I've been out of the corporate world for two years. I log into LinkedIn occasionally and see former colleagues getting promoted into impressive leadership positions within their field. I feel happy for them, and very little regret that it's not me climbing the ladder anymore.
I enjoy the freedom that comes from early retirement. Some days I don't do much useful aside from grocery shopping and cooking dinner. The slower pace of life generally agrees with me. This week I'm spending two weekdays officiating at a curling tournament, and it's nice to not worry about whether this is an opportune time to leave work for two days, or whether I have enough vacation time to do this and also visit family for the holidays.
At the same time I do often get the nagging feeling that I have the capacity, and maybe the obligation, to make more of a positive difference in the world beyond my own family. I'm still trying to discern what that will look like. FIRE definitely gives me the freedom not to rush into anything.
I've contemplated the last paragraph all year. How do I bring the most value to society. And how can I make it better. I love teaching and sharing this great knowledge of personal finance. But the waters are murky with regulation as to how I can do it and be legal without spending gobs of time I don't want to getting licensed.
But if you don't need to monetize it, you don't need to worry about any legalities.
It's the same way I've had a publisher after me for years to compile a bunch of my work into an actual book. But the thing is, as much as I like writing, I have no interest in publishing. Then a national organization wanted me to do a blog and podcast, and we produced the entire thing, but someone online decided to be really unnecessarily invasive and creepy, and I decided I didn't need that level of fame, especially since I'm not looking to brand and monetize.
I also spent years as a professional advice giver, and let's just say that there's a reason I'm delighted to give free advice these days instead of earning hundreds of dollars an hour for it. Just like writing is fun, but publishing is miserable, giving advice is fun, but making a business of it is a fucking slog.
Also, the "slower pace" doesn't always persist. I had a slower pace for the first year, but that was decompression. Now my days are pretty packed to the rafters with activities and projects. I'm frequently as busy as my full time employed DH.
If being busy is what suits you, that's what you will be. If there's potential work that would really suit you, you will end up doing it.
So many Mustachian type folks really push back against the necessary decompression. As though, if they give in to the process, they worry they'll never be able to pull themselves out of it. But that's pure nonsense.
When I first retired, I slammed myself with projects, then one went horribly, horribly sideways and I finally just stopped everything and sat the fuck down to decompress. I think I spent about 3 straight weeks watching television and letting my brain melt a bit. It took another month before I was even motivated to do a half day of light activity. The thing is, I never assumed that it was permanent, it was just what I needed to wind down.
The thing for me is that this wasn't my first experience with decompression. I had it after my doctorate as well. I took a few months off between graduation and starting work because I was so fried. I moved back in with my mom and took care of puppies for a few months (dog breeder). I basically bathed puppies and read books on a swing and did nothing else until my brain came back online and then all of a sudden I was recharged and ready to attack the work world.
No one here needs to worry that if they ease up on the gas that they'll never get it back.
Someone could spend a few years after retiring taking it easy at a slow pace and then suddenly turn around and write an amazing book, or start a non profit initiative, or start a business. It happens all the time. Almost all of my family members have started major projects years into their retirement.
My mid 60s aunt was getting bored in retirement, took a free class at the local university, ended up learning an Inuit language, and then got a grant to live and study the language and culture in the arctic for a few months, made friends there with local Inuit artists and got another grant to publish an amazing collaborative children's book about Inuit culture that was written up in the New York Times. All because she was a little bored.
No one loses anything by taking a break from the rat race. You can put it all down and pick it up later if that suits you.
Slowing down is only permanent if that's what truly suits you best.
No one here needs to worry about not doing enough in retirement, or not doing the right things, or not missing out on anything.
This is a 100% non issue for the kind of people who seek out this community. We are people who make life what we want it to be.
Retirement opens doors for us, it doesn't close them.