As discussed here so often, it is all about passive income and cash flow. Those two items alone buy your freedom. Now it seems the question is “what is” freedom? Well that is up to the individual. Freedom for one, is imprisonment for another. I like to think of it as “freedom FROM”. Freedom from reporting in or making yourself known to others, or a communte. Maybe it is minimizing a set of obligations. We live an obligated life. That is where some guilt arrises. We feel guilty if we are not taking our rightful place on the hamster wheel. We are not participating in or contributing to what others feel is their obligation. Hence, a feeling of guilt. “Gosh, I could be making some money like the others do—I could, I should, I need to do this or that or—–I probably ought to—I am wasting time—-I am lazy—I don’t really deserve to have full say or control of my life—geee—I—I—I am not “playing the game that has been ingrained into my being! But if you have the money flowing in, the cash on hand, the resources pinned down.. Well you got it!!!! You can coin the phrase “I probably won’t be there, but thanks for asking”.

“in the sense that I do not have a good answer”

That is very good to hear Jacob, I’m looking forward to spending more time with my hobbies. And I would very much prefer to have no idea where I’m headed, life is too short to not be surprised by next week’s events. Knowing all about tomorrow is boring.

@Spork – Actually it bothers me to some degree not to have anything to work towards—I think the martial arts practice is a partial answer to that problem. I like challenges: PhD – did that, FIRE – did that, … Now what? Without a goal, specific things don’t happen for me and I rely strictly on serendipity.

Here’s something that may or may not blow the mind of a former physics guy who is struggling with the absence of a “working towards”, which of course presumes a fundamental reality of the forward arrow of time:

http://tinyurl.com/m7jrc4

You just need some low-level forgetfulness. ;-\