Focus
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2009
- Messages
- 640
You see, I've run just about every tool available out there, and spent literally hundreds of hours pouring over the results. ....
But that doesn't answer the next question: "If I retire, what will I do next?" ...
So, for the next 2-5 years before I actually retire, I've set a personal goal to re-introduce more work-life balance in my life and become active again in some of my previous hobbies.
Congrats. Sounds like you're well positioned for your eventual ER.
I'm about 4 months into ER, and (for what it's worth) these are my observations related to the segments I've quoted above:
I also ran the calculators again and again. To my surprise, after I retired, I stopped doing this. Once you roll the dice, it's a matter of seeing how it plays out. It helps that I've come to realize that I can live on even less than I originally estimated, barring unexpected major costs.
"What will I do next?" is the big question. Since you'll only be in your mid-50s when you retire, you'll face a societal expectation to do something that's judged to be "productive," which can be defined in myriad ways. Some here will question whether you should even worry about that. You've earned the right to do what you want to do.
Here's what may be a surprise: Whatever hobbies you pursue now may not survive ER. Sometimes we pursue outside interests while we're working that serve specifically as a counterbalance to the stresses of work. Once the work is gone, those interests quickly lose their attraction. Something to consider...