You have reached FIRE. So what?

[Car-Guy]

Pursue my hobbies anytime I want, travel whenever want, sleeping in late when I want, sitting on the porch until noon if I want, drinking beer anytime I want, etc, etc, etc "anytime I want" all "trump" working, whenever "they want".

 

[H2ODude]

Ah yes. I remember the days when I'd drive into work over the big tall bridge, gaze out at the city of 3/4 of a million and think, "I'm responsible for all those people's water, sewer, and solid waste service!" Seems pretty hilarious to me now. My significance now comes from how I can be the best husband, stay healthy, and enjoy anything I want. Oh, and absolutely not be obligated to ever do anything based on anyone else's time, schedule, or direction.

If ever there were a post that laid out how it's different strokes for different folks, this is it. Enjoyed my career wildly, until I didn't. Then I left. Life is good. I'm even planning on enjoying blowing the leaves this morning.

 

[donheff]

No pursuit of significance and purpose here. I've spent the 12 years since retiring practicing the art of simply being. I'm getting to be pretty darned good at it.

+1 coming up on 13 years in January. I have lots of things I enjoy but I am not driven by needs to achieve, pay back, or pay in. I know lots of people who feel otherwise. Sounds like you are one of those. I see no need for you to fell the need to achieve our equanimity.

 

[Red Badger]

If you obtain "significance" from work, that's beyond my comprehension.

 

[athena53]

I'm a retired actuary, really liked what I did, but quit at 61 due to toxic politics. One week passed between my telling DH (already retired, 15 years older) "I think I'm going to quit my job on Monday" and the day I walked out of the office for the last time.

DH died a year ago so, first of all, I was PROFOUNDLY grateful I could be there for him in his last days and for the travel we had the years after I retired and before he got too weak to travel (Alaska, Paris, Iceland).

I love not having to set the alarm, having few scheduled commitments, being able to take a nap in the afternoon, and especially being free to travel without counting how many vacation days I have left. Life would be a bit meaningless for me if it were all about plane tickets and goofing off, but I'm active in several organizations that interest me, I maintain Web sites for my church and my Toastmasters Club and I donate platelets and either plasma or whole blood once a month. I also try to keep my charitable giving at the same level as my travel expenses! Finally, I have two beautiful granddaughters who live 3 hours away. I want to be around for them for a long time.

 

[O2Bfree]

Ah yes. I remember the days when I'd drive into work over the big tall bridge, gaze out at the city of 3/4 of a million and think, "I'm responsible for all those people's water, sewer, and solid waste service!" .

I'd say being responsible for that service is way more important than a majority of other positions!

 

[Amethyst]

I think your question is not really about FIRE, but related to the usual "What is the meaning of life" that everyone, FIRE or not, has to answer for themselves.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Appreciate and expected the responses to vary based on everyone’s individual experience and how they are wired. I’m all about making time for the “party” and just “being”, but I suppose I feel like I need/should leave this planet making the world a better place by using some of my time/talent/resources in this 2nd half of life. For me, I don’t think of it as an ego drive or necessarily type A personality drive, just a human condition pickle which is why I posed the question. I’m not judging anyone’s post RE path/decisions, just throwing around the concept to see how/if anyone struggled/solved this post RE... anyone who does not have “dawg” in their tag line.

Oh, and Go Dawgs!!

So find something rewarding to do. Volunteer at a hospital. Teach prison inmates to read. Learn to play the tuba.

 

[Cassius King]

I've always desired my freedom. Doing what I want when I want. If retirement gives me nothing other than sitting on the beach listening to the waves and feeling the breeze, then I'm chasing that dream. If it's sitting on the dock staring at a bobber, then I'm chasing that dream. If it's sitting on my patio listening to some tunes with a beer in my hand and something in the smoker, then I'm chasing that dream.
My freedom and independence is more important than any significance I can get from working and placing so much of my effort towards something that does not benefit me.
This thread is one of a myriad of reasons I love this site. The sharing of views and experiences is captivating. Love this place.

 

[RunningBum]

So find something rewarding to do. Volunteer at a hospital. Teach prison inmates to read. Learn to play the tuba.

This. I probably misread the first post. I read it as "I'm going to keep working so that my life has purpose and meaning." Perhaps instead it's looking for how to have purpose and meaning in retirement. For those of us who filled the work day filling out TPF reports ("Office Space" reference), retirement affords us a better chance for that. I've done more volunteer work in retirement than I did while working. I could definitely find more.

 

[NW-Bound]

I miss my cube in the windowless basement.

Milton, is that you?

Back on getting bored in retirement, I can only travel so much. Eat and drink too much can get me into health problems. Being an engineer, I miss doing technical work, so I think of projects for myself. I don't get paid, but can now do what I want, in the way I want, and when I want it.

 

[Clone]

Achieving FI allowed me/us to leave megacorp a few years earlier than most. I took a second career job teaching at the same university where I got my undergrad degree. The second career allowed a soft-landing opportunity towards retirement. The calculations said I didn't need the money, but the university job was something I had thought about a number of years earlier, and I wanted to give it a try.

My megacorp career was good. I enjoyed new product development. I had significant chunks that I had designed in production, and they worked very well for our customers. I still enjoy seeing my designs on the production line and in the field. The management side of megacorp had become quite frustrating and stressful. I was glad to jettison those parts of the job.

Teaching was/is quite different. Relative to megacorp, there is close to zero stress. I enjoy working with the students, and they seem to enjoy interacting with me. The money is not so good, but when added to the pension from megacorp, it is roughly the same money that I was bringing home from megacorp. And the $2 for $1 match on the retirement funds works well. As far as rewarding, I know of three students where I was a critical link in connecting them to a job that was their 'dream job'. They call me up on occasion and talk, and that is very rewarding.

I am finishing up my fifth year teaching, and will probably do it for one more year, maybe two. We are trying different summer routines and a few different winter trips, along with a heavy schedule of football, men's basketball, and women's basketball season tickets. That experience may influence our next phase of retirement.

 

[audreyh1]

Just sayen...

My take after reading so many posts on this site is most of us have worked hard, planned, sacrificed to reach FIRE. Yes, for many, getting out of the rat race saved stress, long commutes, our Heath, and our relationships. For others, we just hit a magical number that we dreamed about that made us FI and we dreamed of golf, margaritas, and the carefree life. I fall in the latter camp and while I have not pulled the plug yet, I am FI, but find my early selfobsorbded dreams don’t feel as motivating or fulfilling as they did when I pursued them. Yes, I want to improve my golf game, do some more travel, explore some hobbies, but I have determined it can’t be all about me living like Jaba the Hut. It all sounded like a great plan when I was younger and working the Plan, but now I am here and “so what”? I just read a book called Half Time by Bob Buford and I find the premise of pursuing significance to be both energizing and sobering at the same time. How are you finding significance and purpose in your second half? Did you have an epiphinony or what changed for you? I just don’t think I can play golf every day, drink wine, eat lobster and sleep. Maybe 3 out of 7 days...

1. What you end up doing after you retire will evolve, and probably end up quite different from what you initially imagine.
2. Not all retirement activities are leisure/recreation. There are tons of things to do that are creative, challenging, involve projects, planning, etc. heck, maybe even dedication, discipline, and mental gymnastics!
3. Pursuing significance, the meaning of life, etc.? Significant in whose eyes? By what standard are you seeking to be judged. That stuff doesn’t matter to me. I’m content to be a participant within my small sphere of influence.

 

[FIREd]

I never pursued significance (the kind of significance that most of us will achieve in our lifetime is rarely long-lasting IMO). As for my purpose in life, it's to live enjoyably before the light goes off. But I would hate to live solely on golf, wine, lobster, and sleep. I like to keep myself challenged and work has nothing to do with it.

 

[kaudrey]

I volunteer for several causes now, while I am still working, and would love to have more time to devote to those. We also love to travel, and I'd love to be able to take month long trips (we are doing 3 weeks in NZ in early 2019, but that's a stretch while I am still working).


I am almost 49, I want to retire in 3 1/2 years. But, in addition to the above, I want to do it because my SO is 60, and I want to enjoy all the time with him I can due to the age difference....

 

[scrabbler1]

While reaching FIRE 9 years and one month ago was very significant, I actually consider the time when I first switched from working full-time to working part-time back in 2001 as having a bigger impact on my life. This is because that change in my everyday life enabled me to recover my personal life. It was back in 2001 when I was able to add to my life some new hobbies and resurrect some old one because I now had the time and energy to do them. I was also able to abandon having to get my personal errands done on the busy and time-constrained weekends and brief weekday evenings. And, of course, the reduction of my daily commute to far less than 5 days a week was a huge benefit.


I wasn't actually FIREd yet, but that change to working part-time was a huge launch pad toward my eventual FIRE in late 2008, 7 years later. The actual change in my day-to-day lifestyle wasn't nearly as large, as I continued to do my personal errands during the week. I still had the hobbies I had added to my everyday life, I was able to expand on them to some degree while being able to schedule them more freely without the frequent conflicts among them and with my part-time, albeit flexible, work schedule. But I eliminated the dang commute, the biggest improvement to my life.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

No real pursuit of significance or purpose for me. But that wasn't coming at work either. Now at least I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. Seriously, there was nothing fulfilling in my last few years at work, so it couldn't get less fulfilling in retirement.

If we had a wiki this post should be in it. My job wasn't even half bad but going to a botanical garden or museum during the day is still better.

 

[Sojourner]

Pursuing significance, the meaning of life, etc.? Significant in whose eyes? By what standard are you seeking to be judged. That stuff doesn’t matter to me. I’m content to be a participant within my small sphere of influence.

I never pursued significance (the kind of significance that most of us will achieve in our lifetime is rarely long-lasting IMO). As for my purpose in life, it's to live enjoyably before the light goes off. But I would hate to live solely on golf, wine, lobster, and sleep. I like to keep myself challenged and work has nothing to do with it.

+1

It's an undeniable fact that nearly every single one of us posting on this board will be completely forgotten about within 100 years, almost as if we never existed. IMHO, life ultimately comes down to finding enjoyment and fulfillment in the simple doing of things that you find interesting and that make you want to get up in the morning.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

+1

It's an undeniable fact that nearly every single one of us posting on this board will be completely forgotten about within 100 years, almost as if we never existed. IMHO, life ultimately comes down to finding enjoyment and fulfillment in the simple doing of things that you find interesting and that make you want to get up in the morning.

And another +1. I will admit that after I retired, I was somewhat happy to get a few calls asking about something that I was considered an expert in. It was annoying in that I was done with that life, but to think that my opinion/knowledge was still being sought was a slight boost to my ego. Well, it wasn't too long before those calls stopped and in the last 3 years, no one has asked me my opinion on anything about what I did during my "contributing years". Also when I saw the AT&T commercial about Puerto Rico and saw that my "old plane" was in it, airlifting valuable supplies to folks who were/are in desperate need...I was a little bit sad that I wasn't in the "action" anymore...but that feeling soon passed.

I am under no illusion that once I am gone, no one will remember me or my accomplishments. That's OK...I am happy just "being" and living my life in a manner that brings as much joy as possible.

I have mentioned this before (I think) that as a matter of course, my Dad has a happy hour on the weekends. Over the years, participants have come and gone, and the ages have been as young as me (early 40's) to as old as my Dad (90). Two of the long time participants have since died, and their lives were so very, very different. Man "A" lived to be 81. He once held elected office, was a newspaper publisher, and traveled the US and South America by RV many years ago. Even married a flight attendant that had a layover in South America. Oh yeah, and owned a restaurant in Germany for a while. When he died, he had the most basic obit...basically just the legal proclamation that "A" had died on so and so day. When we asked his daughter about the short, SHORT obit, she said that is what her Dad wanted. He never bragged and did what he did in life for HIM and no one else. Most of the stories about we never heard until he died. NOW...Man "B" died at 68 after fighting cancer for many, many years. He had dreams of living on a lake (and owned a nice plot of land on a lake, but never built) but worked, Worked, WORKED up until about 6 months before he died. We had asked him if had considered retiring, but he just felt that he "owed it to society" to work as long as he could. He was one of the most boring people I have ever met in my life...lots of hot air, but no substance. When he died, his obit was almost 2 full columns...it looked like a resume or something from LinkedIn...and to me that was pretty sad. The fact is that in 10 years, no one will remember that "B" helped set up the first network system in Atlanta for GTE.

I know, I know...I am rambling...that's my bad. My last point...I am very happy to be insignificant. I like flying under the radar and will do everything in my power to keep that up.

 

[CoolRich59]

For me, the fellow who runs the blog ESI Money said it best in his guest post on another blog (Budgets Are Sexy) entitled "10 Things I Didn’t Expect in Early Retirement":

#6. My Family Relationships Are Much Better
I assumed that retirement would give me more time with family, but I didn’t know how meaningful and far-reaching this time would be.

I don't think I have poor relationships with family and friends, but I spent a lot of time in the office and on the road during my career, and missed a lot of events and time with family and friends.

What will be most fulfilling for me will be to spend my time in retirement investing time and effort in my relationship with my wife, kids, grandchildren, old friends, and maybe even new friends.

 

[RAE]

The beauty of retirement is that you can do as much, or as little, as you want. The key word there is "you"..........you are the one directing your life (probably for the first time in your life), not someone else that you have to please in order to earn a living. If you feel like you need a purpose in retirement, there are a zillion worthy organizations/agencies that would love to have you volunteer for them. It shouldn't be too hard to find a few whose missions are aligned with your interests. If volunteering doesn't interest you, surely there must be a few hobbies or pursuits that interest you? Have any grandkids or other family to spend time with? My biggest problem in retirement is finding the time to do everything that I am interested in. So it's kinda hard for me to relate to those who have no idea how to spend their time in retirement.....

 

[NW-Bound]

... I would hate to live solely on golf, wine, lobster, and sleep...

No golf here, but wine and lobster are OK. Throw in some shrimp, steak, and Dungeness crab too, please. And Cognac, of course. Martini when I want some change.

Yesterday, I fired up my o'scope to look at a circuit I was building, and writing a bit of firmware for. Oh, happy, happy... Took 2 hours to find a simple stupid bug that was right in my face all that time, but felt good when I got it. Just like when I was working.

When I get tired of this, or get it all working, I will go back to surfing the Web looking for the next travel destination. Domestic RV'ing, or fly-and-drive in Europe? What to do? So many choices, so little time (and energy)...

 

[Travelwanted]

Great thread. And go DAWGS! Looks like several Dawg fans on this site...very nice.

The initial post is very interesting to me. I am an over-achiever...always have been - some say a super type A. When I finished my graduate degree and training I was a bit disappointed. That's it?? I immediately reached out to the military looking for another challenge. Health issues kept me from pursuing that or I would have in a NY minute. I had the carrot in front of me for so long that once I got it, it was very anti-climactic.

I have been FI for at least a few years now but I still w*rk some. I get some satisfaction from a job well done. That's why I am afraid to completely walk away. I still think about retiring but I fear it will be anti-climactic once again.

I'm sure the answer is in finding another challenge. I just haven't found that yet.

 

[DawgMan]

Man... I stepped away to my day job and you all went to town! Let me be clear... I am not suggesting I want to hang on to my “job” for significance, I’m just suggesting we all have certain talents that might be leveraged in our ER yrs to leave the world a better place. I’m not suggesting everyone should sell all their $hit and open an orphanage in S Africa, but I was just suggesting perhaps some of you felt an itch/pull to do some something “more” with your talents in RE. No judgement here if you want to just hang out on the beach all day and drink beer, but just thought many might feel the pull to mix some “give back” in between happy hour. I have 4 kids and anticipate some grandkids soon with my 2 married ones and plan on vesting myself there/in family, like many of you. I would suggest that most people on this site that are FIRE have allot of good knowledge to help others, especially the next generation. That’s the slant I was going for in my original post.

Now, what’s most important... I have a crazy positive feeling about my dawgs!

 

[pb4uski]

...I get some satisfaction from a job well done. That's why I am afraid to completely walk away. ....

You can get the satisfaction of a job well done without having a job.

There are jobs for yourself, friends and family, volunteer work, etc.