FIRE Aspirants gets a taste of FIRE Life with Stay-At-Home Quarantine

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by copyright1997reloaded If a 30% drop in your investments ruined your FIRE possibilities, I would suggest you didn't have enough $ to begin with.

+1

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ready When I retired, I took up pickleball and competitive swimming to replace the work based social stimulation. Life was great and every day was amazing.

our outside pickleball courts are open, and usually fully reserved

[copyright1997reloaded]

I am currently w*rking in a second career (teaching college level computer science full time), with the "plan" of doing so for 2-3 more years in order to capture a small life-time defined benefit pension- and because I am for the most part loving my job.

However, the virus has me re-thinking this. Right now, all my classes have moved to distance learning. Even prior to this half of my sections were distance learning only, so the switch for me has been easy. I do miss the classroom, teaching via video conference is not nearly as much fun. But I am starting to think about fall - in terms of various scenarios:
1) Classes remain distance learning only - not as much fun but safe.
2) On-Campus classes resume - more fun to teach but considerably higher risk - especially given lots of people congregating and 'mixing' as students do.

This has me thinking about whether I want to continue or to wrap up my second career - I considered myself FI in 2009 when I went out the first time and I have close to 2X that amount now (and 10+ years less to live).

I'm not going to do anything about this until there is more clarity regarding the situation at hand. Certainly a lot can change (as we've seen) in a few months, so my manta at this point is to hurry up and wait.

[Lawrencewendall]

Been FIRE'ed 9 months now. No difference for me.

[Teacher Terry]

I really miss my life. We eat out twice weekly, love movies, plays, getting together with friends, etc. luckily I am teaching a online college class for 7 weeks but it ends in a week. It has been helping keep me busy. This whole thing sucks! We had a month trip booked to Europe for a month in August but we aren’t going now.

[RAE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ready I can’t imagine why anyone would want to retire right now. To do what? Sit around your house all day?

Sit around the house? Don't you enjoy any outdoor activities? Last week, when the weather was nicer here, I was outside a lot.........getting the garden ready, cleaning up the yard, trimming some shrubs and grape vines, doing some minor maintenance work on the garage and house exterior, etc.. I also take 2-3 long walks daily with my dog, sometimes around town, and sometimes on the nearby walking trail. It has not been a problem to do all these things while still social distancing. I don't believe any of the state orders on social distancing require anyone to stay inside their house all the time.



Some colder, snowy weather arrived here the other day, and that is actually a bigger hindrance to my outside activities than anything. Once the weather improves, though, I have plenty of other things to keep me busy out there (fishing starts in early May, for one thing, and planting my large vegetable garden will keep me busy for a while too). I have never been one to enjoy hanging out with crowds of people or go shopping all the time for entertainment, etc, so not being able to do those things doesn't bother me at all.


The one thing DW and I will miss is seeing our two grandsons now and then, and having them stay overnight at our house. That will probably not happen for a while now, and we'll miss them terribly, but they're healthy and doing okay, and we'll see them again within a couple months or so, hopefully. Facetime helps keep in touch with them, for now.



It is not even close for me with regard to whether I would rather be working again now, as opposed to being retired. Being retired wins hands down, quarantine or no quarantine!

[daylatedollarshort]

I'm especially glad to be retired now. We don't have to take the train, work with groups of people or worry about getting laid off.

Being retired and able to go to the beach and wine tasting is even better, but staying home and going for walks, binge watching shows like Picard and Ozark, getting house projects done, and having happy hour on the patio still beats working for me.

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big_Hitter our outside pickleball courts are open, and usually fully reserved

I am with @ready.
I was playing Pickleball 6x weekly and quite frankly am obsessed with it. It is my version of going to the gym.
Yes, our complex's court is open daily, but mostly it is empty and I wouldn't play with anyone right now except my DGF and that is just hitting the ball around.

[copyright1997reloaded]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAE I also take 2-3 long walks daily with my dog, sometimes around town, and sometimes on the nearby walking trail.

OK, you got me curious. What is a "long walk"?

Even when I was running Marathons and sometimes doing two runs per day - TWO not so long runs (e.g. 3-4 miles) was hard to do.

If I can manage to get a 4 mile walk in - I consider that a very good accomplishment for the day.

[gauss]

Well I am certainly glad that DW and I are not back at work during all this.

Responding to emails and attending virtual meetings all day would get old really fast for me. YMMV

-gauss

[finster869]

Quote:

Originally Posted by copyright1997reloaded OK, you got me curious. What is a "long walk"? Even when I was running Marathons and sometimes doing two runs per day - TWO not so long runs (e.g. 3-4 miles) was hard to do. If I can manage to get a 4 mile walk in - I consider that a very good accomplishment for the day.

I agree. I typically walk 3 miles at 7 a.m. by myself, then 1.6 miles at 7 p.m. with my wife. I can't imagine walking much more than that.

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrence of Suburbia I'm glad I'm retired now, and stuck at home. <snip> Were I still working, and given my health issues, I'd have been anticipating severe illness -- and possibly expiring from Covid19-induced pneumonia.

Same here. I was a police officer. SOOOO glad to be retired!

So yeah, I'd like to be able to go to the gym, to Home Depot and Lowes and stuff. And I miss that. But this is still better than having to go to work and deal with dingbats, especially the ones coming out of the woodwork now.

[Venturer]

This is not what we were thinking when we retired last year. DW and I were talking just last week about how much we miss just getting out. She said "We haven't been shopping in forever!" She was being dramatic but other than grocery store or drive thru pick up we haven't done any shopping. Most of our shopping was just an excuse to get out of the house and go some where. One of the things we have done was take a couple of rides on my motorcycle. But we would typically leave early in the morning and return just as the sun was going down,after spending the day just riding and stopping in little out of the way places that looked interesting to browse before covid. The last few times we would leave home and make a short round trip so we would not have to stop for restroom or any thing else. We had 4 camping trips to COE campgrounds canceled by the government when they shutdown all campgrounds. We had a trip out west to visit old friends that we have put off until who knows when as well. My SNL is really stressed because he is considered an essential business,but he isn't getting enough to meet payroll but his employees have families to feed and he may have to cut them out. His dad started the business in 1970 and turned it over to my SNL 3 years ago and has since been coming in just to get away from his house,and now he can't do that because of the covid danger. Thanks for reading/listening I'm just blowing off a little frustration to tell someone~~ anyone I hate this crap for everyone!!!!

[Andre1969]

Back when we had the government shutdown in late 2018/early 2019, my stepdad tried to rationalize it to me, saying it was giving me a taste of what it would be like, if I was to retire early.

But, that furlough felt more like an "every day is Sunday" type of scenario. Where yeah, I'm home from work for the time being, but that could end at any moment. So, every day of that, I sort of had the "Sunday blahs" hanging over me.

This time around, the feeling is a bit different, but I'd say it's more like being a kid with a broken leg, or the chicken pox, in early August. The weather's nice, and you're home, but you can't really do anything or go anywhere. And, while you know you're not going back to school (work) tomorrow, you still know that the end to this little respite is coming, eventually.

But more importantly, when you retire, it's something you do on your terms. Or even if it's not (layoff or whatever), you still make the decision to stay retired, rather than trying to find another job and keep working. Neither of these situations has exactly been on my terms. Plus, when you retire, you expect it to be permanent, and it's supposed to be a freeing experience. Neither this virus crisis, nor last year's furlough, exactly felt "freeing" to me.

[Ready]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAE Sit around the house? Don't you enjoy any outdoor activities? Last week, when the weather was nicer here, I was outside a lot.........getting the garden ready, cleaning up the yard, trimming some shrubs and grape vines, doing some minor maintenance work on the garage and house exterior, etc.. I also take 2-3 long walks daily with my dog, sometimes around town, and sometimes on the nearby walking trail. It has not been a problem to do all these things while still social distancing. I don't believe any of the state orders on social distancing require anyone to stay inside their house all the time. It is not even close for me with regard to whether I would rather be working again now, as opposed to being retired. Being retired wins hands down, quarantine or no quarantine!

My guess is that this pandemic has been more difficult for extroverts than introverts.

I enjoyed my career. I enjoyed the social stimulation and the intellectual stimulation.

When I retired I used pickleball to replace work to get my social stimulation needs met. And I joined a swim team which helped me to meet a lot of new people. So my days were filled with social stimulation - play pickleball in the morning, swim in the afternoon, go out in the evening to dinner with friends.

I’m not a putter around the house person. I do take an hour long walk every day, and I’m lifting weights at home. But this is just not the retirement lifestyle I signed up for.

[finster869]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venturer This is not what we were thinking when we retired last year. DW and I were talking just last week about how much we miss just getting out. She said "We haven't been shopping in forever!" She was being dramatic but other than grocery store or drive thru pick up we haven't done any shopping. Most of our shopping was just an excuse to get out of the house and go some where. One of the things we have done was take a couple of rides on my motorcycle. But we would typically leave early in the morning and return just as the sun was going down,after spending the day just riding and stopping in little out of the way places that looked interesting to browse before covid. The last few times we would leave home and make a short round trip so we would not have to stop for restroom or any thing else. We had 4 camping trips to COE campgrounds canceled by the government when they shutdown all campgrounds. We had a trip out west to visit old friends that we have put off until who knows when as well. My SNL is really stressed because he is considered an essential business,but he isn't getting enough to meet payroll but his employees have families to feed and he may have to cut them out. His dad started the business in 1970 and turned it over to my SNL 3 years ago and has since been coming in just to get away from his house,and now he can't do that because of the covid danger. Thanks for reading/listening I'm just blowing off a little frustration to tell someone~~ anyone I hate this crap for everyone!!!!

Please make sure your SNL looks into the Payroll Protection Program forgivable SBA Loan!!!!!

[W2R]

To me, this quarantine feels like jail.

What I do each day is not that different from my happy previous retired life. Still, knowing that I *CAN'T* do various things is bothering me a lot.

[Aerides]

While I'd rather be ER'd than working right now (and all the stress with that), this ER life is not what I fire'd for, or into.

Sure, my day to day around the house is the same, and I'm spending a bit more time in the garden. We don't go out THAT much, but there's a big difference between once or twice a week and nothing.

So, no, mandatory WFH and quarantine is not a taste of fire life. The person who wrote that can't be fire'd.

[meleana]

My husband and I just retired and moved to another state in February after an exhausting year selling our family home of 32 years and moving to a rental temporarily until our new little house was built. I am 64 and he is 66. Our retired life ended before it even started. It is depressing to say the least.

[lordjust]

in response to copyright1997reloaded's comment..

Just my .02 on this one since I had planned on pulling the trigger this year and I lost 30%.

I believe I wasnt balanced correctly for my level of comfort which meant, I hadnt planned things in advance well enough. This was my first experience watching my investments evaporate quickly. I didnt pay attention in 2008 and in 2001 I was just starting. Not being defensive, merely for those that read ... plan ahead and balance appropriately for the year when you will be retiring early. I literally invested heavily in stock on Feb 14.

All that being said I am still comfortable enough to retire, the covid drop made me pause and take a good hard look at things. Just waiting/watching these past ~2+ months has been a learning experience in patience and humility ..