FIRE Life Update-Working?

More work, less retire

Holy heck, it’s been a bit since I did a straight update post. Actually, it’s been a bit since I’ve done any post. You know why? I’ve been working. Here we go:

Not Retired

Things have been getting busier; I’ve worked 2-3 days a week this last month! Definitely not retired anymore. Given, most of those days I only worked 2-4 hours. So I’m not exactly breaking my back or anything.

When I left my job, I didn’t know what to call it. Retirement? Sabbatical? Mini-Retirement? Whatever? I’m definitely in a whatever phase. As you may recall, back when I was a cop I did some part time Executive Protection work (EP for short-basically fancy bodyguard stuff ), and then left that gig when I went back to late shift during my last year on the job. After leaving cop work I started to miss the EP gig, and thought it might be a decent part time thing to do for awhile.

So far I’ve been right about that. It’s been really nice having a job again. The job itself is challenging enough not to be stupid boring, but not so much that I’m stressed out about it while I’m there. And it’s definitely the type of gig that you can leave at work. I don’t think about it when I’m not there, and I’m not constantly responding to emails when I’m off.

During my first year away from full time work, I noticed I needed more social stuff despite being an introvert. I tried to fill that need by volunteering, more mountain biking, pickleball, etc. But I noticed that the people I missed socializing with the most were the type of people I used to work with: Immature type A knuckle draggers that don’t take themselves too seriously; you know, people like me. Unfortunately, the FIRE hasn’t spread to my people, so most of my fellow idiots are still working. Hence the part time gig; besides having something to do that’s moderately fulfilling and challenging, it’s been nice to work with my old friends again.

Also, the money. For decades I’ve done some pretty ridiculous stuff for crap pay, usually in the name of public service or something. This is the first time I feel like my hourly rate is commensurate with what I’m doing. And it’s nice. Shit, I feel validated.

More about the money-when I left full time work, I was for sure stressed about money, even though all the spreadsheets said we were ok. Even though my wife’s part time work should cover our expenses. Even though I spent years planning for this, and studied the crap out of safe withdrawal rates to a ludicrous extreme. Yes, stupid, I know. But it’s just the way I felt. Now that I’m bringing in money on the regular, that stress is gone.

So what does this mean? Am I doomed to work forever? I hope not. At some point I know my mind and body will degrade to the point where it will be impossible for me to work. And I think I’ll want to stop even part time work long before I get there. This means I have some more stuff to figure out. In the meantime I’m enjoying not feeling the need to run another simulation three times a day.

Identity

Like every other cop I know, before I left I said stuff like “I’ll never do anything remotely related to police work again“. And, like many cops that I know who are retired, I’m doing something that ends up using police-ish type skills. Much of my life could be summed up by me thinking I’d never do something, realizing I was wrong, and then doing it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But why does this happen to us so much? It’s self-evident why us cops have such a negative sentiment about our line of work, especially towards the end of our careers. Like so many other professions, burnout is a thing. But why do we get back into something similar after swearing we’ll never do it again?

I can only speak for me, but as I covered above, the social thing is big. On top of that is the money. Sure, I could learn some new skills and pivot into an entirely different field. Who knows, maybe I will. But it sure is easier and more lucrative to use the skills I spent a few decades building and then selling them.

Bigger than both those is the identity piece. After leaving the job I missed the people and I missed the paycheck. But I was surprised that I missed the component of my identity I barely noticed while working. I missed protecting people. Maybe this is an ego thing, but I don’t think so. At least not completely.

After I left policing, I found I missed feeling like I fit into this giant machine we call civilization, and being a positive part of it. Maybe part of this is just a remnant of habit. I don’t really know. I don’t think protecting people was ever the primary piece of my identity, and it definitely still is not. But when it was gone it left a noticeable gap, and it feels nice that it’s not empty anymore.

Honeymoon phase?

Having had plenty of new jobs and different positions within my two primary careers over the years, I know honeymoon phase is a real thing. It’s that period when you first get a new job, everything is shiny, and it feels like stuff is going to be different this time. As all us FIRE peeps know, eventually the shiny wears off, and even if the gig is relatively good, hedonic adaptation kicks in and we’re back to drudgery.

I’m for sure in that phase right now. The nice thing about all this mindfulness crap is I’m finally noticing it. For now, my plan is to:

1. Enjoy it while I can.
2. Drag it out as long as possible by not working to much-if I’m enjoying the job less, I’ll dial back my schedule.
3. Acknowledge that the honeymoon will end, and at some point I’ll be less than happy with going to this job.

Once I hit that less than happy phase, I’ll have to figure out where to go. Right now there are aspects of the job that can be challenging; long periods on my feet, out in the elements, stress from remaining hypervigilant. The good side of this is that I now appreciate the large swaths of time I have off much more. I was getting spoiled in early retirement, and noticed that I was taking for granted my FI enabled ability to do what I wanted most days. Now that I have the occasional professional obligation, the time away from work is more enjoyable. Perhaps as the honeymoon shine wears off, I’ll appreciate my time off even more.

We shall see.

Conversate

These days when people ask me what I do I still respond with homemaker, but usually throw in something like “and I do a little part time work“. I used to think it’d be cool to say I was retired, and it sort of was. But it felt like saying that to some people was like me saying “haha, I don’t have to work but you do”. So I still say it to people I don’t want to keep talking to 😉. Sorta kidding; more often than not I stick with the homemaker/part time gig worker reply. It’s then easier to keep the discussion going, and move on to more important things than our work identity, like cats or something.

Now

To wrap it up, I’ve been working. And it’s been nice. There are some issues I think I’m kicking down the road, like how to be ok with living purely off our investments, or how to feel alright without having any sort of work identity. Guess I’ll keep working on that. But for now, it’s good to have a place to go where everybody knows my name, and they’re always glad I came 🙂

What do you think of all this? Anyone else out there that left full time work and ended up finding part time work surprisingly fun? Lemme know below.