Reflections on my first month of FIRE
My first calendar month complete. Some observations:
I am not bored. At all.
I set my alarm M-F for 9:00 and reserve the right to get up, hit snooze (as mony times as I want) or shut it off.
I think I have shut it off once, maybe twice and went back to sleep. Got up before it went off a few times also.
That "Saturday" feeling of waking up, thinking "Hmm, what do I want to do today" followed by " Hmmm, do I want to get out of bed now or later?" ... is amazing. Every day.
I am a bit more "routine" focused M-F but like to leave the weekend days open as I always have and am much more amenable to doing social things with my DW than I used to be when I was w*orking.
In conversation with family and friends, I say "I used to work" a lot.
DW still works. I do maybe 20-40 minutes of housework a day. Make the bed fold the some laundry and either vacuum, or just move the vacuum cleaner to another spot
. She is happy. If she comes home to the smell of something cooking, she is THRILLED.
DW goes from work to exercise on Fridays, and I am starting a trend of cooking a really nice meal and having a glass of wine ready for her when she gets home. Getting huge mileage out of that.
Discovered Wegman's and while I always liked to cook, I used to just have too many other higher priority things that I wanted to do.
Mid morning weekdays is by far the best time to go to the grocery store.
Our dogs love me. M-F we try to go walk in the woods/park trails 1-2 miles every day after lunch. Challenging in the New England winter, ice spikes on the boots were needed most days this month. As soon as they see me grab my hiking boots, they go nuts.... then take naps when we get back.
I nap when we get back sometimes.
I have found that a day spent doing lots of different things, some "productive", some not, is best. Even the stuff I like to do the most, I start to lose interest in after a few hours.
I find that all of those little "annoyance" projects/jobs that you used to tell yourself that you would never get to, are now perfect distractions and give me a great sense of achievement.
I have finally started a major bathroom renovation that we have talked about, and stashed money away for, for 3 years now.
Having the house, picked up, clean and clutter free is far more important to me now. I truly enjoy spending time here.
Dogs are great company when you are home alone all day.
Managing finances, severance pay, unemployment, tracking spreadsheets is a bit of a chore, but, again, 30 mins at a time is not that bad and I expect it to decrease over time somewhat.
I got my first unemployment check today (I was technically laid off a month before I was going to retire anyway, got a severance and a bonus. Truly lucky.)
So far, this is as least as good as I thought it would be.
Similar thoughts from other recent FIRE'S? Others?
