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

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21–30 of 190 posts

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

#21

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.

I have plenty of avocation runway to explore.

Hoping that the global economy is past the hangover by the end of the decade.

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

#22
I suggest a read of Ikigai ( https://www.amazon.com/Ikigai-Japanese-Secret-Long-Happy/dp/... ) to get some fresh perspective about retirement. The book talks about centenarians in Japan, their happiness and its link to never retiring.

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

#23
post #5

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 hope you don’t take it personally, because it’s not intended as such, but this is sad.

I think there is a lot of truth to it. I would guess for the majority of people here, they deeply identify as tech workers and it is a huge part of their being. Hopefully it isn't everyone's entire life though.

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

#24

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.

[deleted]

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

#25
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.

Or luck, or crime. There's probably overlapping Venn diagram circles there with investing.

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

#26
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did you cash out early or were you fired?

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

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is mind boggling. Bored? You have all your free time to literally do anything you want. You can explore the outdoors. You can learn ANYTHING you want. You could get to know more of the worlds 6 billion people and their cultures. Volunteer, start a new hobby, spend more time with family and friends, work on personal growth, exercise... you have Stockholm syndrome, snap out of it.

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

#28
It’s fantastic. I have never struggled to fill my time, so a world without a formal job just allows me to spend time on what I care about. At the moment about a third of my time is spent working on mechanical projects and cars. Whatever I imagine I can actually work on and build, and whatever skills I lack I have time to learn!

Another third of my time is spent pursuing paragliding. It’s something I found interesting before, but I just never had the flexibility in my life to take more than a week off work. Now I can live in Colombia for a month at a time, both a great environment and change of pace, and a fantastic way to learn.

The rest of my time I work on a little mini startup. It’s different than what I was doing before because it’s decidedly ‘lifestyle’. No VC money. Just building something I find interesting with people I like. If I don’t want to do something, or I don’t have the time, I simply say that! It’s all the fun of building a product and bringing it to the market with a world less stress.

The most important thing to know is: I didn’t plan any of this. I was so burnt out that thinking of anything I wanted to do was challenging. But after six months of cranking on cars and other mundane projects the world opened in front of me, and I realized all those things I loved doing as a child are still with me.

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

#29
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right, and can you not just get another job if you want to continue working?

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

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I enjoy coding quite a lot, but I have enough other hobbies and interests, so if I didn't code ever again, I'd just focus more on other things that I enjoy.
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