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

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

#61

Post by NineStarPoint »

themdonuts wrote: post #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 re…

As a counterpoint to your edit, personally work exhausts me to a level where weekends are mostly spent recuperating/doing chores and not being productive. It’s a week or two into the breaks I’ve taken from work where I start being productive in ways I rarely manage during my working periods.

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

#62

Post by agent008t »

gibbonsrcool wrote: post #27
CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except family and friends could become resentful of you, the 6 billion people may have no time for you, and you could end up alone and irrelevant.

Enter association with other people and assume obligations and responsibilities? That's not too different from having a job or a career.

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

#63

Post by yomly »

jimmyvalmer wrote: post #2

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.

Here are some things I am counting down the days til I have the free time to go deep on:

Martial Arts Music Cooking

Here are some things I would love to learn more about

World History Science Gardening Sailing Camping + foraging

Here are some places I've yet to see:

Antarctica, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Tibet, The Pyramids

Not to mention spending more quality time with my friends and family.

Enjoying more of my parents' finite years together

Spending time nurturing my children.

I am not my job. My job serves me - it brings me closer to my goals. When that is not true, it's time for a new job.

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

#64

Post by isoprophlex »

jepler wrote: post #39

What is early? What is stopping working? I semi-retired at 44, but I am still working as a contract programmer and bill for about 20-25 hours a week. I worked a ho-hum programming job for nearly 20 years (yes, just the one), feeling miserable for at least the last 3. There was no "cashing out", though when the company sold to private investors I got something like an extra 75% of a year of pay. It wasn't that money,…

Inspiring story, thanks for sharing.

Any tips on finding "something part time & much more fulfilling"? Did you just wait for something to find you, did you actively search out opportunities..?

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

#65

Post by codegeek »

gibbonsrcool wrote: post #27
CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not everyone is wired the same way. Yes it is nice to go and explore the outdoors (no one can disagree with that usually). But you cannot look down on someone because they choose to do otherwise. The point is that people should do what THEY want to do if they have the freedom to choose.

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

#66

Post by cpr »

I started a "lifestyle" company 32-ish years ago (4 guys all working from home all these years), and have pretty much had complete control of my time and schedule. (Other than periods of intense work bursts that couldn't be avoided, either to get going initially or to finish some critical project.)

It's enabled me to help homeschool our 8 kids over the years (now all flown; youngest just started college) and travel quite a bit with the kids to various music and dance camps around the world, etc. Plus timber framing with sons, wood-fired pizza making, etc, etc.

Don't know if I'll ever formally retire, but could see doing a lot more travel visiting kids and grandkids around the country, and doing more woodworking/timber framing.

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

#67

Post by haswell »

themdonuts wrote: post #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 re…

> the weekends are a pretty good picture of how we'd behave at retirement.

I think this depends on how one’s current job is affecting them.

If you’re near burnout or just work in a very stressful environment, the weekends are more about recovery from the week and might not be a good predictor of future choices when not stressed/burnt out.

Basing this comment mostly on personal experience since I’ve had both productive weekends and lazy/lost weekends and it generally depends on how the current job is going.

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

#68

Post by dougmwne »

NineStarPoint wrote: post #61
themdonuts wrote: post #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 re…

As a counterpoint to your edit, personally work exhausts me to a level where weekends are mostly spent recuperating/doing chores and not being productive. It’s a week or two into the breaks I’ve taken from work where I start being productive in ways I rarely manage during my working periods.

Yes that part didn't ring true for myself. I have found that burnout absolutely kills my weekends. I don't have energy for anything besides doom scrolling. And it takes at least several days off to feel my intrinsic motivation come back. After a week I'm ready to learn Japanese, not go back to work.

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

#69

Post by willcipriano »

daxfohl wrote: post #55
willcipriano wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see this for some jobs. Retire from the army and suddenly you are not jumping out of planes anymore, but programming? Nothing is stopping you from doing that post retirement, and you get to work on whatever you want.

But there's a difference between working on a product that impacts millions of people, versus noodling on a github project with zero followers.

Sure there is. When millions of people use your software you have to consider what those millions want. I guess it depends on what you enjoy about software development. For me I enjoy the craft itself and only let users in because I have bills to pay. My best work is stuff nobody will ever use or care about. It's like being a pop artist VS a relatively unknown experimental jazz musician.

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

#70

Post by baremetal »

wahlrus wrote: post #59
baremetal wrote: post #41

I quit tech, moved to a rural area, and bought some farmland at the beginning of the year. got a couple different jobs to learn how to do things. first building polebarns and then framing houses. got to journeyman in framing last month and quit. finishing up my first barn and now i am getting ready to build a greenhouse over the winter. been preparing the soil. will be ready for planting next year. technically i didn…

I've been daydreaming about this for years. How did you get into building polebarns? And then framing houses? Who did you convince to take you on? Did you have prior experience?

i found a job listing on craigslist and called the guy, he hired me on the spot.

for the framing job i walked up to a framing crew and asked if they needed a guy. they did and so i got hired. i just convinced the boss. the place where i moved to has lots of small crews and lots of home building going on right now.

previous relevant experience includes woodworking and machining. i also watched a fair amount of youtube before and during. ability to do fractional math and read a tape. ability to read and produce mechanical drawings helped.

really it was just being interested in the field and convincing someone i was serious enough about it. and i followed through everyday.

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