magnifier.  If you are a jerk now, you'll be a bigger jerk in FI/RE.  If you are naturally organized, you'll probably go full tilt with that in FIRE. 

I think it is more important to work on who you are as a person and change anything you don't like because you are only going to get more it later.

[FIRE 20/20]

I FIREd at the end of April, so I'm still working on the adjustment.  So far I've found a few things.  First, @Financial.Velociraptor is absolutely correct.  Things have changed less for me than I thought they might.  I live in an area with an abundance of natural beauty and outdoor activities galore, but despite the fact that increasing my outdoor activities was something I wanted to do I've only met with partial success in that goal.  On the other hand, I've spent a lot more time doing activities I was doing before - baking bread, playing music, reading, meditating, sleeping in, playing sports - all those are things I enjoyed pre-FIRE and am getting to do more of post-FIRE. 
Here are some of the the observations I've made so far about 3.5 months in.  I am far less interested in travel.  I loved to travel while working, but now I think some of that was to get away from work.  I'm really happy at home right now, and have drastically underspent my travel budget.  As I said above, most of the things that I made time for pre-FIRE are getting more time.  Most of the things that I thought would be good for me or I should do or thought I might want to do rarely seem to actually happen unless I make a real effort.  I have found that I have *far* less time than I expected.  With a little more time on a few of my activities plus the extra cooking and cleaning I'm doing, the end of the day comes up really quickly.  Boredom is absolutely not an issue, and fitting new activities in takes planning just like it did pre-FIRE. 
My recommendation is to dismiss the idea (if you have it) that you'll have a lot of time to do a bunch of new things after FIRE unless you really know that's your personality or you're working crazy hours right now.  If you think you'll want to do it post-FIRE, get started now!  The best thing I did was to slow down to about 32 hours a week about a year pre-FIRE so I could start the transition early.  For me that worked out really well. 
I hope that doesn't come across as a negative or pessimistic post.  For me, it has just turned out that the things I really cared about I made time for while working and that's where my extra time is going post-FIRE - which is great! 

[herbgeek]

I retired at the end of May, and FIRE 20/20's experience is mine as well.

I really dreamed of traveling before, but now the incentive has mostly gone.  It was a get away fantasy, and now I have no need to escape.  I still plan on doing some trips, but it no longer has the urgency.

I thought I'd be doing a bunch of things, very little of which has come to pass.  I was going to make elaborate meals and make cocktails and lovely snacks in the afternoons, but in reality its grabbing a bag of chips and a beer.    I am doing what I did before, only without having to chunk things into 15 minute increments.  My garden is the best its ever been, but I haven't added anything new or added new gardening spaces.   I'm signing up for classes on fun things, but I did that before.  I'm spending more time with family, but again I did that before just not as often.

I'm not a different person just because I retired.  I just have a few more hours each day - but not nearly as many as I thought I would have.

[msbutterbean]

I really dreamed of traveling before, but now the incentive has mostly gone.  It was a get away fantasy, and now I have no need to escape.

So this is exactly the type of thing I'm wondering about, and you and FIRE 20/20 both articulated it very well. I'm not worried that I'm going to change drastically as a person (and I certainly hope I'm not too big of a jerk now and that won't turn in to one later :)). I've also taken to heart the advice I've seen a lot on these forums about living your dream life now, as best you can, and have made a lot of changes in that direction. I find myself gravitating to quiet, meditative activities and places in my free time -- the garden, the mountains, trail walks with the dogs -- but I'm starting to think that a lot of this is about balancing out the job. I might just as easily start craving more noisy, urban activities once I'm no longer engaging in a noisy, urban workplace. Like that bucket will be empty and so there will be new room for things that scratch that itch.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Monkey Uncle]

Similar to the other posters, I've found that I don't have nearly as much extra time as I thought I would.  It seems that household chores have expanded to fill most of my newfound time.  The old cliche that says "I don't know how I ever had time to work" seems to be true in my case.

I live near a lot of forest land, and I've always enjoyed hiking, birdwatching, hunting, and fishing, and I thought I would do a lot more of these activities after I FIREd.  I've increased my hunting a fishing a very little, and that's about it.  It seems like I can never carve out the time.

I've dabbled in playing guitar for a number of years, and I thought I would devote some effort to improving my playing.  So far the motivation hasn't materialized.

A couple of new, unexpected things cropped up.  My wife and I started walking dogs at the local shelter three mornings a week.  It's a great way to get a pet fix without actually owning one (though now we are thinking about getting a dog).  And unlike everyone else, we picked up a travel bug that we didn't have before.  We've taken two big trips in the last year, and we're planning another for next spring.

[Dances With Fire]

I really dreamed of traveling before, but now the incentive has mostly gone.  It was a get away fantasy, and now I have no need to escape.

So this is exactly the type of thing I'm wondering about, and you and FIRE 20/20 both articulated it very well. I'm not worried that I'm going to change drastically as a person (and I certainly hope I'm not too big of a jerk now and that won't turn in to one later :)). I've also taken to heart the advice I've seen a lot on these forums about living your dream life now, as best you can, and have made a lot of changes in that direction. I find myself gravitating to quiet, meditative activities and places in my free time -- the garden, the mountains, trail walks with the dogs -- but I'm starting to think that a lot of this is about balancing out the job. I might just as easily start craving more noisy, urban activities once I'm no longer engaging in a noisy, urban workplace. Like that bucket will be empty and so there will be new room for things that scratch that itch.

Thanks for the feedback.

DW and I are not RE yet, however we have taken a few sabbaticals along the way and I find your post mirrors what we have done and are doing. I don't see myself changing anything in a dramatic way, only more of the same. We have traveled to many places on our "bucket list" while we are both healthy and able. Now, there is no urgency to do more than that and we can take our time...

[Metta]

There are things that changed for me that I didn’t expect. For example, we used to love going to the theater and we had season tickets. The first year we were FIRE we still loved the theater and were especially pleased that we had more time to attend more often. But the second year and now this year our interest has gone away.

Similarly for gourmet cooking. I used to love doing it and I made time for it each week. I thought about it as a I worked and used my scraps of time to experiment on new things. I expected to spend my time cooking in FIRE. And I did the first year of FIRE. But this year I’m less interested, though I still have moments of excitement and a desire to make something amazing that I indulge. Just not as often.

My theory is that I needed those activities to interest my mind and to relax me from an intense job. But now that I do what I want to do, those things are not as interesting.

What I do more of now is write, something my intense job kept me from doing. What seems to have happened is that I took my intense personality and am now pouring it into something important to me. Which is wonderful. I don’t need breaks or distractions now.

[Brokenreign]

It's pretty neat to see how many people are having the same experience post-FIRE! Perhaps I was falling victim to the Instagram/Look-like-you're-living-everyday-to-the-fullest but I got the impression most people that FIRE'd were off traveling, doing big outdoor adventures etc.

I had a lot of big plans post-FIRE including RVing around the Americas, big thru-hikes, overseas travel, learning to sail etc. We tried the RVing and the travel but after a pretty brief period we really didn't feel like it anymore and stopped. We arrived at the same conclusion as a lot of people here that those things were just fantasies/distractions to counter doing work that we didn't like. Now that we don't have to do the work, the fantasies have lost their allure.

Most days are spent walking the dog, doing errands, trail running, bike riding and visiting friends that are sometimes free on weekdays. Weekends are mostly spent hanging out with friends that still work FT. We're now leaning towards moving somewhere rural (within an hour of our current city) as we increasingly value quiet and fresh air over distractions and quick access to an airport.

[tawyer]

Money is like a personality magnifier.  If you are a jerk now, you'll be a bigger jerk in FI/RE.  If you are naturally organized, you'll probably go full tilt with that in FIRE. 

I think it is more important to work on who you are as a person and change anything you don't like because you are only going to get more it later.

@Financial.Velociraptor could you elaborate on why you think this is, please? Are you saying employment acts as a personality modulator?

[dblaace]

It's pretty neat to see how many people are having the same experience post-FIRE! Perhaps I was falling victim to the Instagram/Look-like-you're-living-everyday-to-the-fullest but I got the impression most people that FIRE'd were off traveling, doing big outdoor adventures etc.

I had a lot of big plans post-FIRE including RVing around the Americas, big thru-hikes, overseas travel, learning to sail etc. We tried the RVing and the travel but after a pretty brief period we really didn't feel like it anymore and stopped. We arrived at the same conclusion as a lot of people here that those things were just fantasies/distractions to counter doing work that we didn't like. Now that we don't have to do the work, the fantasies have lost their allure.

Most days are spent walking the dog, doing errands, trail running, bike riding and visiting friends that are sometimes free on weekdays. Weekends are mostly spent hanging out with friends that still work FT. We're now leaning towards moving somewhere rural (within an hour of our current city) as we increasingly value quiet and fresh air over distractions and quick access to an airport.

This sounds like me, currently day dreaming about what I'll do when I FIRE. :)
This thread has been really enlightening.

[Financial.Velociraptor]

Money is like a personality magnifier.  If you are a jerk now, you'll be a bigger jerk in FI/RE.  If you are naturally organized, you'll probably go full tilt with that in FIRE. 

I think it is more important to work on who you are as a person and change anything you don't like because you are only going to get more it later.

@Financial.Velociraptor could you elaborate on why you think this is, please? Are you saying employment acts as a personality modulator?

Work per se doesn't modulate personality.  Being a wage slave does.  If you are not free to walk away from your job, your behavior will reflect that you have "too much to lose".  You'll be less bold about taking risks.  You'll maybe take a little (or a lot) of shit from management. 

My old supervisor just before retirement explained the Give-A-Shit-O-Meter to me.  The closer you get to retirement, the closer your needle gets to the big red "E".  You start telling people at work NO more.  If the big boss says he thinks you are a moron, you are a lot more likely to tell them to go fuck themselves. 

You find out who you are (and I guess other people too) when they can do and say the things they really think and mean because they are not constrained by consequences.  If there is a little asshole inside of you, you'll be unbearable when FI.  I've discovered there is at least a tiny bit of asshole inside me.  I try to channel it to productive uses.

I suppose the internet and its anonymity is the same way.  People who are polite in public sometimes are really nasty when they can't get their teeth knocked in for being an asshat.  Someone who is true class...that comes through online too.  Make sense?

@tawyer

[Brokenreign]

It's pretty neat to see how many people are having the same experience post-FIRE! Perhaps I was falling victim to the Instagram/Look-like-you're-living-everyday-to-the-fullest but I got the impression most people that FIRE'd were off traveling, doing big outdoor adventures etc.

I had a lot of big plans post-FIRE including RVing around the Americas, big thru-hikes, overseas travel, learning to sail etc. We tried the RVing and the travel but after a pretty brief period we really didn't feel like it anymore and stopped. We arrived at the same conclusion as a lot of people here that those things were just fantasies/distractions to counter doing work that we didn't like. Now that we don't have to do the work, the fantasies have lost their allure.

Most days are spent walking the dog, doing errands, trail running, bike riding and visiting friends that are sometimes free on weekdays. Weekends are mostly spent hanging out with friends that still work FT. We're now leaning towards moving somewhere rural (within an hour of our current city) as we increasingly value quiet and fresh air over distractions and quick access to an airport.

This sounds like me, currently day dreaming about what I'll do when I FIRE. :)
This thread has been really enlightening.

Haha the daydreams certainly help keep you sane! I think (with many exceptions) that wanderlust is often a manifestation of the desire to escape a day-to-day that is mundane, depressing, boring, demoralizing, stressful etc. When the day-to-day no longer possesses those attributes, the wanderlust often disappears. That was certainly the case with me.

It would be nice if people could try out their ideal post-FI lifestyle for a year or two to see if that's what they really want. I say this because a simple FIRE lifestyle with less travel and elaborate hobbies could probably be done safely with much less savings and a much earlier retirement rate. I think many people oversave for a gung-ho lifestyle that they eventually abandon anyway.

[Metalcat]

I'm not retired, but I did downshift to working very little and am not a wage slave as we collectively don't really need my income and changing my career is incredibly easy for me.

"Retiring" from the full time rat race did not amplify me at all, in fact, I've practically become a different person. I even completely changed the way I dress after nearly two decades of having a distinctive style, it's been that profound a change.

How leaving work affects you will entirely depend on how work affected you. Some may become more themselves, and some like me get the opportunity to finally actually get to know who that person even is.

As for time, I laugh every time someone asks me what I do with all of my spare time and I genuinely look at them like they have 3 heads and say "what spare time???"

Re: travel and adventure and all that jazz
In retirement, travel and adventure take on a very different role than when you are working. While working, vacation is this significant alteration of mental state, which acts as a therapeutic salve against the excessive immersion of the psyche in the workplace.

When you are retired, travel becomes an extension of your normal day to day life, but in another geographic location.
Adventure, whether abroad or local, is just variety in the flavour of your normal activities.

I thought I wanted to travel extensively until I started spending a lot of quality time at home.

For every retired adventurer, there are innumerable numbers of us who don't bother instagramming our daily time on the balcony reading a good book.

[moneytaichi]

Great thread! It's good to know that I am not alone on losing ambitions of many sorts. I retired 1.5 years accidentally because my work culture become so toxic that impacted my health. I didn't dream too much about what I'd do after FIRE, which I don't recommend.

My biggest hobby used to be painting. Comparing with prior FIRE, I do less painting because painting gave me a voice and a balance over my stressful job.

What I do more: hiking, volunteering, reading, resting, learning finance, watching TV, dancing, traveling, seeing my family in China...

What I do about the same amount: cooking, cleaning, writing...

What I do less: painting, getting with friends (because we moved 3000 miles away after FIRE), promoting my art...

My takes are that you will change (with age, health conditions, absence of a job, moving etc). You cannot prepare for all the changes, but you CAN start pivoting to live a life you want to live (through shifting the focus, a semi-retirement, part-time etc) and check out different things. Surprises are a part of FIRE's gifts (or curses). Many things don't work out as my imagination or plans. Then I learn something new about myself, adopt, and move on. Develop muscles of contentment and gratitude because they are the best antidotes for any changes.

[Monkey Uncle]

I thought I wanted to travel extensively until I started spending a lot of quality time at home.

I had pretty much the opposite experience.  I never really cared much for travel when I was working.  It was just too much stress/hassle to plan a trip, put the work craziness on hold for a couple of weeks, and then come back to a pressure cooker that was magnified 10 times over because of everything that piled up while I was gone. 

I couldn't wait to FIRE and just do my daily activities at my own pace.  The leisurely daily routine was nirvana for the first nine months or so.  Then we took a big trip out west, and it was like I suddenly realized that I had been missing out on so much while my nose was pressed so firmly to the grindstone for the previous 30 years.  Now I'm trying to figure out how we can spend more time traveling. 

We're at an age where we are still quite active, but we realize that if there is something we want to do and some place we want to go, now is the time.  I've practiced the daily routine quite thoroughly in the 1.5+ years since I FIREd, and while I am very happy to be able to do that routine at my own pace and without the stress of work hanging over my head, I don't want to just do that routine every day for the rest of my life.  Of course, money is the big limitation.  I planned for a buffer beyond our basic expenses, but not enough to go everywhere and do everything.  So that's my new source of stress - trying to prioritize all the places we want to go and the things we want to do. 

[FreshlyFIREd]

Hi, all. We are still years away from FI, but I like to try on different possibilities in my daydreams, especially around where we'll move next and what that property might look like. I think especially about the hobbies I love now, and how I might create more time and space for them, for instance vegetable gardening. But there's a part of me that wonders if I need some of these things in my life now because they are such a contrast to what I spend my working time doing. And once that working piece is eliminated, will the whole balance change? I'd love to hear your experiences. Thanks.

I've been retired two years now. Everything's different, but everything's the same.

Both me and wifie had high stress jobs that consumed most all of our life. There was very little balance. It was hard to travel. The time we had off from work was consumed by 'recovery from work', cooking, cleaning, daily stuff. We do the same stuff now, but we have more time to do it - so the necessary chores are more enjoyable (instead of rushed). We travel now: some short trips, and some trips as long as a month. We work out at the gym most every day. I still have to carve time out to do hobbies - but I can carve the time out - it's possible.

As far as the money goes, we spend more now than we did when we were working. We were frugal while we were working and now we have more than we need. So luckily money is not an problem with regards to hobby or travel.

So to answer your question, the hobbies or lifestyle didn't change - the quality improved tremendously.