Yeah, I feel the old "relax on the beach for the rest of your life" trope is trotted out often enough but is fantastically unrealistic. I wouldn't say that literally no one would be happy doing that, but I feel like it'd be incredibly rare.
For myself, I'd probably be happy to tinker with open source software and small electronics projects for most of my days, along with some language-learning, cooking experimentation, and other random hobbies, and relaxing, therapeutic tasks like playing with my cat (perhaps similar in feel to tending gardens).
> ... when thinking about what retirement really means.
The nice thing about approaching retirement from a FI perspective is that retirement can mean whatever you want it to mean, within your financial projections, at least.
> Really enjoying your posts. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
And yours as well! Thank you!
I definitely would say “doing nothing” - however we would define that isn’t something I’d put a moral judgement on. I think maybe the colloquial “relax on the beach” isn’t really possible long term. Maybe a year at most. I think most people historically at least just say on the couch. Contrast with maybe the idea (reality is questionable) of the old man in the Italian country side or woman in Okinawa tending to their gardens and walking to the market each day. At least maybe there are some items to discuss further when thinking about what retirement really means.
Really enjoying your posts. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.