afterFI/RE Life after FI/RE
People
Selected life timeline 2025—2026

A prepared exit opens time for family, theatre and service

Manish retired at55 and encountered market turbulence within months. While staying in India he described confidence in his preparation. By the first anniversary, extended family time, meditation, theatre, exercise and education volunteering had filled a rewarding first year.

Finances
Net worth at retirement2025-01-07 · Household
Not established

Departure balance not disclosed in the reviewed narrative sources.

Source
Posts2
2025
Post 01

The first financial stress test

“not hoping to have it tested so soon”

Manish Sabu · Retire@55Read original post (opens in a new tab)

Life at the time

  • He was staying in India after his January retirement.
  • He reviewed his portfolio and carried out tax-related trades during volatility.

How it felt

  • He had not expected the plan to be tested so quickly. “not hoping to have it tested so soon”
  • He reported feeling unconcerned about missing some future market upside. “I am not concerned at all”
FamilyCreativityPurpose
Manish Sabu · Retire@55 (opens in a new tab)
Notes

Dated author publication describing current life

Opening; India example; How is my portfolio doing

Editorial summaries with short, attributed quotations. The original contains the full story.

2026Year 1
Post 02

A full year with room to give

“I guess I am still in the honeymoon phase of early retirement because I cannot think of a single regret.”

Manish Sabu · Retire@55Read original post (opens in a new tab)

Life at the time

  • His year included months with parents and a meditation retreat.
  • He wrote plays, acted, traveled by RV and expanded education volunteering.

How it felt

  • He reported no regret about retiring. “I cannot think of a single regret”
  • Helping children through a nonprofit was especially fulfilling. “one of the most fulfilling parts”
FamilyCreativityPurpose
Manish Sabu · Retire@55 (opens in a new tab)
Notes

Dated author publication describing current life

Year highlights and reflection

Dated author publication describing current life

Editorial summaries with short, attributed quotations. The original contains the full story.

See how these posts compare with other people’s experiences.

Research

Last checked Sep 2026. The accounts are self-reported. This timeline follows selected accounts, including recollections where labeled; it is not a complete archive.

  • Only the cited dated experiences are verified; later developments are not inferred.
  • Selected public self-reports, not a complete archive or independent verification of finances.

Privacy & analytics

AfterFire uses Google Analytics only if you accept. It helps us understand visits, referral sources, pages and chapters people open, filter use, and clicks to original sources.

After acceptance, Google receives page titles and addresses without query strings, content and chapter IDs, filter names (not selected values or search terms), campaign source/medium/name tags from shared links, original-source domains, referring sites, approximate location and browser/device information. Analytics cookies distinguish browsers and visits. Campaign labels are stored in this tab only after acceptance and expire after 30 minutes without activity. We do not enable advertising personalization or Google Signals, or send your name, email address or account identifier to Analytics.

Declining sends no Analytics data to Google. Accepting starts with the page currently open; we do not replay earlier browsing. Withdrawing consent stops tracking, clears this site's Analytics cookies and reloads the page. It does not delete measurements already received by Google.

We remember your choice on this browser for up to six months. Detailed Analytics data is retained for up to 14 months; aggregated reports can remain longer. Site hosting still processes requests needed to serve these pages.

Read Google's privacy policy and how Google uses information from sites.