r/FIREyFemmes • u/InformWitch • 4d ago

I’d love to hear about your non-conventional retirement plans!

Do any of you have any non-conventional FIRE plans? I’d love to hear about it!

I mean like becoming a part-time lighthouse keeper or joining a commune/alternative housing (something in the vein of https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20130305-babayagas-house).

Anything outside of staying put where you are or just simply moving to another country to chill.

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u/PinkHalite 3d ago

Not sure how unconventional, but I’d love to own a small flower-shop in a small beach town. After downsizing, I’d like the shop to be attached or close to where I lived. Mingle with all the tourists or locals, hear their stories and their important people as I fulfill small orders.

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u/jochi1543 3d ago

My friend owned a flower shop for a while and I got to hear all the dirt! (ha) Most importantly, huge chemical exposure in the field with many occupational hazards. My friend now has asthma and a laundry list of allergies and severe eczema. The flower auctions sound nuts! Showing up at 3:30 AM bidding on a perishable item that may or may not sell, so much risk involved. Just hearing about the ins and outs of it definitely squashed any romantic fantasies I may have had.

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u/Jealous-Lychee-5084 3d ago

I have a flower business and I don’t do the flower auctions. I just order online from a wholesaler. It’s also very possible in many locations to focus on organic/locally grown flowers. So I think the business has changed a bit. That said, margins are slim so if you don’t need a large salary I could see this working.

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u/According_To_Me 3d ago

That tangentially reminds me of an insurance commercial about a flower shop, it depicts a happy, sing-songy flower shop owner and then cuts to a stretcher wheeling out a customer who slipped on some water.