The other side of FIRE - what to do with your life!

[Eboli]

Lootman commented:

I retired at a similar age to you and, when people ask me what I do, I reply: "I pass time pleasurably".

I do not need to justify myself to anybody.

Well said. The only slight variation I have is the reply I usually use is "I drink a better quality of gin these days."

Eb.

[dingdong]

Having reflected on this some more.... my advice to anyone going through the journey towards FIRE would be to have more mid-life retirements and not worry about scrimping and saving just to be able to hit their FI target at 52 say instead of 55.

In your 20's you are much better off just taking a whole year off and going to travel the world. Don't worry about going into debt to support that... your earnings will be massively higher by the time you get to your 40s, so it's far better to have the life experiences and create the memories when you aren't tied down (and are happy to stay in cheap hotels!)

Similarly employers today are quite used to people taking breaks so looking back I wish I'd taken more regular long breaks throughout my career even if that meant retiring later.

Once you're in your 50s I think its probably much harder to return to the workforce once you've had any significant amount of time off, particularly given the fact that employers are often ageist to start with. I'm getting some strange responses when I tell people I tried retirement for four months but have now decided I'm not ready to retire and am looking for a new challenge! (although on the plus side I'm obviously only applying for positions which sound fun and interesting rather than being motivated by money)

[JohnB]

I did a 8 month round-the-world trip at 35. I did a second 6 month trip aged 40. Both times I was entirely happy to stay in cheap hotels on backpacker tours. In 2007 I did 1 day's paid work, in 2008 I did 253 days paid work as an IT contractor. One more than paid for the other!

At 55 I'm still happy to say in cheap airbnbs, I've been very resistant to lifestyle inflation, but my back's not so good, so I crawl into fewer holes in the ground! Can't do the long trips due to caring responsibilities. So I'd agree do the more exotic stuff when young.

[monabri]

I did a 8 month round-the-world trip at 35. I did a second 6 month trip aged 40. Both times I was entirely happy to stay in cheap hotels on backpacker tours. In 2007 I did 1 day's paid work, in 2008 I did 253 days paid work as an IT contractor. One more than paid for the other!

At 55 I'm still happy to say in cheap airbnbs, I've been very resistant to lifestyle inflation, but my back's not so good, so I crawl into fewer holes in the ground! Can't do the long trips due to caring responsibilities. So I'd agree do the more exotic stuff when young.

Cuedos!

[DelianLeague]

The other thing that I've found odd is what do you actually tell people you are doing if you have FIRE'd.
In my case I'm only 48... and reactions have ranged from

a) assuming I must be a criminal / drug dealer
b) assuming my family must be rich and i'm a spoilt brat
c) becoming envious or jealous and then it having a negative impact on the conversation

Overall I actually felt bad telling people that I'd retired knowing that others are having to work hard and will never be in that fortunate position.

Do most people just lie and pretend they are still working? Or do people describe themselves as something vague like "consultant"?

I retired at a similar age to you and, when people ask me what I do, I reply: "I pass time pleasurably".

I do not need to justify myself to anybody.

My version of this is that when I am asked what I do or "What is your profession"? I simply say, with a smile, "I am a Gentleman" (meaning I don't work but I don't claim benefits and I simply do as I please).
Some people understand it, some don't. Its always interesting.

Regards, D.L.

[1nvest]

I retired at a similar age to you and, when people ask me what I do, I reply: "I pass time pleasurably".

I do not need to justify myself to anybody.

My version of this is that when I am asked what I do or "What is your profession"? I simply say, with a smile, "I am a Gentleman" (meaning I don't work but I don't claim benefits and I simply do as I please).
Some people understand it, some don't. Its always interesting.

Regards, D.L.

"Asset Management". Best occupation in the world. You can occupy yourself wherever, whenever you like and the remuneration can be stable/consistent, such as via SWR.

Please excuse me, got to split, as I have a important meeting with my finance, purchase and sales teams. Now where did I leave those hats.

[frugal90]

This is a fascinating thread.

I retired aged 56 and my wife was 50.

Two teachers who had, just had enough of the guff!

We did certain things well in our prep, we bought back years in our teachers pensions to age 20, paid off mortgage early, bought into sipps to frontrun our pensions, saved into ISAs.

No kids, so basically we saved/invested one salary.

We also bought an apartment in Cyprus with an inheritance, we have been using it in spring and autumn hols since then.

We also, like climbing mountains, cycling, growing our own veg, cooking from scratch, homebrew, etc etc

We now spend about 16 weeks in Cyprus, warm weather training, bringing the summer forward and extending the summer, we spend about six weeks of the year cycle touring in France, Netherlands, Germany etc, we spend 2/4 weeks trekking, the GR5/10/11/20/54 etc etc.

When at home in Scotland, we climb mountains, we run parkrun, 10ks, the forest and do the cross country season.

Our treks and cycle tours need quite a lot of planning, which we enjoy.

We make movies of our adventures which is another great challenge.

We still have ageing parents to see and help.

We read, language learn as well.

Bored, nah!!!!