I’m retired so I fill my days doing whatever I want. But I’m always interested in what other people would do if they had more free time.
I’d get a motorcycle and a semi-nice camera (don’t wanna lose a flagship model when touching asphalt or something).
I also like gaming but I’m currently spending some 300 hours a month in front of one screen or another between job, freelancing and gaming. If I get to work less, I’ll also sacrifice some gaming time to get a bunch more outside time.
Get high and vibe. It’s my favorite thing, but it’s an expensive illegal hobby sadly.
Not expensive or illegal where I live. Stay strong, brother.
I can tell you exactly what I do, because 25 years ago, I chose to forgo promotions at work and prioritize free time and quality of life over money:
I spend time with my family.
I do the things I want while I’m still young (or rather, while I was still young 🙂).
Generally leading a good life free of stress and drama.You were given only one life. You have a finite set of hours on this dirtball, and the countdown is running. Every extra hour you give to your employer in exchange for money is an hour you don’t spend with your loved ones, and you can’t buy it back. Retirement age is too late to enjoy your life.
Nobody goes to their graves thinking they should have worked more.
Nobody goes to their graves thinking they should have worked more.
There are plenty of workaholics that absolutely think they should have worked more in their last moments.
They tend to be awful people.
I can tell you exactly what I do, because 25 years ago, I chose to forgo promotions at work and prioritize free time and quality of life over money:
My hero! I just recently retired at 55 for same reason.
I’m the same age and I’ve been retired for 25 years 🙂
I have a job I really enjoy that I do a few hours a day, for the money sure, but also for fun. And then I enjoy a lot of extra hours doing the things I want.
It’s like retirement but with a few hours of fun stuff I gotta do every day, sure, but it’s still fun. When I retire for real, I just won’t do the few hours of fun no more.
I’m the same age and I’ve been retired for 25 years
I would have if I could have. But I had to wait until I hit the “20-years in” mark to be able to get my pension. It’s the lowest pension because I’m out early, but like you, I wanna enjoy stuff while I’m still fit and healthy.
My gf is 35, so she kinda sorta tried to talk me out of it. She’s fine with our age difference, but I think she got caught up in “OMG you’re getting a pension!” haha
After she noticed how much I mess around and do whatever I want now, she sorta changed her attitude. But I’ll be honest, she seems to be a little passive-aggressive. Maybe jealous of it?
Even tho she makes more money than I do, she seems a little bit resentful, so I dialed back the “Oh I just read this really good book all day” comments.
Not sure if our relationship will make it. But I don’t care. I have no regrets about retiring early. And now I get to fuck around on Lemmy all day too! haha
Ugh, please, I would do anything to work less and create more. I’m making the furniture for our flat, I would do that faster. I am making my own TTRPG, I just started on a TCG cause I think the tools for making them yourself are in a good place (and I’ve literally always dreamed of making one), and I like to write short stories - I’d definitely do more of that.
Got a big steam backlog, that’d be nice. I’d workout more everyday. Idk, work is a means to an end and the moment I can make that more efficient I will.
Sleep, exercise, catch up on chores (cleaning, organizing). I’m tired of being tired, achy, and messy.
Contribute more to FOSS. Maybe start my own open source project.
Definitely more 3d model design.
Spend lots of time gardening, reading, writing, and painting. Unfortunately, it seems like I’m going to have to spend the next forty years as a wage slave before I can enjoy that life
I have a fulltime job and still get to do my gardening, reading, writing and tinkering with machines like cars and computers, this last year 2024 I planted a pepper patch and now I got unlimited Thai, Habaneros and Chiltepin peppers…
Yeah, I was in a mood this morning. Seasonal depression is a doozy this time of year.
I’m actually planning to do some containers on my balcony this year. I do miss having an outdoor garden, though
Create a game. I’m already over the first obstacle which is knowing how to program. Being the only girl in my IT class, I’d create these little unfinished games as a hobby, save them to a flash drive and show them off to my IT teacher, who was very impressed and encouraged me to go into the game development industry. I’ve been wanting to create a full fledged game ever since! 😃
That’s awesome!
Drink bourbon in a nice garden and listen to the radio. I’d probably write a lot more also
nothing,
glorious nothing
Nothing, can be very glorious! I make sure to load that into my day every day.
Read more instead of audiobook on a commute or work through my backlog of unfinished games
Yep, I prefer reading to audiobook for sure
Me too but the convinence of an audiobook while driving and cleaning is pretty cool too. Books i want to absorb more ill read. Sometimes ill read a book then listen to the audiobook after.
I read a lot. I would read more.
Yeah if I had an isolated hyperbolic time chamber that I couldn’t use to do anything “productive”, it would be mostly reading. I have like 200 books and I’m in the middle of at least 10% of them.
Scrolling killed my reading habit . I’d love to get it back .
Part of the problem is buying the books I think I should read, instead of the books I would enjoy reading. !!
There’s a lot of free things happening in my town. Okay-to-excellent concerts, art event openings, always something at the library, (bring/pay for materials only) FabLabs, screenings of weird old/foreign movies. I’d take more advantage of them, hopefully with friends and family. If no friends and family to embarrass, become politically active. Rest and read more.
Game development. I’ve started implementing so many games, and I’ve always stopped because my day job sucks the joy of programming out of me before I can get far enough to release something.
I already have a lot of free time when my boys go to their moms for the week, and it’s fairly busy when they are with me. Plus I work from home, and enjoy a good amount of autonomy with my workload.
You could say I am balancing both sides of this discussion. But I’ve been dealing with a lot of baggage — both from my marriage and other trauma from growing up — so despite my available free time, I struggle to find motivation to do things outside of the basic responsibilities of being an adult/father.
It’s not for a lack of want though. I have a long list of things I want to do. Some more expensive than others. But even the free stuff isn’t that appealing at the moment.
Ideally, I would like to get into exercising regularly, and pick back up on woodworking. I want to hardscape my backyard by building a stone patio/fire pit, and rebuild my deck. Today it occurred to me that I could build a chicken coop and raise chickens, and potentially sell the excess eggs for a little extra income. I also have to paint and decorate my house.
I suck at motivating myself. 🤣
Brother, I hear you and I feel you. I know all about baggage. Just let it go little by little if you can’t let it go all at once. You got this!
Thanks! I’ve been in therapy for the past year and a half, and have been doing all of the hard work. I’m definitely in a much better place than before, but I’m still stuck in the freeze. I’m sure it’ll come back eventually, but right now, like you said, I’m just letting it go little by little. 😊
I’m with ya in spirit, friend.
