Around this time last year, I raised a couple of questions in my update post:
- On the topic of the work I was doing I asked “Will I give it up and ever fully FIRE?”; and
- then in conclusion I reflected “…I’m now starting to wonder whether I actually needed the FI bit to make it happen or whether I just needed more courage way back in 2007.”
As it turns out the answer to the first question was YES and the answer to the second question was NO. As I write this update, I’m now in my early 50’s, without paid work, feeling great and I think this might just be my second attempt at FIRE given I am yet to look for any paid employment. Importantly, this time around it feels very different and I think that is for a few reasons:
- Previously I FIRE’d when I had ‘enough’ financially but in hindsight I had unfinished business in my professional paid work that I’ve since been able to allow to just dwindle away.
- That’s possibly because this time around while my paid work has been declining both in time and importance I’ve been building a life outside of that work. Rather than retiring to dreams I’m retiring to tangible activities. Not enough to fully fill the gap left by the paid work (yet) but enough to fill me up at this stage of life.
- This time around we’re going easy on ourselves. Last time within a week I had left work, we had left our home, we had left our community and moved to the Med. This time around we’ve made no physical changes other than to ramp up some non-work activities.
- Last time I was looking for my purpose in a single holy grail but this time around I’m gaining purpose from many different smaller things.