Retirees, what do you do all day long?

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liberty
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Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by liberty »

Would love to hear some description for those who have retired (here defined as "quit their regular job") of how your days are going. I have projects to work on, but it's not always easy to work when I don't have to. Also the choices gives me anxiety, more choices is not always good. When you every day can do whatever you want, it's easy to get paralyzed. Would be nice to hear from retirees what you do on a day-to-day basis.

I guess I could find info in the journals too, but I have a hard time finding journals from retirees describing their day-to-day life... If you know any, please share a link :) Or just describe here - I would really love to hear some ideas. If others have a hard time to push themselves on their projects, it could probably be a good idea to make a group to discuss projects with each other. If one person writes a book while another writes an app, they could give feedback and share ideas with each other.

ffj
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by ffj »

I dabble in all of my interests. I try very hard not to hyper focus too much on any one thing, and as soon as I tire even slightly in whatever I am doing, I move on to another activity. That means I have several open projects going on continuously that I can drop and pick up whenever I desire. I never run out of things to do, and they always interest me for the most part. Yesterday I made whole wheat bread while I researched geodesic domes. After I cleared brush in my woods for a couple hours. Day went by fast.

You'll need to work, but try not to do more than 3 or 4 hours a day. Or work a full day 1 or 2 days a week. I also let my body sleep as needed. No more alarm clocks unless I absolutely need it. The only time I get anxious is when I know I've spent too much time on my computer and that I need to get moving and doing something. You need a balance of work/study/thinking/relaxation.

You'll need to create a system to accomplish this but once in place it's rather enjoyable. Good luck.

IlliniDave
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by IlliniDave »

liberty wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2022 9:45 am
... When you every day can do whatever you want, it's easy to get paralyzed. Would be nice to hear from retirees what you do on a day-to-day basis ...
At the risk of sounding snarky, for the most part I do whatever I want. Are you already retired or is this something you're thinking about prior to retirement?

I have an annual rhythm which is spending ~4 months up at a cabin I have up near the Canadian border that is semi-off the grid. The sub rhythm there involves a lot of fishing/kayaking/exploring/hiking which I adjust around the weather. I'm usually up early, make coffee, check in with email and stuff on days I have functional wifi. Then I'm usually repairing/re-rigging fishing rigs to get ready for my next adventure on the water. If I have to run into town for something this is normally around the time I'll head in (places open 0700-0800). Otherwise weather permitting I'll head out for some outdoor recreation for 3-4 hours, then back for a power nap, then back out again. Come back late afternoon/early evening, fix something to eat, practice/noodle around on guitar, read for a while, then go to bed when it gets dark.

The other 8 months I'm in the mundane world and when I'm not frittering away chunks of days on little chores and appointments and such I tend to be somewhat lazy. Spend a couple hours on music, an hour playing games, some amount of time on correspondence. I recently joined the fiction writing mastermind group so going forward I'll be resurrecting that hobby. Related to both the fiction writing and music I do enjoy the long-form fiction available from the various series on Netflix and the like. The good ones are more or less like 10- or 20-hr movies. I like the long-form story-telling versus the standard 1.5-2 hour movie, and I've become intrigued by cinematic music. So I can justify binge-watching as "study" pursuant to my creative pursuits. ;) I also spend an amount of time looking in on my dad and visiting with him.

I've only been retired for about 16 months, so thinks are apt to evolve as time goes on. I know we hear a lot about people that retire and find themselves so excruciatingly bored they wind up back in the workforce. But I haven't personally encountered any of those people. I'm certainly not one.

Maybe it speaks ill of me, but I'm not very accomplishment-focused once I accomplished the Big Accomplishment (early retirement). Several others here are quite opposite of me in that regard. If you've got a long list of things you want to do, maybe winnow it down to just a few and call it a 1-year or 3-year plan or something. Focus on those knowing you have a dedicated point in the future where things that got left off can brought front and center. In the runup to retirement I made long lists of things and decided on that sort of approach. My first 3-year plan is pretty light to give me plenty of opportunity to feel my way around and adjust to the absence of the corporate grind. The items I selected were 1) ease into the longer stays up in the woods and get settled there, 2) up the amount of time/effort I put into guitar stuff, 3) start writing again, and 4) spend time with my dad while he's still around. I might add things before the 3 years are up, or exchange things, or whatever. The overarching goal is to learn what a "good life" is for me and try to live it as I learn.

chenda
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by chenda »

Get up late, avoid alarm clocks, read, write, potter about, clean and declutter stuff, watch you tube, go for long walks, life admin, plan trips...

liberty
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by liberty »

Thanks for your help!
ffj wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2022 10:31 am
The only time I get anxious is when I know I've spent too much time on my computer and that I need to get moving and doing something. You need a balance of work/study/thinking/relaxation.
That's one of my problems, I'm sitting to much in front of my computer. I should probably get some more physical projects. Maybe I could start a business that requires more physical work, or "work away from the computer". I'm not a handyman, though, and doing work in a garden, fixing a boat etc doesn't interest me. There should still be interesting activities that I could do away from the computer.

@IlliniDave I have been retired for one year. Fiction writing is a nice activity. I have been doing lots of fiction myself, in an eternal "movie" made by me and my brother (we always play these crazy characters when we meet), but have not written any of it down.

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Sclass
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by Sclass »

All day long…,

The day goes by quite fast.

After I retired I had a ton of time on my hands. It almost killed me to have the immense burden of work removed from my back because I just wasn’t accustomed to it. My CEO asked me during my exit interview what I was going to do Monday and I couldn’t answer him. It was all he could offer me. More work. He knew I wasn’t there for the money anymore.

Fast forward ten years. Lots of little craft projects. Engineering projects. Oddly I’m very consistent at completing them and the shelving them. Either I take on stuff that’s too easy or I really like wrapping things up. Once all the intellectual stimulation is wrung out of some distracting project - ranging from circuit designs, sewing machines, old Mercedes repairs, leather craft, up cycling etc. I move on to another thing. I research, gather materials, do then shelve. Repeat.

After ten years I realize I’m just distracting myself. Running away from a bunch of things in my mind. Abusive childhood. Expectation of lifetime achievement or work ethic. Familial duty. Substance abuse.

I realize I’m just a junky looking for his next fix. I have tried really hard to direct myself towards rushes that either make me richer or save money. No more chemicals except those already in my body. Producing finished goods is part of the high. That’s why I think I have a high rate of completion instead of a pile of half finished stuff.

Sadly I get bored after I’m done and I move on. I have a shop full of functional machines. Interesting ones too. But covered in plastic waiting for use.

I spend a day a month maintaining my late mom’s home in Pasadena. It’s a big place and it’s a challenge keeping it presentable single-handedly with five hour a month visits. That is a treadmill of work…I’ll never be done there because of entropy.

I’m a member of a Los Angeles Mercedes car club. I trade in vintage parts and remanufacture unobtainable parts for other enthusiasts.

I run a small business making digital filters out of my garage. Kind of a hobby business. I stayed away from this thing for years because it was too much like what I did while employed. But I decided to fill a niche market during the pandemic and it has grown into a side hustle. Engineering is over so mostly it’s shipping and receiving now. Ordering contract manufacturing from China. Inspecting assembled goods. Repacking and shipping. The stars kind of lined up on this any it was too good to let it get away. I try not to think of it as work but it does take up a few hours a week.

I think this is why I do so many short lived small projects in retirement. It’s addiction and life management. Getting unloaded is a big change that requires management. Most folks out there dream about retirement but don’t really know what to do when they actually fall into the middle of it. Like group sex in a way.

rube
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by rube »

Sclass wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:27 pm
Most folks out there dream about retirement but don’t really know what to do when they actually fall into the middle of it. Like group sex in a way.
Unfortunatly :?: I have no experience with the latter :lol: and so far only 6 months with the first. Since I have been only out for 6 months I have still been busy with different things like DYI/renovating part of the house, my father passed away, traveling with the family, administrative things, rentals. At certain times I am lazy, non productive, don't feel to do anything. But I guess/believe that's okay as I am still doing tons of things at other times. I don't have a fixed day rhythm though. I don't have had the feeling of "traditional being retired" and being completely bored. Quite the contrary, I feel at certain times still (too) busy, but that's what I do to myself I guess.

ffj
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by ffj »

@liberty

You don't have to copy any of us which is a good thing. I think the biggest message to take from the responses is that nobody is sitting around idle every day. If you were creative and disciplined enough to get out of the game early then that doesn't lend itself to atrophy once the shackles are off.

For me this involves creativity and change-ups in the mundane. Instead of cooking the same old shit every day, try a new recipe. Give yourself a reason to be excited over a simple meal for example. If it is good, then go share it with somebody and this doesn't have to be a friend. Now do that with everything that you do. Do you like to walk or hike? Research the area first you'd like to visit and then see if you can piece it's history together as you exercise. Now go find a historian and do some more research as you now have context. Bonus if you get to speak to someone on it. What you are doing is trading momentous highs (and lows) in your old life for pleasant anticipations and discoveries in your new one. It takes creativity though, and that has to be developed and exercised everyday. You can apply this in every aspect of your life.

Regarding the computer usage what I do is check in frequently to sites like this and elsewhere and then I go and do something in between. I also kill two birds with one stone and listen to podcasts while working or exercising. What is important though is that once any of this becomes slightly boring then you must change-up your routine and you would be surprised on how even slight variations give new life to your pursuits. But yeah, get off the electronics enough each day to accomplish something.

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unemployable
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by unemployable »

Feed cats. Change litter boxes. Walk dogs. Play with any nearby pets that don't have feeding or excretory needs. Looks for more opportunities to do same when calendar is not otherwise occupied. Travel. Explore strange new worlds; seek out new life and new civilizations. Walk. Hike. Camp. Read. Clean. Fix things that are broken and within my capacity to figure out. Cook or eat if hungry. Sleep if tired or look for place to do so if not already secured. Surf internet. Follow financial markets; adjust investment portfolio if deemed necessary. Watch TV if my team is on and I can figure out how to get the game; otherwise pirate the stream.

How about the inverse question:

People with typical 21st-century jobs, what do you do when it's not the hour or two a day you need to spend on doing your job?

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Sclass
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by Sclass »

@unemployable you didn’t mention nationwide house sitting hunt. I’ve been enjoying your journal entries. I’m not sure what to call it - a lifestyle, hunt, housing hack, game. Closing these arrangements sounds like subsistence fishing to an outsider.

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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by guitarplayer »

I currently do lots of experiments, learn maths, stats and street philosophy and how to make machines do what I want them to. Also hang out with my wife and talk ERE. There is quite some other stuff I do, too. I think retirement is an elective that can be chosen while still working.

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unemployable
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by unemployable »

Sclass wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2022 4:58 pm
@unemployable you didn’t mention nationwide house sitting hunt. I’ve been enjoying your journal entries. I’m not sure what to call it - a lifestyle, hunt, housing hack, game. Closing these arrangements sounds like subsistence fishing to an outsider.
I've mentioned it a few times, but didn't start it as a lifestyle until a month or so ago, nor did I formally announce it or devote many words to it specifically.

For now I'm booked into the middle of January. I'm on the most popular site, for which there seems to be little competition, at least in the US. Filling the calendar has a learning/experience curve and is somewhat of an art.

I am well-experienced in car-sleeping, including knowing of places to park in locations I'd want to be. This helps not only with the downtime between sits, but also with belaying an urgency over getting a particular sit.

I find myself fixing or maintaining lots of little things in the houses I sit. Raking leaves, changing light bulbs, buying cooking utensils or alarm clocks the house doesn't have, spot-cleaning carpets, cleaning years-old gunk off stuff. The bed in my current sit is basically a futon, so I bought an air mattress to put on top of it, which I will leave for the next sitter. Some of this is stuff the owners don't think about or are aware is an issue, and it's not necessary a wealth thing as I've fixed many things in my friend's $3 million place in the Boulder suburbs. I'm just like that, a neatness/maintenance freak.

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Sclass
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by Sclass »

rube wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2022 2:08 pm
Unfortunatly :?: I have no experience with the latter :lol: and so far only 6 months with the first.
Yeah that was a joke. I barely know what to do with one partner. :lol: But I cannot get past the analogy. Some people really dream about retirement or attaining sudden wealth while not having any plan of what to actually do once there.

The first six months was a big transition for me. At six months my savings account where my paycheck had been previously deposited was drawn to zero. I was suddenly forced to think about making my nest egg into sustainable income at that point. It’s one thing to know your SWR and another to actually withdraw it in a sensible way. This was thrust upon me when my account was spent down.

The good news is you have just bought yourself a ton of time. Now you just need to sit back and strategize. You can war game plans all day long.

ertyu
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by ertyu »

I took off about a year and a half for covid. I returned to work because I'm a chicken and I don't feel like I have enough money, but for me there was definitely a period of sit and stare at the wall while you recover from job burnout. So that's also a thing that can happen and it can take about a year to come back to yourself if you were in a bad place when you quit

IlliniDave
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by IlliniDave »

ertyu wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2022 6:54 pm
... but for me there was definitely a period of sit and stare at the wall while you recover from job burnout. So that's also a thing that can happen and it can take about a year to come back to yourself if you were in a bad place when you quit
I found that something along those lines was true even when quitting from a good place, or at least believing I was quitting from a good place. I relocated to a medium-term temporary housing situation right after leaving the workforce and once that transition was done there was definitely a decompression period. I can't say I've shed it 100% yet.

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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by jacob »

Most of the work I've done in my life, including working in jobs, have been creative and intellectual(*) in nature. In this case, there's no linear relation between "pushing" and "progress". Instead, it's more like this https://earlyretirementextreme.com/prod ... -eggs.html

Not working a specific job means that I'm not locked-in to trying to come up with creative ideas about one narrowly specified project at a time and proceed to do so in some sequence of closed-ended projects. I have a handful of "interesting [to me] subjects" which slowly change over time, likely due to how I'm changing over time. These are very open-ended, perhaps sometimes too open-ended, which means that it's on me to try to structure them. On a given day, week, month, or year, I'm free to pick up any of them or drop them again if inspiration strikes elsewhere. My mind is no longer in job or career-prison.

(*) Being a retirement figurehead, this has been a bit of a problem when the media has sent out someone with a camera to "show" what I do all day. Unfortunately, watching my "outer life" is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Imagine a TV series following a WFH admin on a typical day. In fact, that's what DW does, and on the surface we don't appear to be doing much differently. We both sit in front of a computer most of the day. However, she (who is also FI) wants the structure of projects, whereas I resent such a structure. Incidentally, she spends way more time in flow-mode than I do.

Speaking of phases of interests, read this: https://www.getrichslowly.org/early-retirement-extreme/ I did have a period where I was into yacht racing and swordsmanship, which is exciting to everyone. This slowly transitioned into "DIY maker-style", which is exciting to maybe 10% of the population. However, I've pretty much reached diminishing returns on that. If it ain't broke, I ain't gonna fix it (I don't enjoy "upgrading" for the sake of "upgrading".) So in the past few years, I've been more focused on the (inter)subjective (left hand side) side (of AQAL) and thinking about psychological and cultural development. This is exciting to maybe 1% of the population :-P

Lately, I realized that I've spent the past 20 years mostly focusing on doing useful things for others, like solving the world's problems, presenting solutions, supporting ERE, doing media interviews. "Being useful to others" practically acted as a filter for any activity: If it didn't somehow add value to the world, I wasn't doing it(**). But it became increasingly clear that I was simply constructing another, albeit bigger, prison for myself. This year, I therefore decided that I need to balance this out by doing something "useless for myself". As such, I started playing video games, something I haven't really done for more than 2 decades. I'm currently focusing on Pokemon Go (I walk 7k per day on average) and Kerbal Space Program. KSP in particular seems to bring out the same feelings in me when I calculate and execute an orbital transfer burn as those in the ecology-MMG show when they see an eagle. It's a beautiful thing to experience when you are able to deeply connect with what's happening.

(**) Indeed, this eventually filtered out my astrophysics career which wasn't meaningful under that filter.

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Jean
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by Jean »

i play video games (lot of ksp, among others), i go hiking, i meet friends, i make some music, i do my hunting license.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by mountainFrugal »

ffj wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2022 3:03 pm
It takes creativity though, and that has to be developed and exercised everyday. You can apply this in every aspect of your life.
An interesting book in this regard is How to be an Explorer of the World by Keri Smith. I have mentioned it several times on the forum. It has a number of low stakes exercises to start noticing details in mundane things and making connections between them like @ffj suggested.

WFJ
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by WFJ »

In my past and future ERE time I roughly pursue a mix of physical health activities and some kind of formal intellectual pursuits. I roughly have these pursuits/ideas always in my mind if I were to be fired or company closed tomorrow my entire life as both of these have happened several times, plan B was executed the next day. Luckily WFH has basically been a glidepath into fulltime ERE this time and don't anticipate any adjustment period.

Physical activities differ by age and location. I'm currently in a location that is optimal for an activity, but a little too intense for someone at my age for much longer (nobody here is 5 years older and enjoying the activity), so moving to a more ideal location for "mature" individuals (extreme sport by most estimates). In the past I would train with elite level athletes just to work on my technique and when one is RE, they are free all the time and available as a training partner to many elite athletes. New location is also known for extensive health spa and will spend time learning about this industry not only for my health, but as a possible future part time gig. it is quite rewarding to help people improve their lives even if incremental.

Have dabbled in 3x more careers than I've actually pursued fulltime, read about it, contact random people in an industry ask "How did you get to be a ______? Can I ghost you for a day or two?" Maybe 25% of the people are friendly and helpful but ignore the results of the other 75%. I take tons of hobby jobs which extends my social circle and interactions in ways that are impossible to predict. Not wanting a fulltime career opens up many opportunities in all kinds of industries. When I've been RE, if I notice a good environment in my daily activities and get to know some workers I'll just ask "Do you ever hire someone for 5 hours a week?"

Although I've been WFH since Spring 2020, still required to be in a location and have watched more TV in the last 2 years than in the previous 20, watching many shows that people talked about. Didn't miss anything, once I leave here, might not turn on a TV for years.

liberty
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Re: Retirees, what do you do all day long?

Post by liberty »

Training with elite athletes is a great idea, @WFJ . I'm currently a nomad and do some different sports in each location, dependent on what's available.

Also to ghost someone for work is a great advice! I should try this when I see an interesting job.

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