@AJ – I just want to be able to. Sometimes jobs are convenient for learning things. In fact I find myself being fairly uninspired to work if I am no longer learning anything. Some people want experiences, others want status or meaning. I want to learn stuff. It certainly was an issue when I quit my career whether or not I would forever be excluded from certain activities. It was clear that becoming a professor is now fairly impossible. On the other hand I am also quite certain that I do not want that. Industry jobs would still be interesting to me although I think I am mostly interested in strategizing and optimizing rather than doing grunt work, that is, I have manager or consultant ambitions.

Sounds like the Mondays. Conformist gravitation pulling you back in 😉

You must hang out with different backpackers than the ones I know, who range in age from teens through 70-somethings.

There is also a chance that in certain aspects, your lifestyle will grow along with you. When I was a child in the 80’s most players of video games were other children, teens, and maybe a few young adults. These days, video games span generations.

Another option is to avoid socialization altogether, and spend time with your significant other and your dogs. This has been my strategy more and more lately. 🙂

This is only a problem if you let it be. I had a family early – most of my friends were older. Went back to school late – most classmates younger. No kids at home now – friends range from young parents to older parents to people of all ages with and with out kids. With and without “regular” jobs. Too much sameness (age, gender, social status) is boring.

Well it’s always good to be employable, just in case.

I always have a plan A, a plan B, a plan C, etc. I’d die of boredom if I didn’t work on several projects at the same time.

What this post really made me examine is what kind of lifestyle I want when I am financially free. Recent events, including (but not limited to) dialogue with Ashley Ambirge and others, have made me realize that I won’t be happy following the path that I set for myself a year or two ago due in part to familial pressures.

So let’s say that I follow what I actually want to do and I get a job doing said thing. I build my savings and am able to retire early, a la Jacob.

I don’t know what I’d do then. I know what I do with my free time: read. I don’t know what I would do if my days were genuinely without structure, a dark path that stretched endlessly into the future.

@ HSpencer: Pretty much filled up your next few years with those goals.

It’s always fulfilling when you can finally write down these goals and go for them once you already have your passive income stream laid down properly.

@Jacob This discussion is similar to what is written in Dianne Nahirny’s “Stop Working…and Start Living:How to retire at 36…without Winning the Lottery” – A great quick reference for getting Financially Free and learning to Live.

I am only 24, but after working 2 years out of school from the college of engineering, i am quite bored with work and the working lifestyle. My creative mind gets hindered by having to be creative for someone else, or having to do grunt work, like digging a dittch than filling it back up for $30/hr. I wouldn’t mind taking on different jobs only to learn something new, especially as a game engineer (cool workplace, potential royalties, and meaningful artwork/code gets appreciated), or an Aerocibo Exoplantery Atmoshpheric Radar Engineer (sending pulses to jupiter or beyond). These are cool jobs and many would do them as hobbies if they could afford the equipment on their own. Being financially free you will have the time to become an Investor, an Entreprenuer, a real estate agent, an Artist, a Blogger ;), a Traveler, and whatever other interests you have.
So currently I have great ambitions and i just need to convince myself to follow my heart and go after the things i love by saving 80% along the way to give myself more free time and freedom to do so.

I went back to college a couple of years ago for a teaching credential. I’m completing it this semester and realize that I’m not the oldest and definitely not the youngest. Some of the students in my cohort are in their mid-20’s and a couple of them are older than me or about my age. Changing careers mid-stream isn’t a bad thing. Since I’m not on the college campus full time, I’m not really seeing the parties or the drama-filled romances. I’d have to say that the teaching candidates are pretty stable people, even the young ones. 😉

Personally I think anyone intelligent enough to want to follow an ERE path is of the type that will get bored very quickly sitting around the house….I certainly did after I retired at 6 years ago at 48.

After 4 months I was absolutely stir-crazy and went back to work…though this time I am NOT the boss and don’t worry about problems on the job…(and turned down offers to go into management 6 times so far…the first less than 2 weeks after starting).

The job does come with the availability of moderately priced health insurance that includes dental and eyeglasses (and I’m still 11 years from Medicare) and I spend my time toting around College Kids who have come to work at Disneys College, International, and Career Start Programs.

Its fun talking and interacting with them and can be entertaining as all get out….the other day a group of them were discussing (within earshot of myself and probably 50 other people) the best time for and who would host an orgy….

I blame this sort of thing on cellphones and social media…they are so used to the lack of privacy when talking on cellphones and posting the most intimate things on the social media sights that they didn’t have a second thought about the conversation.

And most of them are getting the “Rude Awakening” about life in the corporate world and learning one of the most important lessons they will ever get…towit:

“A Verbal Promise Is Worth EXACTLY The Price Of The Piece Of Paper It Has Been Written On”

But I’m really starting to drigress here….

I think switching between lifestyles could be the answer. I would probably get tired or retirement and then choose to work part time on meaningful projects. Food for thought, thanks for sharing.