A question I see on Reddit sometimes is: What do you do with your time now that You have FI/RED?
To me, simple answer is "living". The sum of one's life shouldn't consist solely of work so that when you don't work, you feel you are not living. Also, if your entire identity is tied to what you do, I can see having a sort of crisis, existential or whatever, when you stop doing that. Life is meant to be lived. Personally, doing this in my 30s has been a blessing and I feel like it is a great time to do it because there is much to do while young. I thought to give a glimpse into how I spend my days. I don't think this is representative of how I usually spend my days as I've had some interesting past month that may have been worth blogging about but I also chose to spend my free time doing what I wanted. I don't have much planned for this week so we'll see. I tend to rest on Sundays because during the weekdays and Saturday, I'm usually doing something. So I'll start with Sunday.
This Sunday, I decided to visit a church. Here's what I found interesting: I went inside the door I saw another person use while coming to the parking lot. There was an older woman up the stairs. I think I greeted and asked her where the service was being held. I went to the second service and I've noticed that the churches tend to have it in a separate location from the first service. She said in a calm but firm voice that it is held in there and it starts at 11. I walked into the room of what appears to be the sanctuary and there was no one in there except for a man holding a bouquet of flowers. I asked if the service was there and he said no, it's downstairs. We came out and the woman was still sitting out there calmly. It was either later in the evening or sometime today (Monday) that I realized that she may have Dementia and may have given me information pertaining to another time when the service was held in the main sanctuary.
I enjoyed the service. It is more of a "casual one" and I met some people and had a nice chat afterwards. The part during the children's section when they talked about too much stuff had me laughing. I've pared down my possessions and I feel like parking it down even more. I decided to stop by the mall to get something from JCP. I was going to get a set of sheets. Instead when I walked inside, I saw the top of a nightie set I wanted on clearance so I picked it up. I had someone help me find the sheets. It took a while to find it but eventually we did. I decided to go up to the food court and get food. I was there 2 days prior to get food and it was so good so I went back for the same thing. On my way back into JCP, the metal thing beeped. Okay.... Then when I went through the door to head out since I parked there, I beeped. The security person comes asking to see the bag. Thankfully, I carry a small purse and had the food wrapped up so the only bag was the JCP bag which had 2 items, the shirt and the sheet set along with the receipt in it. I was not happy about the experience and told her to make sure it doesn't beep when I head out again. She gives it back to me after taking the items out and padding it and guess what? It beeped again😒.
I almost returned the items so I could order it for home delivery. But it reminded me of why I had stopped shopping in store for years. I also didn't shop at JCP until a couple or so years ago when I noticed they carried Legale Pillowsole socks. Then just about 2 years ago, I saw their Sports Illustrated workout line and I really liked it. It was excellent quality. It changed my opinion about JCP as I really didn't buy from them. So I would visit a location closer to me and would buy a few things. Then I also ordered stuff online and they were well packaged. The prices were really good.
What I find interesting is that when I first graduated, I shopped at Saks, Lord and Taylor, I forget another one that I think starts with a B. I also liked small boutiques because I didn't want to wear something another person wore. I found it interesting lately that I shopped at JCP in the last two years. Most of the items were workout gear. Anyway, she checked the bag again and I really wasn't happy. She said she couldn't find anything because the items weren't stuff that was tagged. It was simply a cotton percale sheet and a top for sleep shorts. So I went through the thing again and it didn't beep. Preposterous!
I don't intend to head there. I'm not buying clothes for sometime as I have a lot of clothes, some with tags still on them and I've donated a lot of them in the past year. I was a shopaholic at one point so I spent a lot of money on clothing. There were times I was earning anywhere from 2500 -7500 points per statement on a my card. That was years ago. There are times when I wonder: what if I had saved put that money into an IRA instead of spending it all on clothing 🤔? Because I didn't start my Roth IRA until around 2012 or later. I didn't start contributing to the 403B until 2014 and at that time, I was working PRN. I have talked about this in a previous blog entry that I didn't even contribute at the hospital where I worked full-time. It was when I started working PRN that I contributed. Once I started, I mostly maxed it out. I say this to point out that even if you haven't done anything towards saving, it is not too late to start. Some people started at 50 and by aggressive contributions and the bull market we've had post 2008, they've done well enough and are ready to retire. So, it is not too late to start contributing for retirement.
I came home to find some deliveries. One item was the corn nuts from Sam's. I tried most of it after eating the food I got> I've eaten out a lot over the past month. What do I mean by a lot? I mean I have not cooked or used a stove. That is not my norm. 😞
I came home and the sheet had a smell so I laundered it. I think the Snuggle Sheets helped get the smell out. I recall a review saying that the sheets smelled.
I tried to read but really didn't do much. What was I trying to read? Reconcilations by Theodore Rubin.
I've read some of his works so I wanted to start this. I've not read any books in the past few months. I'm hoping to start that this week. If you've read this book, you are welcome to leave a comment below.
I decided to get some organizing done in the bedroom and I was tired afterwards. I usually don't do anything like that on Sundays so I went to bed early. I was supposed to text someone but I ended up texting them today. Oh well. Okay, that's not all I did but that's what I feel like talking about. I had someone who wanted to come do some work and I offered them the option for Monday. I like to rest.
I know the the question usually comes up as: What do you do with all your time now that you are home? I've heard others post on Reddit asking what people do with their time now that they are FIRE'd. My response: Living. Activities of daily living doesn't just comprise of the bathing, dressing, toileting and other stuff as we know in nursing. There is so much to do in a day and I'm not talking about IADLs only. There is enough to do in a day, even if it is taking time to rest. It is also nice to experience and enjoy peace. I'll end with this bible quote:
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matthew 6:34
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