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Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

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11–20 of 190 posts

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#11
post #7

It sucks to be frank. It wasn't quite my choice to take an early retirement. Despite what the pundits say, you are your job.

What were the circumstances?

I was fired, but you know how HR will gussy it up with cringey language like "mutual agreement" and what not.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#12

I am happy with my choice. And hey, I've got more time to visit HN! But seriously, I would have been happy to exit the workforce at any point. Working in the tech field has never been healthy for me. It was a hobby that paid sufficiently. Now I have more time to focus on undoing the damage from sitting so much and not remaining physically active.

I hear you on undoing the damage. Going on two years into a long break and I’m still improving my insomnia. Recovering from stress related health problems takes time, in my experience. I love tech and want to live a long time to see what amazing things we create. Sad that the industry takes such a toll on its workers.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#13

It sucks to be frank. It wasn't quite my choice to take an early retirement. Despite what the pundits say, you are your job.

Please don’t listen to this. These are the words of someone who allowed work to destroy the part of themselves that had their own hopes and dreams. Only a shell that could take directions was left.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#14

It sucks to be frank. It wasn't quite my choice to take an early retirement. Despite what the pundits say, you are your job.

Out of curiosity why don't you go back? I did and am enjoying work on the new terms that the "cash out" allows me.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#15
post #10

That's my dream... I have so many hobbies that I can't enjoy because of the lack of time. But it seems that before I save enough, I'll be too old and tired to finally enjoy them. At least I'm not going hungry in the meantime.

You’ll never get there early by saving. The only way is by smart investing.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#16
I quit about a year ago. At first, I had to get used to the new cadence. I was so accustomed to being amped up all of the time, from work, I had to take time to decompress. My schedule ended up growing erratic, so I had to get on a routine schedule. Now, I think I'm 80% recovered. I've been drawing and painting. I joined a maker space, and I've been building stuff. I started work on a game mod. Catching up on Youtube videos, becoming active in the local community. Stuff like that.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#18
I'm far from retiring, but I always take a break between jobs. It used to be only 2 months, then last time it was 6 months. I'm very happy to be in tech because it allows us for that. I don't decide beforehand how much time I'm taking, instead I just reassess myself "am I still productive? Am I still enjoying doing nothing?" When the answer is no that's when I get back to work.

I love DIY so I've used that time to refurbish two apartments and catch up on gold rush. This time it's been 8 months and I'm just working on a side project.

By now I'm not enjoying that much anymore. It's been too long and I start to miss making part of the bunch. I'm also not fully using my time anymore, partially because in the end my wife is still working as well as my friends. I believe there's a limit to happiness when you do things on your own and don't share. At least I'm realizing that. I guess it's time to go back!

Also I wonder if I'll still be able to do this when I'm in my 40s or 50s. My parents always taught me it gets tougher to find a job as you get older. Obviously someone that's good will always find, but I wonder in general how aging will apply to tech.

Edit: As a follow up thought and this is what I've realized, the weekends are a pretty good picture of how we'd behave at retirement. If we are lazy on weekends, we'll be lazy afterwards. If we keep ourselves busy in the weekends with non work stuff, we'll probably be the same after retirement.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#19

It sucks to be frank. It wasn't quite my choice to take an early retirement. Despite what the pundits say, you are your job.

> you are your job I'm sorry to say this, but this is one of the saddest things a person can say in my opinion. You can definitely become your job, but I can't see myself ever wanting something like that.

A teacher impressed on me at a formative age that I wasn't likeable enough that people would ever respect me unless I did good work. I'm definitely reliant on my work (though no particular job) as a core part of my identity, but it's a mutually beneficial relationship overall. Tough love but insightful/fair advice in retrospect.

Re: Ask HN: People who cashed out early and stopped working: What is your life like?

#20

It sucks to be frank. It wasn't quite my choice to take an early retirement. Despite what the pundits say, you are your job.

Please don’t listen to this. These are the words of someone who allowed work to destroy the part of themselves that had their own hopes and dreams. Only a shell that could take directions was left.

Do you know this person? Because I actually love my job, and I feel like if I retired right now it would suck. I would definitely be bored.
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