I have done more traveling, but not out of the country. I have no desire to leave the country. We have plenty of beautiful things here in the US. But I live in such a beautiful state, I have the best views just outside my windows.

Still get the essentials done, but not on society’s schedule.

One of the main reasons I retired early. I actually liked my jobs, I just hate being on anyone else’s schedule. It seems so petty, but I gave up a lot of money just to be on my own schedule. lol

Yes, pay off that mortgage. To be honest, the only reason I’m able to be retired at 55 is because I paid off my mortgage. If I hadn’t done that, then my pension wouldn’t really be enough to pay bills. But since now I have no bills, it works out.

Debt-free is the only way to be truly free in my opinion. Good on ya, mate!

Nothing, can be very glorious! I make sure to load that into my day every day.

Actually that doesn’t seem empty to me at all. That’s great that you were able to blend the two! And it’s always easy to pick up another hobby.

Yep, I prefer reading to audiobook for sure

That’s awesome!

I’m with ya in spirit, friend.

Brother, I hear you and I feel you. I know all about baggage. Just let it go little by little if you can’t let it go all at once. You got this!

I’m the same age and I’ve been retired for 25 years

I would have if I could have. But I had to wait until I hit the “20-years in” mark to be able to get my pension. It’s the lowest pension because I’m out early, but like you, I wanna enjoy stuff while I’m still fit and healthy.

My gf is 35, so she kinda sorta tried to talk me out of it. She’s fine with our age difference, but I think she got caught up in “OMG you’re getting a pension!” haha

After she noticed how much I mess around and do whatever I want now, she sorta changed her attitude. But I’ll be honest, she seems to be a little passive-aggressive. Maybe jealous of it?

Even tho she makes more money than I do, she seems a little bit resentful, so I dialed back the “Oh I just read this really good book all day” comments.

Not sure if our relationship will make it. But I don’t care. I have no regrets about retiring early. And now I get to fuck around on Lemmy all day too! haha

I can tell you exactly what I do, because 25 years ago, I chose to forgo promotions at work and prioritize free time and quality of life over money:

My hero! I just recently retired at 55 for same reason.

Exactly.

I tried gardening before, but I’m pretty terrible at it. But I only retired recently, so this spring, maybe I will give it another go.

Not quite what I meant. I just mean what if you had more free time, but not more cash. Sort of what you wanna do for free that you can’t do now because of time restraints.

I’ll edit to rephrase the question.

I have no advice other than: Do it! The more instances the better. I’m tired of seeing the top 5 instances having the most members trying to rule how the fediverse should look. If we had a bunch more little ones, it would make things more democratic.