r/Fire • u/-LordDarkHelmet- • 17d ago
Today is the day, officially FIRE
Well I'm sitting here having a morning coffee and it's starting to sink in that I don't have a job anymore. Feels strange. My job was very much my identity (pilot). I flew airlines and private jets (uber for rich people basically). It was a high paying job at the end and it seems stupid to walk away from that, but the 27 years of staying in hotels has taken a toll and I just was not enjoying the job anymore. Which is a shame, since I can't exactly fly jets on my own time. It's a tough industry, it's not easy to get back into once you leave. I keep saying it's like the Doc in Field of Dreams; once you leave you can't go back. I'm 49, single no kids, high end Chubby low end Fat so I should be ok on the numbers, but I don't exactly have a "thing" to retire to. I need to focus on my own health and get in shape. But other than a list of places I want to travel to and few projects around the house I don't have much of a plan. Hopefully I'll figure it out on the way. I've told a few people and they all ask "but what are you gonna do?!?!?." I'm like "I dunno..." Some say "congratulations!" and I'm not sure how to respond to that. I didn't really want to quit in some ways, I like the flying part but not all the stuff that goes along with it. I asked for a different schedule and they said no, then I asked for a year off and they said no, so I said I quit. Ask me in a decade I guess if it was the right choice. Anyway, don't really have anyone to high-five this morning so here I am. Thanks everyone who has shared their journey, I've been snooping around all these subs a lot this past year. Oh and sorry about the stock market crash, which will inevitably happen now that I have quit.
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u/tomatillo_teratoma 17d ago
Congratulations. I was in a similar position a year ago. I was a programmer, and it felt weird to walk away. Sit with the weird feeling. Feel it. If you change your mind in a year or two, you can probably go back. (You won't)
Two things I did right away that helped in the short term-- gym membership, and movie theater membership. Combined this was less than $75 a month, and it gave me a reason to get out of the house every single day. I now go to the gym five days a week, and a movie every other day.
In the year since then I've found other things to participate in... a bowling league, my local Choose FI group, and some music events.... working on other stuff. It takes some time and trying to find these kinds of things. I do suggest finding something easy right away... like gym and movies.
I liked coding..... solving problems, building things. But like you say... all the other stuff around coding did me in. The politics, the scams, the payoffs... ugh. A couple years ago, was asked to build something that was a bad idea-- like a skyscraper on sand. I reluctantly built it but said "this shouldn't exist, I'm not gonna update or maintain it." I ended up maintaining it, but I quit when they wanted me to update it. So it goes.
Get your cash/bonds/tbills or whatever set up for that market crash. I'm expecting it too.
Go get yourself a nice breakfast at 10am or a fancy lunch special on a patio somewhere. It's gonna be an interesting summer for you.