Thoughts from 3 months of early retirement

[vagavince]

3 months into early retirement, want to share some thoughts. I took a month long trip and it was really good. I’m starting to being ok with down time a bit more, thought the desire to do things is still there. The three biggest issues I’m facing now are

1. Boredom - having someone giving you something to do it much easier than finding something yourself. I’m working on this by developing hobby. It’s going ok, I’m pretty active, but the question of meaning gnaw at me from time to time. I try not to worry too much about meaning and just enjoy it. It can be really hard to enjoy doing nothing some time.

2. Security - paycheck and being part of a company give me a sense of security that is hard to replace. So far my spending has been the same as before, I may try to cut it down a little bit. I’m not quite there yet. But I think I’m slowly gaining more confidence I have enough to live on and will never end up on the street.

3. Frugality - having been frugal for so long, its hard to walk away and leave so much money on the table. Perhaps I’m not valuing my time and mental capacity as much as I should have. It like I would deal with the discomfort of economy flight instead of business. I feel like I’m splurging too much on the luxury of early retirement.

[Fru-Gal]

I am about 1.5 years FIRE. I felt not boredom, but a bit of “ennui” in the first months that is completely gone now. I think it’s because up until FIRE, a huge part of my mind was occupied 24/7 with aspects of my job. If not working, preparing to work, or thinking “oh, this could be useful for work,” or rehashing something that happened at work.

That was all totally turned off after I left. I think it leaves a hole in your thoughts. That boredom may partly be from decompression.

It’s also a message telling you to maybe explore new things, which you are doing.

Good for you for taking a month-long trip! I have yet to do that, never been gone more than a week. But I did start to do extra-long bike rides and other types of all-day outdoor activities that I wouldn’t have been able to do before during weekdays.

I saw a video that said the first stage of FIRE is “whee! Vacation!” And then you get that out of your system and the last stage is reinvention. I am definitely past the first vacation/decompression stage. I have a lot of things I am doing/planning to do in my life, and now I more strongly feel the urge to get cracking on them!

As for the money question, in my opinion there are no perfect answers. No one knows what the future will bring. If you have always been frugal, it’s likely you will be fine. I bought myself some toys in my early retirement. I don’t regret them at all! But I really am just taking it one year at a time in terms of retirement money situation. My main remedy to any shortfalls is to try to build more passive income streams. I really don’t want to work for anyone else ever again.

[nancy33]

I am 8 months into FIRE and I am so busy. I finally can do things I have always wanted to do. I have endless projects and my husband cannot believe how full
my calendar is. I am not bored at all. I love being able to nap if I’m tired or stay up late like I am doing right now. Freedom is awesome!

[LD_TAndK]

Do you have any local clubs that do something you're somewhat interested in? Filling your time with your own hobbies and pursuits is great if that works for you but I found immense satisfaction getting involved in local volunteer groups.

It starts slow, you contact a group and maybe they have some small bit for you to do. But over time if you're a "serious" volunteer the sky is really the limit on responsibility and work you can take on.

I started with down time to fill in retirement, but now can have a super busy schedule of activities when I choose. It takes time to make those connections.

[Dreamer40]

I went through periods of something like boredom my first year of FIRE. I would get really into something then abruptly lose interest. After two years, I think I’ve settled more into how I want to spend my time and what my priorities are. But I’m sure it will change again. Those transition/boredom periods were a little unsettling. But a lot of other things were changing in my life at the same time. Life always changes :)

[Chris Pascale]

My uncle retired at 51 and was unhappy. It led to him funding his own study (he was a research psychologist who ran a market research firm). He found a lot of retirees were in the same boat as you.

He didn't publish the actual data because it became a book, but here's a couple articles by him or about what he wrote:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlaura/2013/01/24/can-your-marriage-survive-retirement/?sh=f156dd7d6334
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robpascale/2019/10/31/staying-social-in-retirement/?sh=4c8f8f25779b
https://www.nextavenue.org/sex-retirement/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robpascale/2020/02/05/adjusting-to-retirement-adopt-the-right-role/?sh=62e0f4be5d49

[baludon]

I’m almost three months into retirement and I have basically done nothing except exercise, read, binge tv series and stare out the window.  I do exercise together with my girlfriend early in the morning, walk with her to work and we meet up for lunch.  I have not been bored in the slightest and the day flies by pretty quickly for me. Retirement for me so far has been as good, if not better, as advertised.

I splurged a lot on upcoming travel but aside from that I don’t have a sense that I want to increase my lifestyle spending.

[Fru-Gal]

I had an insight today as I was working my butt off all day on outdoor chores that really all the worry about how to handle retirement is no different than what I am (maybe) going to feel as an empty nester, or at least as a mother of adult children who don’t need me and don’t want to spend all their time with me.

It’s just a new life stage and you either evolve with it or you fill the void with similar activities. Some people go right on raising children all over again (or even have to if their kids aren’t great parents and/or grandkids need care).

Just like some people evolve into new goals and projects and maybe careers and some say get me outta here, I’d rather be back in the old office!

[afox]

Im not retired but i work less than full time and am extremely busy outside of work. Even that said Im sure ill struggle with filling time and doing fun productive things in retirement.

Ive always thought that one reason not to "give it your all" at your job is that the job will go away at some point. The hobbies will be with you for life. You start riding a bike at age 3 and quite when your in your 80s, 80 years of bike riding, compare that to a career which will last at most 40 years. The lifelong passions last twice as long as the careers. Most jobs wont let you go part time as they should for ideal work life balance so the best employees will essentially make it a part time job and get away with it because they are too good for the organization to lose. So, here's to being a screwball at work!

[cool7hand]

If you're looking to find your purpose, the Tony Robbins TED talk on the six human needs might help you identify which of the needs you need to scratch.

[clarkfan1979]

3 months into early retirement, want to share some thoughts. I took a month long trip and it was really good. I’m starting to being ok with down time a bit more, thought the desire to do things is still there. The three biggest issues I’m facing now are

1. Boredom - having someone giving you something to do it much easier than finding something yourself. I’m working on this by developing hobby. It’s going ok, I’m pretty active, but the question of meaning gnaw at me from time to time. I try not to worry too much about meaning and just enjoy it. It can be really hard to enjoy doing nothing some time.

2. Security - paycheck and being part of a company give me a sense of security that is hard to replace. So far my spending has been the same as before, I may try to cut it down a little bit. I’m not quite there yet. But I think I’m slowly gaining more confidence I have enough to live on and will never end up on the street.

3. Frugality - having been frugal for so long, its hard to walk away and leave so much money on the table. Perhaps I’m not valuing my time and mental capacity as much as I should have. It like I would deal with the discomfort of economy flight instead of business. I feel like I’m splurging too much on the luxury of early retirement.

I teach full-time at a community college and I get 3 months off every summer. I'm currently on day 2 (May 13th) of my summer break and I don't have to be back on campus until August 15th. My summer is filled with hobbies, but I do experience a little bit of boredom toward the end of the summer. However, I'm typically excited to get back to my job for the intellectual stimulation and personal growth.

[life_travel]

My situation is a bit complex that I am not FI , but we definitely had FU money and investments, when I was "forced" by  pandemic to try out "retirement" , and then by other personal reasons I couldn't return to work.
so almost 3 years..
At first I was decompressing, not bored, just enjoying my time for 4 months when the world went into lockdown. Repairing my mental health.
Then I casually studied, tried various easy jobs, working on average 3 days a week, picking my shifts, sometimes not working for a week, or a month. Ultimate flexibility but low-ish pay. Continued on repairing my mental health after severe burn out prior to 2020.

Even returned to my previous corporate job in 2021, lasted 16 days only and quit completely ( 15 years at that company)

Then I got sick and was sick for a few months and I was extremely bored towards the end, I really tried to find hobbies but maybe it takes time and as an introvert I had almost no friends( never needed many friends) and suddenly I was craving intellectual stimulation, camaraderie , banter and cash :) You know all the things that a job provides.

because my previous job environment was very demanding and at times toxic, I was VERY wary of returning to any corporate role.

Then the recruiter called and talked me into a professional job, I started , lovely people, lovely company and within 2 months they let me go 4 days a week with 2 days WFH.
So I get the best of both worlds now, have time for hobbies, have interaction/banter with some nice people, have time to do chores on my WFH days ( during lunch breaks) and get paid.

So my thinking is, I guess I am now on the path of CoastFI/Slow FI and eventually would like to work 3 days a week , then 2. Maybe one day I can replace the same feeling with a volunteering gig, who knows..

Funny how my thinking changed since I left my high stress job, now all I care about is work-life balance, and creating a life " I don't want to retire from".

[FireLane]

I'm astonished by people who retire and find that they're bored. I FIREd almost two years ago and I haven't been bored for a minute. I wish there were more hours in the day so I could do all the stuff I want to do!

I'm doing a better job keeping the house clean and doing some long-delayed renovation and improvement projects. I'm exercising more often, reading more books, listening to more new albums, making more ambitious recipes, working on my garden, catching up on TV shows and movies, improving my photography skills, and watching online educational courses. And that's just for starters.

Before I quit my job, I spent years compiling a bucket list of all the places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do when I had more free time. I anticipate it'll take decades to go through the whole list, if I ever do, but that's fine. I'll never run out of things to do no matter how long I live.

[BFGirl]

I'm astonished by people who retire and find that they're bored. I FIREd almost two years ago and I haven't been bored for a minute. I wish there were more hours in the day so I could do all the stuff I want to do!

I'm doing a better job keeping the house clean and doing some long-delayed renovation and improvement projects. I'm exercising more often, reading more books, listening to more new albums, making more ambitious recipes, working on my garden, catching up on TV shows and movies, improving my photography skills, and watching online educational courses. And that's just for starters.

Before I quit my job, I spent years compiling a bucket list of all the places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do when I had more free time. I anticipate it'll take decades to go through the whole list, if I ever do, but that's fine. I'll never run out of things to do no matter how long I live.

I'm only a month into retirement and I still don't have enough time to do everything I want.  My mother is 25 years into retirement and has the same problem, lol.