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Comment by holoduke | Hacker News Reader

I see a lot of people wanting to retire as early as possible. Most of those never are able too. Then I know some people who are able to retire right now. But they don't. I fall in the latter category. And my theory is that once you get enough income you can actually do what you like. In my case still coding, but only projects I like to do. But I will probably never retire. Way too boring.

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Retirement doesn’t mean you have to move to Florida to golf and flirt with grannies. The point is that you can do whatever you want - it might be some sort of work.

It’s a question of what would I do if I didn’t have to build my whole life around working 8 hours every weekday

I'm in the latter category also. Had a job off-shored at the end of 2019 and was out of work and thinking about retiring then. I didn't look too hard for another job but found one. I also didn't do much with my time off.

That's the RE part of FIRE. The FI part is nice though. I didn't stress out about looking for a job during a pandemic where companies suddenly shut down hiring. And I don't stress out about my job now. If there's any stress, I remind myself about FI. And if there's still stress after that, I'll just quit, it's Machu Picchu time.

Fits my experience well. It is work until you’re wealthy enough, then it is play. When my friends say they want to “retire early”, they all mean “do what I actually want with my time”. I’m continuously surprised how many people don’t realize money equals freedom and instead consider it a shallow pursuit. Getting the wrong message from scrooge and the wolf of wall street perhaps. You can sit around playing guitar all day, or whatever it may be…but you need money. It is fungible for all things in our society - time, votes, work, resources.

That's why there's a distinction between FI (financial independence) and RE (retire early). One can be financially independent without having to retire early. You also might be missing the definition of retirement that's usually used in FIRE, which is that you can go do whatever you want without needing to treat it as a job; it doesn't mean to just laze around on a beach somewhere as one might normally think of retirement.

> just laze around on a beach somewhere as one might normally think of retirement.

This is also a weird thing to think about "normal" retirement.

Yes, exactly this. I found work stressful and fraught when I needed the money. Once I didn’t, I was free to enjoy the work I enjoy.

If anything, the flexibility in my schedule from financial independence opens me up to a lot of unpaid work I don’t enjoy (helping with my aging mother) because I’m the one who can. Ironically now that I don’t have to work, I wish I had more time to work!

I used to want to retire early and ASAP, firmly in the "lean fire" category.

Then I found a job which pays significantly under market but that I actually enjoy doing. My priorities have changed a lot.

Unfortunately said job is highly unstable and provides little opportunity for transferrable skills, so I still aim for a 50% savings rate, for peace of mind.

I may do some coding but certainly not 40 hours a week with managers looking over my shoulder.

Same here. My "retirement" will likely just be me teaching or doing some other kind of work that has a much lower earning potential, but still would be considered a traditional job. My retirement savings are meant to make up for that.

IME, when you talk to people it's about quickly getting to the point that you could retire, if you wanted/needed to.

Maybe! But I’m getting tired of working even if it’s interesting. I’d rather now spend time with family or travel.

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