FIREd @ 26, bored to absolute tears!

[pjigar]

I have two words for you: hobbies and more hobbies. I have so many hobbies now and so many on my bucket list that I am afraid I don't have enough time left in this world to finish the list. There are some excellent introvert hobbies out there but I would encourage you to try something that lets you spend time with other people. At the end of the day, people need people (from the song someone posted recently).

PS: For a start, you can try to eat and live better i.e. grow your food, cook your food and along the way work so hard that you don't have to excursive in a gym!

 

[pj.mask]

I won’t suggest what you do in terms of time but provide an simplified observation.

Humans are social animals. You may not like certain aspects of being social but if you miss the parts you like, that isolation will cause depression.

You really liked being with your father and you ‘like working with kids’. What is the difference between those cases and people at large?

I’d suggest you spend some of that money on some counseling to understand the social side of you and then invest some time in making friends who you can share your time with.

 

[badatmath]

I can't speak to the question you are really asking, but I have to ask you - do you enough work credits to qualify for SS and Medicare some day? I would at least get the minimum. Sorry to sound like a nag, my personality may be too similar to offer other advice!

 

[CDRE]

Do the Get-a-Life exercise from the book "How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free". This "Tree" methodology has been mentioned several times on E-R.org.

 

[Omalley]

I agree with an earlier post that teaching in a school setting may be difficult without obtaining a four year degree and education training. However, there a many non-school options to have a positive impact on younger people. Look into opportunities with Junior Achievement and 4-H in your communities.

I was very involved with 4-H as a child, and it always seemed hard for our chapter to find enough adult leaders to teach us about woodworking, small engine repair, cooking, sewing, photography, art, livestock, and crops. I imagine finding adult leaders is nearly impossible today.

 

[RobotMom]

I have to admit that this is my biggest worry in retirement. My DH does not worry about this at all because he is a self-starter and has insane energy. I can definitely see myself doing less then wanting to do less because I'm doing less - then, finally, doing nothing. Having a J-O-B gives you the kick in the pants to keep going. Personally, it can be argued whether people are meant to work and have **something** to do and whether retiring early is even a good thing. My advice would be to find a passion - but continue to push yourself outside your comfort zone. It is easy as an introvert to stay inside - but it is not healthy. My MIL has been retired for 20 years and has become quite a busybody bore and so set in her ways, she cannot adopt modern technology (freaks out when anybody gets on their phone, freaks out when her newspaper is not delivered, etc). My personal goal is not to let myself go that route. I understand it is difficult because once you FIRE, you don't have a boss anymore - but you have to be your own boss and give yourself a swift kick in the pants once in a while!

 

[cooch96]

OP, I think you should strongly consider the possibility that it isn't boredom that's making you depressed, but depression that is making you bored. As long as you have the time, and some money, why not find some psychological/ emotional help, and see what he or she might have to offer you.
37 is not necessarily to young to retire, but it's way to young to be bored.

+1. You’ve cast about looking for purpose, which is smart. But you’ve been unsuccessful. I think it is time to seek some professional help. Your problem might even be something surprisingly simple or biological; you might just be chronically low on iron or need more UV light exposure.

 

[SonofCohoes]

Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster! Glad to finally be a participant in this wonderful community.

FIREd @ 26 through a self started small construction business, the profits of which were wholly rolled into income producing real estate during the Great Recession, all the while living very frugally. The timing was impeccable and my story couldn't be duplicated today nearly as easily. The money part of the FIRE equation is solved. Turning 37 this year and realizing I've more or less wasted the last decade of life doing nothing meaningful. I came to realize the motivation for my success was extrinsic, specifically the goal was to make Dad proud. Goal Accomplished! When he passed on 8 years ago, I sort of sat down and said "ok, now what, and why bother.... nobody to celebrate with anymore". The rest of my family is broke, so they don't want to hear about it, and we all know money is taboo and nobody wants to see you succeed or celebrate with you without envy or jealousy. So at this point the boredom is getting intense, to the point of depression. (First world problems here... don't lynch me for my apparent complaints, but consider it all in context. I know it could be much, much worse) It's turned into a constant paradox. Miserable doing nothing, but contemporaneously don't want to do anything. Don't like the cold, so I set sail for the sunny south in the winter only to get even more bored and end up going back to the Frozen Wastelands of the Midwest after about a week. Rinse and repeat several times per season. Bought a house down south to rehab, get there and don't even want to work on it. The grass looks greener until I'm there, then the grass looks greener back in the other location. Not much interest in starting or growing another business unless I can do it alone, because good help is nonexistent. Don't really want a J-O-B. Very little interest in volunteering. I'm an introvert by nature (hardcore INTJ, for those of you who are interested in Myers-Briggs), and becoming more so with each passing day due in part to isolation, so anything involving a bunch of people doesn't sound pleasant. Again, paradoxically, I love educating young people 1-on-1 about the wonderful world of FIRE since our culture of consumers is so woefully undereducated in personal finance, but having attained it myself I'm incredibly dissatisfied. Thought about a y-tube channel or something along those lines to spread the FIRE gospel amongst the youth, but I don't want to get nailed for "giving financial advice" and the material is all out there already anyway.

TL,DR I guess my question for those of you who have happily FIREd at a young age is this: What do you do to fill your days with purpose, fulfillment, and meaning? I don't want to look back when I'm 47 and have this same feeling of having wasted another decade of life without having done something worthy of inclusion in the obituary.

Open to your thoughts, and thank you for the warm welcome!

Just start something like working on the southern place. Take 6 months do it slowly and methodically and enjoy it. I’ve felt exactly as you do but for different reasons, once that project takes hold and you get into it you’re a different person.

Good luck.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

Do you speak any other languages? Would you like to travel? Learn the language of the country you might like to visit. It would open up a whole new world of experiences for you.

Try learning Chinese. They say it's one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn, but it can also be one of the most rewarding. It has well over a billion people to talk with. You can try to learn Russian, Japanese, French, or whatever you wish. There's a whole world out there waiting for you.

 

[nvestysly]

The OP mentioned not being interested in volunteering. While that may make sense for them - perhaps too much social interaction for an extreme INTJ - but there are all kinds of volunteering opportunities. Some of them involving lots of social interaction, some of them much less so.

My own Myers Briggs results are INTJ but not extremely so. For instance, I never met a stranger, willing to talk to anyone, but I can overdose on social interaction in a short time. Parties are not my cup of tea so to speak. So in some ways I can relate to the OP on the INTJ spectrum. I suspect many of us on this forum fall into the INTJ spectrum or something similar.

Back to volunteering. If the OP is open to consider volunteering at Habitat for Humanity they may find a good fit. The OP, Blue Collar Fire, has construction skills and Habitat certainly needs volunteers in their mission to build decent, affordable homes. We've found you can volunteer at Habitat and find tasks to perform with relatively small doses of social interaction. There's no doubt that interaction is required, but once the tasks are defined for the day, the volunteer can choose projects that can be performed solo.

Another version of Habitat is the RV Care-A-Vanner program which allows RV owners to travel to hundreds of projects around the country to help with construction. It's a way cool means of travel with a purpose. Here's the link to RV CAV:

https://www.habitat.org/volunteer/travel-and-build/rv-care-a-vanners

Blue Collar Fire, take a few minutes to watch the video on that web page, then scroll down and click on Find a Scheduled Build. I hope you'll like what you see.

 

[aaronc879]

What kind of shape are you in? Spend the next two months(or 14 months if needed) and get in good shape then start on the Appalachian Trail in late March. That will take care of pretty much an entire year. If you like it then you could do the Pacific Crest Trail, John Muir Trail and others. That would take up a lot of time and be a great adventure. Most people don't get the opportunity to do those trails in their 30's or early 40's because they are stuck at work. I was planning to section hike the Appalachian Trail then I broke my hip at age 37 then had to have a hip replacement at age 38 and now I can't walk more than about 30 minutes at a time. Do it while you can because you never know when you no longer will be able to.

 

[Rianne]

I didn't get disillusioned with work/career until ~mid forties. When I was 26, I was excited about my career and looking forward to work. Makes me think of an athlete, Gronk, for instance. Think of his attitude when he started out. Now look at his attitude. I think you have to live through the pain to appreciate the freedom.

 

[Ready2Go]

I have a friend that is a semi-retired building contractor. Has done very big commercial projects and a ton of residential work. His biggest frustrations over the years were getting/keeping reliable help. Now, he lives in a shore area and does handyman work on his own. Tons of maintenance needed on shore houses...and lazy people with money to burn! So, he does an occasional bathroom or kitchen reno but mostly he's replacing siding, painting, cleaning out gutters, etc. He's happy as can be. It's all word of mouth. The phone rings and if he gets any sense that the client will be difficult, he says he's too busy. Just another possibility for you.

 

[EvrClrx311]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything you shared (big surprise!) The thirst for and pursuit of knowledge for INTJs is ever present and as necessary as the air we breathe. I've fallen into the habit of spending an inordinate amount of time on YouTube in the past few years, both to gain knowledge and to pass the time. So far, I've learned how to drive a semi (passed the class A CDL test), proficiently operate a long reach excavator, how to climb and prune or cut down large trees like a pro Climbing Arborist, how to haft axes, play guitar, and a few other odds and ends. It's wonderful to add to an already diverse skillset, but ultimately, we INTJs need to exercise our "Te" function and get those skills out into the world. As you have probably experienced, once we master a new skill, we quickly become bored and move on. That's happened. I've taken jobs driving big trucks, cutting trees, and running excavators, but quickly got tired of having a j-o-b and more or less stopped doing it. Additionally, since a lot of my interests revolve around being and working outside, I'm shut down half the year due to winter in the Midwest. Hence the interest in FL. Don't really want to run a business anymore, so I guess the answer is to head south where it's warm year round and do it all for free. Ends up racking up expenses with no revenue to offset the costs, but something to do I suppose. Just grasping for straws and thinking out loud. Finding a new mountain to climb seems to be a moving target... Thank you for your input, it's spot on.

Te is an interesting thing. We organize by verbalizing, sometimes that's in writing -- looking deeper down that rabbit hole, since you know of the function stacks... our tertiary function is Introverted Feelings, which is likely where that desire to teach and share your knowledge in helpful ways comes from. It makes you feel good, to be of use to someone who aligns with your moral sense of the world. That's the whole stack combined Ni (grabbing data, seeing all the variables and having a sense of eventualities) with Te (organizing it into action) and Fi (developing a moral sense of the world around you... of how best to apply your complex awareness of the world into an efficient system that can benefit others, or humanity as a whole)

It seems that as INTJs age, we become softer (or rather, we stop being so logically organized, and contained within this wall of presumption about how the world behaves around us - build on a narrow set of experiences and extrapolated into a sense that is likely somewhat right, yet lacking in experience: younger INTJs are about the most close minded people about just how open minded we think we are... I'll admit I was, and probably still am in some regard)... this is because the more experiences we have, and the other skills we develop the more useful we become in the world. We start to look for outlets to help others with this knowledge. We become driven by that. That's Fi at work... finding a cause, people who can benefit from your wealth of experience and knowledge... is the key to jumping out of that boredom cycle. We love to master new things, so we can feel great later about cycling back to those ideas and using them (problem solving) in real world applications.

Teaching is a great outlet for this, so is innovation... tinkering and playing with machines and toys, as you've been doing. Coincidentally I just bought a tractor, I have no idea how to use one, but I'm sure I'll be an expert in no time

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Because you are clearly very smart and very skilled and very practical, my suggestion is to give a go at inventing. Inventing with a specific purpose, say, surgical devices or robotics or recreational equipment. My presumption is that this kind of activity would allow both purpose and autonomy, and not be overly j*b-like.

If there is a makerspace near you, you could start by checking that scene out. (I suggest that as a baby step -- I think it would feel too "hobby-like" for you for the long term.)

 

[tb001]

Oh my, I have found my people! While I didn’t retire at a young age, so can’t speak to that particular piece of it, the rest of what you’ve described really resonates with me and the ability to dive deep down the rabbit hole of a new interest is a big motivator to retire.

That said, I go through periods where nothing sparks. I’ve found a few hobbies that have stood the test of time, mainly because there is just so much to learn that I’m not sure you ever truly master it. But even those wax and wane. Personally, I had to escape the cold, gray winters of the Midwest—that for me was a guaranteed slip into depression.

To get out of the slumps, a few things come to mind. One is forcing yourself to just start a new project or hobby, even if you’re not feeling it. That, interspersed with lots of long walks or runs in the sunshine, helps.

You didn’t mention travel at all, but getting out of my element in a physically active way always gave me a jump start. In spite of being an INTJ, we still need social interaction. I may be reading between the lines, but you sound very socially isolated, which is also a road to depression for me. One route might be to book a group adventure travel type of trip. I’ve found kayaking trips to be great for this because you’re outdoors, physically active, get lots of alone time, but can still have a somewhat social experience at the end of the day. There’s a fantastic group that runs one in Belize if you’d like a suggestion

Another thought would be to take up a sport that is solo, but somewhat interactive (Eg tennis or surfing). Art/maker type classes can also be a good outlet, though I usually end up just wanting to build a studio in the garage... It was mentioned above, but fwiw, pottery gives me the feeling you described with the fence posts. And the great part is that it’s a hobby that is very complex and very difficult to master, from throwing, to glaze chemistry, to firing—lots of rabbit holes to learn about!

While you said you weren’t interested in volunteering, I too thought of habitat for humanity or ngo work. It sounds like you need to get out of your head and mix things up a bit. The latter could be especially helpful. Feeling useful/helpful is a big booster for me—I also love to teach, so probably a tie in to what evrclr mentioned above.

I might caution against a YouTube blog or that type of thing, only because for me, the more internet/screen time, the worse the slumps get and the more inward I focus.

This is a really interesting thread and I’m glad you posted. It’s helpful for me to hear from others with similar traits and it’s made me reflect back on times I had that flow vs not.

 

[tb001]

Because you are clearly very smart and very skilled and very practical, my suggestion is to give a go at inventing. Inventing with a specific purpose, say, surgical devices or robotics or recreational equipment. My presumption is that this kind of activity would allow both purpose and autonomy, and not be overly j*b-like.

If there is a makerspace near you, you could start by checking that scene out. (I suggest that as a baby step -- I think it would feel too "hobby-like" for you for the long term.)

Robots, how could I have forgotten robots!?! We cross posted—great suggestions.

 

[blueskyk]

I've more or less wasted the last decade of life doing nothing meaningful.

The trick with meaning is that it is something that rises from within, not really something you can easily adopt from others, other than to discover that you, too, find a particular thing meaningful.

I too, am INTJ and my own quest for meaning has been difficult and long (as is true for most people - I always envied the few that seemed to be born with a clear sense of their place and quest in the world). Like, what was wrong with me that this was so hard to figure out Nothing, it just is.

I don't have any advice, but I do have an observation. I found I adored activities in which I was "invisible". I visit nursing homes with a therapy dog - sometimes I encounter family members that are deeply appreciative and this does make me happy. But I am also happy if I go in, make my rounds (often with people who have dementia and do not speak) and slip back out, its like a beautiful secret to me. The same with hospice volunteering - often the people I sit with while the family has a respite will never know me but I sit quietly and pray for them. Another beautiful secret.

Also, photography (still and drone video) and art let me be an invisible observer of things as I try and capture beauty.

Your description of mending the fence that you enjoyed so much felt to me like it might have some elements of beauty that was invisible and secret from everyone but you. If that resonates with you, one thing that might help is to hold that lightly in your heart and notice what you notice going forward. (Of course, YMMV on that technique)

We all make the path by walking - it may be difficult and confusing and frustrating right now but, clearly, you are up and moving because you are wrestling hard with it.

Safe travels on your journey....

 

[Masquernom]

If I were in the situation of the OP, I'd go to law school. Not so much to start a law career, as to learn a useful skill. If I was 10 years younger, I'd do it myself.

Of course, if he doesn't already have a 4 year degree, that might be too much.

 

[GreenEggs]

Oh my, I have found my people! While I didn’t retire at a young age, so can’t speak to that particular piece of it, the rest of what you’ve described really resonates with me and the ability to dive deep down the rabbit hole of a new interest is a big motivator to retire.

That said, I go through periods where nothing sparks. I’ve found a few hobbies that have stood the test of time, mainly because there is just so much to learn that I’m not sure you ever truly master it. But even those wax and wane. Personally, I had to escape the cold, gray winters of the Midwest—that for me was a guaranteed slip into depression.

To get out of the slumps, a few things come to mind. One is forcing yourself to just start a new project or hobby, even if you’re not feeling it. That, interspersed with lots of long walks or runs in the sunshine, helps.

You didn’t mention travel at all, but getting out of my element in a physically active way always gave me a jump start. In spite of being an INTJ, we still need social interaction. I may be reading between the lines, but you sound very socially isolated, which is also a road to depression for me. One route might be to book a group adventure travel type of trip. I’ve found kayaking trips to be great for this because you’re outdoors, physically active, get lots of alone time, but can still have a somewhat social experience at the end of the day. There’s a fantastic group that runs one in Belize if you’d like a suggestion

Another thought would be to take up a sport that is solo, but somewhat interactive (Eg tennis or surfing). Art/maker type classes can also be a good outlet, though I usually end up just wanting to build a studio in the garage... It was mentioned above, but fwiw, pottery gives me the feeling you described with the fence posts. And the great part is that it’s a hobby that is very complex and very difficult to master, from throwing, to glaze chemistry, to firing—lots of rabbit holes to learn about!

While you said you weren’t interested in volunteering, I too thought of habitat for humanity or ngo work. It sounds like you need to get out of your head and mix things up a bit. The latter could be especially helpful. Feeling useful/helpful is a big booster for me—I also love to teach, so probably a tie in to what evrclr mentioned above.

I might caution against a YouTube blog or that type of thing, only because for me, the more internet/screen time, the worse the slumps get and the more inward I focus.

This is a really interesting thread and I’m glad you posted. It’s helpful for me to hear from others with similar traits and it’s made me reflect back on times I had that flow vs not.

If you're looking for a challenge give glassblowing a try. There's nothing like it.

 

[razztazz]

Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster! Glad to finally be a participant in this wonderful community.
......
TL,DR I guess my question for those of you who have happily FIREd at a young age is this: What do you do to fill your days with purpose, fulfillment, and meaning? I don't want to look back when I'm 47 and have this same feeling of having wasted another decade of life without having done something worthy of inclusion in the obituary.

Open to your thoughts, and thank you for the warm welcome!

You need to start thinking like a Rich Person. They are not encumbered by the need to "feel useful." They do what they want and only what they want simply because they can. And to them always and everywhere whatever they do is useful and productive in this world just because they are living. Much more important and useful than cab drivers, for instance or electricians, or plumbers, or teachers. They don't worry about what other people think of them because the other people are jealouse, lazy, and not rich. You don't hear of them sweating these details because they don't.

 

[Born2BRetd]

OP, you mentioned that you don't fit in with family since no one wants to hear that you have problems too. You may have outgrown your hometown and need to move somewhere more affluent. Find a community where your wealth isn't an issue and source of envy and resentment. Even though you are an introvert, you still need friends and some human interaction.

 

[StuckinCT]

Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster! Glad to finally be a participant in this wonderful community.

FIREd @ 26 through a self started small construction business, the profits of which were wholly rolled into income producing real estate during the Great Recession, all the while living very frugally. The timing was impeccable and my story couldn't be duplicated today nearly as easily. The money part of the FIRE equation is solved. Turning 37 this year and realizing I've more or less wasted the last decade of life doing nothing meaningful. I came to realize the motivation for my success was extrinsic, specifically the goal was to make Dad proud. Goal Accomplished! When he passed on 8 years ago, I sort of sat down and said "ok, now what, and why bother.... nobody to celebrate with anymore". The rest of my family is broke, so they don't want to hear about it, and we all know money is taboo and nobody wants to see you succeed or celebrate with you without envy or jealousy. So at this point the boredom is getting intense, to the point of depression. (First world problems here... don't lynch me for my apparent complaints, but consider it all in context. I know it could be much, much worse) It's turned into a constant paradox. Miserable doing nothing, but contemporaneously don't want to do anything. Don't like the cold, so I set sail for the sunny south in the winter only to get even more bored and end up going back to the Frozen Wastelands of the Midwest after about a week. Rinse and repeat several times per season. Bought a house down south to rehab, get there and don't even want to work on it. The grass looks greener until I'm there, then the grass looks greener back in the other location. Not much interest in starting or growing another business unless I can do it alone, because good help is nonexistent. Don't really want a J-O-B. Very little interest in volunteering. I'm an introvert by nature (hardcore INTJ, for those of you who are interested in Myers-Briggs), and becoming more so with each passing day due in part to isolation, so anything involving a bunch of people doesn't sound pleasant. Again, paradoxically, I love educating young people 1-on-1 about the wonderful world of FIRE since our culture of consumers is so woefully undereducated in personal finance, but having attained it myself I'm incredibly dissatisfied. Thought about a y-tube channel or something along those lines to spread the FIRE gospel amongst the youth, but I don't want to get nailed for "giving financial advice" and the material is all out there already anyway.

TL,DR I guess my question for those of you who have happily FIREd at a young age is this: What do you do to fill your days with purpose, fulfillment, and meaning? I don't want to look back when I'm 47 and have this same feeling of having wasted another decade of life without having done something worthy of inclusion in the obituary.

Open to your thoughts, and thank you for the warm welcome!

I applaud you for a lot of what you have said, but also feel that you could be more proactive about doing something to fill the void.

I am 48 but back when I started "making it" about your age, all of the sudden everyone was asking me for loans. My best friend who was a trust fund baby went broke trying to keep up with people like me and in the end took his life broke and addicted to pain killers.

I have seen a lot of wreckage and have nothing in common with the people I grew up with even though I am a fairly frugal person. Good news is, I have made some new friends who are good people and work their butts off even though some of them are in the UHNW crowd, one of whom whose father was CEO of an S&P Company and has a $7mm house Nantucket etc. yet he works 80 hrs a week.

So I have learned a lot from my old friends and my new friends. It's been an adventure and if I were you, I would go back to school and get a teaching degree if that's what you like to do.

I am over the "I can retire" thing as I know I can. Just ran the numbers and could buy a house in Block Island, keep my Country Club membership and still be 99% on firecalc yet I still work harder than most of of my co workers who have mortgages and college to pay for. I confess, I am a bit lucky but also a workaholic and- I don't judge people who aren't- in some ways I envy them, but you don't sound wired to be fully retired.

 

[EvrClrx311]

I found photography to be a surprisingly enjoyable pursuit... I've always considered myself creative, but not artsy. With photography, it started because I would see certain kinds of photos (scenic) that appealed to me... so while traveling and hiking I would try to replicate (reverse engineer to understand how) people took the photos they published. Often people leave you alone, when you're photographing, but you can also walk up to anyone with a camera and they are so happy to share their work if you ask.

For a FIRED individual, about $5,000 worth of gear (a good base module, and a solid macro, medium and long range lens) can give you countless hundreds (even thousands) of hours of outdoor activity, and more reason to explore this world...

Also it's fun to make a book, of what you've seen. In case I lose my memory someday and need proof that I got out there and explored and saw the world and different cultures around me. I would like to think I'd have the same adventurous spirit, even if I wasn't after a certain shot... but I'm sure it wouldn't feel quite as purposeful.

Along the way I've found myself in some rather therapeutic and mind stretching experiences - not long ago I woke up from a dream, about a lake in Colorado, the most serene feeling about this that I booked a flight and went out in search of this lake, simply to take a photograph of it. I've also chatted with and met some rather interesting people, while out with my camera. It's the kind of socializing an INTJ can handle. You can just walk away from it and be on your way if it becomes small talk.

 

[Blue Collar Fire]

Te is an interesting thing. We organize by verbalizing, sometimes that's in writing -- looking deeper down that rabbit hole, since you know of the function stacks... our tertiary function is Introverted Feelings, which is likely where that desire to teach and share your knowledge in helpful ways comes from. It makes you feel good, to be of use to someone who aligns with your moral sense of the world. That's the whole stack combined Ni (grabbing data, seeing all the variables and having a sense of eventualities) with Te (organizing it into action) and Fi (developing a moral sense of the world around you... of how best to apply your complex awareness of the world into an efficient system that can benefit others, or humanity as a whole)

It seems that as INTJs age, we become softer (or rather, we stop being so logically organized, and contained within this wall of presumption about how the world behaves around us - build on a narrow set of experiences and extrapolated into a sense that is likely somewhat right, yet lacking in experience: younger INTJs are about the most close minded people about just how open minded we think we are... I'll admit I was, and probably still am in some regard)... this is because the more experiences we have, and the other skills we develop the more useful we become in the world. We start to look for outlets to help others with this knowledge. We become driven by that. That's Fi at work... finding a cause, people who can benefit from your wealth of experience and knowledge... is the key to jumping out of that boredom cycle. We love to master new things, so we can feel great later about cycling back to those ideas and using them (problem solving) in real world applications.

Teaching is a great outlet for this, so is innovation... tinkering and playing with machines and toys, as you've been doing. Coincidentally I just bought a tractor, I have no idea how to use one, but I'm sure I'll be an expert in no time

Totally agree. It's lovely and enjoyable to accumulate knowledge and skills, but rather pointless if we don't use those skills out in the world for the "greater good". Teaching seems to be a great avenue for doing that, as long as a willing participant or audience can be found. If they don't care, I don't either, but when someone shows an interest... look out! When I stumble across a young person who has a genuine interest in personal finance, it makes my day. Couple weeks ago, a college sophomore approached me for guidance, saying his family has blown in in their finances and he doesn't want to live like that. Invited him to my office and rambled on for over 2 hours to the point my throat started to hurt. Seeing the light bulbs come on for him, the series of "a ha!" moments he had, is something I'd almost pay to be able to experience more frequently. Knowing if he follows the plan he can set a new standard in his family is infinitely rewarding. I grew up broke and nobody taught me any of it, so to be able to share with the next generation is a real pleasure. Just haven't found a way to do it on a larger scale.