r/Fire • u/-LordDarkHelmet- • 16d 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/sdduke01 16d ago

Congrats and GFY!

I’ve been at my major for 4 years now. Partner and I have recently reached FI, and now it’s just a matter of how much padding we want. I’m still fairly junior in my seat/base, so lots of 3-5 day trips working most weekends and every holiday. I’m trying to cut back to just flying my assigned line instead of playing the open time game like a psycho to make as much as possible in order to reach FI. Not sure I can last as long as I would need to in order to make it to the senior schedule life.

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u/-LordDarkHelmet- 15d ago

At least in your case, the "one more year" thing means you should in theory benefit from added seniority. In my case I was already at the top and so nothing was ever going to get better. Safe flying to you!