Life after early retirement: the elephant in the room. What to do after the cruises, the skydiving, the teetering stack of books on the night stand? The main danger of FIRE is that you might be running hard away from something rather than toward it — that you’re propelled only by the too-nebulous idea of escape. And then, even for those who lay out a clear road map for decades of nirvana, the loneliness can eat at you.
FIRE means Financial Independence Retire Early.
The article is helpful for people who don’t understand money. Life works better if you understand yourself.
I’ve always liked to work. Having an objective and working with people is a communal experience. In my teens, working at Burger King brought friends and social activities that wouldn’t have been their otherwise. Now that I’m retired, some of those friends are still in my life.
At Ohio State, working dorm security two nights per week was like a slumber party with my friends. After 1 am, there wasn’t much work to do. I tried studying the first year, but doing engineering homework at 4 am was murder. Instead, we’d shoot pool, play cards or invent games. The creative diversions that come from forced boredom couldn’t happen with smart phones and the internet. I don’t think, maybe it could still be fun.
It helps to be competent and conscientious. If you can do your job without moping around, people want to talk to you. My engineering time at Caterpillar took hard brain-working, but onsite, we usually had a small group working all night when the factory was less active. I met all sorts of interesting people.
After my principal at North Royalton made my job untenable and I’d announced my retirement, the principal visited my classroom a few times to chat. It was strange, like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t work up the gumption. Once, while I was packing up my stuff, I left a gap in the conversation so he could say what he needed to say. Instead, he says, “I had a cookie tin like that. My aunt used to give me cookies in a tin like that.”
I had the impression that he wanted forgiveness or absolution.
Another time, he said, “I just turned 50. If I could, I’d retire right now and do what I love.”
I thought ruining education was what he loved, but maybe that was just a job to him.
I said, “I agree. Thing is, I love teaching physics. You’ve taken that off the table, so I’ll do other stuff I love, like going camping or building stuff.”
I look at it like he did me a favor. He fucked over a whole bunch of students who will never go into engineering, but I enjoy my time going camping, building stuff and hanging out with Sparky.
It’s odd to me that everything has to be part of a cause or movement, and have a name and community.
LeanFIRE: Get to early retirement by living off beans and stringent penny-pinching.
CoastFIRE: Get to early retirement by front-loading your retirement savings and “coasting” on compound interest and working lightly until you’re ready to quit.
BaristaFIRE: Quitting your job but buttressing your retirement with a side gig, such as that of a part-time barista, to receive health-insurance benefits.
FatFIRE: Get rich quick by coming up with some clever and scalable way to make money early on. Like Allen Wong in the article, enjoy a luxurious, no-sacrifice retirement.
I retired a few years earlier than I’d planned, but not as some kind of movement and actually enjoyed my job. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy my retirement.
Now does seem like a good era for entrepreneurs. Being an influencer seems to be a way to bring in money without having a boss, but there is a lot of knowledge and effort that goes into it. The key seems to be getting started, and eventually coming up with the right concept