Comments on: PS: Your life doesn’t magically change when you retire!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 14 May 2019 19:10:33 +0000

In reply to Francis. Haha... You must really enjoy what you do! :)

By: Francis

Francis — Tue, 14 May 2019 18:43:39 +0000

Great piece and I especially resonate with the quote that you open with. Though I can imagine, in hindsight how much better life would have been like in my 30s having FU money and being right at FIRE. The worry back then was a really a misuse of my imagination.

I don’t care too much for the “Barista FIRE so I go with “recreational employment”. I went back to work to continue to make a difference in my field and I might as well get paid for the contribution

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 14 May 2019 17:51:52 +0000

In reply to B.C. Kowalski. Would love to read that article when it's done! Will you pass it along to us?

By: B.C. Kowalski

B.C. Kowalski — Tue, 14 May 2019 15:33:22 +0000

Watching my dad retire was very instructive. I had moved back home at the time to finish my last year of school (graduated college at age 30 – woohoo for the non-traditional life!) so I got a front row seat. I know he said coming home Friday night after his retirement party, sitting on the back porch, he said a wave of relief washed over him when he realized he never had to go to work again. But I think it took him a couple of years to really get into his groove as he tried different things. It didn’t seem like he truly planned for what to do with his time. I think he’s found his stride now.

I plan to write about this more extensively in my own blog — I learned a lot watching him retire. We started new phases of our lives at the same time: retirement for him and full-time work in an actual career versus whatever job would hire a guy with “some college.” There’s a few lessons I’ve learned from his foray into retirement.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 14 May 2019 14:23:14 +0000

In reply to Joe. If you had to do it over again, would you have "lived more" during your working years or no? I often think back at my hustling days and glad I did it then vs now when it's harder w/ kids, but I also recall missing out on a lot of stuff and how much it consumed me too.. Mad Fientist often talks about the toll obsessing about FIRE had on him and how miserable he was before pulling the trigger, so you're right that the balance can def. be a tricky one!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 14 May 2019 14:16:25 +0000

In reply to Nate. Haha yup... Although in theory you'd have more time to research and find deals to make them happen cheaper than you probably can now, so that's a plus :) Could also work for the airlines part-time like I did and just rake in the benefits!

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 14 May 2019 13:31:00 +0000

Right on! Everyone should strive to live the lifestyle they want to now. You should be happy with your career, get paid a lot, have the respect of your peers, and spend as much time with your family as you want.
However, it’s very difficult to get the work/life balance right. Most employers demand a lot from us. That’s where FIRE comes in. Once the money is out of the equation, you’ll be free to do what you want.
In my case, life did change magically after I retired. I have a lot more freedom and time. That’s the magic of FIRE.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 14 May 2019 12:13:20 +0000

The magic for me will be not being tied into a certain number of PTO days. We’ve been prioritizing vacations over the last couple years as our kids have gotten old enough to make going on vacations worth it. As I’m planning my vacations, it’s been limited PTO days rather than money that’s kept us from doing everything we want to do. Of course, once retired, I’ll need to be more careful of money if I’m not working at all. So I guess that’ll be a trade off.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 14 May 2019 11:59:59 +0000

In reply to Life Outside The Maze. Hell yeah!!! I'm still a ways from being able to retire *financially*, but mentally I'm already there! Haha... which I attribute to years of lifestyle tweaking and constant learning/experimenting/money management for sure.

By: Life Outside The Maze

Life Outside The Maze — Tue, 14 May 2019 11:48:38 +0000

This post matches my experience with FIRE pretty well. For me, it took claiming my financial independence to start to change some of my decision making away from trying to get ahead and build income and more toward being who I said I would be one day if only… I have often posed the question of whether one can claim the independence before hitting an FI number and most who have done it seem to concur that if you understand the sexy-ness of budgets and therefore know your number and you also have a plan to get there that you are confident in, then you can actually start realizing some of the benefits of being FI before ever hitting said number. Because life doesn’t magically change when you hit FI but I do believe that you change with the certainty that you are on a path to be financially secure with the addition of time.