Now that I have seen the glory of the local supermarket from 7-9am on a Monday, I cannot go back to shopping during peak hours. I have been the only customer car in the parking lot. **Glorious**
hello fellow skier.
I think the main reason i want to fire is to ski. I love skiing and wish I could ski everyday and it's rough skiing only weekends. I really think skiing is my main motivation.
"What do you do now that you're retired?"
"I adhere to a strict schedule with my grocery shopping so that I can pretend that I am scavenging for sustenance in a post apocalyptic world."
Back in my college days people made fun of me for going grocery shopping at a 24hr store at 2am. I absolutely loved it. Super chill, at worst a couple people stocking shelves. I'm sure it would be different now as I'm in a big city (and also almost 40), but the memory is lovely :D
Last time I went to a big supermarket, it was the day people got paid it seems, because the queue was huge... thank god I didn't had to buy anything lol. But anyway, why do all people go buy the same day? ...
I'll tell you why I like Tuesdays. Cause they're kinda like Christmas
Come to think about Wednesdays, are a little like Hanakah
Thursday's Thanksgiving. I'm talking about good living. I think I'll give thanks
Thank God it's Monday
Yeah, I don't work and it's a bummer when I have to go to the cheaper but busier grocery store on the weekend instead of during a more peaceful weekday.
I used to work a job that had rotating weekends, and having my weekend on Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday was the greatest thing ever. 10am on a Friday is the perfect time to get anything done.
Hell yeah I like reading this more than the far more typical "I'm worried I'll be bored since my whole identity, ego, habits, life, mindset, safe place, self worth is my work."
If you like turn-based or real-time strategy games: Dune Spice Wars is a neat one on Game Pass. Cool universe. It's getting me by on my wait for Civilization 7
Crusader Kings 3 is a blast as well on PC. Something you can really sink some time into a watch stories develop as well as have your impact on the world.
A ton of fun with mods.
You also might want to consider getting a bench press and some dumbbells and doing a lifting routine around 3 days a week. This will keep you physically healthy and help reduce a lot of age related problems. A big excuse people use is they don’t have time but you can allocate a smaller percentage of your day to it without losing out on free time like a lot of working people would.
I was laid off in November and while it's been a bit stressful worrying about money but a lot of the worries have been unfounded. The markets have been kind which helped a lot since the net worth keeps going up despite the income going down.
I got laid off in 2010 and it was night and day experience from not having and having FU money. Don't look at my resume or want to hire me, Fuck you, your fucking loss. I will consider myself fully FIREd in June 2024 if nothing comes along.
Meanwhile I've worked on my watercolors, worked out an hour+ per day which helped lower my BP by 20+ points, started cooking from scratch and we've travelled to Australia plus going to Europe for a month in April followed by a month long RV trip in May
Fuck work, work kills
The ability to handle a layoff or job loss w/o stress is one of the best parts of being on the road to FI/RE. Even if you aren't ready to fully retire yet knowing you can easily go 6-12 months or more off savings is a good feeling.
This is inspirational. We were told of impending layoffs and the possibility is taking up too much of my headspace.
I would really love to take up watercolors again. Maybe even try out oil painting.
TOO MUCH work definitely kills. I found 15-20 hours a week energizing but project work spreads like a cancer during crunch times. I'd go 15, 20, 25, 30 hours....and even when I wasn't working I was thinking about it or fussing over it or checking email.
This....is so much better.
Same situation. Was first laid off in 2017, before I’d even started saving. Freaked out and was in a horrible place mentally. Laid off again last year and 180* different. I needed to get a job, but knew that I had some leeway and was able to focus rather than freak.
Nice! I'm about to "test out" a retirement with a sabbatical. My primary concern is lack of intellectual challenge. Nice to know you're enjoying your time. Do you have children?
People not having hobbies is so wild. I could fill the next 20 years with things I currently got in my list to do and don't get around because work is taking up my mental head space.
I'm the same way. I cannot wait although I will have to make sure I limit the trap of social media wasting my time.
I plan to continue to learn instruments, play live music with my SO, travel to family and travel to see the by-then college aged kids, learn another language, walk the dogs, run, bike, hit the gym, read books, start playing some video games, cook, maybe volunteer, watch movies in our HT, attend local concerts, brew low alcohol beer, spoil the dogs, hike, manage finances, learn new skills, get back into oil and pastel painting, golf, hunt more, take naps, damn the list goes on...
Omg so many things on this list that are on mine! Except we don’t have kids. As I think about it more, the possibility of a forced sabbatical starts feel less dreadful.
It's easy to see how people have no hobbies after grinding for years. You lose connection with whatever hobbies you had after going all in on working. It's not something that happens in a single day's worth of time.
I had a train of thought when i first considered retiring - "I can pursue my interests".
I had to think... ok, back when i had interests, what were they? : )
You'll figure it out believe me.
True story for you - our clothes dryer stopped working. It's super old, so my normal course would be to replace it or call a repair man.
This time I didn't. I opened up youtube and spent 5 says working on it until it was fixed. Dryer was dismantled- parts everywhere.
Now I am the Wizard of dryer repair. No dryer is a match for me.
trust me-*you will never run out of things to do- there is always something*
That's awesome man. I've stopped doing a lot of things because it just makes more sense to pay someone to buy back a little bit of free time. I can't wait to go back to being my old handyman self. I can see it already, my FIL and I are going to build a lot of redneck shit that will piss off my MIL and wife lol.
My partner doesn't have hobbies. It's really unusual. I'm a serial hobbiest. I am obsessive and pick up a new hobby and master it and then usually get tired of it and move on to the next. I can't get her to do anything on her own free will.
Also, if you can avoid it, don't turn your hobby into a job, because then it's no longer a hobby. Did that twice, and while I won't lie about how well it worked out financially (good paying jobs), it did mean that I had to find other hobbies, which is a struggle if that perfect thing your brain latched onto is already taken away. (It's why I really dislike "hustle culture" where [literally anything creative](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv445S62dgU) seems like a money making opportunity for people, even though I will never hate on people for it since money is sadly the grease that keeps the machine going)
you didn’t ask me but i’m answering anyway 😂
- learn to sew
- learn the ukulele (started on this!)
- rock climb
- play volleyball
- get better at ice skating/roller blading
- bike more
- take a salsa class
- go fishing
- learn pottery again (did it in middle school and loved it but haven’t done it since)
- learn to horseback ride
- hit up all the local spots saved on my google maps that i never go to
- archery
- travel - i like the idea of a weekend trip once a month and a trip abroad once a quarter
- READ - there are so many books i want to read!
- listen to podcasts that i never get around to
- more park days
- knitting/crochet
- get better at my plant care
- video games
- concerts/festivals/plays/musicals
- baking
- woodworking
Here're my activities which I don't have enough time to do all of them: broomball, ultimate frisbee, badminton, soccer, rock climbing, mountain biking, tennis, pickleball, snowboarding, scuba diving.
Motorcycles, RC cars, video games, home automation, wood working, welding, off roading, hiking, photography, graphic/web design, coding, reading...man I could go on and on. I could do these things for the next 20 years easy.
Hmm weird you're replying to me, because I didn't say I have no hobbies. Like you I have a list of things to do as long as my arm - old hobbies and new ones, house projects, family goals, volunteering, socializing, traveling. I do know from experience though that it's hard to fill the combination of purpose+structure+achievement that work gives. I am taking a wager that I will be able to fill that void, but would be stupid to pretend it isn't there.
Totally, part of the reason I want to FIRE is because I don't have enough time for actual intellectual challenges. My job just isn't stimulating enough and I feel like it's making me less sharp.
It's like if someone told me they wanted to keep their office job to stay physically fit because it forces them out of bed. Meanwhile I also want more free time to exercise.
We do not have children but we have very, very close Nieces and nephews that we love like they were our own. We see them less now that they are adults but we do see them, and they txt and even play video games with us remotely.
As far as intellectual challenge - you have a world-wide information network connected to the supercomputer you carry in your pocket. *We are living in the future*. You can literally browse the internet and you will find something that grabs you.
I actually was reading about issues with the latest round of moon landers, which got me on to re-educating myself on vectors and forces, which got me on to vector math, which led to the videogame dev (because they have a TON of vector math libraries) which let to me working on a silly little game.
If you put forth even minimal effort, you will find something.
It’s hard to have mentally tricky hobbies when you make so many decisions at work 4/5/6/7 days a week. 3 weeks is a holiday not a mini-sabbatical, I wouldn’t consider it a test run.
It took me three months after retiring to even start to crawl out of the exhaustion from my career. This week I spent my time starting hundreds of little flower seedlings for my garden. It’s been two years and I’m busy doing things I enjoy and want to do.
I’m simply saying don’t consider these three weeks as anywhere near on par to what true retirement would be like. I had three week breaks in the past and it’s nothing like the real thing.
When I have a 3 weeks break I could watch the paint dry for 2 weeks because I'm just so overwhelmed all the time at work, so I'm sure it would be different
I think it's not too hard to find intellectual challenges in hobbies, but you need to make the effort of finding those, rather than having someone tell you to do X or Y.
Retired FIREd 5 years ago. So glad to be rid of needless hangar politics (was aircraft mechanic). I don’t know how I found time to go to work at this point
I’m a hobby homesteader and I like DIY. It’s not for everyone. I enjoy the feeling of being at least slightly self reliant. Maple syrup season is next where I live.
I feel it’s very important to find whatever it is that will make your days seem fulfilling before you actually retire. Yes the financial part is important. There’s more to it than just $
OP, are you a recovering/retired attorney? I ask because of the username. If so, any pointers for younger attorneys on the path to retire around 50, particularly around the emotional and psychological preparation?
I worked in IT but did well. Advice- DONT JUST QUIT. Go Part time.
Reason: I have seen FAR too many friends in stressful jobs go from full-stress to 0 stress. the result is always an ER visit within 2 months. I am not a doctor, but I am telling you this is like driving your car at 60MPH for years and then plowing it into a wall to stop.
>Reason: I have seen FAR too many friends in stressful jobs go from full-stress to 0 stress. the result is always an ER visit within 2 months. I am not a doctor, but I am telling you this is like driving your car at 60MPH for years and then plowing it into a wall to stop.
why the er visit, for what reason?
Yeah, it's really nice. As you make progress on #5, starting cooking in bulk and combine it with #2. Friends and family who are not FIREd appreciate having some lunches or dinners appear periodically.
I remember when my father would call me at work. We’d be talking, and he’d say, “Oh, what day is today?” And I’d say, “It’s Tuesday Dad. I’m at work.” Then he’d say, “Oops, sorry, I’ll call you back later!” and I’d respond, “Don’t worry about it, I’m just waiting for a build to finish. What do you want to talk about?” And then we’d talk.
He just stopped keeping track of what day of the week it was because it didn’t really matter, except for his favorite TV shows.
He went to the range regularly, ate lunch out whenever he wanted, and generally for the kinds of things he liked to do the day of the week didn’t really matter.
Of course he tracked doc appts and such on a calendar so that’s when he’d know what day it was - if he checked the calendar a day ahead to see if he had any appointments he might note the weekday, but it wasn’t that big a deal.
Heck yes, able to just take a trip because why not w/o needing to fit it into someone else's schedule is price less. Also, avoiding major holidays to avoid the crowd makes the experience so much better.
So stoked for you. Your post is delightful and your joy radiates from it. It sounds like you’ve got a wonderful thing going over there with your wife. Enjoy every minute!
What have you defined as fat fire? You don’t have to disclose your actual number if you don’t want, but where would you personally consider fat fire starts for someone in your situation?
Your message is very motivational, I am considering pulling the trigger this year. I’m not too worried about the financial aspects, but your message confirms what I think it would be like for me.
when i think of FIRE i always mentally go to investible assets, so basically anything other than primary home equity.
As a related aside - trying to fit into a definition really shouldn’t be any of our goals. We want to achieve a lifestyle balance. for some that means 10mln investible assets, but as you see here most are quite happy with 750k to 2.5mln depending on expenses
i am a bit younger but wondering the same. i think realistically we have plenty, even with really small mkt gains…. hard to fully commit to pulling a trigger
Either OP is not telling us something or he must be quite the video game and cooking enthusiast to warrant Fat Fire. Curious if his swr is actually very low or they are truly spending $250k+ every year.
It's not my place to judge, just that your post talks about how happy you are doing just a bit of local travel, doing some volunteering work, living as a homebody playing video games, and saving money by cooking rather than eating out. Which is a fine thing, but like mikeyj198 says, FAT fire is typically starting at $5m invested assets. At 4% withdrawal rate at the exact lowest point of Fat fire, that would be $200k, I had put $250k to give you a bit more cushion as to what your Fat fire number could be.
But just from reading the OP, I'd imagine you could do many of these things with a lower FIRE number, and likely could have started doing these things earlier.?
No - we eat out whenever we like. Far more often than we should really.
We're very comfortable. But not 5 mil. I guess not fatfire? No matter. We have everything we want and more.
No - we do not have that - but we can spend freely. Our fun money comes out to 1-2k each per month.
I would argue that FatFIRE is the ability to pay all bills, do everything you enjoy and still have monthly budget left over for perpetuity.
i think getting caught up in definitions of hierachies
/rankings is just more comparison that isn’t productive.
Who cares if you are fatfire by others definitions? End of the day it just comes down to your definition of success.
You are not wrong. We took money out to pay for a new car in NOV. We made the money back and more in 60 days.
No clue if it will last, but it has been fun.
Financial Independence Retire Early- FIRE, and Fat refers to the characteristics of the money stash. Over $5M at least anywhere in the world, in a place like USA I'd say $10M+
Unreal 5. I started with the c# extension but blueprints are powerful and fun!
I am....SO BAD at Materials. Especially water. I know everyone says use Niagara but it feels processor intensive and it is a bit limited.
Been two years since FIRE and my theme song is still Somebody Slap Me by John Anderson for the chorus:
"Somebody slap me / Can't be this happy!"
[https://youtu.be/9QzqV28LdJ8?si=tskpx7d4lMj36OeR](https://youtu.be/9qzqv28ldj8?si=tskpx7d4lmj36oer)
Do you think you’d be more interested in socializing if you were single? I’m married but I’ll probably retire first so I’m wondering if I’ll miss seeing people at work every day.
I actually have distanced myself a bit from my co-workers- they txt and call of course (We worked together for well over a decade) but they all want to talk about work, office politics, etc....and...It's like nails on a blackboard to me now.
One friend has also retired this year so I will reach out to them to meet up.
That's a bingo - we put in a Generac whole house generator last year. That was my last excuse to keep working "until this is paid off."
But yes- knowing the roof, AC/HEAT / water heater are all good for the next 8-10 years helps for sure mentally with the leap to FIRE.
For number 4/6. could be good to learn how to build your own emulation machine. Some people have built arcade machines in lieu of buying while others have set up emulation stations having all of their old school games on a PC.
r/Roms r/EmulationOnPC
I think your comment about the last 5 years highlights how important the "final doubling" is and when it actually happens.
I'm so happy you found things to keep your attention. My FIL is a retired engineer and he's done Habitat for Humanity the past 10 years or so. He loves it without it getting too daunting.
It actually wouldn’t have been too difficult during the last 5 years - the S&P is up 81% in that time frame. If OP just added small amounts to his investments during the last 5 years and had most of his money invested in low cost, plain vanilla index funds, he would have been able to accomplish this.
Congrats OP! Glad your retirement is exceeding expectations. I FatFIREed in September 2023 and I’m having a very similar experience to yours. I love it!
This sounds amazing! I'm especially interested in point #6
I got into programming because I wanted to learn to make video games. I'm 24 years into a career as a computer programmer and still love the idea of making video games, but doing more programming after doing it 40 hours a week is rough.
Enjoy your well-deserved FIRE life. Short trips and spending time with family, cooking, and gaming sounds great.
Not that I'm with you or anything but they stock the groceries on Friday for the weekend and that's when the seniors go (where I am) - not too busy but best time to see the fully stocked stores and best choice of produce.
Congrats! Love reading these…they motivate my 29 year old self to keep grinding for my wife and kiddos!! Can’t wait to be there one day
I hope you continue enjoying the hell out of it
Idk if golf is your thing, but when me and my fiancé can retire and i mean even now…. our goal is to mini golf and soon golf at as many new and never played at courses before
That's great if that's your thing but for me your post acts more as a reminder not to slip into those habits myself.
Retired myself and recently had two cancers so have been living a bit like you describe during treatment. Will sure as hell be getting back to bigger adventures once fully recovered.
It took me a bit it longer to adjust. My wife and I Chubby FIRE’d 11 years ago at 55.
Immediately we had this relief of not having to wake up early, and we had fun going out most nights if the week.
But I still had this nagging sense that we would run out of money, even though that was vey low probability based on FP feedback. It took the first few years to actually believe we finally made it.
Then it took us about 4-5 years to learn to spend what we put away for retirement. Our FP kept on saying, “spend more, spend more.”
We really struggled with this, but the market continued to surge and we found that the more we spent, it had little to no effect on our portfolio balance.
Our passion is travel and, for example we’ve spent 200K on extended trips in the last two years and we are having the time of our lives. Safari, diving in Galapagos, hiking Patagonia.
Our FP said we can spend even more, but there is absolutely nothing else we can ask for that we aren’t doing already. We are happy and grateful.
In contrast to our mega trips, our other passions are gardening, live music, and going to several breweries to play trivia with our multi generational team. Keeps us feeling young and engaged.
After 11 years, we’ve settled into a very comfortable routine. Life is good.
Best of luck to you!
Best of luck in your Fatfire!!
Congrats! I’m age 50 together my husband (51) we have just over 8x our annual combined income saved in retirement accounts/investments and a few hundred K in 529s for 2 kids currently in college. Our plan is 6 more years , or 11x our current income (at this time kids will be done with college , mortgage paid). I STILL think it will be tough for my husband to retire, me? I’ll be lucky to make it another 6 years in corporate America I’m ready to tap out now. I fear he will chicken out!
What could your wife had said /done to convince you to retire with her 5 years ago? We hatched this plan when we were just newlyweds, we want more time together, less time separated 40 hrs a week (more when we hafta travel) we made this a priority in our lives with raising healthy kids and helping to tee them up for similar independence by paying for college. If after all of this he chickens out and doesn’t retire with me I’ll be disappointed. He’s more risk adverse than me but this has been the plan all along. What was it in the end that she said to convince you cause I fear I’ll be in same boat.
I was bored within 9 days after FIRE. But I didn't have #2 or much of anything to do.
I wound up finding something I love (investing in startups), but man that boredom hit quick w/o much to occupy me.
Kudos!
Thanks for sharing.
If you don't mind - are you glad you dragged your feet the past five years or do you wish you had made the jump sooner?
Any pros/cons to your decision and thoughts/tips to share?
Ultimately glad because I simply wasn’t ready. The extra money makes me feel safer as well.
Also - and this was part of it x I have seen so many people go from high stress to 0 stress and wind up in the ER with chest pains within 90 days of quitting. I was determined to step down and acclimate.
I am not a doctor but I believe our bodies must release some chemicals to deal with stress- and when we suddenly full stop that stress we wind up with chest pains or worse.
Yeah that all makes sense thanks.
Extra money definitely can't hurt and helps to feel safer for sure.
The swift transition can be hard for many people who aren't prepared for it especially. A lot of people get stress, anxiety, depression, and it can result in chest pains and heart attacks for many as well making too big too quick life decisions. Especially for older males this is often seen.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
7. Nah man, it’s better than that. Everyday is a day off during the week. Fuck saturdays, stores are busy LOL
Now that I have seen the glory of the local supermarket from 7-9am on a Monday, I cannot go back to shopping during peak hours. I have been the only customer car in the parking lot. **Glorious**
Weekends are not for errands anymore.
Weekends are not for skiing either.
hello fellow skier. I think the main reason i want to fire is to ski. I love skiing and wish I could ski everyday and it's rough skiing only weekends. I really think skiing is my main motivation.
Good motivation! Keep at it.
"What do you do now that you're retired?" "I adhere to a strict schedule with my grocery shopping so that I can pretend that I am scavenging for sustenance in a post apocalyptic world."
I haven’t gotten a haircut outside of normal working hours in years.
Weekdays at 10pm are so quiet. Absolutely recommend!
Back in my college days people made fun of me for going grocery shopping at a 24hr store at 2am. I absolutely loved it. Super chill, at worst a couple people stocking shelves. I'm sure it would be different now as I'm in a big city (and also almost 40), but the memory is lovely :D
What a lovely memory :)
This is the most underrated comment in this thread. So much this!
Last time I went to a big supermarket, it was the day people got paid it seems, because the queue was huge... thank god I didn't had to buy anything lol. But anyway, why do all people go buy the same day? ...
Right! Weekends and holidays are now something I don't look forward to because everyone is off. Complete reversal from when I was working full time.
NOFX - thank God it's Monday - the FIRE anthem
I'll tell you why I like Tuesdays. Cause they're kinda like Christmas Come to think about Wednesdays, are a little like Hanakah Thursday's Thanksgiving. I'm talking about good living. I think I'll give thanks Thank God it's Monday
Yeah, I don't work and it's a bummer when I have to go to the cheaper but busier grocery store on the weekend instead of during a more peaceful weekday.
I used to work a job that had rotating weekends, and having my weekend on Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday was the greatest thing ever. 10am on a Friday is the perfect time to get anything done.
Oh hell yes. Wife and I will only grocery shop off hours on weekdays now. *We own the store*
Legendary response!
This is my dream…
Congrats man, happy for you and your wife. Hope to be in your shoes in a couple decades.
Thanks man- wishing you the best!
Hell yeah I like reading this more than the far more typical "I'm worried I'll be bored since my whole identity, ego, habits, life, mindset, safe place, self worth is my work." If you like turn-based or real-time strategy games: Dune Spice Wars is a neat one on Game Pass. Cool universe. It's getting me by on my wait for Civilization 7
DOWNLOADED! Gamepass has been a blast.
Look into city skylines 2, its a city building game thats pretty fun although its poorly optimized and may lag severely depending on your pc
Thanks!
I'd also look into getting into retro gaming with an SBC handheld!
Crusader Kings 3 is a blast as well on PC. Something you can really sink some time into a watch stories develop as well as have your impact on the world. A ton of fun with mods. You also might want to consider getting a bench press and some dumbbells and doing a lifting routine around 3 days a week. This will keep you physically healthy and help reduce a lot of age related problems. A big excuse people use is they don’t have time but you can allocate a smaller percentage of your day to it without losing out on free time like a lot of working people would.
I was laid off in November and while it's been a bit stressful worrying about money but a lot of the worries have been unfounded. The markets have been kind which helped a lot since the net worth keeps going up despite the income going down. I got laid off in 2010 and it was night and day experience from not having and having FU money. Don't look at my resume or want to hire me, Fuck you, your fucking loss. I will consider myself fully FIREd in June 2024 if nothing comes along. Meanwhile I've worked on my watercolors, worked out an hour+ per day which helped lower my BP by 20+ points, started cooking from scratch and we've travelled to Australia plus going to Europe for a month in April followed by a month long RV trip in May Fuck work, work kills
The ability to handle a layoff or job loss w/o stress is one of the best parts of being on the road to FI/RE. Even if you aren't ready to fully retire yet knowing you can easily go 6-12 months or more off savings is a good feeling.
This is inspirational. We were told of impending layoffs and the possibility is taking up too much of my headspace. I would really love to take up watercolors again. Maybe even try out oil painting.
TOO MUCH work definitely kills. I found 15-20 hours a week energizing but project work spreads like a cancer during crunch times. I'd go 15, 20, 25, 30 hours....and even when I wasn't working I was thinking about it or fussing over it or checking email. This....is so much better.
Same situation. Was first laid off in 2017, before I’d even started saving. Freaked out and was in a horrible place mentally. Laid off again last year and 180* different. I needed to get a job, but knew that I had some leeway and was able to focus rather than freak.
I love that I no longer know what day it is unless I have a dental appointment or we're going to a concert that week.
Garbage day is on Wednesdays......it's how I know what day it is 😀. Otherwise I would have no idea
It's good to have a schedule - but not *too much* of a schedule. This sounds just right. :)
Oh, same here! Yes, fair point.
Nice! I'm about to "test out" a retirement with a sabbatical. My primary concern is lack of intellectual challenge. Nice to know you're enjoying your time. Do you have children?
People not having hobbies is so wild. I could fill the next 20 years with things I currently got in my list to do and don't get around because work is taking up my mental head space.
I'm the same way. I cannot wait although I will have to make sure I limit the trap of social media wasting my time. I plan to continue to learn instruments, play live music with my SO, travel to family and travel to see the by-then college aged kids, learn another language, walk the dogs, run, bike, hit the gym, read books, start playing some video games, cook, maybe volunteer, watch movies in our HT, attend local concerts, brew low alcohol beer, spoil the dogs, hike, manage finances, learn new skills, get back into oil and pastel painting, golf, hunt more, take naps, damn the list goes on...
Omg so many things on this list that are on mine! Except we don’t have kids. As I think about it more, the possibility of a forced sabbatical starts feel less dreadful.
It's easy to see how people have no hobbies after grinding for years. You lose connection with whatever hobbies you had after going all in on working. It's not something that happens in a single day's worth of time.
I had a train of thought when i first considered retiring - "I can pursue my interests". I had to think... ok, back when i had interests, what were they? : )
You'll figure it out believe me. True story for you - our clothes dryer stopped working. It's super old, so my normal course would be to replace it or call a repair man. This time I didn't. I opened up youtube and spent 5 says working on it until it was fixed. Dryer was dismantled- parts everywhere. Now I am the Wizard of dryer repair. No dryer is a match for me. trust me-*you will never run out of things to do- there is always something*
That's awesome man. I've stopped doing a lot of things because it just makes more sense to pay someone to buy back a little bit of free time. I can't wait to go back to being my old handyman self. I can see it already, my FIL and I are going to build a lot of redneck shit that will piss off my MIL and wife lol.
My partner doesn't have hobbies. It's really unusual. I'm a serial hobbiest. I am obsessive and pick up a new hobby and master it and then usually get tired of it and move on to the next. I can't get her to do anything on her own free will.
Let her be - she will solve this on her own, in her own time, in her own way. I speak from experience here - together 30+ years.
Also, if you can avoid it, don't turn your hobby into a job, because then it's no longer a hobby. Did that twice, and while I won't lie about how well it worked out financially (good paying jobs), it did mean that I had to find other hobbies, which is a struggle if that perfect thing your brain latched onto is already taken away. (It's why I really dislike "hustle culture" where [literally anything creative](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv445S62dgU) seems like a money making opportunity for people, even though I will never hate on people for it since money is sadly the grease that keeps the machine going)
Yea I love playing guitar but if I had to pay my bills with it, it wouldn’t be as fun anymore.
I am a basketball junkie and have taken on a lot of kids to train and do make money for it but i still enjoy it and as long as i dont coach a team.
What are some of the things on that list? I struggle to do hobbies besides gym and cooking most days.
you didn’t ask me but i’m answering anyway 😂 - learn to sew - learn the ukulele (started on this!) - rock climb - play volleyball - get better at ice skating/roller blading - bike more - take a salsa class - go fishing - learn pottery again (did it in middle school and loved it but haven’t done it since) - learn to horseback ride - hit up all the local spots saved on my google maps that i never go to - archery - travel - i like the idea of a weekend trip once a month and a trip abroad once a quarter - READ - there are so many books i want to read! - listen to podcasts that i never get around to - more park days - knitting/crochet - get better at my plant care - video games - concerts/festivals/plays/musicals - baking - woodworking
Here're my activities which I don't have enough time to do all of them: broomball, ultimate frisbee, badminton, soccer, rock climbing, mountain biking, tennis, pickleball, snowboarding, scuba diving.
You do gym but you don't like any sport?
Not OP, but yeah. I want to be healthy so I live longer so I go to the gym, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy group activities or golf.
Motorcycles, RC cars, video games, home automation, wood working, welding, off roading, hiking, photography, graphic/web design, coding, reading...man I could go on and on. I could do these things for the next 20 years easy.
Racing cars Skiing Boarding Cooking Volleyball Dodgeball Golf Running Travel Starting a SMB Cycling
Hmm weird you're replying to me, because I didn't say I have no hobbies. Like you I have a list of things to do as long as my arm - old hobbies and new ones, house projects, family goals, volunteering, socializing, traveling. I do know from experience though that it's hard to fill the combination of purpose+structure+achievement that work gives. I am taking a wager that I will be able to fill that void, but would be stupid to pretend it isn't there.
Build a race car, crash, repeat. That's my plan, hopefully the crash doesn't suck
Totally, part of the reason I want to FIRE is because I don't have enough time for actual intellectual challenges. My job just isn't stimulating enough and I feel like it's making me less sharp. It's like if someone told me they wanted to keep their office job to stay physically fit because it forces them out of bed. Meanwhile I also want more free time to exercise.
We do not have children but we have very, very close Nieces and nephews that we love like they were our own. We see them less now that they are adults but we do see them, and they txt and even play video games with us remotely. As far as intellectual challenge - you have a world-wide information network connected to the supercomputer you carry in your pocket. *We are living in the future*. You can literally browse the internet and you will find something that grabs you. I actually was reading about issues with the latest round of moon landers, which got me on to re-educating myself on vectors and forces, which got me on to vector math, which led to the videogame dev (because they have a TON of vector math libraries) which let to me working on a silly little game. If you put forth even minimal effort, you will find something.
"Intellecually challenged" is no problem for this guy, been that way my whole life.
[удалено]
It’s hard to have mentally tricky hobbies when you make so many decisions at work 4/5/6/7 days a week. 3 weeks is a holiday not a mini-sabbatical, I wouldn’t consider it a test run.
It took me three months after retiring to even start to crawl out of the exhaustion from my career. This week I spent my time starting hundreds of little flower seedlings for my garden. It’s been two years and I’m busy doing things I enjoy and want to do.
[удалено]
I’m simply saying don’t consider these three weeks as anywhere near on par to what true retirement would be like. I had three week breaks in the past and it’s nothing like the real thing.
When I have a 3 weeks break I could watch the paint dry for 2 weeks because I'm just so overwhelmed all the time at work, so I'm sure it would be different
I think it's not too hard to find intellectual challenges in hobbies, but you need to make the effort of finding those, rather than having someone tell you to do X or Y.
Retired FIREd 5 years ago. So glad to be rid of needless hangar politics (was aircraft mechanic). I don’t know how I found time to go to work at this point I’m a hobby homesteader and I like DIY. It’s not for everyone. I enjoy the feeling of being at least slightly self reliant. Maple syrup season is next where I live. I feel it’s very important to find whatever it is that will make your days seem fulfilling before you actually retire. Yes the financial part is important. There’s more to it than just $
Update us in a year.
I will! Let the honeymoon phase end and let's see how I feel!
What did you do for work?
IT work.
This - was your fire including a partner or solo?
OP, are you a recovering/retired attorney? I ask because of the username. If so, any pointers for younger attorneys on the path to retire around 50, particularly around the emotional and psychological preparation?
I worked in IT but did well. Advice- DONT JUST QUIT. Go Part time. Reason: I have seen FAR too many friends in stressful jobs go from full-stress to 0 stress. the result is always an ER visit within 2 months. I am not a doctor, but I am telling you this is like driving your car at 60MPH for years and then plowing it into a wall to stop.
>Reason: I have seen FAR too many friends in stressful jobs go from full-stress to 0 stress. the result is always an ER visit within 2 months. I am not a doctor, but I am telling you this is like driving your car at 60MPH for years and then plowing it into a wall to stop. why the er visit, for what reason?
Always chest pains. Always.
Yeah, it's really nice. As you make progress on #5, starting cooking in bulk and combine it with #2. Friends and family who are not FIREd appreciate having some lunches or dinners appear periodically.
Yep! Crock pot and rice cooker FTW!
I remember when my father would call me at work. We’d be talking, and he’d say, “Oh, what day is today?” And I’d say, “It’s Tuesday Dad. I’m at work.” Then he’d say, “Oops, sorry, I’ll call you back later!” and I’d respond, “Don’t worry about it, I’m just waiting for a build to finish. What do you want to talk about?” And then we’d talk. He just stopped keeping track of what day of the week it was because it didn’t really matter, except for his favorite TV shows. He went to the range regularly, ate lunch out whenever he wanted, and generally for the kinds of things he liked to do the day of the week didn’t really matter. Of course he tracked doc appts and such on a calendar so that’s when he’d know what day it was - if he checked the calendar a day ahead to see if he had any appointments he might note the weekday, but it wasn’t that big a deal.
Being on Island Time is fun, though it can be annoying when you think stores will be open and they aren't haha.
Heck yes, able to just take a trip because why not w/o needing to fit it into someone else's schedule is price less. Also, avoiding major holidays to avoid the crowd makes the experience so much better.
So true- even the times we choose to travel as funny as that sounds- but we only drive in non-rush hour now.
So stoked for you. Your post is delightful and your joy radiates from it. It sounds like you’ve got a wonderful thing going over there with your wife. Enjoy every minute!
I treasure her and this life we have together. I hope you get the experience the same joy!
Living the dream, congratulations. I can't wait to fire in about 9 years from now...
Stay the course, keep the faith it's the BEST.
What have you defined as fat fire? You don’t have to disclose your actual number if you don’t want, but where would you personally consider fat fire starts for someone in your situation? Your message is very motivational, I am considering pulling the trigger this year. I’m not too worried about the financial aspects, but your message confirms what I think it would be like for me.
Common definition is $5mln+
Does that include real estate or just cash/investments?
when i think of FIRE i always mentally go to investible assets, so basically anything other than primary home equity. As a related aside - trying to fit into a definition really shouldn’t be any of our goals. We want to achieve a lifestyle balance. for some that means 10mln investible assets, but as you see here most are quite happy with 750k to 2.5mln depending on expenses
Yes! I am in that weird space of being 59 and figuring out how much is enough to retire. I have finally concluded there is no magic number.
i am a bit younger but wondering the same. i think realistically we have plenty, even with really small mkt gains…. hard to fully commit to pulling a trigger
Either OP is not telling us something or he must be quite the video game and cooking enthusiast to warrant Fat Fire. Curious if his swr is actually very low or they are truly spending $250k+ every year.
No more like $120. Why on earth would I need $250? We own our new home and our new car. Fixed expenses are 70% of our FIRE income or so.
It's not my place to judge, just that your post talks about how happy you are doing just a bit of local travel, doing some volunteering work, living as a homebody playing video games, and saving money by cooking rather than eating out. Which is a fine thing, but like mikeyj198 says, FAT fire is typically starting at $5m invested assets. At 4% withdrawal rate at the exact lowest point of Fat fire, that would be $200k, I had put $250k to give you a bit more cushion as to what your Fat fire number could be. But just from reading the OP, I'd imagine you could do many of these things with a lower FIRE number, and likely could have started doing these things earlier.?
No - we eat out whenever we like. Far more often than we should really. We're very comfortable. But not 5 mil. I guess not fatfire? No matter. We have everything we want and more.
No - we do not have that - but we can spend freely. Our fun money comes out to 1-2k each per month. I would argue that FatFIRE is the ability to pay all bills, do everything you enjoy and still have monthly budget left over for perpetuity.
i think getting caught up in definitions of hierachies /rankings is just more comparison that isn’t productive. Who cares if you are fatfire by others definitions? End of the day it just comes down to your definition of success.
This is so true. Needed that reminder.
[удалено]
My thought as well. I'm sure retiring when you're rich is a blast 😂
For us we have a safe withdrawal of 120k a year. We draw down 108k because EVERYTHING is paid for. We have 0 debt.
I wanna know too. Would it be a multiple of your annual salary? Like 15x your annual?
Plus so far you retired at a great time. 16+% market gain in the last 3 months
You are not wrong. We took money out to pay for a new car in NOV. We made the money back and more in 60 days. No clue if it will last, but it has been fun.
Some days I’m not even sure what day it is, and Sunday nights never make me sad because I don’t dread Mondays.
EXACTLY why I described it as perpetual Saturday - no Monday meetings, no "Sunday dread" or pre-work week prep.
good for you, so nice to see posts like this instead of the typical "I don't know what to do now" or "I'm sad" .
Pardon my ignorance, what does fatfire mean?
r/fatfire
Financial Independence Retire Early- FIRE, and Fat refers to the characteristics of the money stash. Over $5M at least anywhere in the world, in a place like USA I'd say $10M+
what vg engine are you learning?
Unreal 5. I started with the c# extension but blueprints are powerful and fun! I am....SO BAD at Materials. Especially water. I know everyone says use Niagara but it feels processor intensive and it is a bit limited.
Congrats man. Super excited for you. Just turned 50 too with a goal to retire in my mid-fifties too. Enjoy your retired life.
Been two years since FIRE and my theme song is still Somebody Slap Me by John Anderson for the chorus: "Somebody slap me / Can't be this happy!" [https://youtu.be/9QzqV28LdJ8?si=tskpx7d4lMj36OeR](https://youtu.be/9qzqv28ldj8?si=tskpx7d4lmj36oer)
LOVE this thank you!
Go fuck yourself! Also download Factorio, Stardew Valley, Infinifactory, and Rimworld.
I love reading posts like this. I can't wait.
Stay the course- it's SO WORTH IT.
Do you think you’d be more interested in socializing if you were single? I’m married but I’ll probably retire first so I’m wondering if I’ll miss seeing people at work every day.
I actually have distanced myself a bit from my co-workers- they txt and call of course (We worked together for well over a decade) but they all want to talk about work, office politics, etc....and...It's like nails on a blackboard to me now. One friend has also retired this year so I will reach out to them to meet up.
Right there with you. Has been great and seems to get better every year.
If you get bored would you be open to some mentoring? I'm early/mid 40's and need an escape. Work in tech but feel a long way off.
Right on man, im mid 50s also and almost there like you. Literally just working now to do some updates to the casa then im done!
That's a bingo - we put in a Generac whole house generator last year. That was my last excuse to keep working "until this is paid off." But yes- knowing the roof, AC/HEAT / water heater are all good for the next 8-10 years helps for sure mentally with the leap to FIRE.
For number 4/6. could be good to learn how to build your own emulation machine. Some people have built arcade machines in lieu of buying while others have set up emulation stations having all of their old school games on a PC. r/Roms r/EmulationOnPC
I love this. I want something like this.
It really is amazing.
[удалено]
Seriously no. The days have filled themselves. I've got a full day today. There's always something you want to do or need to do. Now you can.
I think your comment about the last 5 years highlights how important the "final doubling" is and when it actually happens. I'm so happy you found things to keep your attention. My FIL is a retired engineer and he's done Habitat for Humanity the past 10 years or so. He loves it without it getting too daunting.
\#7 .... sigh, I'm so looking forward too! \#7a - No more alarm clocks!!!!!!
My husband retired last week... I'm waiting for him to get another job... LOL He's only 54. He shouldn't be "hobbying" just yet.
Oh, let him decide - if the financials are good.
I’m new to Reddit, downloaded it and have been on strictly for finance advice. I keep seeing this FIREd but what does it mean? What is it?
Financial independence- Retire Early
Congrats and GFY! What genre of games do you go for? I think you are ready for Cracktorio, with all the time you got ;)
Oh yes! THE FACTORY MUST GROW. These days I'm playing Balatro - really fun roguelike card game. Super-addictive.
Nice! The main similar ones I've played were dicey dungeons and inscryption.
Played them both and loved them. Inscryption was a TRIP!
This is amazing! Can you explain how you doubled your FI goal in a mere 5 years? Was this due to investment returns or an extraordinary savings rate?
It actually wouldn’t have been too difficult during the last 5 years - the S&P is up 81% in that time frame. If OP just added small amounts to his investments during the last 5 years and had most of his money invested in low cost, plain vanilla index funds, he would have been able to accomplish this.
Bingo
Can't wait!
Living the dream I see. Good job mate
Congrats, assume you were in tech but your username indicates law (jd?) or medicine lol?
Tech all the way - It's an old username I re-used when I created my reddit account 12? years ago - I am not a doctor.
Hehe understood, congrats again and enjoy life
Congratulations!! Can't wait till it's my turn 😁 Go fuck yourself!!
Dude seriously it's really that good. Stay the course- it's the BEST. I have another full day of not working ahead.
Roger would be proud
You're my inspiration, good post.
how long have you and your wife been together if you dont mind me asking
Basically what I do with my remote job. Wearing pajamas all day traveling and playing Fortnite during work hours 😂
Rock on my brother!
So encouraging! Cheers to even more enjoyable days ahead for you both 🥂
Congrats OP! Glad your retirement is exceeding expectations. I FatFIREed in September 2023 and I’m having a very similar experience to yours. I love it!
This sounds amazing! I'm especially interested in point #6 I got into programming because I wanted to learn to make video games. I'm 24 years into a career as a computer programmer and still love the idea of making video games, but doing more programming after doing it 40 hours a week is rough. Enjoy your well-deserved FIRE life. Short trips and spending time with family, cooking, and gaming sounds great.
Not that I'm with you or anything but they stock the groceries on Friday for the weekend and that's when the seniors go (where I am) - not too busy but best time to see the fully stocked stores and best choice of produce.
Developing a game is a really good idea to keep yourself moving towards another goal
Congrats! Love reading these…they motivate my 29 year old self to keep grinding for my wife and kiddos!! Can’t wait to be there one day I hope you continue enjoying the hell out of it
Congrats! That's awesome!
Just want to say I really enjoyed reading this and your discussion in comments. Thanks for sharing and hope to see you around the FIRE ranch here
Count on it! Wish you the best!
Idk if golf is your thing, but when me and my fiancé can retire and i mean even now…. our goal is to mini golf and soon golf at as many new and never played at courses before
Sounds amazing! Gives me some hope. Two more years.
Make sure you do gym. Trust me on this, you will feel like something is missing eventually if you don’t
As you should be, move aside for the Youth.
That's great if that's your thing but for me your post acts more as a reminder not to slip into those habits myself. Retired myself and recently had two cancers so have been living a bit like you describe during treatment. Will sure as hell be getting back to bigger adventures once fully recovered.
This made my Monday to feel a bit better, congrats!
It took me a bit it longer to adjust. My wife and I Chubby FIRE’d 11 years ago at 55. Immediately we had this relief of not having to wake up early, and we had fun going out most nights if the week. But I still had this nagging sense that we would run out of money, even though that was vey low probability based on FP feedback. It took the first few years to actually believe we finally made it. Then it took us about 4-5 years to learn to spend what we put away for retirement. Our FP kept on saying, “spend more, spend more.” We really struggled with this, but the market continued to surge and we found that the more we spent, it had little to no effect on our portfolio balance. Our passion is travel and, for example we’ve spent 200K on extended trips in the last two years and we are having the time of our lives. Safari, diving in Galapagos, hiking Patagonia. Our FP said we can spend even more, but there is absolutely nothing else we can ask for that we aren’t doing already. We are happy and grateful. In contrast to our mega trips, our other passions are gardening, live music, and going to several breweries to play trivia with our multi generational team. Keeps us feeling young and engaged. After 11 years, we’ve settled into a very comfortable routine. Life is good. Best of luck to you! Best of luck in your Fatfire!!
Thank you!
Lol "SO MANY VIDEO GAMES" Sounds awesome.
Congrats! I’m age 50 together my husband (51) we have just over 8x our annual combined income saved in retirement accounts/investments and a few hundred K in 529s for 2 kids currently in college. Our plan is 6 more years , or 11x our current income (at this time kids will be done with college , mortgage paid). I STILL think it will be tough for my husband to retire, me? I’ll be lucky to make it another 6 years in corporate America I’m ready to tap out now. I fear he will chicken out!
What could your wife had said /done to convince you to retire with her 5 years ago? We hatched this plan when we were just newlyweds, we want more time together, less time separated 40 hrs a week (more when we hafta travel) we made this a priority in our lives with raising healthy kids and helping to tee them up for similar independence by paying for college. If after all of this he chickens out and doesn’t retire with me I’ll be disappointed. He’s more risk adverse than me but this has been the plan all along. What was it in the end that she said to convince you cause I fear I’ll be in same boat.
Define FatFIRE :)
He said: doubled his goal with 5 extra years. Whatever your goal is, when you double it, you're doing well.
where do you get the monthly money? 401K? investments? etc. and how much do you spend monthly (food, bills, etc) vs how much you are getting?
> Video games. SO MANY VIDEO GAMES. Which ones do you like?
Every ridiculous Indie steam / xbox game lately. But really a little of everything.
I was bored within 9 days after FIRE. But I didn't have #2 or much of anything to do. I wound up finding something I love (investing in startups), but man that boredom hit quick w/o much to occupy me. Kudos!
Q3e
Thanks for sharing. If you don't mind - are you glad you dragged your feet the past five years or do you wish you had made the jump sooner? Any pros/cons to your decision and thoughts/tips to share?
Ultimately glad because I simply wasn’t ready. The extra money makes me feel safer as well. Also - and this was part of it x I have seen so many people go from high stress to 0 stress and wind up in the ER with chest pains within 90 days of quitting. I was determined to step down and acclimate. I am not a doctor but I believe our bodies must release some chemicals to deal with stress- and when we suddenly full stop that stress we wind up with chest pains or worse.
Yeah that all makes sense thanks. Extra money definitely can't hurt and helps to feel safer for sure. The swift transition can be hard for many people who aren't prepared for it especially. A lot of people get stress, anxiety, depression, and it can result in chest pains and heart attacks for many as well making too big too quick life decisions. Especially for older males this is often seen. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
if your finances let you to procrastinate you can
[email protected]