I’m retired so I fill my days doing whatever I want. But I’m always interested in what other people would do if they had more free time.
I can tell you exactly what I do, because 25 years ago, I chose to forgo promotions at work and prioritize free time and quality of life over money:
I spend time with my family.
I do the things I want while I’m still young (or rather, while I was still young 🙂).
Generally leading a good life free of stress and drama.You were given only one life. You have a finite set of hours on this dirtball, and the countdown is running. Every extra hour you give to your employer in exchange for money is an hour you don’t spend with your loved ones, and you can’t buy it back. Retirement age is too late to enjoy your life.
Nobody goes to their graves thinking they should have worked more.
I can tell you exactly what I do, because 25 years ago, I chose to forgo promotions at work and prioritize free time and quality of life over money:
My hero! I just recently retired at 55 for same reason.
I’m the same age and I’ve been retired for 25 years 🙂
I have a job I really enjoy that I do a few hours a day, for the money sure, but also for fun. And then I enjoy a lot of extra hours doing the things I want.
It’s like retirement but with a few hours of fun stuff I gotta do every day, sure, but it’s still fun. When I retire for real, I just won’t do the few hours of fun no more.
I’m the same age and I’ve been retired for 25 years
I would have if I could have. But I had to wait until I hit the “20-years in” mark to be able to get my pension. It’s the lowest pension because I’m out early, but like you, I wanna enjoy stuff while I’m still fit and healthy.
My gf is 35, so she kinda sorta tried to talk me out of it. She’s fine with our age difference, but I think she got caught up in “OMG you’re getting a pension!” haha
After she noticed how much I mess around and do whatever I want now, she sorta changed her attitude. But I’ll be honest, she seems to be a little passive-aggressive. Maybe jealous of it?
Even tho she makes more money than I do, she seems a little bit resentful, so I dialed back the “Oh I just read this really good book all day” comments.
Not sure if our relationship will make it. But I don’t care. I have no regrets about retiring early. And now I get to fuck around on Lemmy all day too! haha
A smattering of random stuff because I have ADHD and being able to do whatever comes up on a whim is how I spend my vacation leave since it is the only time I don’t feel stressed.
Still get the essentials done, but not on society’s schedule.
Still get the essentials done, but not on society’s schedule.
One of the main reasons I retired early. I actually liked my jobs, I just hate being on anyone else’s schedule. It seems so petty, but I gave up a lot of money just to be on my own schedule. lol
Get high and vibe. It’s my favorite thing, but it’s an expensive illegal hobby sadly.
Not expensive or illegal where I live. Stay strong, brother.
Sounds amazing. I work from home and manage my time as I see fit, working hours range from 2-12 depending on current load, so I’m totally on board with maximizing free time if I get my stuff sorted efficiently.
Guess if I cut it further, I would try to get more into gardening.
I tried gardening before, but I’m pretty terrible at it. But I only retired recently, so this spring, maybe I will give it another go.
Create a game. I’m already over the first obstacle which is knowing how to program. Being the only girl in my IT class, I’d create these little unfinished games as a hobby, save them to a flash drive and show them off to my IT teacher, who was very impressed and encouraged me to go into the game development industry. I’ve been wanting to create a full fledged game ever since! 😃
That’s awesome!
nothing,
glorious nothing
Nothing, can be very glorious! I make sure to load that into my day every day.
so, what? half the work hours but at double the rate of pay so it comes out the same?
probably read more. cuz that’s free. i can’t afford to do much else.
I considered it more as you’re not working, you have a fixed income in this situation. Like a retired person.
Exactly.
Not quite what I meant. I just mean what if you had more free time, but not more cash. Sort of what you wanna do for free that you can’t do now because of time restraints.
I’ll edit to rephrase the question.
I’d travel more. I could never afford to leave the country of course but I’d like to see neighboring states or even just see more places in my own state. I want to know what it’s like to exist in the world before it’s gone.
I have done more traveling, but not out of the country. I have no desire to leave the country. We have plenty of beautiful things here in the US. But I live in such a beautiful state, I have the best views just outside my windows.
I think about this a lot, I have no actual clue what I would do. I wish I had a proper hobby to put my time in. Right this moment I could take some form of second job, I’m hungry for moneyyy (to pay off mortgage)
Yes, pay off that mortgage. To be honest, the only reason I’m able to be retired at 55 is because I paid off my mortgage. If I hadn’t done that, then my pension wouldn’t really be enough to pay bills. But since now I have no bills, it works out.
Debt-free is the only way to be truly free in my opinion. Good on ya, mate!
This is honestly a scary question. My work and hobbies blend together. Outside of them I have zero idea what I would want to do. Sometimes that makes me feel really empty.
Actually that doesn’t seem empty to me at all. That’s great that you were able to blend the two! And it’s always easy to pick up another hobby.
Read more instead of audiobook on a commute or work through my backlog of unfinished games
Yep, I prefer reading to audiobook for sure
I already have a lot of free time when my boys go to their moms for the week, and it’s fairly busy when they are with me. Plus I work from home, and enjoy a good amount of autonomy with my workload.
You could say I am balancing both sides of this discussion. But I’ve been dealing with a lot of baggage — both from my marriage and other trauma from growing up — so despite my available free time, I struggle to find motivation to do things outside of the basic responsibilities of being an adult/father.
It’s not for a lack of want though. I have a long list of things I want to do. Some more expensive than others. But even the free stuff isn’t that appealing at the moment.
Ideally, I would like to get into exercising regularly, and pick back up on woodworking. I want to hardscape my backyard by building a stone patio/fire pit, and rebuild my deck. Today it occurred to me that I could build a chicken coop and raise chickens, and potentially sell the excess eggs for a little extra income. I also have to paint and decorate my house.
I suck at motivating myself. 🤣
Brother, I hear you and I feel you. I know all about baggage. Just let it go little by little if you can’t let it go all at once. You got this!
Thanks! I’ve been in therapy for the past year and a half, and have been doing all of the hard work. I’m definitely in a much better place than before, but I’m still stuck in the freeze. I’m sure it’ll come back eventually, but right now, like you said, I’m just letting it go little by little. 😊
I’m with ya in spirit, friend.
