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

[cyber888]

Some like it (except for the no-travel), while some said No more FIRE plans

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/i...-think-so-2020-04-13?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

 

[bobandsherry]

Quarantine living is not even close to a FIRE life. Silly article.

 

[Ready]

I would rather be working in a healthy planet than FIRED while quarantined in a shelter in place. This is no way to live.

 

[HI Bill]

In February, I was happily travelling in a 'safe' country, and more than ready to come back home, give two month's notice, and FIRE so that I could continue travelling for the most of remainder of the year. As the trip went on, social distancing and travel restrictions started to go into effect; investments fell in value by 30%. My dreams of a mid-2020 FIRE came crashing down, as did my remaining travel dreams for the year. If you have nothing to retire TO, then FIRE when you're really young (say, 30s or 40s), is probably a bad idea for most. But if you're in your 50s, have adequate financial resources, and can live the way you want, visit who/where you want, and travel as you wish, then bring on FIRE!

 

[Ready]

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

 

[lhamo]

So you can get paid to write articles for Marketwatch that simply summarize comments on a Reddit thread? I guess the economy hasn't totally melted down yet....

 

[Lawrence of Suburbia]

I'm glad I'm retired now, and stuck at home. I had a courier job deemed essential, where I was picking up medical specimens from clinics and hospitals. Were I still working, and given my health issues, I'd have been anticipating severe illness -- and possibly expiring from Covid19-induced pneumonia.

 

[badatmath]

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

Seriously? If I was not trying to qualify for a certain benefit, I would in a heartbeat. Who wants to go to a job that could kill them?* (I mean, when the return to work order comes as today might as well stay WFH). If I had wanted that I would have joined the army.

*Inherently non risky job in IT but for overcrowded open offices with way too much shared space. There is no chance of being 6 feet from people any time. I may still consider leaving but who wants to lose insurance in the middle of a pandemic?? Not I.

Those of you who left cubicle land will not understand as its been downhill slide to less and less space and more and more money saved.

 

[DrRoy]

Stay at home may be not working, but it's not like RE for me. We generally travel a lot.

 

[Markola]

I’m still w*rking but some kind of buyout plan is being cooked up at work. My non profit organization is great at piling on new work before old work is finished and has real trouble prioritizing. If staffing changes happen that dump more work on fewer people, I might take the buyout, then I’ll experience a taste of FIRE. Right now, I’m working my @ss off toggling between Zoom calls all day every day so I still have no idea what FIRE feels like.

 

[mrfeh]

Quarantine living is not even close to a FIRE life. Silly article.

For some people it is.

I'm a home body; been working part time for the last 4 years. Except for not leaving the house 2 days a week to go to the office, life has changed very little for me.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

For some people it is.

I'm a home body; been working part time for the last 4 years. Except for not leaving the house 2 days a week to go to the office, life has changed very little for me.

We are right with you, as long as DW is around I am fine. We are pretty much home bodies also. We leave the house for groceries and to go to Home Depot or Lowes. That has not changed. I always have something to do around the house.

DW still goes for here walk every day, and we walk around as we used to.

We still look after our garden (What the Association Misses) and keep our property as clean as we can.

We never liked to eat out and did so VERY rarely, as we have seen the hygiene deteriorating in restaurants for some years now. We have always been great cooks and enjoy our home cooked regimen, we usually cook together. I travelled for W@3rk for 30 years and a home cooked meal was a pleasure. If I never see an Airport or a Restaurant again, it will not phase me. We do like our local Chinese Take Out, that has not changed.

We have lots of hobbies and have always got most of our stuff delivered.

We do and have always wat a lot of TV, good TV though, Documentaries, complete series and some good rated movies, no adds or rubbish programs. We are a members of a private DL syndicate in the UK and get most of our 4k and 1080p content sent direct to our media players. We have a pretty good Hi Tech networked 5.1 AV system.

I like to potter in the garage conjuring up things to do, but that is no different than before.

We do spend more time on the computer these days, but that is really not that much different.

I have a few 3D Printers and they keep me well occupied, especially lately. DW like to Sew and that has kept her busy lately also.

We have skipped our 6 monthly teeth cleaning visit, and I miss that, I also cancelled all of my doctors appointments, I DO NOT miss that.

We do miss our walks on the beach though. That is about it.

So not much different for us either.

 

[Toocold]

I recently retired and I don't like it at all. No weekly lunches with DW at our favorite restaurants, while the kids are at school. Our Jamaica spring break trip cancelled. Our Maui trip during the summer in question. We've underspent our budget by almost 10k in Q1 because there is nothing to buy

I have enjoyed spending more time with my kids but shelter in place is not what I was envisioning for FIRE. I've been posting ALOT more here though

 

[bobandsherry]

For some people it is.

I'm a home body; been working part time for the last 4 years. Except for not leaving the house 2 days a week to go to the office, life has changed very little for me.

For me, I miss being able to go out with friends, a date with my wife, unable to travel to see friends and family too. Also missing out on several cruises planned, including one that was on our bucket list to cruise to Europe (Iceland, Greenland, Scotland, Ireland and UK). I guess I assume that others will want to do similar to me and not just hunker down in their home after FIRE. However, the article doesn't make much sense to you either as quarantine is exactly what you were looking for in FIRE. Stay safe.

 

[scrabbler1]

Like mrfeh, my life has changed very little in the last 4 weeks. I am an introvert, so I don't go out much. I have my ladyfriend nearby, so we still get together a lot. We can't go out to eat lately (her b-day was a few weeks ago and mine is coming up very soon), but that isn't a big deal. I haven't seen my best (male) friend the last few weeks but that is as much due to it being Passover as it is to COVID-19, as his BIL said he had to quarantine himself for 2 weeks prior to last week's seder his BIL hosted. I can still do my errands, including doctor appointments and other routine medical procedures. My income-generating investments are doing fine, so no worries there.

 

[jollystomper]

Equating these times to true FIRE Life is like equating being in work release to complete freedom.

 

[finster869]

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

Couldn't agree more. I was considering FIREing this year, and had already cut back my billable hours in January and February to get a taste for working less. I was basically playing golf every morning, and working afternoons into early evening. It wasn't bad, and I was on the fence whether I wanted to fully FIRE at the end of the year. Now that my golf course and all the club amenities are closed, I am thankful to have work and the video conference calls to keep me occupied during the day. So, while I am fortunate enough to have the FI part covered, I will definitely wait on the full RE until I see if we return to some level of normalcy, and even then I might go the cutting back route as opposed to full RE.

 

[Ready]

Couldn't agree more. I was considering FIREing this year, and had already cut back my billable hours in January and February to get a taste for working less. I was basically playing golf every morning, and working afternoons into early evening. It wasn't bad, and I was on the fence whether I wanted to fully FIRE at the end of the year. Now that my golf course and all the club amenities are closed, I am thankful to have work and the video conference calls to keep me occupied during the day. So, while I am fortunate enough to have the FI part covered, I will definitely wait on the full RE until I see if we return to some level of normalcy, and even then I might go the cutting back route as opposed to full RE.

Yes, that was my line of thinking. My career was such that it could have easily adapted to a work at home environment, so I would not have put myself at risk by working. Work provided a tremendous amount of social stimulation for me.

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.

Now I sit around the house all day. If I had some conference calls to keep me busy I’d much rather be doing that than trying to find things to do around the house. This is just not the retirement life that I signed up for.

 

[Big_Hitter]

This could be worse from our perspective:

I hate travelling and still get to golf every day, even under lockdown.

Plus DW and I get to spend lots of quality time together working on the yard (acre).

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

In February, I was happily travelling in a 'safe' country, and more than ready to come back home, give two month's notice, and FIRE so that I could continue travelling for the most of remainder of the year. As the trip went on, social distancing and travel restrictions started to go into effect; investments fell in value by 30%. My dreams of a mid-2020 FIRE came crashing down, as did my remaining travel dreams for the year. If you have nothing to retire TO, then FIRE when you're really young (say, 30s or 40s), is probably a bad idea for most. But if you're in your 50s, have adequate financial resources, and can live the way you want, visit who/where you want, and travel as you wish, then bring on FIRE!

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

Here's a list of the downturns starting with the great depression (and there were plenty before that):
1929-32: 86.1 percent
May 1946 to June 1949: 29.6 percent
December 1961 to June 1962: 28.0 percent
November 1968 to May 1970: 36.1 percent
January 1973 to October 1974: 48.0 percent
November 1980 to August 1982: 27.8 percent
August 1987 to December 1987: 33.5 percent
March 2000 to October 2002: 49.1 percent
October 2007 to March 2009:56.4 percent

30%? That is just a run of the mill kind of draw down, and there have been seven (now eight) similar (27.8% or more) in my lifetime!

I FIRE'd May 2009, right after that 56.4% slaughter. (I did end up going back to w*rk, but not for $ reasons.)

 

[Big_Hitter]

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]

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.