New Hobbies In FIRE?

[ElizabethT]

One of my fears upon our initial FIRE some 10 years ago, when I was in my late-40's, and DH in his mid-50's, was what we would do with all of our free time. I did land on a lengthy list of activities, many of which I detailed here in a thread about our lives six years into FIRE (https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/fire-update-year-six-82430.html).

To my pleasant surprise, however, even after 10 years we are continuing to discover and embark on new hobbies. Here is a list of new hobbies that came into my life in just in the last 12 months:

- Acoustic guitar. Bought a guitar during the early days of COVID, and then an online app (Justin Guitar). Learned to strum and play about 25 chords on my own, then last month decided to invest in in-person lessons. First lesson the instructor introduced me to finger picking, and I'm having an absolute ball going back through my music sheets and finding the songs that sound fantastic as finger picked songs.

- Bridge. Restarted bridge lessons this week after a brief attempt to learn the game a few years ago, due to the opening of a bridge center near us. First lesson was so much fun, I'm kind of shocked. Lots of lessons to go, but already social groups are starting to form to get together and play in between lessons.

- Sailing. The harbor near us has a social sailing club that owns something like a dozen sailboats that can be rented by members. I'm not interested as of yet in actually captaining a sailboat, but I'm very much interested in crewing on one. The club also offers lessons, and I'm all set to begin them in a couple of weeks. Afterwards, I look forward to time out on the water crewing with other club members. Fees seem reasonable to me as well, at $50 a month for non-boat owning social members.


I thought it would be interesting to see what new hobbies are being taken up by other FIRE'd folk, not only to see what activities others are enjoying, but to possibly provide additional ideas that haven't yet crossed my/our radar, so I hope some of you will have at it.

 

[qwerty3656]

I am retiring at the end of the year and am concerned about how to spend my free time as well. You've got some great ideas - I'm surprised at all the club options you came across, I will have to see what I have locally.

 

[Starsky]

I found myself picking up old hobbies that I had done as a kid and upgrading them a bit. So my BB guns turned into real guns, the plastic models turned into model rockets, and my cheap trout fishing poles turned into surf fishing ones and a kayak. I also upgraded my existing music studio with all the gear I every wanted to try - and resold a lot of pieces in the evaluation process.

As far as new hobbies, my favorite cheap hobby I picked up was disc golf, and a nice official net for the backyard. I've also always liked camping, especially in the Sierras, so I sold my car when I retired and bought my first truck - a 2019 4x4 4Runner with all the fixings. I also bought a small 5" telescope when Saturn and Jupiter were in conjunction which is nice for planetary viewing, but is another potential dark hole of money and accessories I'm trying to avoid.

I have to be careful and not get too carried away, now that I have some means. Hobbies these days are a lot more deep and expensive than they used to be. I think since retirement in '14 I easily 'invested' $100K just on firearms and electronic music equipment alone! I definitely ran amok, and I'm taking a more measured approach these days - I now try and sell a piece of extraneous gear of similar value before buying a new one - but I'm still drooling over the offshore fishing SeaDoo for $16K!!! Heaven help me if I also decide to jump into fly fishing!

 

[Ronstar]

..... Heaven help me if I also decide to jump into fly fishing!

Do it! I just started fly fishing. It's a blast.

I retired 7.5 years ago and escalated my woodworking, biking and hiking hobbies then. And started new hobbies of kayaking and photography. My life is now consumed by my hobbies. That's a good thing.

 

[Marita40]

I joined a hiking club and have been doing kayaking. I'm continuing with my hobby of genealogy as well as local history. The next couple weekends I've joined a tour of some historic cemeteries in my area. Also doing more gardening.

 

[WD40 or duct tape]

SCUBA is new for us. Feels good to be learning something new! DW, DS, and I will be testing for our advanced open water cert by the end of the month.

 

[Souschef]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=&quot][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]My wife had always wanted to travel, and she enjoyed some travel in North America over the years before we met. However, she never needed a passport before we met. Well, we traveled with a vengeance over a span of ten years while we were ambulatory enough to hit the road.
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=&quot][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Aside from that we volunteered at a food kitchen, and I generated reports each month as to how many people we fed.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=&quot][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]I also volunteered with the AARP tax aide program for low income families.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=&quot][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]I joined Angel Flight West, and flew 110 missions taking patients to far away sites for their treatment[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=&quot][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]I also joined a railroad society, working to restore a 1941 switch engine.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=&quot][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]As you can see, there are many opportunities to help others.
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[Dtail]

Took up Pickleball in 2018, one year in of retirement. I am fairly obsessed with it now and play 6x weekly and enter tournaments with 2 gold and 1 bronze medal so far.
Also took up gardening and have a decent size garden in front of the house, which I enjoy taking care of.
For now, don't really need any other hobbies.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I usually made some sort of homemade gift for my girlfriend's for Christmas- like homemade limoncello or bath salts- something like that. Last fall I was looking for an idea for Christmas gifts and discovered making homemade soap. I am completely addicted- both to the process of making soap and also to the luxurious soap. My friends love it too, so the excess is not hard to give away.

I'm kayaking more too, but that isn't a new hobby- just one I had little time for before retirement.

 

[Ready]

After retiring, I

1) Joined a swim club
2) Began playing pickleball
3) Learned to sail and joined a fractional sailing program
4) Learned to fly a drone
5) Learned to turn the drone videos into movies

Sometimes I’m so busy with my hobbies that I just need a day to kick back and do nothing. We’re also getting ready to remodel the kitchen, which is going to be a significant undertaking.

 

[Jerry1]

Not sure they classify as hobbies but I enjoy spending more time in my yard. It’s a battle with all the critters, but this year I did grow and learned about dahlias. We put in a swimming pool so learning about maintaining that has been a learning and doing experience. I’ve certainly been able to golf more. Staying busy is no problem at all.

 

[Scuba]

I have spent a lot more time doing active things outdoors such as hiking and biking since retiring. Some other things that have taken up a lot of time are:
- Made an unplanned move from the coast to the desert and then did a down-to-the-studs remodel of our home in Palm Springs.
- Even with COVID shutting down our 2020 travel, we’ve managed to do almost a year of traveling out of our almost 5 years of retirement. Three long trips to the USVI, several family visits, and six weeks in Greece.
- Just a few months ago, I decided I wanted to expand my social network outside of just our neighborhood, so I created a women’s social group on Meetup. The group has only been around since July and we have around 200 members! It’s been very fun to meet lots of nice women and explore new places to go in the area, and the group is amazing. We just did a Breast Cancer Awareness Walk today and raised $3,600. I was just blown away by the group’s generosity.
- I joined a couple of committees on our new HOA Board. I really don’t like being involved in the HOA Board, but I wanted to get to know the people running our association and contribute if I can, so I’m doing it for now but it’s not something I want to spend a lot of time on in retirement. Too much like work!

Haven’t kept in touch with too many people from work, nor have I missed it at all.

 

[SecondAttempt]

I am not yet retired but I am thinking about getting back into some hobbies I had when I was a kid. I am using my income while still working to stock up on equipment and supplies for some of them.

Stamp collecting. When I moved to Hawaii I found my old stamp albums from the 70s in an old box. I acually had quite a collection. I'm not sure how enthused I am about this hobby now but it is probably something I will do at times.

Leathercraft. Also found my old leather craft tools in the same box. It was something I used to enjoy but again, not sure whether it will stick now.

Microscopy. This is not a hobby I ever had but I used to love my biology classes. I chose a more technical route because it looked like it would pay better, although it is debateable whether my path did given all the biology advances in the last 40 years. I am seriously thinking of buying a decent microscope to look at all the microscopic stuff in the seawater and around my property.

Astronomy. I recently bought a kit for astrophotography, about $15,000 worth of gear that I paid about $1000 for. I have a 12 inch telescope, a couple of CCD cameras, and more. I used to have a small telescope when I was a kid and have done my share of binocular astronomy through the years so this is less about being a new hobby and more about pursuing an old one when I have more time.

Photography. I have always enjoyed photography but never got too serious about it.

Hiking, biking, swimming, triathlons, scuba diving. Also not new but hope to do more when I have more time.

Self-sufficiency. This was spurred by the early days of covid when we were home all the time. I started watching youtube videos, planted a garden, made soap... It was like living like the pioneers. I've got a 5-acre property with lots of coconut, avocado and other trees so the opportunity to make things totally from scratch is there like starting with extracting the oil from coconuts or avocados for the soap. There is a money-making opportunity there but I want to be retired, not beholden to customers so I would only do it on small scale for my own needs.

Electronics. I used to build things as a kid. I became an engineer but not an electronics engineer. There are so many cool little projects you can do now and supplies are incredibly cheap from China!

And I have a few historical mysteries I actively research, again, not new but hope to have more time. And there is genealogy too.

 

[robnplunder]

I had quite a few new hobbies on top of existing hobbies (golf, watching sumo, etc.)

- Learning Japanese, French
- Game of Go - 5ky (internet rating)
- Fixing car
- Gardening
-

 

[Osprey]

Learned to play Mah Jongg, a game played with tiles that is similar to card game rummy. 5 of us get together weekly to play and during the pandemic we played together on line while having a zoom call so we could gab during our game. Glad to be back playing in person!

Other 2 new retirement hobbies are pickleball and kayaking.

 

[Dtail]

For the folks who are worried about being bored in retirement, we should refer them to this thread for starters.

 

[Car-Guy]

No new hobbies.... Just the same ones that I've been involved with for the past 50+ years... Although at this point my involvement in them is way down...


EDIT: (I guess this would fit as a new hobby) In thinking about this more, I realize that I've become much more active in swing trading the past few years. (a.k.a. Day Trading) I think for several reasons...

1- I have the time in retirement
2- I have plenty of spare cash
3- Zero cost now to buy or sell
4- Zero tax reporting since I trade in an IRA
5- Gambling is in my DNA (one of my lifelong hobbies)

I've made hundreds of trades just this year. (probably between 500 to 700 at this point) I concentrate my trading on a handful of companies that I track and know well... I've actually developed and written down a set of rules (and goals) that I use to buy and sell for swing trades... If I stick to them I seem to do pretty good. Similar thrill to gambling in a casino although swing trading involves a lot more money. Always watching the business news and have several computer windows open while I'm actively trading...


And yes, I'm up a nice chuck of change this year...

 

[ElizabethT]

For the folks who are worried about being bored in retirement, we should refer them to this thread for starters.

Agree 100%. It is really quite fantastic to read about the myriad of activities folk are involved in. I'm the OP and now feel like quite the slacker.

 

[qwerty3656]

For the folks who are worried about being bored in retirement, we should refer them to this thread for starters.

Do you have a link - I'm not seeing it

Edit - sorry I thought you were talking about some "new to Early-Retirement.org" welcome thread - but as I read it again, your suggesting this current thread

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I am hoping to start guitar lessons... trying to get over the paralysis by analysis of finding an instructor. I want the accountability and, more importantly, want to avoid bad habits.



I also pulled out old paint (cheap craft stuff) I've had for years and am trying to get inspired. W*rk beat most of my creativity out of me but now that I have time to let my mind be free I am hoping to be inspired. Yesterday I picked up the brush and just started messing around and finally saw something and am excited to get back to it and finishing it up. Nothing special but the inking of creativity was nice. If it takes, I'll buy some better materials and maybe even take a group class.



I still plan to tinker with stained glass but I'll do that in the garage so it will be more of a winter pursuit and I also need to configure a workspace out there.

 

[pacergal]

Learned mahjong, but only play online for now.
Gardening--something we have always done, but more involved since retirement. This year was more flowers for the yard to attract hummingbirds and butterflies than food.
Reading--a lifelong love. Gotta have a "real" book from the library nearby!
Senior Studies online--have audited a few classes, plan to get more involved, they are interesting.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Astronomy. I recently bought a kit for astrophotography, about $15,000 worth of gear that I paid about $1000 for. I have a 12 inch telescope, a couple of CCD cameras, and more. I used to have a small telescope when I was a kid and have done my share of binocular astronomy through the years so this is less about being a new hobby and more about pursuing an old one when I have more time.

Photography. I have always enjoyed photography but never got too serious about it.

Oooh, these are both on my list for when I retire. I've had a telescope on my wish list for a while, and an adapter that would let me take photographs. I am thinking about starting a new thread on this, but I have to ask, did you get such a good deal on the equipment because it was used, clearance, or what? I will probably work for a few more years, but I am already thinking about if and when to make those purchases!

 

[Walt34]

Not so much any new hobbies but I did restart hobbies that I'd let slip away. One is photography when I discovered that digital is now worthy of having overtaken film. (And has been for years.) I ignored digital for as long as I was seeing pixels in photographs because it just seemed to be taking the lazy cheap way out. When we bought a new computer about ten years ago we bought an inexpensive point 'n shoot digital camera almost as an afterthought and I was astonished at how good it was.

Another resurrected hobby is radio control (R/C) model airplanes. The advances in electronics, not to mention the relatively low cost of same, was a surprise when I looked into it again. Another surprise was how good batteries and electric motors have become, to the point that I have switched entirely to electric airplanes and don't even own any fuel-powered ones anymore.

In conjunction with the R/C airplanes, I have started putting cameras on them and making a few videos, and I'm looking more into FPV (First Person View) flying, where the camera is connected to a TV transmitter and you fly the aircraft via goggles as if you were in the airplane. These are much harder than the drones, which practically fly themselves. R/C airplanes will quickly crash if you take your mind off what you're doing and require at least some understanding of the aerodynamics involved.

As with most hobbies, there is no upper limit on what you can spend on either photography or R/C models if you have the means. Fortunately, the price of entry can be very low too.

 

[RobbieB]

Fishing & boating. After a long hiatus, I resume my past love with my 5th boat. First boat when I was 36, and fifth boat now at 66!

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

I’m not retired yet- I have just over 2 months to go. But I’m starting my list now. So far I have:

Join a Saturday hiking group. They are about an hour away so the time commitment is too much while working.

I love to refinish furniture and bought a bedroom set-18 years ago [emoji33]with refinishing it in mind.
But I have to clean out the garage first!

Relearn sewing. I used to love to sew and just stopped. So I would like to try again.

Learn pickle ball. It looks like fun. This will be in conjunction with rejoining the gym and taking morning exercise classes.

Restart genealogy. I started a few years ago and stopped when work became crushingly demanding.

I wouldn’t mind a card playing group but if will need to find one. I’ve never played bridge but I love canasta and rummy.

That’s all I have so far.