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Comment by varispeed | Hacker News Reader

This is something I cannot understand. Why would you want to retire so early? I think that would impact my mental health negatively. I just love to work and I couldn't care less about FI. I mean it's nice to have money, but this will sound cliche it will not buy you happiness. However, it is certainly better to cry in a luxury apartment than under a bridge to your dog.

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> something I cannot understand

> I just love to work

I think your own personal circumstances apply to you. Have you met any people who do not love to work?

Also, understand that in Financial Independence, "independence" means having complete control over your decision-making. You can attain it, and then choose to work, or choose to vacation, or choose to read books, or choose to play video games, or choose to write a novel, or choose to take up some other creative endeavor, or choose to push your body to its limits - and you will not be constrained by the remainder of your hours left after your work day is over.

My situation, as someone attempting financial independence: I don't mind work, what I mind is someone else telling me what I have to work on and when it needs to be done. FI will put the ball in my court. Once I have enough passive income to cover my family's living expenses, _I_ get to choose what I work on, even if it makes little to no money. But of course I will sometimes choose to work on things that will generate significant chunks of money.

I'll second all of this: if I wasn't getting paid for working on the projects at my day job, I wouldn't work on them.

I've got tons of ideas and cool projects I want to work on (some I've even made decent progress on in my spare time), but I don't know if they'd be profitable, nor do I want to worry about that. I just want to code on stuff I like.

I think most often 'retiring' is not meant literally. In other words, one does not work at an ordinary job anymore, but they pursue other endeavors. They might even 'work' more after 'retiring'. It is true that FIRE does not buy happiness, but it is a nice tool if for example you like your hobby more than the current job.

the simple answer is that not everyone loves to work. personally I hate doing anything (including stuff I would otherwise enjoy) that has to be completed according to a schedule and evaluated by other people.

but even if you do enjoy working, it's still great to be FI. you can choose the most interesting job and ignore the salary.

Consider that "working" and "having a job" aren't necessarily the same thing. You can absolutely retire early, not have a job, but continue working. Many people would not only find that fulfilling, but very freeing, as their livelihood is no longer tied to their ability to hold a job, or the ability of their company to stay solvent.

Also consider that many people do not, like you, love to work.

Money doesn't buy happiness, but not having enough of it is a great recipe for being unhappy. I think there are coarsely three levels of personal finance:

1) You live paycheck to paycheck (or worse) and are constantly anxious about your finances.

2) You have some savings and live comfortably enough. You might want more, but not having more doesn't outright kill your happiness.

3) You have enough money that you can live comfortably, even if you decide to stop working, without much (or anything) in the way of unmet wants.

The vast majority of people are in one of the first two buckets. Getting to the third one isn't possible for most people, unfortunately, and trying to get there could actively make some people's lives worse. But all other things being equal (which is admittedly rare), the third bucket is objectively better than the second.

The blog explains that he does not love to work. At least not in the field that he is skilled in.

People seem to hyperfocus on RE when most of the joy is from FI. Keep working if you want to. That's different than working because you'll be under a bridge if you don't.

You don't need a job to work.

Do you love to work, or do you love something else about your job?

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