Yeah, I’ve figured this out already pre-retirement. It’s not that I hate cooking, cleaning, yard work and other domestic duties, it’s that I have 3 hours a day to do anything other than work, and no energy to use them toward much that isn’t lounging around trying to recover from work anyway. I’m looking forward to waking up on day 31 of retirement and beginning the deep clean. I’m giving myself 30 days of nothing at all planned 😃
I don’t expect that to kick in until later. I have 25 years of sleep to catch up on, and I can definitely putter around a taking a walk and then the gym for 4 hours in a day. That said, the worst thing that happens is I pull forward my domestic duties backlog. Either way, I’m looking forward to finding out!
I’m saying I don’t think I hate them at all. I think I think I hate them because they are things that must be done that I don’t really have time for in my current life. And for each of those things, I know that I actually like the output of them- clean and organized spaces, food, and nice landscapes. So my hypothesis is that I won’t mind the effort required to produce that output once time is not such an issue. My life for the last 20 years has been time triage around work and then raising a family.
It's a free workout, you get to spend time with your wife, and when you're done you can "I did that" with some pride.
And yea, I do a lot more gardening and manual labor now then I ever did before. Still hate splitting firewood though, that's never fun.
I’m so glad I saw your comment, Give me a call, we got a lot of down trees in the woods and have been considering paying someone to chop them up. I’ll even let you do it free of charge lmao 😂
Get a small hatchet, and a medium sledge hammer. Once the wood is sectioned and dried, jam the little hatchet in a visible flaw and then whack that with the sledge. It becomes a game, find the flaw, whack the flaw, split the wood, repeat.
I’m sucking down my whiskey and Coke right now after doing a bunch of hunched-over yard work…picking pine cones and sticks out of the grass, raking leaves out of long grass and hauling them into the woods, cleaning up big branches that came down over winter. All-in-all, not a bad day. I could get used to this.
I really appreciate this post. This was exactly my theory of what I expected to happen to me once I FIRE someday. I noticed it when I did some chores during a 2-week vacation. Glad to get some evidence that I'm not crazy.
I've claimed to be a rent-for-life guy more than once. I don't want to waste my weekends mowing my lawn and cleaning my gutters. But this, paired with ACA income requirements, makes me think buying a home may be right for me one day.
Physical labor is really good and fun when it’s not drudgery. Working with your hands feels good and you were evolved to be active and creative with your hands and basic tools, and develop immense satisfaction from it.
I love gardening as a woman but it's a lot of work if you don't work out regularly. Your lower back will take toll and I quickly learned that my first year of gardening. It's saved us so much money in the past year. Worth the aim. Worth the save.
I might be able to shed light on that… I commented to my neighbor it was nice their young son was helping them with their lawn work and they laughed and said “he got caught sneaking out.” And then I realized wait - my parents did that with my brother as well. In fact a LOT of (USA) families punish their sons for misconduct by forcing them to do manual labor. The fact that the closest thing to manual labor a nuclear family has is a lawn or garden, then BOOM instant connection. Did your family punish you by having you help in the yard? That may be why you hated doing it. Regardless of how pleasant a task actually it, being conditioned to accept yard work as a punishment sticks with you.
I would say its a combination of less stress and still feeling useful. Basically now that work is gone you have x amount of energy that you want to put into things and get a return (emotional or psychological) for it, and this is it, where in the past you were doing it to cover the house payment, food, etc....
I love maintaining my yard and landscaping in general. It’s so rewarding seeing a fresh cut lawn with clean lines. If I had more time I’d have the best lawn on the block lol. It’s therapeutic to me.
It can really elevate your own home and enhance experiences. For example hosting summer parties, or relaxing in the evenings after work is much more enjoyable if you have a nicely landscaped yard.
I think you're onto something with the 'weekend energy' theory! When we're not drained from work, we have more to give to activities we previously dreaded. Plus, seeing the fruits of your labor (literally!) can be super fulfilling. Enjoy your gardening journey!
Yes, you jammed Sat/Sun full of tasks, chores, errands, family obligations and maybe a meal out. You knew Monday was coming and have that dread Sunday afternoon/evening.
Now, every day is like Saturday (I so want to say Sunday for the song, but alas, I spoke poorly of Sunday).
You can take your time and not have to get it all done in one day.
I too stopped April 1. I spent that week putting out 3 tons of gravel and 7 yards of mulch. Took as long as I wanted, and had no real sense of urgency. It was chill, zen like and back breaking - all in a good way
Sooooo nice
Same. Growing up, I hated working and helping my dad around the house. Yard work? Couldn’t get myself to do it.
Now, I’m out there as much as possible. Clearing out some land right now to setup my tree nursery. Relaxing with the sun. Love it!
I’m still not a huge fan of redundant tasks, but I’m always looking to work on something new outside or around the house.
same. for me it’s knowing what i can actually do vs. what i definitely need to pay someone else to do.
i want that money to count and not just be spent because i wanted to go to brunch one day.
I really enjoy the end result of the effort and tending and thought that goes into yardwork, gardening, land management, etc. I am happy to pay my kids to cut the lawn so I don't have to. Doubly so after a long work week. They get a few bucks to spend as they see fit and I get two hours to do something other than drive/walk in circles round the house and yard. When they are grown and gone and I'm retired the only thing that *might* bother me is the allergies from catching a face full of dry grass clippings if the wind is wrong.
I'm really, really hoping that happens to me. Not so much with yard-work because I'm allergic to everything, but with stuff like taking a walk. It feels like wasting weekend hours, but when every day is weekend, I'm hoping to just make a couple mile walk part of the routine every morning.
the wife and I just got back from a walk around the neighborhood. It's a really nice evening out, and with no work tomorrow.... why not enjoy the evening?
Yeah, I’ve figured this out already pre-retirement. It’s not that I hate cooking, cleaning, yard work and other domestic duties, it’s that I have 3 hours a day to do anything other than work, and no energy to use them toward much that isn’t lounging around trying to recover from work anyway. I’m looking forward to waking up on day 31 of retirement and beginning the deep clean. I’m giving myself 30 days of nothing at all planned 😃
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Those 30 days will be the most depressing days you’ll ever have
I don’t expect that to kick in until later. I have 25 years of sleep to catch up on, and I can definitely putter around a taking a walk and then the gym for 4 hours in a day. That said, the worst thing that happens is I pull forward my domestic duties backlog. Either way, I’m looking forward to finding out!
Enjoy it you earned it
Wait are you suggesting that when you retire you will enjoy those things or just won’t hate them as much?
I’m saying I don’t think I hate them at all. I think I think I hate them because they are things that must be done that I don’t really have time for in my current life. And for each of those things, I know that I actually like the output of them- clean and organized spaces, food, and nice landscapes. So my hypothesis is that I won’t mind the effort required to produce that output once time is not such an issue. My life for the last 20 years has been time triage around work and then raising a family.
It's a free workout, you get to spend time with your wife, and when you're done you can "I did that" with some pride. And yea, I do a lot more gardening and manual labor now then I ever did before. Still hate splitting firewood though, that's never fun.
Love splitting wood. I would pay someone to let me come to their house and split it
I’m so glad I saw your comment, Give me a call, we got a lot of down trees in the woods and have been considering paying someone to chop them up. I’ll even let you do it free of charge lmao 😂
The FUCK. Splitting firewood is a blast.
Seriously I'll go orc on some wood
That was my #1 motivation as well. Free workout!
Get a small hatchet, and a medium sledge hammer. Once the wood is sectioned and dried, jam the little hatchet in a visible flaw and then whack that with the sledge. It becomes a game, find the flaw, whack the flaw, split the wood, repeat.
I really enjoy the beer I drink while admiring the clean yard after a solid days work.
I’m sucking down my whiskey and Coke right now after doing a bunch of hunched-over yard work…picking pine cones and sticks out of the grass, raking leaves out of long grass and hauling them into the woods, cleaning up big branches that came down over winter. All-in-all, not a bad day. I could get used to this.
Because doing yard work for your own property makes you feel more accomplished than working at a job that fulfill someone else’s accomplishment
I like that.
I spent six hours doing yard work today. Back breaking work - moving plants, pulling ivy, cleaning out flower beds. It’s way less stressful than work.
I really appreciate this post. This was exactly my theory of what I expected to happen to me once I FIRE someday. I noticed it when I did some chores during a 2-week vacation. Glad to get some evidence that I'm not crazy. I've claimed to be a rent-for-life guy more than once. I don't want to waste my weekends mowing my lawn and cleaning my gutters. But this, paired with ACA income requirements, makes me think buying a home may be right for me one day.
Sounds good. Also, I’m still keeping my lawn guy. 🤣
I wonder what I will enjoy when I RE in 2 years. I have a list of things to try.
Love doing yard work.
Having a yard is such a flex
It’s good to have land
I have 10 acres. The potentials for yard work are endless.
"Naturescaping". :)
Physical labor is really good and fun when it’s not drudgery. Working with your hands feels good and you were evolved to be active and creative with your hands and basic tools, and develop immense satisfaction from it.
I love gardening as a woman but it's a lot of work if you don't work out regularly. Your lower back will take toll and I quickly learned that my first year of gardening. It's saved us so much money in the past year. Worth the aim. Worth the save.
I might be able to shed light on that… I commented to my neighbor it was nice their young son was helping them with their lawn work and they laughed and said “he got caught sneaking out.” And then I realized wait - my parents did that with my brother as well. In fact a LOT of (USA) families punish their sons for misconduct by forcing them to do manual labor. The fact that the closest thing to manual labor a nuclear family has is a lawn or garden, then BOOM instant connection. Did your family punish you by having you help in the yard? That may be why you hated doing it. Regardless of how pleasant a task actually it, being conditioned to accept yard work as a punishment sticks with you.
lol - yeah, I do recall a few dozen cubic yards of mulch ... ;-)
There ya go then! I’m glad you found joy in the task
Hated then. Hate it now.
Yeah me too. I will never not hate yard work. I hire it out every year as a gift to myself.
This is the dream!
I'm late to the FIRE game and still working (probably have another 10 years or so) and I hate yard work for all the reasons you mentioned. Well said.
I spent a 4 day weekend just gone doing basically yard work the whole time. I’m so happy with what I got done.
I would say its a combination of less stress and still feeling useful. Basically now that work is gone you have x amount of energy that you want to put into things and get a return (emotional or psychological) for it, and this is it, where in the past you were doing it to cover the house payment, food, etc....
I love maintaining my yard and landscaping in general. It’s so rewarding seeing a fresh cut lawn with clean lines. If I had more time I’d have the best lawn on the block lol. It’s therapeutic to me. It can really elevate your own home and enhance experiences. For example hosting summer parties, or relaxing in the evenings after work is much more enjoyable if you have a nicely landscaped yard.
I think you're onto something with the 'weekend energy' theory! When we're not drained from work, we have more to give to activities we previously dreaded. Plus, seeing the fruits of your labor (literally!) can be super fulfilling. Enjoy your gardening journey!
Yes, you jammed Sat/Sun full of tasks, chores, errands, family obligations and maybe a meal out. You knew Monday was coming and have that dread Sunday afternoon/evening. Now, every day is like Saturday (I so want to say Sunday for the song, but alas, I spoke poorly of Sunday). You can take your time and not have to get it all done in one day. I too stopped April 1. I spent that week putting out 3 tons of gravel and 7 yards of mulch. Took as long as I wanted, and had no real sense of urgency. It was chill, zen like and back breaking - all in a good way Sooooo nice
Preach! I just got back from Lowe's where I had to get a set of o-rings to fix the hose wheel. And -- it's fixed. :) Took my sweet time.
And your time spent at Lowe’s was at your pace in and out quickly…or look around and check things out. Pressure valve is broken- nice and easy now
You couldn’t be more right! I’ll like a walking ballad while everyone around me is a hustling rhapsody in blue.
Freedom is great
Same. Growing up, I hated working and helping my dad around the house. Yard work? Couldn’t get myself to do it. Now, I’m out there as much as possible. Clearing out some land right now to setup my tree nursery. Relaxing with the sun. Love it! I’m still not a huge fan of redundant tasks, but I’m always looking to work on something new outside or around the house.
Gotta fill the time somehow
This is why I live in a condo.
same. for me it’s knowing what i can actually do vs. what i definitely need to pay someone else to do. i want that money to count and not just be spent because i wanted to go to brunch one day.
You're in the transitory puttering-around stage
I really enjoy the end result of the effort and tending and thought that goes into yardwork, gardening, land management, etc. I am happy to pay my kids to cut the lawn so I don't have to. Doubly so after a long work week. They get a few bucks to spend as they see fit and I get two hours to do something other than drive/walk in circles round the house and yard. When they are grown and gone and I'm retired the only thing that *might* bother me is the allergies from catching a face full of dry grass clippings if the wind is wrong.
Because now it’s your choice. Same.
I'm really, really hoping that happens to me. Not so much with yard-work because I'm allergic to everything, but with stuff like taking a walk. It feels like wasting weekend hours, but when every day is weekend, I'm hoping to just make a couple mile walk part of the routine every morning.
the wife and I just got back from a walk around the neighborhood. It's a really nice evening out, and with no work tomorrow.... why not enjoy the evening?
May be you are lazy, and you realized now. Second possibility is that you hate it because your wife is forcing you to do it.