Chillin In Place™

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.

old skool

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?)

Winnie’s painting of our next Chinese New Year destination

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.

What Is Your Ideal Retirement Day?