← 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
51–60 of 84 posts

Retirement, a startup and a calmer division of responsibilities

Oct 2020Recalled in 2021

Life at the time

  • He exited the startup in July, retaining advisory projects.
  • A six-day exercise routine had continued since January.

How it felt

  • He felt less stressed. “a lot lower”
  • The couple had found a comfortable division of roles. “a good balance”

Property management shrinks; family still shapes the day

Sep 2020Interview snapshot · published 2020

Life at the time

  • After leaving corporate work, he reduced management of his real-estate business to under five hours a week; children still influenced the household's activities.

How it felt

  • He anticipated another adjustment when the children left home, and had not yet settled what that next stage would look like. “my second retirement”

Engineering remains a pleasure after retirement

Sep 2020Interview snapshot · published 2021-02

Life at the time

  • Retired from full-time engineering business demands, he continued teaching and working on selected projects.

How it felt

  • He enjoyed keeping a connection to the firm he had co-founded, primarily for fun even when projects earned income. “Primarily for fun”

Slow travel felt right. A return to paid writing helped her value freedom again.

Aug 2020

Life at the time

  • Longer stays replaced hurried vacations.
  • Weekday exercise and healthier routines became easier to sustain.

How it felt

  • She enjoyed exploring places at a slower pace. “slow travel lifestyle”
  • Having time made ordinary choices feel different. “having time makes”

Leaving oil work led to outdoors and a lighter kind of work

Aug 2020

Life at the time

  • He opened the family shop for ten hours weekly.
  • Hiking, photography and local outings continued alongside it.

How it felt

  • The shop routine felt relaxed. “so relaxing”
  • He valued everyday contentment with his wife. “so content”

He already had enough. It took a second job to recognize the choice.

Jun 2020 · Year 2

Life at the time

  • Exercise, nonprofit work and reading occupied much of the school day.
  • He had published his book and was speaking at conferences.

How it felt

  • He enjoyed the growing contribution. “really enjoy”
  • He regretted spending additional years in work he found unfulfilling. “unfulfilling work”

A forced pause turned into selective work and deliberate family time

2020Recalled in 2022

Life at the time

  • The pandemic prompted a year away from usual work.
  • The couple reconsidered how family and careers fit together.

How it felt

  • Slowing down shifted their priorities. “reset”
  • They began valuing a less work-centered life. “family first”

Semi-retirement still includes a business

Nov 2019Interview snapshot · published 2019

Life at the time

  • As a staffing-company co-owner, he worked to his own schedule and avoided the office commute when possible.

How it felt

  • He described an excellent work-life balance, while also acknowledging some struggle with being semi-retired. “I’m kind of semi-retired and I’m struggling with that a bit.”

Financial freedom kept opening doors to new kinds of work

Oct 2019

Life at the time

  • Built furniture, repaired watches and began making a plywood clock.
  • Lived in a small fixer-upper with a vegetable garden.

How it felt

  • Enjoyed practical learning but disliked the maintenance attached to homeownership. “not really something that I enjoy”
  • Found purchased experiences harder to enjoy after learning to make things himself. “harder to appreciate bought experiences”

A second retirement begins with fewer simultaneous changes

Aug 2019

Life at the time

  • He left a short experiment back in his former industry.
  • The household was back in England after the Cyprus move.

How it felt

  • The return revealed how much both he and the job had changed. “my own needs had changed”
  • A financial buffer reassured him as he reconsidered purpose and relationships. “That extra buffer feels really good”

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.