What do you want your post-FI life to look like?

[Metalcat]

That said, it's all over in just over a week. I'm quitting the graduate degree, and committing to an extremely intense full time project for at least the next 5-7 years, which is going to be absolutely, completely insane and eat up almost all of my energy, but this is not the kind of project you pass on, and it's the *only* thing that could possibly drag me back to full time paid work, which I haven't done in years.

Can you share any more about this project? The description is certainly intriguing!

Is it a paid gig?

I really can't share much, but yes, it's very well paid.

I thought my old role was highly prestigious and well paid, but this makes that look like cute day job.

Still, sounds very exciting, though your March to August gig sounded downright heavenly.

It was indeed, but I'm way too young and have way too much mental energy to slow down that much yet...or ever maybe.

I function at a pretty high octane level. If there aren't high stakes, I get bored, and me when I'm under-challenged isn't a happy mellow thing. I get like a dog who hasn't been walked enough.

I thought doing an accelerated graduate degree in a new discipline would keep me occupied, but it was like chewing on celery when what you really want is a pizza.

It was a good recoup and recovery time for me, but I couldn't live that way long term at this point in my life. I'm re-energized now and revving pretty high ready to start racing again.

Oh, I'm also starting to study for my pilot's license, because...yeah...I really like challenges, and that seems like a GREAT post-FI hobby.

[Buffaloski Boris]

Post FI life, eh? I’m already FI as a practical matter I guess. So what does my future look like?

Oh I’m sure it’d involve sitting back on a beach, relaxing, swimming, and sipping fruity drinks.
(((snort))) 
That crap would last about 5 days. I tolerate the beach at best, dislike swimming, and the thought of “relaxing” like that for more than a few days puts my teeth on edge. Gimme some mountains, a bike path straight up, a couple bottles of water and I’ll be in hog heaven. Plus work to keep my mind occupied once I get back from my ride.

So what keeps me from doing this right now? Because I’m stuck in Virginia, the mistake of the mid- Atlantic. Wifey wants to work. I want to work. Our jobs are here. We’re working on hatching our Escape from Virginia. Hopefully it won’t require the services of Snake Plissken.

Work:
COVID changed a lot. I’m working from home about 90% of the time. If I can turn that into 100%, then we can leave once wifey has a job. And if not, I’ll find another job. Or retire and then find another job. There’s a trend here: I’m going to be working.

Housing
Mountains, mountains, and more mountains. Quick access to skiing is a plus and maybe a requirement. As are bike paths straight up the mountains. We don’t really care about owning a house at this point so that kind of frees us up a bit.

Physical fitness
More biking and weight lifting. And skiing.

Home life
Happy wife, happy life. Happy kids too. And happy dog.

Dreams:
Would kind of like to try my hand at real estate. I’d do it soon. But I’m stuck in Virginia and don’t want to do out of state yet. Too much to learn.

[NorthernMonkey]

Might have been mentioned before the only thing I'd do is push up earlier when you have the kids. You simply have more energy and reserves to deal with, enjoy ,and do with passion kids + job + whatever else you may be doing when you are young, than when you are older. And simply being more available (alive, able) to spend time with them when they get older possibly have family of their own. Other considerations are fertility issues which can start as early as early 30's. I know at least 1 woman who planned to have a child in her mid thirties but couldn't (too late).

We almost got this one badly wrong. Nearly left it too late, IVF failed, a letter from the consultant that we could never have children, then 6 months later an unexpected pregnancy. You can mess with the stock market, but biology holds the trump card

Oh boy do I feel the pressure already, probably more than most at my age. I did write a very long and overly personal and derailing comment, but I'm going to pass on posting that to this thread.

[lhamo]

I'm already FI but current lifestyle is constrained a bit by having a high schooler at home, so here is what I hope my life will look like once she goes off to college:

Work: 

None, thank you very much.  Though if DD decides to go to a school her college fund+scholarships won't fully pay for I would be open to doing some PT work or income generation to ensure she doesn't have to take out student loans.  We currently have about $130k saved so I wouldn't need to earn too much to top things off.

I will likely do more volunteering, but prefer that to be on more of an ad hoc/intermittant basis.

Home:   

I did not anticipate how much gardening/food production would become a mainstay in my FIREd life.  It has been very good for both my physical and mental health.  Our current home is not ideal for it, though -- too much hillside and too much shade.  Downsized home will ideally be a single-story ranch (though I would consider a split level where the basement can be a separate self-contained unit for adult kids or future rental potential) on a large, flat, mostly sunny urban lot within a mile or two of a light rail station.  1000-1500 sq ft if 1 story, 1800-2400 if a two story with rental.  2-3 br and at least 1.5 baths on main floor.  Willing to do a gut remodel for the right price/right property.  Proximity to a biking trail would be nice but I will not prioritize it as much as we did when buying current house.  Walkable or bikable to a small retail core with a grocery store/coffee shop/library/post office would be ideal.

I want to create a large urban garden/food forest space that MAY generate income.  Or I may just donate excess food to the food bank. 

Want to have at least one cat, try chickens, and maybe a goat or two.

Social life: 

Definitely will want to expand my social circle and have more social activity.  I was working on that when Covid hit.  Whomp whomp.  I have found gardening and FI oriented communities to be very good places to find likeminded people.  Will also look at slow-paced hiking and biking groups.

Travel: 

I do not generally like moving around a lot, but do enjoy spending longer periods in one central location and exploring from there.  If I'm gardening intensively that limits my ability to travel during the growing season, unless I have someone to help tend things -- or maybe I can line up house/garden swaps with people in places I'd like to visit.  I'll probably do most of my travel in the fall/winter and try to go places with a warmer/sunnier climate.

[Luz]

I've thought about this thread quite a bit and was surprised at some of my answers.
I'm very introverted, but prioritizing time spent with people was the first thing that came to mind. I also found it interesting that I don't have a long list of dreams anymore. I'm in my mid-thirties now and definitely felt the lifespan theorist, Daniel Levinson's "thirties transition". During this transition, I realized that life is short and if I wanted to see my dreams come to pass, I had to ruthlessly prioritize. So the "dreams" category on this list is short, but I suppose there are dreams dispersed throughout the whole list.
I do find, however, that while my focus has narrowed now that I'm entering middle adulthood, it's important that I hang onto a sense of wonder and possibility. Hopefully hobbies and using the time I spend with people to seek out different experiences will help me maintain that.
I don't think I'll retire early, so I'm motivated to chip away at this list from here on out. Most of the items are pretty vague (ie: have a great marriage). Maybe I'll operationalize them in my MMM journal.

Work
-Get a Master of Public Health degree and move from direct patient care to a combination of clinical and systems work in maternal and child health (advocacy, policy, research, program management).
-Be involved in an established nonprofit (in the US and/or Mexico) and leave an endowment to them when I die.

Home
-Live in a small, well-maintained house with a nice outdoor space.
-Have super minimal, but high-quality belongings
-Establish a lifelong home base.

In the next 3-5 years we plan to relocate to a city that has economic/racial diversity, left-leaning politics, mild weather, decent job/school options, and plenty of opportunities to get involved in the community
-or-
we'll move back to my hometown. It ticks few of my boxes, but is a tight-knit community with beautiful surroundings and is a great place to raise kids. Also, my parents are still there and I know they won't be around forever.

Either way, maybe eventually spend part of the year wherever we raised our kids, part in Mexico (if not where we raise our kids), and part visiting our kids if they live elsewhere.
 
Health
Do group fitness (gym classes and team sports)
Eat according to the Italian food pyramid/mostly whole food plant based
Adopt a healthy habit every year

Hobbies
Try new things every quarter (take music lessons, a pottery class, taste foods I've never tried before...)
Go one new place every year (I'm not a huge fan of traveling, but always return from trips with a new perspective)
Consume plenty of media on varied topics (books, music, magazines, movies, newspapers, blogs, radio/podcasts)

People
Have a great marriage. Maintain physical connection and friendship. Keep our teamwork on point.
Raise well-adjusted kids with strong character. Focus on courage, curiosity, and gratitude. Remain close after they've launched.
Stay connected to my parents and siblings
Invest in friendships and community connections

Dreams
Be fluent in Spanish
Spend a few years living in Mexico with the kids

[mm1970]

It was indeed, but I'm way too young and have way too much mental energy to slow down that much yet...or ever maybe.

I function at a pretty high octane level. If there aren't high stakes, I get bored, and me when I'm under-challenged isn't a happy mellow thing. I get like a dog who hasn't been walked enough.

I thought doing an accelerated graduate degree in a new discipline would keep me occupied, but it was like chewing on celery when what you really want is a pizza.

It was a good recoup and recovery time for me, but I couldn't live that way long term at this point in my life. I'm re-energized now and revving pretty high ready to start racing again.

Oh, I'm also starting to study for my pilot's license, because...yeah...I really like challenges, and that seems like a GREAT post-FI hobby.

Ah ha, I can relate on the octane.  I consider myself recovering type A, now down to an A-.  I'd like to take about 6 months to decompress, then get back to it.  I know I'm just weary from:
- no vacation since November
- virtual school of 2 kids, including an 8 yo who just can't focus for an hour on zoom.  Which, of course he can't.  He has four hours a day.
- Full time job, and a small house

There are things about this whole COVID that have worked out, but I think I could really use a break.  Even a vacation?

Today, I'm also filling my day by emailing friends, the principal, and the district school board asking if there are plans for any option besides "4 hours a day of zoom", for elementary kids.  Because: it sucks.
We'll survive, just fine.

But I have friends with kindergartners, or first graders, who are really really miserable.  Really.

"We have independent study, have you asked the principal?"
Yep, he says no.
Which of course he does.  The teacher are already working like DOGS to do this virtual learning, adding independent study just tacks more onto that.

But if it looks like no in person school for the year...I mean, the district has to do other things.  Other districts are offering independent study. I'm not sure I'd do it, but I tell ya, some of my friends are miserable.  Do I have to add this kind of work onto my plate?  No.  But I feel like it has to be said and some people just won't ask...  (my most miserable friend has a 3rd grader, 1st grader, and preschool.  First grader is miserable...)

Anyway, sitting back...not my thing either.

[FireLane]

This is a great idea for a thread.

Something I've noticed about myself is that, on days when I have nothing to do, I get all out of sorts. It's good for my mental health to have a to-do list that I can check stuff off of every day, even if it's just ordinary chores. It makes me feel that I'm being productive and not wasting my time. Post-FIRE, when I don't have a job to provide automatic structure to the day, this will be even more important. It'll help to write this stuff out in advance, so I can treat it like a smorgasbord of activities to pick from to occupy myself. (Plus, I can steal good ideas from other people.)

Physical activity
-Get at least 10,000 steps every day, weather permitting
-Do some basic bodyweight exercises every day: pushups, situps, planks, pullups, squats
-Do some kind of substantial exercise at least 3x per week: lift weights, do yoga, go for a hike or a more substantial walk

Intellectual activity
-Read every day. Most years, I read between 30 to 50 books. Post-FIRE, I'd like to aim for the higher end of that.
-Do some other intellectually stimulating activity every day. Depending on preference: listen to a podcast, do a crossword puzzle, play a board game, watch an online class or lecture, or watch a documentary.
-Long-term goal: Get more cultured. I want to make lists of classic TV shows, movies and albums that I've never watched/listened to and work my way through them.
-Long-term goal: Learn a foreign language or a musical instrument.
-Long-term goal: Hobby coding. I've done enough of this in my day job to last a lifetime, so this isn't high on the list, but it might be fun to write phone apps or other little useful programs. Getting a Raspberry Pi to tinker with also sounds fun.

Other productive stuff
-Cooking: Make interesting meals every week using ingredients I haven't tried before. Possible long-term project: Pick a cookbook and make every recipe in it.
-Cleaning: Between vacuuming, dusting, mopping, organizing the closets, cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, there's enough work to do at least one small chore every day.
-Warmer months: Work in my garden. Right now I just have flowers and herbs, I could expand that to a vegetable patch.
-Cooler months: Organize and deep clean the attic. Purge old clothes, old toys, old books and other stuff we don't need anymore.
-Long-term goal: Redecoration and renovation of my place. I haven't changed much since I moved in, I don't care too much about decor and I'm not the handyman type. But I could stand to paint, maybe retile the bathroom and replace the sink.

Friends & family
-Be the best parent I can be. I want to be there for my son all the time: reading, doing craft projects, helping with schoolwork and teaching him everything I know.
-See friends often! They're working, I won't be, I can tailor my schedule to theirs.
-Offer to babysit/have playdates for friends with kids, especially when school is out.
-Spend more time with parents as they age

Generosity & social engagement
-Give to charity at a 4% WR from my donor-advised fund
-Write and call elected officials often. Make my voice heard.
-Long-term goal: Volunteer a few hours a week with a worthy non-profit. This needs more research to see what fits my interests.

Travel
-Take advantage of all the cultural opportunities in or near NYC: museums, parks, concerts, zoos, botanical gardens, historical sites. One or two day trips a month sounds about right.
-Slow Travel Summers: Over the summers when my son's not in school, I'd like to pack up and go somewhere as a family for two or three weeks at a time, preferably somewhere we can reach by car. New England, the Canadian Maritimes, the Finger Lakes, the Great Lakes, and the southern Atlantic Seaboard all have interesting destinations. Or take a cross-country trip on Amtrak.
-Long-term goal: Visit every U.S. state.
-Long-term goal: Visit every national park.
-Long-term goal: Visit more countries. I've been to Spain, the U.K., Belgium and Iceland. Next few on the bucket list: France, Denmark, Costa Rica.

[FIRE Artist]

Lately I have been thinking that the thing I want most for my post-FI life is just unstructured time to let me figure out my natural life rhythm for when to sleep, eat, create, exercise.

I won’t be bored in retirement, I have never been bored outside of school or work for a single minute of my life.  I have never, ever had the thought “gee, I’m bored” when my time is my own, instead I tend to feel sad about all the things I want to be doing but don’t have the time to do it.  My best vacations are staycations, and even then the looming return to work puts limits on my time, stifling creativity and preventing me from starting big personal projects.  I want all time limits to be removed from my life, that is basically all that I want. 

[Metalcat]

Lately I have been thinking that the thing I want most for my post-FI life is just unstructured time to let me figure out my natural life rhythm for when to sleep, eat, create, exercise.

I won’t be bored in retirement, I have never been bored outside of school or work for a single minute of my life.  I have never, ever had the thought “gee, I’m bored” when my time is my own, instead I tend to feel sad about all the things I want to be doing but don’t have the time to do it.  My best vacations are staycations, and even then the looming return to work puts limits on my time, stifling creativity and preventing me from starting big personal projects.  I want all time limits to be removed from my life, that is basically all that I want.

This was so important to me.

I honestly had no idea what I wanted my life to look like until I stopped and could do whatever I wanted. I never ever intended to go back to work, and definitely not full time, ever.

I'm only back at it because this is truly what I want to be doing, but I needed that completely free form time in order to figure that out.

People stress about "retiring to" something, but personally for me, it was impossible to know what I wanted to do until I had the mental and physical space to figure it out.

Btw, had my first full day of work yesterday after consulting in this business purchase for 18 months. It's was just as messy and chaotic as I was hoping for. I'm kind of like the Marie Kondo of clinics, I love mess.

[Linea_Norway]

Lately I have been thinking that the thing I want most for my post-FI life is just unstructured time to let me figure out my natural life rhythm for when to sleep, eat, create, exercise.

I won’t be bored in retirement, I have never been bored outside of school or work for a single minute of my life.  I have never, ever had the thought “gee, I’m bored” when my time is my own, instead I tend to feel sad about all the things I want to be doing but don’t have the time to do it.  My best vacations are staycations, and even then the looming return to work puts limits on my time, stifling creativity and preventing me from starting big personal projects.  I want all time limits to be removed from my life, that is basically all that I want.

I feel often that I have a lot to do and don't feel bored easily. But it is a bit depending on the season. Like now it is september and the forest should be full of mushrooms. I forage almost every day, but I hardly find anything, because of the draught. That makes that I can't test out the 200 mushroom recipies in my new book, as well as conservation techniques. I often feel like being in the wrong place at the wrong time or in the wrong circumstances. Although our cycle trip erlier this week was very well planned, few other people and very nice weather. Now we are leaving for our cabin in the hope that I can forage a lit more there. I will bring along jam jars, a drying machine, my cookbook and lots of mushroom identification books. Not sure weather I will bring my microscope as well. I also have a pile of good library books to read.

My ideal would be to be on constant trips, but being a lot home in between, like alternating weeks.

[AerynLee]

Lately I have been thinking that the thing I want most for my post-FI life is just unstructured time to let me figure out my natural life rhythm for when to sleep, eat, create, exercise.

I won’t be bored in retirement, I have never been bored outside of school or work for a single minute of my life.  I have never, ever had the thought “gee, I’m bored” when my time is my own, instead I tend to feel sad about all the things I want to be doing but don’t have the time to do it.  My best vacations are staycations, and even then the looming return to work puts limits on my time, stifling creativity and preventing me from starting big personal projects.  I want all time limits to be removed from my life, that is basically all that I want.

This was so important to me.

I honestly had no idea what I wanted my life to look like until I stopped and could do whatever I wanted. I never ever intended to go back to work, and definitely not full time, ever.

I'm only back at it because this is truly what I want to be doing, but I needed that completely free form time in order to figure that out.

People stress about "retiring to" something, but personally for me, it was impossible to know what I wanted to do until I had the mental and physical space to figure it out.

I believe that I will be much like the two of you (and can't wait to put it to the test, hopefully next spring). DH on the other hand would absolutely need something to retire to. He is easily bored without some sort of external stimulation and would probably be miserable RE

[wenchsenior]

Lately I have been thinking that the thing I want most for my post-FI life is just unstructured time to let me figure out my natural life rhythm for when to sleep, eat, create, exercise.

I won’t be bored in retirement, I have never been bored outside of school or work for a single minute of my life.  I have never, ever had the thought “gee, I’m bored” when my time is my own, instead I tend to feel sad about all the things I want to be doing but don’t have the time to do it.  My best vacations are staycations, and even then the looming return to work puts limits on my time, stifling creativity and preventing me from starting big personal projects.  I want all time limits to be removed from my life, that is basically all that I want.

This was so important to me.

I honestly had no idea what I wanted my life to look like until I stopped and could do whatever I wanted. I never ever intended to go back to work, and definitely not full time, ever.

I'm only back at it because this is truly what I want to be doing, but I needed that completely free form time in order to figure that out.

People stress about "retiring to" something, but personally for me, it was impossible to know what I wanted to do until I had the mental and physical space to figure it out.

Btw, had my first full day of work yesterday after consulting in this business purchase for 18 months. It's was just as messy and chaotic as I was hoping for. I'm kind of like the Marie Kondo of clinics, I love mess.

'

I feel similarly...hard for me to even envision what my adult self would like to do every day if I didn't HAVE to do a bunch of things.  If I could get in touch with my 'kid self' easier, I think some things would be clearer, but that is very tough.

This is a great idea for a thread, and I'd like to participate b/c it has given me a lot of food for thought and some grist for discussions with my husband on our walks. It's not like we've never tried to run this exercise, but it is hard for us. We're workaholics.  I'm an unsatisfied workaholic, whereas my husband is more content...he might as well keep working b/c otherwise he'll just spend our retirement money doing something he's currently paid triple digits to do.  I know for sure that I need some scheduling and concrete goals to be at all productive at work or out of it. And I want to stop working and then be productive in vastly different areas.  But I can't seem to break my behavioral and emotional default to work (that I don't even much like), or at least I haven't figured out how to unless I am actually away from home on a trip.  So I haven't even had that much practice 'trying out' other things I might like.

But I really appreciate the OP starting this thread, b/c I'm trying to really get serious about setting goals for retirement, and hopefully by extension start trying to pursue them BEFORE retirement. 

[scottish]

I'm having trouble with this too.    I started pursuing FI aggressively after an unpleasant experience at work back in 2008.    We're quite a bit past our FI number now, but I'm still working.  (DW never went back to work after the kids were born, so she's really the master of early retirement in our household!)

I'd like to spend July through September in the rocky mountains every year.    Maybe back to Ontario for the fall colours and Yom Kippur/Christmas.  Then back to the rockies for skiing February to April.

The trouble is that's only about 6 months a year of activities.     And at my age (mid-fifties) I can't imagine skiing/hiking/scrambling every day, day after day.    So what to do with the rest of my time?

There's home renovation projects.   I can do these fairly well, but this is our 4th house and I no longer view renovations as fun, just another chore.   

I've been looking around for an interesting technical project (I'm an electrical engineer) the last 2 years, but so far nothing has really jumped out at me.

It may be that I need a completely new hobby.    I'm scanning this thread for ideas!

[kei te pai]

The best best best thing ever in my Post FIRE life is unstructured, unaccounted for time. Vast oceans of peace and calm! I have so many things I love doing, mainly because they can be done if and when I choose. I am never bored. Sometimes I am tired, but then I doze on the couch in the sun. Im getting real good at "retirement", which feels like a real life.

[Metalcat]

The best best best thing ever in my Post FIRE life is unstructured, unaccounted for time. Vast oceans of peace and calm! I have so many things I love doing, mainly because they can be done if and when I choose. I am never bored. Sometimes I am tired, but then I doze on the couch in the sun. Im getting real good at "retirement", which feels like a real life.

See, I think this was less of a thing for me, because I had so much free time before I retired. I only worked part time and had tons of free time to do what I please when I pleased.

So retiring didn't really give me much more of a sense of freedom.

Of course, now I'm back to full time work for the first time in years, I'm totally getting why people who do this for decades start going totally squirrelly, and I'm not even a full week in. There's no way I could do this schedule for decades and not become completely obsessed with having free time.

[mm1970]

This is a great idea for a thread.

Something I've noticed about myself is that, on days when I have nothing to do, I get all out of sorts. It's good for my mental health to have a to-do list that I can check stuff off of every day, even if it's just ordinary chores. It makes me feel that I'm being productive and not wasting my time. Post-FIRE, when I don't have a job to provide automatic structure to the day, this will be even more important. It'll help to write this stuff out in advance, so I can treat it like a smorgasbord of activities to pick from to occupy myself. (Plus, I can steal good ideas from other people.)
*snip*

I totally love this list.  It's very much like what my list would be.

Lately I have been thinking that the thing I want most for my post-FI life is just unstructured time to let me figure out my natural life rhythm for when to sleep, eat, create, exercise.

I won’t be bored in retirement, I have never been bored outside of school or work for a single minute of my life.  I have never, ever had the thought “gee, I’m bored” when my time is my own, instead I tend to feel sad about all the things I want to be doing but don’t have the time to do it.  My best vacations are staycations, and even then the looming return to work puts limits on my time, stifling creativity and preventing me from starting big personal projects.  I want all time limits to be removed from my life, that is basically all that I want. 

This too.  I have never ever had more than a few weeks off work at a time. Never enough to figure out what a normal life would be.

COVID has helped a little bit.  The time change happened, and I don't set an alarm anymore.  So, my bedtime routine has drifted to 9:30 pm and awake between 6:15 and 6:45.  I'm generally getting a bit more sleep than normal (but broken sleep, because: reasons).  I enjoy working out in my living room because it's my only option.  I don't have to wake up at 5:30 am to go to the pool.  I do miss the pool, but it's closed.

Even on weekends, we are so busy with chores and things, that I cannot identify a "groove".  Like, I have scheduled workouts on Saturday, but Sunday is unscheduled.  You'd think maybe I'd do yoga or go for long walks.  Well, that's what I'd think.  But I don't.  Why?  I dunno.  But I do the grocery shopping and food prep and do stuff with the younger kid and ... well so it's hard to figure out what retirement will be like.

COVID also means I'm reading a LOT more books.

I guess like many others, I think of things I want to do, or could be doing, and the thought of doing them EXHAUSTS me. 

One of my friends from my quilting group (back when I did that), retired in her early 60s (she taught French).  In one of our group meetings shortly after she retired, she said that she had NO IDEA how much more productive she would be.  See, morning is her best, most productive time.  She used it to go to the gym and then teach French.  She was already really productive AND incredibly creative - but having the time off really made it ramp up like mad.

Edit: and today I learned that you can "add quote" in a response, to quote 2 different people.  Go me!