Some time ago I answered the question, “So what do you do all day?” by highlighting the annual schedule for my ideal Travel/Recharge/Create lifestyle.
Now that we are more Chillin In Place™, this is how I enjoy early retirement on a daily basis.
A Day In The Life
The past several years we have done epic multi-month trips around the world, and our now 4-year-old has been to 40+ countries.
This year we are doing something a little more… normal. During school “summer vacation” we are doing a couple of vacations – 2 weeks each in Vietnam and Bali. We’ve also just planned a Japan ski trip for Chinese New Year 2020.
For the remaining 46 weeks of the year, things look a bit like this:
Sleep – recently Steve Harvey made the comment that rich people don’t sleep 8 hours per night. I guess that is because they are too busy being rich and successful to sleep? I dunno.
But screw that noise. If I’m tired, I sleep. That means 8-9 hours per night and an occasional 1-2 hour nap. I definitely sleep more now than while I was working… unrealistic deadlines, stress, and conf calls around the globe at weird hours interfered with a healthy sleep schedule. Plus I’m older and parenting is exhausting ;)
(If you don’t know who Steve Harvey is, that is OK – I had to look it up too. In doing so I learned his show was recently canceled, so now he’ll have more time to sleep.)
Exercise – I’ve been consistently swimming 1,500 meters 2-4x/week for the past 6 months, and biking 25-40km another 2x/week most weeks. Occasionally I mix in some time at the gym, either leg/back or chest/arms day.
If you are interested in swimming, biking, running, triathlons, or similar things, check out the Go Curry Cracker Cycling Club on Strava.
All of this takes about 2 hours/day.
Eating – Food is great. I like food. A lot. We might spend 2-3 hours/day preparing and enjoying food. This beautiful sous vide steak and air fried asparagus was served at the best restaurant in town – our kitchen. Perfect.
Dinner time also doubles as family time.
Guitar – while I was working, I would go through long stretches where my guitar just collected dust in the corner. Now I play every day. If I’m doing something that involves sitting down in front of the computer, more often than not a guitar is in my hands (Like right now: Que guitar solo.)
When we were watching the most recent episode of GoT I basically just played scales up and down the fretboard on a (not plugged in) electric. Good times. (Whoa, multi-tasking?! That is some serious productivity booster stuff right there.)
I guess I probably play focused about an hour per day.
Reading – I read a lot. For example, recently I read the entire Dresden Files series. Before that, I read all of the Jack Reacher books. I don’t really read much in the way of blogs anymore, but I enjoy learning and follow that itch wherever Google takes me. (Did you know that home prices in Tokyo are really reasonable because they build a ton of new houses to account for people moving there? Ahem, SF…)
Anyhoo, I might read from 0 – 8 hours per day, depending.
Playing with Junior – “Play with me, Daddy!” I hear that a lot. We play Legos together, ride bikes, sing songs, read books, play in the park, go ice skating, swim, play at the sand pit, etc… Recently we’ve been watching YouTube videos of little kids skiing and big kids doing tricks on bikes.
A Grandma at our local park once asked me why I spend so much time at the park. Don’t you have a job?
Last weekend we rode bikes to the pool, swam with friends, and ate lunch together. Then I towed him home and we took a nap.
If that sounds like all the stuff that I’m already doing, you’ve definitely gotten the point. So anywhere between zero time and all of it.
Video: 1st time introducing Jr to his Minnesota roots
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BwgZfEJg7C_/ hidecaption=true width=200]
Showers – I must spend an hour per day in the shower. Taipei is a humid climate, so I’ll shower after exercise and again before bed. Hey, hygiene is important.
Blog stuff – I wrote this thing you are reading right now. I also reply to comments on the blog and the forum, play with Excel, and occasionally read email. I’ll also do a bit of research when I’m trying to learn something new.
Total time: maybe 1 hour/day on average (full disclosure: sometimes I work less- details here.)
Chores – we outsource a lot of cleaning, but there is still a lot to do. Take out the garbage, load/unload the dishwasher, wash clothes, fold laundry, etc… I probably put in 30 minutes/day on this stuff, here and there.
Sitting on the Ceramic Throne – Maybe I do this 15 minutes per day? We have a nice toilet. I may have even written some of this blog post from there. Now, normally I would leave this off a list of daily activities for social reasons, but I’ve included this intentional faux pas as a reference for things that aren’t on the daily schedule:
– managing our portfolio – 0 hours
– checking stock prices – 0 hours
– doing taxes – 0 hours
Maybe that adds up to 24 hours, I’m not sure – “Do math” isn’t on the schedule for today.
A “Typical” Day
7:30 am – wake up – get ready for the day
8:30 am – walk Jr to school
8:35 am – sit in the coffee shop and savor a cup a joe
9:30 am – play guitar
10:30 am – swim etc… (the pool closes for cleaning from 10-10:30, and I am often the first one in when it re-opens)
11:30 am – shower
Noon – lunch with the Mrs
1 – 4 pm – stuff (maybe insert nap here)
4 pm – pick up Jr from school, go to park
5 pm – dinner, family time
8 pm – shower, get Jr ready for bed – story time, talk about our day
10 pm – getting tired…
Winnie’s schedule looks a lot different – she is taking 2 or 3 painting classes, a flower arranging class, and an artificial flower making class. At home, she is often painting or cooking/baking (fresh bread, anyone?)
I definitely wonder how I ever had time for a job.
Common Comments
These are all actual comments from the world at large:
“That sounds awesome, this is exactly why I want to be financially independent.”
Me: Cool, glad to hear it! Thanks for reading. If you have any questions about anything, post them on the forum and we (me and the Go Curry Cracker Community) will try to help. Good luck!
“That sounds boring.”
Me: Cool. Thanks for reading. Hopefully you don’t feel the same way about your own schedule.
Also, Justin told me that his life is even more boring than mine. Check it out.
“You aren’t really retired, because you blog.”
Me: Cool, thanks for reading.
“You aren’t really retired, you are self-employed.”
Me: Cool, thanks for reading.
“You aren’t really retired, because you are a full-time manager of investments and taxes.”
Me: Cool, thanks for reading. When taking a crap requires more time than managing your assets, I don’t think you can say this anymore.
“You aren’t really retired, because…. ” (There must be a meme?)
Me: Wonderful, I’ve been looking for a random opinionated Internet personality with your particular skill set. I’ve been trying to choose some paint to touch up these spots on the wall. Would you say the current color is cream, ivory, eggshell, chalk, marshmallow, white, or… something else?
Pick a word. Any word. My walls and life are the same, regardless.
PS: Thanks for reading!
“I think retirement, early or not, is for doing the things you love and for exploring all of the interests you never had time for while working. That is what I am doing with my retirement.”
Me: I couldn’t agree more. Congratulations!
“Would you like to do X for $$$$?”
Me: Sorry, my schedule is kind of full.
you nailed! look forward 561 days 4 hours and 20 minutes before my retirement date and will do exactly what you have been doing.
that will go by in a flash!
Do you have a lot more energy being retired? While working and playing politics for 40 hours a week, I get home and I’m exhausted.
There’s so much more to life than working in an office. I think what I look forward to most is having the mental capacity freed up to focus, read, think, enjoy my life. Even when you’re not at work, work can often be what controls your mind.
Very much so. All of that mental baggage… gone.
I’m laying in bed and I don’t want to get out of it to get ready for work (this happens M-F, but I get up at the crack of dawn on e weekends!). :) I have 4 years left and my enouragement cones from people like you and posts like this. I am lining the hell out of my bank accounts, no rich parents here. Doing something non-mainstream requires discipline and not listening to 80% of what you hear. So glad to find FIRE bloggers… Thanks to you all and your help. Now…. What to wear (suit, UGH). AHAHA
Definitely a suit :)
Oh man, I definitely had days where I just didn’t want to go to work. The worst was early morning meetings. I used to think about buying my freedom, knowing I wouldn’t have to attend another one.
So you only want comments of adulation and agreement. You’ll dismiss any attempt at discussion with a snarky “Cool.” All the FIRE blogs are going that way lately. Many have even stepped up the outright censorship of such comments. I guess that means you’ve all run out of new insightful things to say. OK then.
Ha. Have a great day, Larry.
Cool response, Larry. Thanks for playing the game today.
You’re doing great. I think it’s good that you and the missus have a different routine. You don’t want to see each other 24/7.
My routine is pretty similar. Our son gets home earlier, though. School here is just from 8 am to 2:15 pm.
Nice job with the guitar too. I need to get back to playing more music.
Yeah, it is a good split. It’s nice to have separate together time, kid time, and alone time.
if i knew i would retire. right now those 8 easy work hours are saving me from myself.
How so?
my passion used to be drinking in bars and chasing skirts. you can’t do that 24/7. in all seriousness, though, i really love socializing and most everyone i would truly want to spend a lot of time with is still working. i’m not a big hobby guy and just taking on a fake passion project would feel forced. once i figure it out i’ll retire.
I can respect those passions ;)
I think it is important to have something you are retiring to. For us, it was travel and kid(s.) Staying the course until you know what “it” is sounds wise.
Rad. Keep truckin’. There will always be Larrys.
What does that mean? Really, I’d like to know. Because I’m really into these sites when they talk about the mechanics of FI and RE. Financial planning, health insurance, and taxes being my personal hot topics, but there are many others. But they have been discussed to death and it’s easy to see that most of the sites are turning to topics like this article. Following the MMM method of pooh-poohing anyone who asks a question or challenges the group think. Which, BTW, I haven’t even done here.
So kindly explain the offense or heresy that I’m being accused of.
This is called sealioning.
Yeah, that’s another technique I’ve noticed lately. Making up new words or phrases as a way of discrediting comments. Another blogger has taken to dismissing comments as “hate-reading” and “rage-commenting “. It’s lazy and it’s unfortunate.
If everybody is dismissing your comments, the problem might not be the bloggers. You may have outgrown blogs?
The only place you’ll have full control over the content is on your own blog. Good luck
Same schedule here! Eat, work out, sleep, read, play with kids, travel, etc. Days fly by when you don’t stare at the office clock. No more decision fatigue. No more mental baggage.
Do you think that RE is something to aspire towards if you don’t have a significant other / family? Or do you think that one would simply get to the other side and feel unfulfilled and lonely? Of course I’m asking you to consider a counter-factual that isn’t particularly appealing given all the good things in your life but I don’t think you see many single people who have FIRE’d and are ‘living their best lives’ or perhaps I’m looking in the wrong place :-)
It’s great that you find more time to exercise now – I’m always astounded when I see people who manage to hold down, marriage, children work and training all at the same time (sounds exhausting!).
HH
Aspiring for FI seems mandatory to me. The RE is optional. Otherwise, I don’t know if there is a universal answer.
Sometimes I’ll try to look at something from the reverse angle to get a new perspective.
For example: “Is it worth getting a job if you don’t need the money in order to have structure or people who have a common purpose to hang out with 40-60 hours per week?”
Maybe the answer is yes, maybe it is no, I suppose it depends on your perspective. I don’t know if you see too many single people with massive student loan debt working a job they don’t love who are living their best lives either.
I don’t know how that is even a question?!? I retired at 46, 50 now and am completely and happily single. 79 countries so far, 90% of them solo and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My life is bursting with whatever I want it to be. Having a significant other has no bearing on it at all for me. I’m totally “living my best life”!!
Love it! We have some traveling to do to catch up!
I’ve met quite a few people who have gone back to work after retirement, for various reasons. I can’t relate either, but there is a whole spectrum of interesting people in the world.
Thanks for this Robin. Sounds like you’re having a great time. There aren’t as many single FI role models so it’s nice to hear.
Are you kidding?? I’ve been early retired for 12 years now, I spent 5 years of it single. You seriously can’t think of what you could do early retiring as a single? Honestly, those were some of the most fun years of my life – traveled anywhere I wanted to, lived anywhere I wanted to, followed my own schedule, and did a lot of dating. I spent all 5 of those years living overseas. You should fully enjoy not having any family responsibilities and obligations! I’m very grateful that I experienced both single life and married with children life while early retired.
Love it. My life is pretty similar, but I read a lot more than you, spend less time in the shower, and more time on the …… ;)
It’s a good place to read :)
Today I woke up at 8am, got on my bike and rode 60 miles, then ate a nice breakfast/lunch while checking computer emails, now I’m headed to play Bach for an hour or two on my keyboard. After that I will go visit my Mom for a couple hours. I am FI but not retired. I have slowed down significantly since quitting my full time job but I still think it is important to help people just like you are doing with your blog.
Sounds like a perfect day.
I feel pretty fortunate to be in the position we are in. Living an unconventional life is a big mental leap for people, and it is nice to be able to help others with that transition.
Thanks GCC. I reached FIRE at age 47. I’m 50 now and I love reading the comments and your responses to the gum flappers. It’s great to be in this position in life. Hope to meet you guys some day.
I’m always up for a coffee if you are in the neighborhood :)
Gum flappers… ha!
Your math just doesn’t add up as you clearly forgot to add the ceramic game of throne time to your actual daily schedule. This means, your tax and safe withdrawal calculations must also be off, and alas, you must not really be retired. Happy Monday. : )
I’m not very good at math, I’m afraid. It’s partly because I’m lazy and unfortunate.
Can confirm. I am the most boring person I know. My most grand outing of the day was walking to the grocery store. With my son. To buy ice cream :)
And then we read books to each other until bed time.
Definitely, my dream lifestyle right here. Unfortunately, on teacher salaries (even overseas) another 10 years away. Still retiring at 50 isn’t so bad!
At least I get 10 weeks off every summer! ;)
If I had 10 weeks off every summer, plus holidays, I might never have gotten the motivation to make early retirement possible.
Is summer completely commitment-free, or do you have to attend training sessions and meetings?
Commitment free! I do side hustle during the summer to kick start FIRE but that is always optional. THe down side is that we don’t have a house so we have to stay with my mother-in-law!
I am financially free and start traveling since Dec, 2018. A few days ago, I tried to make a schedule to utilize my time.
Making videos and fighting with SEO occupy most of my time. But it is enjoyable!
A headhunter is looking for me today. No way! I am not going back to waste my life!
Have between 115 to 234 days till I RE. Probably somewhere in between. Can’t wait for it! I have so many things planned that I could do, not least being very involved with my kid’s school and activities. Learn something that I’ve never done before. Take up part-time jobs that I haven’t ever done, just for the experience of it.
Thanks for showing this can be achieved!
What happens in between those dates? A $ milestone?
The first one is when the yearly bonus comes. The second one is till the end of this year. It will be closer to the first date.
It’s great to read your post about how you relax and enjoy life, inspires me to enjoy the now. I left work and reached FI in December’ 18 and often times feel guilty that I am wasting the one life I have and that I should do more. Sometimes I panic because of thoughts like how will I pay for college for 2 kids or what if we get really sick and that’s when I oscillate between really building my blog or going back to work. I do miss the challenge and social circle of work. But there are days when I just relax and enjoy my time or meet friends and hear them complain about work, and I realize how lucky I am to be able to sit in my yard on a lagoon and enjoy the peace and warmth anytime.
I had lunch with some coworkers a few years ago… they spent the whole time complaining about the same stuff, and at the end asked, “So, are you ready to come back to work?” It’s a strange world.
Great Post! To answer your question, my ideal retirement day would be:
1. Wake up early on a good weather day and head out to my local park and fly up into the sky on my Paramotor.
2. Get home, perform some maintenance on my Paramotor and then take a shower.
3. Sit down and relax with a good book or watch a movie or TV show.
4. Eat lunch to break my intermittent fast.
5. Jump on my computer and play some video games or take some online courses just to stretch the brain.
6. Cook dinner and have it ready for the misses when she gets off work (if she still works and isn’t retired herself).
7. Spend my evening doing the things she wants to do, like go out with friends, etc.
8. Call it a night and dream about doing it again tomorrow.
Damn this made me hungry for FI. I have just under 6 years until I should hit FI, hopefully the end of 2024 sometime.
Keep up the great work!
perfect
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing. I can’t wait to lead a life like yours and your wife’s. It seems like you guys have zero issues with having a sense of purpose. That is my biggest worry.
I suppose I’m in agreement with the Dalai Lama on this… the purpose of life is to be happy. So do what makes you happy, that is your purpose.
We have a trip to Japan (2 weeks) Jan-Feb 2020 staying in Roykan’s & skiing thigh deep powder. Let me know if you’re keen to join us. Our group is like minded financial independent, Aussie guys. We call our little club The Paradise Powder Hounds!
Where will you be in Japan?
Nozawa Onsen 18th-25th
Myoko Kogen 25th-1st
I can give you more details i.e price, ryokans etc offline from forum for your privacy.
We’ll be in the neighborhood (Hakuba area.) Everything already booked.
We’ll probably do a day trip around Nozawa Onsen.
I’ll probably just be hanging on the bunny slope with the kiddo, but drop me an email and maybe we can at least get a coffee?
Sweet. Just sent you an email. Hope you can speak Australian :) the ratio is about 99% Aussie 1% Japanese in Hakuba. But putting fellow countrymen aside the powder, ryokan’s and onsens in Japan are epic!!!!
I do a’ight.
Cheers mate.
This has nothing particularly to do with this post, but I’ve always wondered why investment real estate hasn’t seemed to interest you. Agreed 100% that a primary residence is rarely a great investment (unless it’s a fourplex:)), but real estate has built many fortunes and has so many tax benefits, so I was curious why.
It doesn’t bring me joy.
Best answer ever. Thank you!
0730 – Wake-up (hygiene)
0800 – Coffee on the back porch
0830 – Something creative (drawing, ukulele, yoga)
1000 – Start lunch
1200 – Something productive (blog, learn, garden)
1700 – Something fun (hike, bike, fish)
2000 – Drinks / Dinner
2130 – A movie or a video game from my back catalog
2300 – Bedtime (hygiene)
Hi,
thank you for sharing!
I have a question: what about friends-time?
Do you use some of the travel the world – time to visit them?
Or are they part of your daily life?
Keep on the good stuff! Grüße from Germany
All of the above. We are going to Vietnam in a few weeks with friends, we hang out with friends regularly for dinners/bike rides/etc…, and every time we swing through Spain/Sweden/UK/NYC/SF/Seattle we stay with/visit friends.
Where we are in now in Taipei, Winnie has friends she has known since elementary school, and they all have kids around the same age as Jr. So there is always something going on with them.
Hey Jeremy, how old is Julian? I thought he’s too yang for school. I like your lifestyle. Could you tell how do you combine (and going to combine) school with slow travel in the future?
He’s 4. Pre-school maybe. He’s gone from 9:30-4 M-F under the guidance of a teaching staff in the Montessori style.
We’ll probably just follow the school calendar. Travel in summer and the big holidays (sometimes.)