excerpt from Keynes essay "economic possibilities of our grandchildren."Yet there is no country and no people, I think, who can look forward to the age of leisure and of
abundance without a dread. For we have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy. It is a
fearful problem for the ordinary person, with no special talents, to occupy himself, especially if
he no longer has roots in the soil or in custom or in the beloved conventions of a traditional
society. To judge from the behaviour and the achievements of the wealthy classes today in any
quarter of the world, the outlook is very depressing! For these are, so to speak, our advance
guard-those who are spying out the promised land for the rest of us and pitching their camp
there. For they have most of them failed disastrously, so it seems to me-those who have an
independent income but no associations or duties or ties-to solve the problem which has been set
them.
https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/conte ... tion_I.pdf
Reading the thread about FIRE catching on as a mainstream phenomenon made me remember this. Maybe most people would be better off using a plan geared toward semi-ERE, where you save enough to cover a portion of your bills passively, and have a comfortable safety cushion (Fuck you money?), then just pull the trigger and work a part time job. More attainable than full early retirement extreme where you cover 100% expenses, maybe more desirable for Joe Average? (Also adds another layer of insurance by keeping you in the workforce if stuff goes badly on the investment side.)
There are a surprising number of "retired" boomers in my village that work part-time, not because they really need to, but because they are bored and adrift without some work.
Another copy and paste quote for good measure
― Blaise Pascal, PenséesAll of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.