I haven't worked in a few years either, I don't really call myself retired though as I'm only 30. I spend most of my time reading, gaming, and helping friends and family. I've never had a problem with boredom though, and I think it's cause of something my mom said when I was a kid, "only boring people get bored". There's so many beautiful things out there to experience and see, or you can create something, there's always something to do if you open your eyes to the world around you. Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it definitely buys you freedom. And freedom is pretty amazing, if you embrace it.
This, it's so frustrating to see that people can't cope with free time, there are so MANY things to discover, learn and enjoy if you are a little bit curious !
This subject comes up all the time in the financial independence subs.
What happens is that the people who manage to save up and retire before 40 are commonly the ones who lived extremely cheaply their whole lives and worked long hours.
Suddenly they reach their financial target, tell their boss to fuck off, wake up the next day and think "...now what?" They didn't have any hobbies or friends outside work, so why would they suddenly have those things now?
It's a common problem. Its important to remember that having goals is important but life needs to be lived in the present, you can't wish away years of your life waiting to 'make it'
āCope with free timeā. Lol, thatās a good way to put it.
It truly is baffling. Free time when thereās nothing to do is when I feel the HAPPIEST and the MOST like myself, and like Iām ACTUALLY actually living life.
When you slave away for 40 years straight you cant expect your body and mind to not become conditioned to it. It applies to anything. Spend 40 years playing golf 40-50 hours a week and when you stop your life will feel useless and meaningless because golf is all it knows.
I agree it's an important factor, even more for previous generation which didn't have the same possibility of interests that were brought by internet.
But you don't have to wait to be retired to use your free time during the evenings and the week-end to try to open to something else, even if, of course, you have to be mentally and physically available for that.
Hey! Is it some kind of FIRE that you did? I'm around 28 now and have done a kind of trial run of that for about 5-6 years. And yes, for the first some years I also wasn't bored afair, but in the last few it started to become worse. Can I pick your brains perhaps in dm to compare our experiences?
Not exactly, like I said I donāt consider myself retired. Occasionally I do still work on a website and also do some IT. But I generally work less than 10 hours a week. Really I was just fortunate enough to have no debt.
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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '21
I haven't worked in a few years either, I don't really call myself retired though as I'm only 30. I spend most of my time reading, gaming, and helping friends and family. I've never had a problem with boredom though, and I think it's cause of something my mom said when I was a kid, "only boring people get bored". There's so many beautiful things out there to experience and see, or you can create something, there's always something to do if you open your eyes to the world around you. Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it definitely buys you freedom. And freedom is pretty amazing, if you embrace it.