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

Post by _o2dt » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 8:33 AM UTC

thoreauitaway wrote: post #122

Well it started slow, and I spent my twenties working very hard, but by 30 I had a few million dollars and decided to take a few years off. I had never really traveled, so I spent most of the next few years living out of a suitcase and at one point hadn't been back to my home country for a couple of years. I went from only having visited a few countries briefly to having seen quite a lot of around 70 countries. I did…

Post by heliodor » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 2:15 PM UTC

iSnow wrote: post #137

fsiefken wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about picking up a hobby where long stretches of concentration aren't needed and there can be a slight social angle? I personally would love to have more time for solo board gaming or board gaming online? With board gaming the social interaction is on rails with the game, the same goes for joining a book club or more non-cognitively with solo or pair dancing. And then there is the meditative path. * solo board g…

Thanks for answering :) I could do all that, it's just that nothing "clicks" in the sense that I really want to do it, instead of doing it to pass time. That sounds like depression and maybe it is, but I feel it's got more to do with the "I have achieved all I wanted in life, wife, kids, wealth, whoops, now what?" thing. When I was younger, every item of that list seemed like a challenge, and now that they are behind…

Post by yoav » Wed, Oct 13, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

sriram_malhar wrote: post #180

yoav wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interested what your PhD is in and what motivated you to pursue it.

I wrote about it in this thread. There are a couple of entries there, so look for my user name). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21299546

Post by mikmeh » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

saddington wrote: post #186

i'm 38, about to be 39... and i'm semi-retired. built a great career around software and then got a bit lucky with investing... and now that's kinda on auto-pilot. i'm actually trying to figure out what i want to do in the next 40 years of my life. i like building stuff and still have an exciting "tech startup" on the side. i have 3 kids and so my focus is mostly on making sure they don't kill themselves... and get t…

Post by software_guy_10 » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 9:44 PM UTC

polynomial wrote: post #85

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…

And HR depts are just fine with that? (taking 2-6 months off) I get the impression They prefer those who stay on the wheel, as they don't have to worry you will just decide you need to take a break from working again.