It has been more than a month now since I early retired from MegaCorp and adopted my new life of leisure. It feels like I am still “skipping school” and am expected to go back to work at some point. The good news is that I’m not going back to anything and enjoying my time immensely. It is wonderful to have all of the time to do whatever you want, yet not be required to do anything at all.
When I was getting ready to leave MegaCorp I drew up a list of things I was hoping to do in early retirement organized around my “Life Wheel” concept. Since the question I get most often now is “what are you doing with your time?” – I thought I’d provide a quick update now that I have reached the 50 Day Milestone:
TRAVEL / PLAY
- We’re planning for our big trip to Japan in July. It will be tricky place to visit because of the language & cultural differences. I’ve been spending a lot of time reading guide books and getting advice from people.
- Our boat club just opened this two weeks ago for the summer. The weather has moved from the 60s to the 80s F and we’ve already enjoyed one beautiful ‘summer night’ on the the water with good friends.
- I’m signed up for a couple of sports car / road rally events. One was this past weekend and one is next month. The one next month is a charity fundraiser with a timed rally circuit that I’m going to drive with a friend from high school.
- I’m getting a new convertible this week and trading in the one I’ve had for the last six summers. Cars are definitely my grown-up guilty pleasure and don’t make any practical or economic sense. The new car is actually a 2013, but has only 4.4K miles!
ARTS / CREATIVE
- I’ve done very little in this category other than go to a few movies. I’m loving the $5 Tuesday showings at the cinema near our house that has the big, leather recliners.
FAMILY / FRIENDS
- I’ve met quite a few people for lunch / happy hour over the past 6 weeks. Some are work colleagues, some are friends from other parts of my life. I’ve probably gone to lunch 15 times over the time I’ve been off work.
- My wife put on a 50th Birthday party for me in April and we saw a lot of friends. My son is finishing high school and their has also been a lot of school events / banquets – including his prom grand march.
- I’ve been doing some new genealogy research on my wife’s family. I found out quite a lot of new information on her maternal great grandfather and we might make a trip later this year to Austin MN (home of Spam!) to look some things up.
WORK / MONEY
- I spent a couple days in Michigan for a quarterly board meeting at a company that I am an outside director for. It was funny to get up to work on a Monday morning, but it is a good group to get together with and fun to sit in a conference room and talk business again.
- I did a couple of over-the-phone 1 hour consulting calls through a online organization I have worked with for a few years. They don’t require very much preparation on my part and pay well. Good bonus money.
- I got in involved with due diligence of an investment we are planning to make through our Angel Fund. It’s a medical device compay that will revolutionize a certain kind of surgery. It’s our first go at Angel investing.
HEALTH / SPORTS
- I’ve increased my daily activity level by a whopping 90% and cut calories by 30%+ at the same time. I have dropped 4 pounds off my weight and don’t feel too hungry. I also started running outside again and am getting back up to 5K pace.
- My brother and I scheduled weekly tennis again (we did it last summer/fall, too) and I am golfing with my other brother & Dad and joined a church league. I also played tennis with a retired friend from MegaCorp and next time we’re going to hit a brew pub after playing.
- I love to go to sports events and I went to a couple games with friends: a Twins game on a beautiful afternoon and a Minnesota Wild Stanley Cup playoff game. I’m planning to line up some more games when we get back from summer vacation.
LEARN / WRITE
- I’ve been pretty good about keeping up this blog, but I did miss a few Wednesday posts. Hard to believe at times I’ve been busier than when I was working, but it is the truth. My goal is to publish a “retired life post” each Monday and a “personal finance” post each Wednesday. I do a quick quote or “Friday Fun” to end the week.
- I have been unsuccessful at cracking a single book so far. I picked up Shogun – which a friend suggested since we are going to Japan – but didn’t get further than the first few pages. Books are hard to start, but I hope to get going soon.
LOVE / ROMANCE
- The good news is I haven’t driven MrsFireStation crazy yet. She wrote her own post about how things were going recently and I got a thumbs up.
- We went to see Paul McCartney in concert two weeks ago, which was amazing. The show last almost 3 hours and 36 songs. He did a tribute to Prince, who is on a lot of people’s minds lately here in the Twin Cities/Minneapolis.
- We got dressed up for our own “spring prom” – a black tie event fundraiser at the Minnesota Zoo called the “Beastly Ball”. We’ve been to it many times, but it was the first time I wasn’t hosting a corporate table for MegaCorp.
GIVING / TEACHING / COMMUNITY
- Speaking of the Zoo, we had a series of board meetings in April and that filled up a few afternoons. We have a new Zoo Director, so it has been good to get to know him. He doesn’t quite know what to make of my early retiree status, I can tell.
- I taught a class on New Product Development / Innovation Strategy at one of the local universities in early May. A friend is an adjunct professor there and asks me to come in for a 90 minute lecture once a semester.
- I was also asked to come to 2 companies in the next 90 days to lead innovation workshops. They are paid gigs, but I haven’t decided to do them or not yet. I probably should – if only to feel better about buying my convertible!
One more update … I introduced a lot of MrFireStation.com readers with FIREcalc in my post about using Monte Carlo analysis to assess the longevity of your nest egg. I posted that I would give $2 for every reader who tried it and commented on it the week it was posted. That was 17 readers, so I donated $35 to FIREcalc (a nonprofit/wiki site) via PayPal last week.
So – that’s the update after my first 50 days of financial freedom & early retirement. It has been a pretty busy time and I have had no problem keeping myself entertained. I miss the people from work, but not the work at all. I was in the airport on Wednesday and saw a MegaCorp executive running through the concourse (in a suit & tie) trying to get to a gate on time. It reminded me how lucky I am to be a free man!
Image Credit: MrFireStation.com Life Wheel
MrFireStation 
Sounds like a great mix. Even with all the eating out, and celebrating you dropped a few pounds. Rinse and repeat!
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Definitely off to a great start!
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Wow! You have been busy. I feel a little guilty and slovenly reading your list, but I guess the key is to design the retirement we each want. I hope you can get into Shogun. I read it years ago, but I remember being fascinated.
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I’m kind of Type A, I guess – but could use a few down days right now.
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I love hearing how you are using your time and it sounds like you are still super busy and productive while having fun. I hope your trip to Japan is amazing. Is it primarily for sight-seeing? What made you choose Japan?
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My son wanted to go to Japan more than any place else in the world. Since he is leaving for college, we decided to let him choose… Going to Tokyo and Kyoto.
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You’ve kept yourself quite busy! We’ve been discussing whether we want to purposely be anti-scheduling in our early weeks of early retirement, or fill up the calendar, or split the difference and go with the flow. Keep us posted on how it’s all feeling to you!
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Most people take a couple months and just do nothing. While it seems like I’ve done a lot, I haven’t been particularly rushed with anything other than one out-of-town trip. It has been very relaxing.
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This is an incredible amount and variety of engagements. I love it. I hope that you find the balance for achieving the components of your Life Wheel in the proportion you desire. Selfishly glad that you’ll continue posting.
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I told someone today: you know how it is when you’ve had a busy weekend and you were kind of happy to get back to work on Monday? I feel like I have just had 25 busy weekends in a row. Probably good to have a few down days this week.
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I’m looking for the only weekend in 4 that I am not traveling this weekend. Thankfully, mostly happy travel, but it is exhausting to have this much fun.
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Sounds like you are keeping yourself occupied with meaningful activities!
Must feel good to be busy with your own things, not someone else’s priority
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Yes – there is no shortage of things to do, even just for yourself. I expected I would’ve gotten to a few more projects in the last 50 days, but there is no rush.
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Sounds like a good mix. Good to hear your are working on the health goals. It is amazing how the step tracker can motivate, hey?
We are going to Japan next year. Where are you going? We have a few Japanese friends and they said we won’t have any worries as most people speak English unless you go to rural area. Their tips were to eat local (which is of of course one reason we are going – love the food). The hotels in Tokyo are pricey (we have 2 kids) so I’m looking at accomodation on home away.com – how about you?
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We are going to Tokyo and Kyoto for 11 days. We will stick to most of the iconic areas – won’t be going behind the scenes into rural areas. The flights were incredibly expensive – over $2000 apiece. I used flight miles to cover one of our three tickets, but had to pay for the other two. Hotel prices have not turned out to be too bad, although the inventory of triple rooms is very difficult to find. I think I am paying about $180 a night in Tokyo for a Citadines hotel, and $300 per night in Kyoto for a lecture he Westin property.
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Not busy, eh?
If you don’t mind me asking, what surprised you most about the first 50?
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Good question. I was pretty well prepared, so there weren’t any BIG surprises. I guess I’ve been surprised at how busy I’ve been. I really thought I’d have more ‘down time’. I’m coming to believe it is more ME than my commitments that keep me busy. That said, I’ve had plenty of time to kick back almost anytime I would want to.
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I like the way you shared via the life wheel. Will be stealing the concept as I planned to do a 2 year anniversary post (in July) on the topic “what have I done”. I like that it shares the life balance that is possible in retirement! You might not have down-time, but you could if you felt the need! It’s your choice….and that is what I’ve learned in my first 2 years.
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I didn’t put ‘downtime’ expressly on the chart, but I’ve been finding my fair share! 🙂
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It’s been a busy month for someone who is retired! I know several people who have visited Japan and they tell me that it’s nothing less than amazing! Looks like you have a full agenda so I hope you find some time somewhere in the middle to kick off your shoes!
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I have had plenty of time to take it easy, but generally am enjoying doing stuff that I couldn’t easily do when I was working. 🙂
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Sounds like you’re off to a great start. Love the concept of the life wheel too btw. Reminds me of something I started to create years ago called the “life breakdown structure” (similar to a work breakdown structure WBS). Yours is better though! 🙂
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I think it is fun to think about all the different facets of our life. Too often we just divide our time into work and family – but there is much more than that, isn’t there?
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Sounds pretty great so far! The health/sports category is probably the biggest day-to-day difference I’ve noticed. I’ve gone from being a desk-bound slob to getting hours and hours of active time every day, and I feel great for it.
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Yes – I would say that is the biggest category for change for me as well. I am still not in good enough shape, but making progress!
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Holy crap!!! Dude…Pace yourself! It is amazing to me all the things you are doing, and quite frankly, you’re making me feel a bit lazy! LOL! I love, love, love that you are into so many things and seem to be enjoying life so much! You deserve it!
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In enjoying myself a GREAT deal. I like having things to do and feel as if the world is wide open to me.
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The word boring does not really come to mind when reading this activity list. Great to see you enjoyed the first months of FIRE (and by reading your other recent posts, you have no problem to keep going one either!). Have fun
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