← Explore posts shelves

Posts

Explore turning points, everyday joys and unexpected challenges after financial independence or retirement, with the date and original source for each account.

Age
Wealth
Years
Posts
221–230 of 541 posts

Retirement began with travel restrictions. The motorhome years still delivered.

Jan 2023 · Year 3

Life at the time

  • They were traveling mainly in their motorhome.
  • Their former home was rented out.

How it felt

  • He enjoyed their stop in southern France. “it is very pleasant”
  • They both felt glad about retirement. “no regrets on either side”

Sharing retirement meant renegotiating the house, the chores and the conversation.

Jan 2023 · Year 4

Life at the time

  • Meals, exercise and Spanish study provided shared time.
  • Travel and individual projects coexisted with deliberately separate activities.

How it felt

  • A new communication approach reduced conflict. “drastically decreased our conflicts”
  • Retirement made emotions easier to handle without eliminating them. “negative feelings”

He retired with $2.7m. Three years later, he wanted back in.

Jan 2023 · At departure

Life at the time

  • Gave notice at 33, planning more time for four children, outdoor activities and home projects.
  • Kept returning to work as an option while reassessing the household finances.

How it felt

  • Found it difficult to describe the departure as permanent retirement. “I can not mentally call it retirement”
  • Preferred thinking of it as a long break or mini-retirement. “I am calling it a mini-retirement or long sabbatical”

FI/RE becomes parenthood and a small software business

2023Recalled in 2026

Life at the time

  • His second child arrived while relatives helped with childcare.
  • He released paid features for his Japanese-learning app and met his initial revenue target.

How it felt

  • Building something customers paid for brought satisfaction. “the joy of being a one-person company”
  • Higher family costs had made the original financial cushion feel less comfortable. “less comfortable”

An advertising side business softened the jump into retirement

2023Recalled in 2026

Life at the time

  • He ran a small advertising business after the late-2022 layoff.
  • A few hours of weekly work generated bridge income.

How it felt

  • The reduced schedule helped him ease into retirement. “ease into retirement”
  • He hesitated for a month over buying running shoes. “difficult at first”

A layoff became a travel business—and time to help his parents.

2023 · Year 4

Life at the time

  • Travel clients, volunteer boards and trips filled his calendar.
  • He could spend weeks helping his mother recover from surgery.

How it felt

  • He liked the freedom to accept opportunities. “do whatever I want”
  • He looked forward to his wife’s planned retirement, which had not yet happened. “my wife is still working”

Her maternity leave became retirement. Parenting kept the calendar full.

2023Recalled in 2025

Life at the time

  • Retirement initially continued the rhythm of maternity leave.
  • Work messages stopped once she formally left.

How it felt

  • The missing return deadline brought relief. “relief and happiness was amazing”
  • Her attachment to work faded faster than expected. “completely forgotten about it”

Leaving work was the easy part. The house kept sending bills.

2023 · Year 4

Life at the time

  • Dealt with repairs, upgrades and spending above the usual budget.
  • Kept time for personal interests and regular family visits.

How it felt

  • Remained convinced that leaving work had improved his life. “FI/RE is still the best thing for my sanity”
  • Market declines still caused enough discomfort that he avoided inspecting accounts. “I have been actively avoiding looking closely at my accounts”

He escaped the grind. Then learned to stop optimizing every day.

2023 · Year 4

Life at the time

  • Spent 243 nights away in 2022, including new travel and social experiences.
  • Tried skiing and Burning Man, while a cruise and a difficult companion revealed firm dislikes.

How it felt

  • Wanted to test experiences he would previously have rejected. “Say Yes to (Almost) Anything”
  • Was looking for reasons to participate, without assuming every experiment would be worth repeating. “Instead of finding reasons to say no, I would look for reasons to say yes”

The travel plan collapsed. A different home and a broader routine followed.

2023

Life at the time

  • Spent time on home projects, exercise, travel and outings with his sons.
  • Volunteered at vaccination clinics and built local connections.

How it felt

  • Enjoyed continuing to learn practical skills. “Every day is a school day”
  • Preferred a varied, active routine to idleness. “Idleness has never been a strong suit of mine.”

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.