Another thread got me thinking this morning about setting goals once you GET to retirement. I was a goal setter and planned obsessively to be able to RE, but I don't have any goals set up now that I'm in ER, other than the standard "get the kids through college, be a good husband and dad, don't screw up the nest egg" type of goals, so I think I may need something more personal to make ER more satisfying and less, um, meandering.
Has anyone done this type of thing, and can you give me some examples of your goals, and how doing this helped (or hurt) you ER satisfaction levels?
"All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost."
J.R.R. Tolkien
I'm not as focused as REWahoo, but some goals stay constant:
- Surfing. After seven years I even took an advanced class for a week. It's greatly expanded my knowledge, skills, & options. Someday I'll try stand-up paddlesurfing, windsurfing, and kite surfing. Every day I'm the best surfer I've ever been.
- Writing. Turns out that I enjoy it. It works even better when I have a subject to write about, but that's not always necessary. I can spend an hour or two tweaking a paragraph without having to feel obligated to meet some arbitrary deadline.
- Reading. I can spend an entire day offline with some books, not even bothering to read e-mail. ER gives me plenty of guilt-free time to do it.
- Investing. I've read about nearly everything and tried some form of it. After 10 years I'm just about done experimenting and ready to settle down to some form of low-effort value investing with a little testosterone tinkering. Or maybe in just 2-3 more years.
- Engineering. I really enjoyed the challenge of designing/building our photovoltaic & hot-water systems. We'll expand them in the next five years or so.
- Exercise. I'm taking my taekwondo 2nd dan test early next year. I still need to add an aerobic/weights habit to my weekly workouts.
- Empty nester. Nirvana is almost here! The best part will be more last-minute get-up-and-go travel opportunities. I'm also looking forward to not having to set a good example 24/7. It'll be nice to go out for dinner just because we feel like it (or to eat cereal), and to once again keep chocolate around the house.
When I feel that I've beaten the heck out of those goals, there's always Ernie Zelinski's "Get-A-Life Tree". It's been sitting on my desk for years waiting for me to do something about it.
When I wrote my original "goals" list a decade or so ago I broke it down into weeks, months, & years. These days its timeline has stretched to months, years, & decades.
I think the most valuable ER skill you can acquire is the ability to just "be" without feeling relentless pressure to "do". But if you must "do" at the expense of sacrificing everything else, then you could come out here to help with our yardwork...
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