One of the issues that comes up in financial freedom books, early retirement blogs, and other related writings is what to do after you achieve financial independence, i.e., Now what? You’ve won your freedom, Professor Smarty Pants, now what are you going to do with it?
So there are conversations about how to fill your days, what constitutes a meaningful life, how to discern what matters and what doesn’t.
Here is a problem, I’m thrilled to report, I have rarely had. In my life, I have watched the clock and questioned whether what I was doing was the best expenditure of my time in the following situations: wasting away in school classrooms; working at jobs that I didn’t really like (I really like my current job and I hope I can keep doing it…just in case the Evil Eye is reading); and when I’m sitting around like a barnacle on a dock, waiting for my kids to get done with one or another activity so I can schlep them home. Mostly, I don’t have enough time or energy to accomplish what I would like in a day or a week—so: no shortage of desired activities; rather a surfeit—and I typically have a pretty good sense of how I want to prioritize the tasks that I do get around to doing.
Maybe I’m delusional, but Sweet Mother of Jesus, if I ever get to retire, here’s what I hope to do:
*Get outside lots and move: walking, hiking, gardening, and hopefully, doing other things I’ve never done before, like stand-up paddleboarding, and things I never have time for, like trail biking
*Write more
*Read, especially more poetry
*Hang out with friends and relations
*Chop vegetables and cook stuff
*Make things from wood and wool
*Learn about things and how they work
*Take the History Of Women In Art at Berkeley City College
*Learn Spanish
*Really devote brainpower and elbow grease to questions of how to help the environment, how to leave less of a mess
*Figure out more meaningful ways for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities to connect with the natural world
*Learn more cowboy songs
I don’t mean to minimize the real dilemmas that real people face in figuring this all out. I only mean to high five myself for feeling a wee bit ahead of the game in this one teeny way. And who knows? If I ever cross that line into retirement, I may find an entirely different reality than what I imagine from my current position. At any rate, I may not have adequate retirement savings, but, boy, do I have a sweet humdinger of a post-retirement to-do list.