ProCon Therapy

While working in my full-time gig, but after I discovered FIRE, I often fantasized thought about what it’d be like on the other side. Post-FIRE life, that is. Not whatever, if anything, comes after dying. Don’t get all morbid on me, Dear Reader. 

I’d likewise thoughtfully stroked my chin considering specific things I’d (get to) do after FIREing. Indeed, I frequently mused about all this in these very pages. 

Now, two years and change removed from my full-time working life, I thought it as good a time as any to reflect on where things stand, where things have changed, and where I think things are going. 

Slumber party

Let’s start by going back to my “Forward Looking” series of posts and addressing the topics discussed there, shall we? First up, my post on wanting to rectify sleep problems I’d developed. On the one hand, I’ve largely failed on this front. I’m still a lousy sleeper. But there are some positives I’ve realized and ameliorative actions I’ve been able to take. Some directly because of having FIREd. 

First, I think I can say that my sleep issues aren’t entirely stress related. I’d thought they might be given that it was a stressful event that gave rise to them, and because that intense and pernicious form of stress never left me after that.

Now that work-related stress is a nonissue for me, it’d seem apparent that my continued sleep problems have more or different roots. Maybe residual and baked-in effects from 20+ years of lousy sleeping. Maybe something more. 

Regardless, what FIREing has allowed me is to get more sleep in the aggregate. See, I can fall asleep when I’m ready for bed. But staying asleep? That’s been my problem. I’ll typically wake up at least once in the middle of the night. Sometimes I can fall back asleep in 20-20 minutes. Other times, an hour. And, occasionally, a few hours. 

When I had a relatively hard wake-up time, I’d have my night’s aggregate sleep time cut short. Now, with no hard wake up time, I’m able to get more sleep time on my second sleep leg of the evening. That’s been helpful. I still run a sleep deficit. But it’s less bad than it used to be.

Grade: D+. Some improvement seen to date. But a long way to go.

No nonsense

I also intended to adopt an I-don’t-give-a-flute (IDGAF) attitude toward any work-related nonsense I might experience in any job that I might later take. That is, if I took a job, and was asked to do things that didn’t pass my smell test, that I really didn’t want to do, that were directed by truly unpleasant people, or that otherwise bothered me a great deal, I’d push back and not do them. If that meant me walking away from the gig on principle, then so be it. 

Having since taken a part-time gig and done some contract work, I thankfully haven’t been confronted with any serious nonsense. That said, I’ve been able to have and maintain the terms of those gigs be all but ideal in all respects that matter to me. Pre-discovery of FIRE I’d surely not have been so bold or demanding. I thank FIRE for this.

Grade: B/Incomplete. I’ve demonstrated proactive and worry-free pushback. But as there’s been no serious nonsense experienced yet, what I’ve done to date equates just to a test drive of this ability.

Spending time

Another thing I hoped to change was my scarcity mindset-driven resistance and reluctance to spend more freely and joyfully. As I’ve written often since FIREing, I have a long way to go on this front. 

In my defense, on day two of my post-FIRE life, a massive economic and financial paradigm shift started manifesting itself. As far as I can tell, it ain’t over. And I’m unsure where we are in the process. 

See, just after I FIREd, markets started sliding, inflation started spiking, and various other groundbreaking phenomena gained momentum and force (to name just three: (1) the transition from a just-in-time economy to one more focused on friendshoring; (2) the exit of the baby boomers from the workforce; (3) much of the world’s transition from dirty energy to clean(er) energy) proceeded at a faster clip.). These are, of course, interrelated things. Regardless, they hit precisely when I was most exposed to sequence-of-returns risk. 

One effect has been that I’ve largely hunkered down financially, seeking to protect our nut until such time as I think the greatest risk has passed. Another effect is that I’m doing dismally as to my goal. 

That said, I have in fact taken efforts to blunt the damage. And I’ve actually drawn down on our nut. Even if through gritted teeth. I have a feeling that some people who’ve FIREd can’t bring themselves to actually draw down. I also took a fantastic and not inexpensive trip abroad last summer that I’d not have taken pre-FIREing. Baby steps.

Grade: D-. I’m by no means paralyzed with fear at spending. But I’m little closer to footloose and fancy free about it.

DoCluttering

Next, I wrote about wanting to getting rid of a lot of stuff in our house. The idea being that I wanted both to declutter and also to make it far easier to pick up and move if the desire struck. This is another area in which I’m performing terribly. I’m not even gonna try to justify things. I’ve just flat out not made the effort necessary. What’s more embarrassing is that if I did, I’m sure that I could sell a lot of stuff and thereby realize the double win of: (1) decluttering; and (2) fattening our pockets, even if just a little. 

Grade: F. Just a flat-out failure.

Coworkering space

Next, I wrote about wanting to not work with exasperating, annoying, or just plain awful co-workers. The addition by subtraction that FIREing enabled all but guaranteed success on this front. That success has absolutely been realized. What co-workers I do have now are mostly great. A small few are annoying. But of a completely different type and order than those I worked with while working full time in the legal industry. And immensely more bearable. And in my contract gig, there’s been some exasperating people, but thankfully no overly annoying or just plain awful people. I’ll take that as a win.

Grade: A-. I can’t understate how great it is not to have to work with the (types of) people I wanted to see the backside of. And how FIREing made that all possible for me.

And in the end . . . 

My last “Forward Looking” post was published on my last day working in my full-time job. In it, I waxed far less than poetic about how much I was looking forward to seeing how my post-FIRE life unfolded. 

Whelp, I didn’t mean for it to be so, but this blog post you’re reading here, Dear Reader, is getting far too pretty long already. So, as I’d already had plans to write a general blog post about my feelings related to FIREing and my post-FIRE life, Imma wind this post down and write a follow-up post on that subject. No doubt you will have no desire to can’t wait to read it.