Those currently working and planning ER aren't going to like this

[watchman3135]

+1

If the OP doesn’t need the money there isn’t much downside to a part time job. If it doesn’t work, just quit. If it does work, great.

It does help to recall how much the BS bucket weighed vs how much satisfaction the job gave. At least it should help decide what type of job to take, and what to avoid.

Yes that's a good way to look at it. According the the numbers, I am more than fine however I will admit that the small nagging fear of running out of money or hitting an extended bear market some of us have does weigh in a tinny amount.

 

[kgtest]

I know those currently working and in the ER planning phase are not going to want to hear this.

I FIRE'd in June of 2019 at 53.5 from my IT job of 20 years and now a little over 2 years into it I'm strangely feeling like I need to go back to work, maybe in a part time capacity which is really perplexing given all the complaining I did when I was working and how much I was looking forward to freedom not to mention I'm a introvert so no job = no people constantly at you door breathing down your neck (except for my wife).

I was constantly researching the FIRE movement on this and other forums and would naively discount posters who say "I've been retired for x amount of time and thinking of going back to work because I'm board and miss the comradery" as they just need to find a better hobby. All this is very strange and gives meaning to the saying "be careful what you wish for, you might get it". Any of you at this point? ER not what you though it would be? Do I just need to take my own advise and find better hobbies?

I don't know. Work has less meaning than it did when I was building important things. Now that I've "made it"...its seemingly less fulfilling than my younger years.

I am basically gonna pull the plug the same time as you. I have some ideas of side gigs to keep stimulated but I agree, there are only so many books you can read and games to play.

 

[CardsFan]

Having worked in IT for a total of 26 years, I see a job for a part time candy packer 5 miles away from me for $18 an hour that looks way more appealing

You mean like this?:

 

[watchman3135]

I don't know. Work has less meaning than it did when I was building important things. Now that I've "made it"...its seemingly less fulfilling than my younger years.

I am basically gonna pull the plug the same time as you. I have some ideas of side gigs to keep stimulated but I agree, there are only so many books you can read and games to play.

The irony of at least my life now in my mid 50's is I struggle to buy things for pleasure. We already have all the home, furniture, clothing, food, two sports cars (I no longer drive and sit in the garage), and other crap ones life normally obtains in the accumulation phase. I collected watches for many years and have over 20 yet still find myself looking on eBay and crono24 for another one and for what? To fill a void? It was then I thought instead of buying expensive things that just sit in a bank safe deposit box, I maybe just need to go back to work. I will say my dogs do appreciate me being home though.

 

[watchman3135]

You mean like this?:

LOL this was the first thing that popped into my head when I seen that ad. What is a bit shocking is how badly employers are struggling to get workers and that they are so desperate that they are willing to pay $18 an hour to pack candy plus a $2k hiring incentive if you stay 6 mos. I never shut down my Linked in account since I ER'd and the e-mail for job offers in the past 5 months are unbelievable. Strange times indeed.

 

[jazz4cash]

Having worked in IT for a total of 26 years, I see a job for a part time candy packer 5 miles away from me for $18 an hour that looks way more appealing

The thing is once you are FI the money is secondary. I remember feeling a bit of envy watching the folks at the local big box hardware because even though the money was lousy, they didn’t have to work hard and generally don’t experience a lot of pressure. I had scouted out a few of these places that had good 401k plans. I was primarily interested in getting a discount for my home improvement projects and padding the 401k.

 

[Gumby]

I liked my job, but I do not miss it.

 

[bolt]

Read "The cost of Tomorrow" for additional insights.

Good luck& Best wishes...!

 

[FreeBear]

Retirement isn’t what I fully expected and dreamed about. We have more money than expected but less health to enjoy and do what we really want. Of our 5 big passions and hobbies that we’ve enjoyed for years, we can only do 2 at a level that would make me happy. Running out of health and time. Should have retired 5-10 years sooner! We’ve been trying to morph our interests to account for health challenges. Think travel by RV instead of single track mountain biking. Glad I did what I could enjoy when broke and working. I’m grieving the loss; no amount of money can buy it back.

 

[Gryphon]

I FIRE'd in June of 2019 at 53.5 from my IT job of 20 years and now a little over 2 years into it I'm strangely feeling like I need to go back to work

I retired in 2017 at exactly that age after over 30 years on the job, and I never looked back. Not even last year when i was stuck at home all day every day due to the pandemic did I wish to go back to work just to have something to do.


But that's just me. I agree with the other posters that you need to do what makes you happy. But it's probably worth doing a bit of soul searching to figure out what exactly it was about your job that you're missing, and if going back to work is the best way to scratch that itch.

 

[target2019]

When I finally got a real job at 50, it seemed to me that megacorp was like high school with a paycheck. Minicorp was more interesting, but still not anything deserving of daily commuting or dealing with management.

Yes, develop a more interesting hobby or line of interest. One can actually reap a few dollars from that along the way.

 

[novaman]

Nothing wrong with going back to work, if that is what makes you happy. What is nice is that in your current financial situation, you can do it on your terms.

I "retired" over 3 years ago at 54. I sold my dental practice to a young doc, but he asked me to stay for a while and we came to an agreement that I would stay for up to a year. It ended up being over 1.5 years. I was only going in 1 day a week but I found that it was nice to keep my head in the game a bit. That all came to an end and I thought I was totally done.

When the pandemic hit I found myself really floundering a few months in. Then out of the blue a friend of mine called me up in desperate need of help in his struggling practice. I gave him my terms of working- only 1.5 days a week, not hustling on a busy schedule, and want as much time off to travel as I please. He said yes. So it has been 14 months and I am very much enjoying it.

I like the fact that I am still able to use my skills to help people, and I enjoy the interaction with staff and patients. I went in their to help turn his practice around and it has been a success, we are exceeding all the goals he had set for his practice and running nearly 25% better than he has ever done- this without me really working hard at all. I also do better with structure in my life to flesh out the week.

I also like the fact that I am in total control of my situation. Recently I noticed that my schedule was getting booked a little tighter than I want. So I told the office manger that it needed to be corrected, and if it wasn't corrected I would just quit. It was corrected the next day.

Even with this part time work I am able to do all the things I want to in life. I have been traveling as much as I want to, pursuing my interests and hobbies, spending time with my family, exercising and taking care of my health, doing my volunteer work at a local charity clinic.... life is good!

So, yeah. If you can find a gig that can work within the structure that you want for your life right now, I say go for it. Create the life that is best for you.

 

[Surewhitey]

I changed jobs in 2018, hoping to get a boost in attitude. 4 months later, I decided to call it quits. Not because the people were bad, just tired of the commute and rigid office hours 6-6 daily grind.

Abruptly quit & started doing my own remodeling projects with the new home and it grew into a real business with no commute and on my terms when they align with the client's. I'm probably doing 30 hrs /week and doing mostly what I enjoy. Cabinetry, woodworking, custom furniture and finishing. Meeting lots of nice people in the 5 mile radius of my home.

Keeps the wifey happy now that I'm 3-4 months booked and too much new clients calling. I'm trying not to get too busy to not enjoy it. Been consistently making 6 figures equivalent ($60-80/hr) on most days. Pretty small initial investment if you already have a 2-3 car garage...

Some of my work
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gvm53NdGytYUoEkPA

 

[Jerry1]

It's very ironic and I'm starting to think it was the pursuit of FIRE that was the most interesting and exciting part. Maybe it lends to the saying "never meet your hero's" IDK. Maybe like you I need to go though this experience to see how good FIRE really is.

Interesting. There was a point in my life when I got into shooting. One of my guns was ultimately determined to be defective. However, in working on it to come to that conclusion, I found that, for me, it was much more interesting to work on the gun, investigate the issue, solve the problem than shooting holes in paper ever was.

Maybe you should volunteer to help people with their finances. The only thing I know of are the Dave Ramsey facilitators, but I’d suppose that there are other avenues to help. Maybe a small financial advisor firm needs an IT guy to help develop/maintain some software.

Personally, the only reason I’ve ever thought of going back to work is to obtain more money. Since I have enough money, I’ve been able to make that feeling go away. It’s actually a pretty strong impulse. I liked making money. Unfortunately, that was about the only thing I liked about working. So, once I had enough, I retired. Of course “enough” isn’t the same as “plenty” so the urge still comes up, but I like my freedom so much that I can’t imagine going back to work or any structured commitment.

 

[dixonge]

We kinda did an ER 'trial' - quit our jobs, then immediately began to travel. Several months in a pop-up camper, three years overseas. Money got low. I did freelance web dev work. It helped. It wasn't enough. Went back to work for two, LONG years. It was absolutely the best I.T. job I ever had. It was still work.

When my wife's pension finally kicked in, there was *never* a moment's doubt. Three weeks after my last day we had sold everything (again) and were back overseas. Since then we've added some SS and my own minimal pension. We're currently back in the States, riding out COVID by living in our off-grid RV, staying away from people as much as possible. This also saves almost as much money as living overseas. In the last year our 'nest egg' account has increased 65%, a large part of that being contributions.

I've had one or two times where I got bored and thought about taking some freelance work. Fortunately this feeling passed and I'm happily busy with hobbies.

 

[athena53]

Nothing wrong with going back to work, if that is what makes you happy. What is nice is that in your current financial situation, you can do it on your terms.

My thoughts exactly. I'd rather be in a position where I WANT to go back to work than where I HAVE to go back to work for the money. I ER'd at 61 and haven't looked back but volunteer work keeps me as busy as I want to be. I just turned down an opportunity to become President of the Garden Club!

 

[firewhen]

Middle road

After about 6 months retired and after the covid vaccination I needed some structure and more to do and decided it was safe to be in public. I started looking for a part time job with these criteria: within 5 miles of home, no stress, no physical requirements like standing or being outside in bad weather. I found a reception job and for about 20 hours a week it keeps me busy. The money is laughable, at minimum wage, but it fills a void. My wife says you have never complained about it, and I feel funny calling it work as a bunch of time I am watching their TV, on my phone or reading a book. But there is interaction with the customers as they come in and the other employees. As other posters have mentioned, you can always try something and quit if you dont like it.

 

[Markola]

Do what you want to. If you get tired of doing that, do something else.

 

[Jim59]

Less than 55 is too young to retire. I don’t think you can really appreciate retirement at such an age. Yes, you have the finances to give up work for a period of time. Some will make it and others find they are drawn back to the treadmill of MC & work.

 

[REWahoo]

Less than 55 is too young to retire. I don’t think you can really appreciate retirement at such an age.

I predict others will be along shortly, probably several of them, to disagree with this.

 

[Aerides]

Less than 55 is too young to retire. I don’t think you can really appreciate retirement at such an age. Yes, you have the finances to give up work for a period of time. Some will make it and others find they are drawn back to the treadmill of MC & work.

Beg pardon...many of our members would strongly disagree.

(Happily, and appreciatively ER'd since 47)

 

[Markola]

Less than 55 is too young to retire. I don’t think you can really appreciate retirement at such an age. Yes, you have the finances to give up work for a period of time. Some will make it and others find they are drawn back to the treadmill of MC & work.

LOL. Did you note the name of this forum you joined?

 

[Gumby]

Less than 55 is too young to retire. I don’t think you can really appreciate retirement at such an age. Yes, you have the finances to give up work for a period of time. Some will make it and others find they are drawn back to the treadmill of MC & work.

Jim is no name to have. Life would be better if it were something else.

 

[teetee]

Grass is always greener on the other side.

Losing interest of doing nothing but sitting on a sofa with coffee in hand for weeks can lead to health hazard.

I am planning my RE and I will definitely take your experience into consideration. So far my RE life has the following:

Building or purchasing a truck camper.

Spend 5yrs being a nomad and visit all the landmarks I read from tourist guides in person.

Volunteer in one or two animal shelter.

Have at least three new hobbies in computer, art, and music fields.

My RE goal is a prolonged decompression period that hopefully will reeducate myself before I decide if I want to go back to school and use all my 529 balance to enjoy organized knowledge uptake just for the sake of it.

 

[RetireBy90]

I know those currently working and in the ER planning phase are not going to want to hear this.

I FIRE'd in June of 2019 at 53.5 from my IT job of 20 years and now a little over 2 years into it I'm strangely feeling like I need to go back to work, maybe in a part time capacity which is really perplexing given all the complaining I did when I was working and how much I was looking forward to freedom not to mention I'm a introvert so no job = no people constantly at you door breathing down your neck (except for my wife).

I was constantly researching the FIRE movement on this and other forums and would naively discount posters who say "I've been retired for x amount of time and thinking of going back to work because I'm board and miss the comradery" as they just need to find a better hobby. All this is very strange and gives meaning to the saying "be careful what you wish for, you might get it". Any of you at this point? ER not what you though it would be? Do I just need to take my own advise and find better hobbies?

I chased also, just not as hard as others here. For me, looking back, the draw is FI more than RE. If you are FI then you can stay, leave, comeback to work, do part time, or do volunteer work. Lots I miss but like others have said, no more 2AM for patches or load new software, no more working an outage on Thanksgiving and the like are priceless.