What does an early retiree do all day? Diary of a recent early retiree

Hammocks Beach State Park, North Carolina 

Ernest Hemingway:  “When you stop doing things for fun, you might as well be dead”.

My wife and I have been retired since August 2020.  Since our early retirement, we have been traveling with our companion Toby, a 13 pound Pomeranian dog.  

In this post, I’d like to share our typical weekly schedule since our early retirement, so everyone will have an idea what early retirement is really like.

For those of you who are new to this blog, my wife and I are very low key people, who enjoy doing things that doesn’t cost much money.  We are no jet setters who travel globally.  We are definitely not living a glamorous, an Instagram worthy, or an exciting lifestyle.  That just isn’t our style...

Honestly, if we lived the high energy, Instagram worthy, globe trotting lifestyle, then we probably couldn’t retire early.  Half of the equation for early retirement is the ability to cut down your expenses SO you can retire early.  

Few years prior to our retirement, we had really cut our expenses.  We cut out shopping for clothes, shoes, accessories, etc.  We cut out buying stuff we didn’t need.  No more trips to the mall just because there was nothing else to do.  Out went cute decorative things, paintings, tools for kitchen/tools for garage, Christmas related things (and other seasonal decorations), etc...

Thanks to our dog, we took hikes/walks to free state parks or nature reserves, instead of taking vacations that cost $5000 for a week!  We had also cut our groceries to about $200 per month.  It’s important to state that we did put aside some money per month for ‘entertainment’, as this is an important part of anyone’s life.  I encourage everyone to have some ‘fun’ money in their budget!

Bottom line:  our budget per month was low enough where we could seriously consider early retirement!

Once we retired (August 2020), we’ve continued to live our unique lifestyle.  This is what we typically do on a given week when we’re traveling to a new place.  *Note:  we typically spend at least a month at a location or longer to save money on ‘housing’ costs.  We found out monthly rentals cost less than a daily/weekly rentals...

  • The first day is ‘travel to destination’ day.  We would drive to the location, arrive there, then unpack our stuff.
  • Second day is spent going grocery shopping in the morning, then walking around the neighborhood to get a feel for the place.
  • Starting day three, we’re settled into our routine, which is:
  1. Getting up (no alarm clock!) when the sun comes up.
  2. Eat breakfast, take our dog out for his morning walk.
  3. Morning ritual (shower, brush teeth, groom).
  4. We pick a local attraction to visit for walks/hikes.  We also take videos / photos for YouTube and for my blog. *We don’t go out everyday to a local attraction.  This will be about 2-3 times per week. 
  5. On our way back, we would on occasion pick up some food (take out) to eat at home.
  6. After lunch, we would have personal time.  I may write my blog, or my wife would paint.  Or, we would read books borrowed from the local library.  We may also choose to watch a movie.
  7. I would take afternoon naps (one of my favorite pastimes since early retirement!).  Nothing like taking a nap while listening to good music!  It’s even better when it rains!  I love hearing the rain...
  8. After my nap, I would take our dog out after his dinner.
  9. We eat our dinner, then we do a combination of things listed above as we please (blog, paint, read book, or nothing at all).
  10. We exercise around 8 pm or so to burn off the meal and to stay in shape.  Since we don’t have any equipment, we do strictly body weight exercises like push ups, jumping jacks, high knees, jumping rope in place (without the actual rope), and yoga stretches.
  11. After exercise, we would cool down by listening to quiet jazz.
  12. Sleep around 10 pm or so, or whenever we please...
  • The above routine pretty much continues until we’re ready to move on to our family in New York City, or to our next destination.  Repeat the cycle!
  • Note:  we rarely go out on weekends to avoid traffic everywhere.  This is one of the perks of early retirement.  We can eliminate traffic jams for the most part.
We’ve been living this lifestyle for over a year now and we can say we’ve settled into it.  The first month after our retirement was hectic.  We had sold our home, pared down our belongings, moved to our brother in law’s home in North Carolina (our ‘permanent’ home), then went to visit our family in New York City!

It wasn’t until we went to our first monthly rental in Ocean City (Maryland), that we felt settled in.  It was bit of a system shock to do all of those things in a month time!  We managed, and we lived through it...

By the time we went to Atlantic Beach (North Carolina), we were pros!  Having a one bedroom rental was a godsend.  We each had a personal area we can retreat to, which made it so much more enjoyable.  We were not in each other’s way which really helped...For anyone considering early retirement, be sure both of you are already fully independent with their own things to do away from each other.  You can’t always spend every single minute of your retired lives together.  You need some separation at times to truly enjoy each other’s company!

The earlier you figure this out, the easier your early retirement will be!  Some retirees have decided to divorce as they can’t handle being together ALL THE TIME!  Being separate at times equals better together time!

For some of you, this lifestyle may be boring and not very exciting.  That’s ok, as it works FOR US.  It’s not for everyone but that’s life.  

We would rather live this laid back lifestyle than work 9-5 in a cubicle, dealing with ever demanding work.  Working isn’t for everyone either.  I think most people would rather not work, if they could.  

Hopefully, someone reading this post will get a good idea of what early retirees do.  It may be appealing to some or it may not.  Ultimately, it’s up to you to find out who you are and to figure out what kind of lifestyle you want to live...At the end of the day, you’ll need to be happy doing things your way.

Thank you all for reading!


Jake
Wandering Money Pig 



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Please check out our YouTube channel ‘Wandering Money Pig’ showcasing our travels and our Pomeranian dog! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3kl9f4W9sfNG5h1l-x6nH


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