Yeah, I was hoping to identify pitfalls that might be unique to FIRE, e.g. not “living” on the way to FIRE or being unwilling to consider un-retiring, even if it would objectively help you pursue your goals.
But it’s also helpful to hear examples of struggles post-FIRE, to balance out the overly rosy portrayals of FIRE I mostly see.
There are challenges unique to FIRE, but how they affect each person will be so unique.
My point is that as much as FIRE can't suddenly make someone's life rosy, it also doesn't have the power to make someone's life difficult.
If someone's life isn't rosy after FIRE, that's because their *life* isn't rosy. If they're struggling with decompression, that has more to do with their state of mental health before they stopped working. If they're rather happy through decompression like I was, then that's also probably due to their mental state before they retired.
Are there mostly rosy stories? Perhaps in the blogs, because that's they're job, but I've been here for years and read of plenty of people struggling, so to me, it doesn't sound like the exception. To me, it just sounds like normal life, since the majority of people struggle to be happy, and jobs aren't the only cause.
I'm curious why you are trying to identify ways in which FIRE could cause problems for happiness? What is it you're trying to solve?
Getting paid for work is not a universal experience, so you really can't generalize how it's presence or absence affects people. Besides, TONS of people do paid work/projects in FIRE, so even comparing FIRE folks can be apples to oranges.
The only think all FIRE folks have in common is financial independence. And having enough money isn't likely to cause much distress for anyone.