Forward Progress

Welp, it’s official. I’ve officially been a deadbeat FIREd for a year (plus a few days). If you’d have told me even just a few years ago that I’d be able to quit full-time employment at the end of 2021—let alone survive financially after having done so and, ideally, not have to work again—I’d have thought you staggeringly unhinged.

And yet.

And yet here I am. Intact, not broke, and not looking to (or needing to) go back to full-time work. 

Crazy. Still feels surreal to me. 

For those who are daft enough to have read all of my blog posts, you may recall that I wrote a buncha posts on my way to FIREing in which I discussed things I was hoping to do or experience after FIREing. So, how did things ultimately pan out? Let’s have a looksee, Dear Reader!

Sleepy, sleepy, wakey baby

First, I hoped to conquer my problems sleeping, the roots of which were job-stress related. I figured that not working would be a potential elixir, in part or in full. 

Sadly, I made little progress on this goal. 

But at least I didn’t backslide. Frankly, given the financial stresses someone like me paradoxically could experience from FIREing—especially when, as it turned out, I FIREd into a brutal period for investors—it wouldn’t have surprised me if I had backslid. 

And one bonus that I did realize is that while I had a set wake-up-by time pre-FIREing, now I don’t. Post-FIREing, if I fall back asleep after waking up in the middle of the night, I often sleep past my prior set wake-up-by time except when The Missus or The Cat interrupt my continued slumber. 

Given the no backsliding, and being able to sleep later than I would have pre-FIREing, I’ll chalk this up as a marginal win. 

Care free

I also hoped to adopt an IDGAF approach to work. That is, I wanted to care far less about any employer/coworker I might later have and to not have to play nice in a workplace for political reasons if I didn’t want to. 

As I’ve mentioned, I took a part-time employment job in 2022. Happily, I like my coworkers. That said, while I haven’t had to play politics, I’d have no problem saying “I’d rather not” in response to any request of me if my convictions warranted it. Somewhat relatedly, I’ve (successfully) said “no” to some working conditions that were presented to me that in the past I might’ve just accepted without a whisper of protest. 

I also have a complete IDGAF attitude toward my continued employment. I’ll have no problem leaving the job whenever I choose. And if my employment is terminated (no prospect of that now, but with employment relationships, the possibility always exists), I might be a little miffed that my easy-money gig is ending. But I’m otherwise just gonna shrug.

I’ll chalk this all up as an unequivocal win.

Money time

I also hoped to be less focused on optimizing expenses at the expense of time. I had no way of knowing it at the time, but 2022 was an excruciating a challenging year to make progress on that goal. First, because our investments took a battering. But also because of elevated inflation in 2022. My longtime instinct whenever prices have risen (almost always moderately over the last several decades) in the past was to make relatively minor adjustments necessary to weather the storm. 

With inflation as high and broad as it was in 2022, the benefits of optimizing increased in amount and effect. But they also became more difficult to realize. As a result, I not only didn’t feel less pressure to optimize, I felt more. I’ve consequently focused just as much on optimizing as I ever have. 

I’m chalking this up as a loss. But I don’t really feel bad about that given the context.

Joy ridding

Next, I hoped to start purging possessions so that we were less weighed down by them and could be more nimble if we chose to move/downsize. I’m sad to report that I made scant little progress on this goal. 

I’m hoping to do far better in 2023. In the meantime, I’m chalking this up as an all-but-complete fail.

The end of gamesmanship

Next, I hoped to not have to deal with tiresome colleagues who made me grit my teeth. Just by not having to regularly work with lawyers, I figured this was gonna be an easy win. 

And it was. Big win for me on this one.

Phase three for the road

Last but not least was that I was looking forward to experiencing what I called “phase three” of my life. Phase three—which begun once I FIRE’d—is what I described as following phase one of my life (the period of parental support/subsidization) and phase two (when I had to work to support myself and, later, The Family). I anticipated it’d be a far less stressful period and that I’d be unencumbered by all sorts of factors that existed in phases one and two.

I’m not necessarily the completely happy-go-lucky guy I secretly hoped that I might turn into by entering phase three. But I’m cool with that. I’m unequivocally far more relaxed (and more relaxed more often) than I was pre-FIREing. And I’m giddy about that.

I wish there was a way to see by how much, if at all, something like this extends one’s life. Because if I had to guess, it’s had that effect for me.  

Whatever the case, I’ve experienced an unqualified win as to this goal. 

And in the end . . . 

So, there you have it, Dear Reader. A lot of progress on the goals I set for myself. This progress is in part the result of the work I’ve done on myself, and predicted dynamics actually being realized. But maybe it also has to do with setting so few goals and coming into 2022 with low expectations.