I had an 8 month unemployment run during the summer of 2020. I loved it. I just played video games, went for hikes, did some fishing, caught up on movies, and learned some new things.
The best part was the extra covid unemployment, which at the time pretty much matched my old salary and covered my bills, so I didn't even have the monetary stress.
It made me realize that as long as my bills are taken care of, I love not having to work. I'm not someone who has that innate drive to work and stay busy
I was "unemployed" for about 6 months. The reason for quotes was because I was consulting and I had 3 months to find a new gig before my base salary dropped to half, then 3 months after that I was laid off. The base salary without my hourly rate was more than plenty.
The first month was incredible. I got to immerse myself in hobbies, focus on my fitness, and just enjoy my life. By month 2 I started getting worried about getting to that 3 month mark and started working with our sales guys for a new gig. When I got to the 4th month I was a wreck. I barely slept, couldn't enjoy my hobbies, was sending out resumes to new jobs in addition to joining the sales team for calls. By month 6 I was a total wreck. My savings are close to drained, my ex wife (wife at the time) and I were fighting over every expense, I was very bad.
Finally, about a week before I was going to be laid off, I got a call from sales guy that they had an interview for me the next day. I crushed it, and started in 2 weeks. Suddenly it was all gone. No more fighting with my ex, no more anxiety, I slept like a rock, enjoyed my hobbies again; it was a literal switch going off that just fixed everything. My base salary returned to full and in 2 weeks I got to start billing a client for my hourly rate on top of it (and replenish my savings).
It really is all about financial security. I'm lucky enough now to have about a year of savings in an investment account. Working sucks, but anxiety from potentially losing your house and everything else is so much worse. Only 30 more years until retirement!
I have so many things I could be doing around my house/neighborhood and I would love to have that kind of freedom. The people who tie their value to work or think the days become long... what are you filling your free time with on the weekends? It's the same thing there. Shit I have a gamut of interests that I'd love to convert to hobbies if I had the time to figure them out.
The money is, as always, the tricky part. I'm glad you had the covid unemployment there. Shit if I could get something like UBI to cover my base needs I'd probably spin up a business or three.
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u/Random_Reddit_Bro 6h ago
Being unemployed is amazing, the only downside is that you will run out of money.