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Welcome to instalment #5 of SavingNinja‘s thought experiments. This time around he asks:
“Life is good. You finally did it! You pulled the plug on your day job after reaching financial independence. You never have to work for money ever again. But, you’re bored. You need something to do… You need a project! You grab a piece of paper and a pen and start thinking. Now that you’re financially free, what projects do you want to complete? However ambitious, however small, you now have the time to pursue anything that you like, what will you accomplish?“
I am going to guess there are quite a lot of lists that involve writing a book, learning to play an instrument, and so on (both of which would be on my list, btw) so rather than just trotting out another list like that, I thought it might be fun to republish and revisit part of a really old post I wrote called “My Perfect Work Day” which kind of answers this question in terms of the minute by minute details of what I would have liked to be doing once I’m FI.
I thought it would be interesting to see after 5 years if this has changed all that much. So back in 2013 I thought this would make up a pretty good day once “FI”, bearing in mind my version of FI has always been to continue doing some sort of work for myself:
07:30 to 08:00 – Get up (slowly) and have a cup of tea
08:30 – Go for a run or do some other sort of exercise
09:00 – Shower and dress
09:30 – Make a decent breakfast and eat it
10:00 – Start the commute to the office
10:01 – Arrive at the office, check some emails etc
10:30 – Read up on some of my favourite blogs, post some comments, etc.
11:00 – Do some jobs around the house
12:00 – Social/Recreation time: See who’s around and go and see some friends and family, maybe for lunch or even a round of golf. If no one is around then have some lunch at home and read a book or research some stuff that interests me online
16:00 – Come back and do a couple of hours of “actual” work
18:00 – Prepare and eat dinner
19:00 – Either entertain guests if we have people over or do some more reading or a bit of TV.
21:00 – Do some more “actual” work
00:00 – Go to bed
The glaringly obvious updates needed to this are due the fact we are now with child, but in all honesty it would not really be much different to this. Chuck in a bit of time to either play, bathe, clothe and feed the little one at the corresponding points of the day, and/or drop her off and pick from nursery (and school when the time comes). The other thing that would probably change would be the clear weighting of work towards the evening in the plan above. It is true that I used to like working on things in the quieter hours of the late evening, but I think now it is best to knock out all of the “mind work” as early as possible, so I would weight all of the stuff I really wanted to work on in the morning, and leave other things such as jobs around the house and exercise for the afternoon/evening. OK so let’s have another stab at this:
06:30 to 07:00 – Get up, have a cup of (decaf) tea, either check emails or immediately spend time with TFS Jr if she woke up early (normally sleeps till about 7:30)
07:30 – Have breakfast with family, play time, getting ready/dressed time
09:00 – Nursery drop off (if necessary) and then “commute” to “work”
09:30 – Bang out 2-3 hours of coding, writing, or some other project I want to be working on, interspersed with 5 minutes of each way betting every so often
12:00 – Lunch with family they are at home, if not go for a run or play squash or some sort of exercise, then have lunch afterwards
13:30 – Either more each way betting, along with emails, blog/article reading and commenting, plus other more menial online admin tasks, or do some jobs around the house.
15:00 – Pick up from nursery (if necessary). Play time/family time
17:00 – Dinner time for TFS Jr
18:30 – Bath time for TFS Jr
19:00 – Bedtime for TFS Jr
19:30 – Dinner time with Mrs T
20:00 – TV + more laptop time (whatever I feel like doing in all honesty) or another evening activity such as going for a run if haven’t had any exercise earlier, or socialising with friends and family
23:00 – Go to bed
In terms of time spent “working” you can see there really is a lot less here, and it has mainly been replace with child rearing duties. So I’ll most definitely be less productive than I would have been 5 years ago. Of course, then there is Parkinson’s Law, which states “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. So maybe my work in the shorter time slots will be more intense and focused, so maybe it would be a wash. Either way it’s all good, the time table above seems more balanced with family and fun stuff than the original one so I am more than happy with it.
What would your ideal day post FI look like, and what burning projects have you got in the locker waiting to burst out once you get there?
If you would like to read more answers to the thought experiment, here is a list of those who have done so at time of writing:
I’m glad you’ve stopped going for a run before putting clothes on; that was bound to get you into trouble at some point.
Before you had your daughter did you think that children would take away so much of your free time (and you’d be happy with that?) I’m in the current state of thinking that I don’t want to halt my projects for kids, but I know that my feelings will probably change as soon as I touch his (or her) hands.
I always get missed off these Thought Experiment entry lists! :)) SavingNinja recently posted…What to do When You Retire?
Haha, good observation there, there is a naturist running club local to me though so maybe I should just join that instead 😉
Have to admit when I wrote the original post I wasn’t thinking about the future and kids/no kids or whatever, just if I could be FI tomorrow, how would I like to spend that day. But as we led up to making the decision to have a child, yea, I guess I knew that would put a big dent in my already limited free time, and I was OK with that.
The thing I did find afterwards though was finding out actually how much low hanging fruit there was of time being wasted in my life. I am not sure how much of that will apply to you because you seem pretty much on something productive, all of the time (it seems that way, anyway). So it’s not an exact 1:1 correlation of 1 hour spent doing baby stuff = 1 hour less to do something else important. You just prioritise and the unimportant things are the ones that get chucked. You may think some things are important now that afterwards become unimportant!
“I’m in the current state of thinking that I don’t want to halt my projects for kids” – Halt, no. Slow down (especially in the first year) yes. Also if you are FI or close to FI when you have the child they may not have to slow down at all.
Ah, I just copied the list off of your post… you should include your own link in your list (I know it might look a bit stupid but I guess most people do the same?). Will add you on now though 🙂
I did the exact same thing TFS and skipped out The Saving Ninja. Who is he anyways?! I’ve added him now.
I like how structured your day is. I wonder how much of it will reflect reality once you hit FI and stopped working a normal job. I guess it doesn’t really matter since you can do what you want then (Mrs T permitting)! Cashflow Cop recently posted…Beyond Financial Independence: Tracing My Roots
Sounds like a good day! It’s interesting that you would still do matched betting when FI, do you enjoy it that much?
I like that we would all still be so productive. Most people assume if you want to retire you would be sat around all day and get bored – quite the opposite! A Way to Less recently posted…Thought Experiment 5
The key phrase I guess was “My version of FI” – which isn’t really full FI but involves me working and earning on my own on little projects here and there that I find enjoyable. I would try to keep doing MB to get a baseline income and do other projects on top of that, for longer term payoff stuff.
Hope that makes sense!
Yea I don’t see how sitting around not doing much all day is ever going to make me happy, so my plan is definitely NOT to do that 🙂
I see you are one of those who put their kids to bed in the late afternoon.
Hopefully you don’t also complain about them waking up at 5am and driving you nuts!
We put our kids to bed at 9pm and always have.
Kids do complicate things a bit don’t they – but if I was RE’d I would want to spend more time with them – which is why I can’t really understand people who work at a 9-5, get home at 6 and put their kids in bed at 7.
No I don’t complain because she wakes up 7:00-7:30am as stated in the post 😉 (this is a massive lay in for me, I wake up about 6:30 naturally most days due to 15 years of early morning commuting drilled into me).
It’s great you can put your kids to be so late and still get to see them after work for so long, but we couldn’t do that with TFS Jr because she is whacked when it gets to 7pm. If we went any later we’d have a grumpy child the following day which everyone knows is no fun at all!
Yea I can’t imagine anyone who has kids and FIRE’s would not want to spend more time with them, that would be a bit weird haha 🙂
Just new to this retire early site and I was wondering if you or your followers have any advice for someone in their late fifties
I have some saving of 50000 no debt thanks
Bit hard to give specific advice with so little info. Feel free to drop me an email using the contact link in the menu up the top there, and we can chat?
Love your approach to the question. Your day looks so productive. I think my post FI days will involve getting up at about 10.30, followed by an hour or two of nebulous “loafing” before doing anything concrete. I guess that’s not an option with children to take care of! Fretful Finance recently posted…What Are My Plans for Retirement?
I suppose we could take it in turn to loaf. But to be honest your priorities change and you just want to spend time with them anyway, so loafing kind of goes out the window, even though I have been a pretty big loafer in a previous life (e.g. student days, etc…)
When she’s a bit older and off doing her own thing, I think I will enjoy a bit of loafing once more 🙂
Looks like a great day but I just can’t believe TFSjr gets up at 7.30am – legendary.
I’ve just started giving the EW betting a go (having had my 2up dreams crushed by BET365) and still working on how to do it without being on the phone constantly and chasing odds which seem to change quite a bit.
When do you mostly EW bet and how much time do you send on it?
Hah I know we are very lucky and I just pray if/when #2 comes along they are the same!
Erm, hate to sound dismissive of your question but if you read through my two each way betting posts, along with all the comments and answers, I think those ones have already been answered. If you can’t find it anywhere comment again on those posts and I’ll get back to you.
Interesting to see what a day in the life of a retired Firestarter would look like! I can totally relate to wanting to get the hard stuff out of the way earlier in the day, before saving the fun things for the afternoon/evening. I remember when I was revising for exams, on the days that I started early, I would get loads done, whereas on the days that I left it until after lunch, I would struggle to get started, and would end up just putting it off to the next day! The same applies for any other instances of having to do work as well. Dr FIRE recently posted…What will you do when you retire?
Yea it’s crazy how over the years it has changed. I used to do my best and most focused work at 2am (literally!) because, no distractions, and the deadline at 9am was looming big time. Not sustainable though. Now if you can get up and get a decent work environment early doors, I find that much better.
I, too, have a young child (nearly 2) and it changed everything. I can promise you that your routine would change if you are consistently having to get up at 4-5am like I am currently. I would allow 30 mins in 5 minute chunks for sugary snack consumption and additional coffee, and write off anything productive after 1pm.
Yea, it definitely changes things huh? 4-5am starts do just suck the life out of you, I feel for you and hopefully things will change as your child gets older.
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Discussion (23) ¬
I’m glad you’ve stopped going for a run before putting clothes on; that was bound to get you into trouble at some point.
Before you had your daughter did you think that children would take away so much of your free time (and you’d be happy with that?) I’m in the current state of thinking that I don’t want to halt my projects for kids, but I know that my feelings will probably change as soon as I touch his (or her) hands.
I always get missed off these Thought Experiment entry lists! :))
SavingNinja recently posted…What to do When You Retire?
Haha, good observation there, there is a naturist running club local to me though so maybe I should just join that instead 😉
Have to admit when I wrote the original post I wasn’t thinking about the future and kids/no kids or whatever, just if I could be FI tomorrow, how would I like to spend that day. But as we led up to making the decision to have a child, yea, I guess I knew that would put a big dent in my already limited free time, and I was OK with that.
The thing I did find afterwards though was finding out actually how much low hanging fruit there was of time being wasted in my life. I am not sure how much of that will apply to you because you seem pretty much on something productive, all of the time (it seems that way, anyway). So it’s not an exact 1:1 correlation of 1 hour spent doing baby stuff = 1 hour less to do something else important. You just prioritise and the unimportant things are the ones that get chucked. You may think some things are important now that afterwards become unimportant!
“I’m in the current state of thinking that I don’t want to halt my projects for kids” – Halt, no. Slow down (especially in the first year) yes. Also if you are FI or close to FI when you have the child they may not have to slow down at all.
Ah, I just copied the list off of your post… you should include your own link in your list (I know it might look a bit stupid but I guess most people do the same?). Will add you on now though 🙂
Cheers
I did the exact same thing TFS and skipped out The Saving Ninja. Who is he anyways?! I’ve added him now.
I like how structured your day is. I wonder how much of it will reflect reality once you hit FI and stopped working a normal job. I guess it doesn’t really matter since you can do what you want then (Mrs T permitting)!
Cashflow Cop recently posted…Beyond Financial Independence: Tracing My Roots
Sounds like a good day! It’s interesting that you would still do matched betting when FI, do you enjoy it that much?
I like that we would all still be so productive. Most people assume if you want to retire you would be sat around all day and get bored – quite the opposite!
A Way to Less recently posted…Thought Experiment 5
Hi A Way To Less,
The key phrase I guess was “My version of FI” – which isn’t really full FI but involves me working and earning on my own on little projects here and there that I find enjoyable. I would try to keep doing MB to get a baseline income and do other projects on top of that, for longer term payoff stuff.
Hope that makes sense!
Yea I don’t see how sitting around not doing much all day is ever going to make me happy, so my plan is definitely NOT to do that 🙂
Cheers
I see you are one of those who put their kids to bed in the late afternoon.
Hopefully you don’t also complain about them waking up at 5am and driving you nuts!
We put our kids to bed at 9pm and always have.
Kids do complicate things a bit don’t they – but if I was RE’d I would want to spend more time with them – which is why I can’t really understand people who work at a 9-5, get home at 6 and put their kids in bed at 7.
Good post.
Gentleman’s Family Finances recently posted…What I learnt from my Dad’s early retirement (aged 60) Part 1
Hi GFF,
No I don’t complain because she wakes up 7:00-7:30am as stated in the post 😉 (this is a massive lay in for me, I wake up about 6:30 naturally most days due to 15 years of early morning commuting drilled into me).
It’s great you can put your kids to be so late and still get to see them after work for so long, but we couldn’t do that with TFS Jr because she is whacked when it gets to 7pm. If we went any later we’d have a grumpy child the following day which everyone knows is no fun at all!
Yea I can’t imagine anyone who has kids and FIRE’s would not want to spend more time with them, that would be a bit weird haha 🙂
All the best
Hi I hope that you are well!
Just new to this retire early site and I was wondering if you or your followers have any advice for someone in their late fifties
I have some saving of 50000 no debt thanks
Hi Rich John,
Bit hard to give specific advice with so little info. Feel free to drop me an email using the contact link in the menu up the top there, and we can chat?
Cheers
Love your approach to the question. Your day looks so productive. I think my post FI days will involve getting up at about 10.30, followed by an hour or two of nebulous “loafing” before doing anything concrete. I guess that’s not an option with children to take care of!
Fretful Finance recently posted…What Are My Plans for Retirement?
That sounds a lot like most of my weekends!
Dr FIRE recently posted…What will you do when you retire?
I suppose we could take it in turn to loaf. But to be honest your priorities change and you just want to spend time with them anyway, so loafing kind of goes out the window, even though I have been a pretty big loafer in a previous life (e.g. student days, etc…)
When she’s a bit older and off doing her own thing, I think I will enjoy a bit of loafing once more 🙂
Cheers
Looks like a great day but I just can’t believe TFSjr gets up at 7.30am – legendary.
I’ve just started giving the EW betting a go (having had my 2up dreams crushed by BET365) and still working on how to do it without being on the phone constantly and chasing odds which seem to change quite a bit.
When do you mostly EW bet and how much time do you send on it?
Hah I know we are very lucky and I just pray if/when #2 comes along they are the same!
Erm, hate to sound dismissive of your question but if you read through my two each way betting posts, along with all the comments and answers, I think those ones have already been answered. If you can’t find it anywhere comment again on those posts and I’ll get back to you.
Cheers and GL with the EW stuff.
Here’s a link to the first one:
http://thefirestarter.co.uk/matched-betting-how-to-make-money-betting-each-way-horse-racing/
Interesting to see what a day in the life of a retired Firestarter would look like! I can totally relate to wanting to get the hard stuff out of the way earlier in the day, before saving the fun things for the afternoon/evening. I remember when I was revising for exams, on the days that I started early, I would get loads done, whereas on the days that I left it until after lunch, I would struggle to get started, and would end up just putting it off to the next day! The same applies for any other instances of having to do work as well.
Dr FIRE recently posted…What will you do when you retire?
Yea it’s crazy how over the years it has changed. I used to do my best and most focused work at 2am (literally!) because, no distractions, and the deadline at 9am was looming big time. Not sustainable though. Now if you can get up and get a decent work environment early doors, I find that much better.
Cheers!
I, too, have a young child (nearly 2) and it changed everything. I can promise you that your routine would change if you are consistently having to get up at 4-5am like I am currently. I would allow 30 mins in 5 minute chunks for sugary snack consumption and additional coffee, and write off anything productive after 1pm.
Yea, it definitely changes things huh? 4-5am starts do just suck the life out of you, I feel for you and hopefully things will change as your child gets older.
Cheers