I’ve been back from my holiday a few weeks now and am struggling a bit to get back to a routine, and that includes posting on my blog. You know how it is after holidays though, especially ones you’ve really enjoyed. You ask yourself why life can’t be like that all the time and immediately start planning the next trip.
Of course, if you’re in the fortunate position of being able to retire from the workplace with a decent income then maybe life could be like that all the time. I know the first three months of my bout of “Early Retirement” felt just like that, every day had that “holiday feeling”. I’d watch others heading to work with a glow of inner satisfaction that I was no longer on that hamster wheel and that I was on a different path.
The holiday feeling didn’t last. Soon I went from humming Madonna’s “Holiday” to Morrisey’s “Every Day is Like Sunday” as I found each day the same as the last. I began to think that what made holidays special was that they were a break from work. If you weren’t working, they lost their sheen. It was the same with weekends. Whereas once I craved reaching a Friday evening with a whole weekend of relaxation ahead of me, Saturday and Sunday became just another couple of days – although there were more people available to share them with you.
That was one of the things about my weekday retirement – finding people in a similar age and situation to myself to share the days with. Most of my friends and peers continued to work and seemed to be quite enjoying themselves doing so. Even my wife wanted to maintain her part time job (probably to ensure she got a break from me!) and, while I’m quite comfortable in my own company, I’m a long way from being a loner. I enjoy social stimulation, interacting with other people and, for almost thirty years, the workplace had provided me with that.
In the end I returned to work, partly to provide that “social stimulation” I was missing. When I came back from holiday a fortnight ago, I really wasn’t looking forward to returning to the actual work that I do – but I was looking forward to catching up with the people there, both my co-workers and my customers. In fact, it’s the people that keep me going, because the work itself is fairly routine and not too demanding on a day to day basis.
It would, however, be remiss of me not to mention the financial side of working too, something that just can’t and shouldn’t be ignored. When I stopped earning an income and began to rely on my savings and investments to cover the bills, I struggled to get comfortable with the situation. Although all my spreadsheets and projections told me I’d probably not much to worry about, I couldn’t shake the notion that I’d feel a wee bit better if I started cleaning windows on the side – just to put some cream on the cake. Even if I only earned a hundred quid a week, well, that would pay for a damn nice holiday or two, wouldn’t it? Plus, if I was to blow five thousand pounds on holidays purely from my savings and investments, would the resultant hole fill itself in?
When you’ve spent most of your life saving money for retirement, the switch to spending money to fund that retirement takes a massive shift of the mental gears. Maybe, over time, I’d have coped better with the no income side of not working, but I admit that in the year I had out I did struggle with this.
This year, as I approach pensionable age and ask myself the question if I want to give retirement another go (imagine, a permanent holiday!) I remind myself of the above realities as they were for me. What has changed since then? Not a lot. In that case, I tell myself, start planning the next big road trip to the States, or wherever, and let the work pay for it. That still feels like the best bet for me.
sex health money death 
I appreciate you’ve not long returned to work, but as you are now approaching ‘retirement’ age, you will presumably (or maybe not?) stop working at some point. Do you feel you’ll be in a better place to enjoy retirement next time?
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It’s tricky, isn’t it? I worked for another 4 years (yes, 4 years!) after reaching FI, mainly because I was offered a sweet deal where I could work entirely from home, for as many or as few days as I liked each month and on a generous day rate.
I only stopped because I realised that, although I was only working a couple of days a week, the job was still in my head 7 days a week and I really wanted to free myself of that.
During that time, I unexpectedly had to find around a grand a month to fund a top-up for my mother’s residential care (a common situation). That commitment continued for a couple of years, but it was impossible to know at the outset how long I would have to maintain it. I would have felt deeply anxious if the money had had to come from my retirement pot!
I’ve now been retired for well over a year, and I must admit that the lack of a salary coming in each month is greatly alleviated by the fact that I have rental income that lands monthly into my bank account. My institutionalised mind finds it a comfort to still have a ‘pay day’, even if it’s a much reduced one!
Like you, I went through an initial honeymoon period and then found myself dissatisfied by the lack of differentiation between weekdays and weekends. But after about a year, I found that the weekends began to feel different again. Odd, that – not quite sure why it happened. I guess I must have mentally adjusted…
Jane
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Fascinating. I suspect (hope) I will not have the same problem as decided to taper off work and build up hobbies etc to slowly replace it.
I wonder if you will feel differently once you pass retirement age and it becomes socially acceptable to retire. Apparently, studies have shown that unemployed feel happier – even when on the same income – once they pass retirement age. I guess that might be down to it being socially acceptable.
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Thanks SHMD – It’s a sobering message from someone who has actually been through a temporary retirement and is at least questioning how they will manage “the real thing” when the day comes.
With commentary like this (and other bloggers with similar thoughts) I am probably think more about what I would do with my time than I do thinking about how to reach FI itself.
I mean will I really go to the gym 4 times a week, bike everywhere like MMM, sail the coast of Norway and read thought provoking literature ..or will Netflix and Oddbins win the day(s)?
And what’s stopping me doing all these noble pursuits now anyway……
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Very timely SHMD. My main customer started imposing stupid corporate gubbins upon my small firm, I gave them notice and told them to find another supplier. They came back and said if they took the corporate stuff out, would I stay. Pretty please. Two reasons to stay is my really wonderful staff who don’t deserve to be abandoned and I’ve no real idea what life without work will be like. I expect to be downright depressed for a few months, possibly wailing ‘what have I done?’ for several weeks. I’d hope that I would get into a different mindset after a while as Jane in London has done.
On the other hand I have a long list of things I want to see, learn, do – and what is stopping me doing them now AndyG? 55 hours weeks with 15 hours commute, Weekends are filled with house and garden ( a hobby admittedly) duties, seeing friends. There really isn’t much time.
Your post has not helped make my mind up SHMD!
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Sorry about that, but if it was an easy decision I’d run out of stuff to blog about!
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Hi Jim. Nice blog you have here. If you struggle finding motivation for writing blog posts you could consider making monthly portfolio updates. Those keeps me motivated and this way I have to write at least one post per month. Most FIRE people are interested in the numbers, so why not? 🙂
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Thanks for the positive feedback. I’ve drifted off posts for the moment, but I will get back to it! Most of my investments are now stuck in a Vanguard fund (80/20) so I’m afraid it would be a fairly boring update if I was to kick it off.
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I find monthly portfoilo updates the most dull thing possible for people to blog about!
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My 3 conservation groups give a structure to my week. When I had a frozen shoulder in Feb-Apr and couldn’t go I definitely felt the lack of structure to my week. And while I’m still the miser that allowed me to build my FIRE pot, I don’t feel the need to add to it, all those unspent dividends are doing that. If you are approaching ordinary retirement age, you do need a social contact plan when the work runs out
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