Ask HN: Who's Retired?
I just found myself curious who's retired but still hanging out here. (Or did you join after leaving work?) How was the transition? Are you glad you retired when you did? Do you feel like you have a lot of free time, or got used to it quickly? What have you been doing with it?
18 comments
I retired at the start of last year. I'm in my mid-50s. I hang out here much more than I did before retiring as a way to keep up with things. And I comment far more often since retiring.
I am glad I retired when I did. I feel like I have less free time than I did in my career - and I was overly busy during my career. But that's because I've filled my time with learning and projects. I've slowly been learning not to put the same pressure on myself to get projects done that I did during my career (that was a real problem when I first retired). As I get better at giving myself some space, things get more fun / fulfilling. Even though it feels busier, it feels far less stressful.
My projects are mostly home maintenance / upgrades. I'm also spending some time on code + music... a couple of my friends are musicians who have helped inspire me to learn more on the music side. I enjoy playing with sound synthesis in code. I haven't made anything I'd think of as music yet, but that might come someday. I also volunteered to take over all the tech at our tiny town's all-volunteer library. Little did I know that the previous person had written their own library management web-app in bash scripts, but it's quite robust.
The thing I was most afraid of missing before retiring was mentoring. There are specific people I really enjoy mentoring. I talked to one of them about my fear and they asked if we could continue after I retired. It hadn't even occurred to me that there was such an option (of course there is!). So, I do 3-5 video chats a week with mentees (3 are weekly, 2 are monthly, and others are ad-hoc). My rule is that they have to be people I wouldn't take money from - that keeps my retirement honest. And the line between mentee and friend blurs significantly now, which is even better. Those people are keeping me young (they are all 25-35 years old) and reminding me how nice it is to be retired as they tell me about stressful situations at work.
I am glad I retired when I did. I feel like I have less free time than I did in my career - and I was overly busy during my career. But that's because I've filled my time with learning and projects. I've slowly been learning not to put the same pressure on myself to get projects done that I did during my career (that was a real problem when I first retired). As I get better at giving myself some space, things get more fun / fulfilling. Even though it feels busier, it feels far less stressful.
My projects are mostly home maintenance / upgrades. I'm also spending some time on code + music... a couple of my friends are musicians who have helped inspire me to learn more on the music side. I enjoy playing with sound synthesis in code. I haven't made anything I'd think of as music yet, but that might come someday. I also volunteered to take over all the tech at our tiny town's all-volunteer library. Little did I know that the previous person had written their own library management web-app in bash scripts, but it's quite robust.
The thing I was most afraid of missing before retiring was mentoring. There are specific people I really enjoy mentoring. I talked to one of them about my fear and they asked if we could continue after I retired. It hadn't even occurred to me that there was such an option (of course there is!). So, I do 3-5 video chats a week with mentees (3 are weekly, 2 are monthly, and others are ad-hoc). My rule is that they have to be people I wouldn't take money from - that keeps my retirement honest. And the line between mentee and friend blurs significantly now, which is even better. Those people are keeping me young (they are all 25-35 years old) and reminding me how nice it is to be retired as they tell me about stressful situations at work.
I retired 5 years ago after the startup I worked for went public. Retired maybe isn’t the right term, as our spending has grown and we likely don’t have enough to live on for the rest of our lives (but it would be close).
In the meantime I’ve created all the projects I wanted to work on while I was working a 9-5. That’s been fulfilling and fun! And if a project isn’t I can always just stop or change it.
In the meantime I’ve created all the projects I wanted to work on while I was working a 9-5. That’s been fulfilling and fun! And if a project isn’t I can always just stop or change it.
I just signed up for your app. This thing looks awesome. What framework did you use to build it?
https://adamfortuna.com/projects
Tech stack can be seen here
Tech stack can be seen here
I retired about 8 years ago which is when I found the newsfeed. When I worked, I was too busy for places like this.
Retiring was easy. I do what I want when I want, and I belong to the set of people that believe if I get bored it's my own fault. I have time for health, friends, family, and games, and all to the degree that I want.
My spending is on a budget, but that's ok
Retiring was easy. I do what I want when I want, and I belong to the set of people that believe if I get bored it's my own fault. I have time for health, friends, family, and games, and all to the degree that I want.
My spending is on a budget, but that's ok
Maybe I could retire now (€1M cash + €400k in diversified ETF + fully own my small flat + no kids) but I'm too afraid or unimaginative to do it yet :(
In theory I still have 17 years to go before being able to officially retire. I'm a bit too scared of the future to get disconnected from the job market yet. Also I still love working on technical problems and new tech, even though I absolutely hate the political bullshit and JIRA treadmill that go around nice tech in most jobs nowadays. My patience is getting tested every day.
In theory I still have 17 years to go before being able to officially retire. I'm a bit too scared of the future to get disconnected from the job market yet. Also I still love working on technical problems and new tech, even though I absolutely hate the political bullshit and JIRA treadmill that go around nice tech in most jobs nowadays. My patience is getting tested every day.
I am early 50’s, retired software engineer, and having a blast designing and building weird GPS clocks and digital toys. (https://digitalhorology.com)
The transition was easy. As a consultant, I gradually took on less paid work for other people and more things for myself. My house & yard take up a lot of time, and I mentor my college-age kids and a neighborhood teenager.
The transition was easy. As a consultant, I gradually took on less paid work for other people and more things for myself. My house & yard take up a lot of time, and I mentor my college-age kids and a neighborhood teenager.
Semi-retired. Started a PhD. Getting up whenever I like, though trying not to get under my kids' feet when they are having breakfast before school. And going out clubbing again.
I seem somehow, partly because of some mild volunteering maybe, to have less free time than before! I am going to be spending half a Friday admiring new electric garbage trucks down at the local waste centre soon as part of this for example...
I seem somehow, partly because of some mild volunteering maybe, to have less free time than before! I am going to be spending half a Friday admiring new electric garbage trucks down at the local waste centre soon as part of this for example...
I’m “semi” retired via the FIRE path after a decade of FAANG. It was always my plan to retire early after reading Cryptonomicon in college and learning about the concept of “fuck you money”. I’ve been spending my time learning random topics and still writing code. I’m thinking about going back to work again because things are ramping up in the AI and VR space but it’s hard to find a job at a company working on bleeding edge technology that will not require me to work 40+ hours a week.
I fully support the idea of early retirement via FIRE. Even if a person doesn’t decide to actually retire, having the freedom to do so is an amazing feeling. Similarly, the current freedom I have to continue being semi-retired, go back to work, or just sit around playing video games feels amazing. It makes the insane amount of effort that I put in for a decade worth it.
I fully support the idea of early retirement via FIRE. Even if a person doesn’t decide to actually retire, having the freedom to do so is an amazing feeling. Similarly, the current freedom I have to continue being semi-retired, go back to work, or just sit around playing video games feels amazing. It makes the insane amount of effort that I put in for a decade worth it.
Do you have children? Or Single or DINK? I feel it’s almost impossible to do FIRE while having a high bar on kids education and general quality of life (based on experiences and not material possessions). Would love to hear counterpoints to be educated on this more.
I'm 31, retired a couple years back. Instead of going into FAANG I went the high-risk route and worked for small start-ups from ages 15-28. I've had a ~25% success rate on those companies and now have enough to maintain my middle-class lifestyle without further income.
I live nomadically in a campervan I built and guide raft trips and volunteer doing whitewater rescue now. However, I missed building things enough that I picked up another software job last year. I like building tiny-houses and campervans too, but as much as I hate staring at computer screens I'm just too addicted to the crazy leverage my efforts in software have to give that up it turns out! The jobs are way more fun too when you care not at all about getting fired.
I live nomadically in a campervan I built and guide raft trips and volunteer doing whitewater rescue now. However, I missed building things enough that I picked up another software job last year. I like building tiny-houses and campervans too, but as much as I hate staring at computer screens I'm just too addicted to the crazy leverage my efforts in software have to give that up it turns out! The jobs are way more fun too when you care not at all about getting fired.
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I’ve been retired for nearly four years. Retirement has afforded me the time to pursue interests that have languished on the sidelines for years. I have no regrets about leaving when I did. And yes, I joined here after retiring. While I’m not particularly interested in the most recent development technologies necessarily, I do use this forum for research on other topics like books, textbooks, etc. As for time? Nope, still don’t seem to have much free time.
Moved to Appalachia (parents). I'm eating better. Proud to report that we bought a place in the center of town for 1/3 of our place in Austin. Bored, though.
I got long covid and was forced out of the work force as a result... but I'm not retired... I'm in the precariat... just hanging on.
Intired (involuntarily retired).
If today I got tired the same as yesterday, does it mean I'm retired? /giggles
Nobody seeks remuneration and finds a negative response. How could one find oneself retired like that?