Nothing to do in retirement

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liberty
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Nothing to do in retirement

Post by liberty »

The only reason I haven't retired yet is that I can't find any interesting activity to do in retirement. I just get bored when I have some days off from work. I have tried writing books, but I don't enjoy doing it and I don't think I'm a good content creator.

Any ideas to productive activities I can do beside content creation?

I could develop software, but that's stressful and I never find any idea for it.

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Seppia
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by Seppia »

It's a personal thing, if you don't find anything I'm not sure anybody can really help...
I see you are in Norway, if I were you I would spend all the summer months biking around your beautiful country (I'd start from Lofoten Islands).
Also, are you a good cook? IIRC in Norway restaurants are insanely expensive and the quality was usually so-so at best in my experience: learning how to cook could be good for a variety of reasons (you learn one additional saleable skill, it enhances your social experiences as people are happy to go visit a good cook, it would hep you save money and stay healthy etc)

jacob
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by jacob »

Retirement is different in kind than a couple of days of. It necessitates finding longer and ongoing projects.

It's hard to rely on the world to provide such "entertainment"/projects because most of it is designed for people who only have a couple of days per week or a couple of hours per day. For example, if you want to be a black belt in karate, it will not be easy to find a place where you can train 8 hours per day. If you want to go on a trip with someone, it's going to be hard to find someone who don't have to be back for work on Monday.

Activities certainly exist.

I currently have far more activities than I have time and energy to do, but unfortunately not all of them are interesting.
I guess my question is whether you can't find any activities that are interesting or whether you can't find any activities at all?

liberty
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by liberty »

@Seppia, I think it's more a personal thing, yes. I think others might find meaningful activities.

I do bike, and enjoy it. That may be something I do more in retirement. I also learned to cook some months ago. Should have learned it earlier as it saves a lot of money, and the home made food is healthier.

The problem is that I feel bad when I'm not doing something productive, something to help others.

I can find activities, but most of them are meaningless, like biking around Europe wouldn't help any others. Or maybe if I shared some information, wrote a book etc, but I'm not good at content creation, and I don't like to expose myself.

I would maybe like to create a software product (I'm a programmer), but can't find any idea for it. Also I think it would be very stressful to run a software product (20% of programming is joy and 80% is bugfixing and other pain).

Actually there is one activity I can think of that is kinda meaningful that I have done before: Inventing board/table top games. I invented a game, played with friends, and they liked it. But didn't sell any copies on ebay. Best would be to get a manifacturer to sell it, but didn't succeed on that...

wolf
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by wolf »

Write 20 ideas about a self-chosen topic each day. If you can't think of any topics, write 20 ideas about 20 different topics.
If you do this everyday, It could help you to become more creative.
If it is too difficult, start with 10 ideas each day. I found out about this a few years ago from James Altucher (The Ultimate Guide for Becoming an Idea Machine) and I am practicing it since then.

In addition to that I could recommend you to try creating a Get-a-life-tree. It is from the book: How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor by Ernie J. Zelinski

Dream of Freedom
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by Dream of Freedom »

Why do you feel this need to be productive? For my big brother I know it was because as a child he was criticized for laziness and praised highly for work. Some people just seem to like to help. Others see it as a form of competition like a football game or something.

I guess I'm asking is this an innate part of who you are or other people's ideas pressed onto you. If it is the latter I think you should break free from those constraints. If it is the former you should do you.

liberty
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by liberty »

Thanks for the advice @wolf. I will try to write 20 ideas a day. I have come up with some ideas, but they are mainly "network" things that require lots of users to be useful (example: social media platforms).

liberty
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by liberty »

Dream of Freedom wrote:
Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:14 pm
Why do you feel this need to be productive?
Good question! I'm very (ethically) selfish, and don't care what others think of me. Maybe it's more to achieve something. I want to put out something concrete that I have done - something I have achieved. To work for others is not an achievement (maybe unless you get to top management, then you achieve something in Corporate Life). I need to create someting. It doesn't need to be profitable, but needs at least to be useful.

FBeyer
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by FBeyer »

I keep a little black book with me at all times to capture ideas. Once you DO start writing your ideas down, you'll find that you start getting more and more. Your brain gets trained very quickly to appreciate that 'this guy really likes having ideas, let's do more of that then!'. But it's important that you do something tangible to capture your ideas. It's an integral part of the brain training.

Campitor
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by Campitor »

Say yes to everything and see where it goes: http://a.co/d/7MZhBQM.

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Jean
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by Jean »

Most table top games seems to be published trough kickstarter. Try to look What the other are doing.

FBeyer
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by FBeyer »

The 'others' are making history's most kickass miniatures for their games. The most successful kickstarter campaigns are either run by marketing geniuses or sculpting geniuses. Boardgamegeek.com has an entire section devoted to the development and testing of games.

It's rather popular these days to build a physical copy of the game yourself, and then send the game to those who are willing to playtest it. You pay postage and they give you honest, and proper, feedback. Some popular youtubers even accept those prototype games for online reviews. I know the 4X/worker placement space game Burning Suns did just that.

The genre of game matters a lot. Economic games have a very small, but very dedicated fan base. But they are also picky because the quality of economic games differ quite a lot, and some of the best ones are… well. Mo 'fuggin' kickass! So the marketing strategy for a board game depends heavily on the genre. These days, games (besides war games and economic games) primarily sell based on aesthetics IMO.

hojo-e
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by hojo-e »

https://www.outline.com/pxuurs
When I was struggling with “how to retire”, the most impactful insight came from Tom Gilovich, a leading psychologist and former chair of the Cornell Psychology Department. He told me that I was more likely to find fulfillment and balance in retirement if I focused on my “internal resume” and stopped worrying about my external resume. He observed that many successful people have dense external resumes and surprisingly sparse internal resumes.

Our external resumes are chock full of degrees, accomplishments, and other validating signals of success. I assume many of you are justifiably proud of your external resume. At the same time, our external resumes rarely reveal much about our values, passions, commitments outside of work or the relationships that matter most to us. That’s where the internal resume comes into play. Our internal resumes are focused on personal values and the focus we bring to activities that exclusively nurture our inner sense of purpose, or the impact we have on others. Most importantly, no one else will see your internal resume. You only write it for yourself and you are the only person who edits it.

DutchGirl
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by DutchGirl »

Developing a program by yourself, with no need for it to be commercially interesting, must be less stressful than developing a product with time pressure and money pressure.

Could there be an app or program that is worthwhile to develop (also to help others) while at the same time you can do it by yourself (or mostly by yourself) and without a lot of added cost?

Or could you join a team of developers who develop open source software? (There will probably be more time pressure than if you do it just by yourself, though).

I've seen the huge benefit of a Dutch app to find public toilets quickly - this helps for example patients who have colitis or Crohn's disease. You would need a social network for this specific app, because you rely on others feeding in reliable data.

But other healthcare apps could be helpful just for that specific patient to track or log something. And then going beyond "patients", of course people also want and needs lots of other things where an app or a program might help.

ThisDinosaur
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by ThisDinosaur »

https://wiki.earlyretirementextreme.com ... you_retire
Surprised that hasn't been posted already.

Think of someone you admire, and figure out why you admire them. Then proceed to acquire those skills/accomplishments/qualities etc.

Wrt being productive or valuable to humanity, find one problem you are unusually qualified to solve. One small thing you could do that no one else seems to be doing. Then do that.

prognastat
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by prognastat »

This has never crossed my mind as a concern, currently I have too little time and too many things I want to do.

Who knows maybe once FIRE I'll be stuck with too much time and too little to do, but I doubt it.

Stahlmann
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by Stahlmann »

Stahlamann's Fund is still acceptiping donations. We plan to send quarterly "What to do during early retirement" letter in near future. SIgn up today!

:lol:

liberty
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by liberty »

Thanks for suggestions everyone!

@DutchGirl Surely I could develop software all by myself, and I have also done so before. I don't have more ideas for that, but guess if I spent more time on travelling and being happy, I would be able to find more things to develop for myself. On the other hand: Programming is stressful when the projects become too big. And the bugs are creepy. At work I'm not getting too angry/upset because I get paid, but at home I get crazzzy and smash my mouse in the wall when the bugs bite me...

@prognastat What things you want to do?

prognastat
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by prognastat »

@Liberty

Improve health/get in shape. I have started this by working out 1.5 hours a day, getting to the gym 5 times a week and trying to be more active throughout the day.

I have an interest in spending more time on my archery and possibly eventually bowhunting which would take quite a bit of dedication. I did take up archery earlier this year and am improving, but currently only manage to get about 1 hour a week of practice and would like to increase this to an hour a day if I had the time.

I also have an interest in stop motion animation(think Tim Burton/Henry Selick/Laika). Both the building of puppets/props/stages and the animation itself. Have gathered some learning materials on this front, but haven't started due to lack of time.

I would like to have more time to practice drawing.

Also interested in creating indie video games.

I would like to become somewhat proficient in woodworking. At least to the point of being able to put together basic necessities. Also gathered some learning materials, but lack time to implement.

Not that I would be able to focus on all these things as mastering just 1-2 of them would probably be a full-time job for a few years. However between my current job, working out, travel and basic life tasks about 14 hours a day are taken up on weekdays leaving only some of the weekend a large portion of which time goes towards archery, grocery shopping, meal prepping, cleaning and spending time with my wife.

liberty
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Re: Nothing to do in retirement

Post by liberty »

Thanks for sharing @prognastat. Maybe I should just retire, and figure out what to do while travelling the world. That would likely give more inspiration for ideas than spending almost all my energy on 9-5 job.

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