I am 34 years old and retired/ taking an extended career break starting in Feb 2015, but I'm not sure if I like it or not. I'm not quite sure why. I have enough passive income to live on (about CAD$18,000 a year) but its not a whole lot, so I can't live 'normally' on it, so that might be the problem. Or perhaps I actually don't like being retired very much.
I can't seem to settle down and keep worrying about the future. This year was an experiment to see if I could live off my passive income (before I was living on about $28,000 so I wasn't sure if it was even possible), but so far it looks like I AM able to. However,there are lots of things I would want to do if I had more money (like enrol in a university course, or live in a more exciting (and therefore more expensive) place.
My life is nice, but its a bit dull, I can't decide if I like it or not - I love not having to get up early, reading lots of books, educating myself by reading text books etc. However, I find myself wishing I could do other things that I can't afford on my current income. Its a hell of a lot better than my previous two years where I really hated my job and started to get depressed, but I don't feel fulfilled either.
I've started looking into various jobs online that I could apply for, but nothing is really grabbing me, I think because I don't HAVE to do it. I imagine myself doing them, and some aspects seem appealing, but I also think about all the crappy things about having a job like having to get up early every day, doing boring admin, dealing with idiots etc and I just get put off. I would say that even if someone has a great job that they love there is probably about a third of it that is a bit shit, and the other two thirds are awesome. I just keep thinking about the crap third (or lets be honest, probably a much larger percentage) and I get put off because its not imperative - I can survive without a job, so why bother?
I think I feel my life lacks purpose and I don't know what to aim for. Most women my age would be mothers by now, but I've never been interested in that and I think I'm going to remain child free.
I'm concerned that I've put all this focus into FI and now that I'm here the lack of motive to do anything difficult is actually not very good for me. Has anyone else had a similar experience to me?