The concept of Full Time Free Time flew out of my mouth on a Zoom the other day.  I thought, yep, that’s how I roll.  I think it sums up what my LifeInFIRE is all about.  I’m aware that others may get different results.

Free time can be used for anything.  You can do nothing or attempt to do everything—that you want.

I will share two moments of my day and how my brain signals are activating.

Morning wake up.  When I wake up I usually check my morning heart rate and heart rate variability.  These two numbers then feed into my sleep metrics for my apple watch and Oura ring.  I then review my sleep stats to see if I did fine.  Usually, my sleep is in the 85-95% range of each tool.  That’s pretty good for a Type A minus personality…a 91% student.

I then pull in my new podcasts and check my gmails for anything interesting.

I usually spend 5-10 minutes just thinking about my life, my day, and whatever I think in my head and kind of get into a full-on gratitude state.  “Find The Positive” is something I work on…once in a while.  This is the part of the day where full-time, free time is felt in my core being.

One thing I never do anymore is cancel my workout if I feel tired.  I used to do that a long time ago and often found out that once I was up and moving around I felt fine and could do my planned workout.

Did I mention that the timing of this process, opening my eyes through getting out of bed, happens whenever I want?.  I then do my morning commute and then sit by the pool and read for a while, while listening to cars drive down my street headed for work.

At some point after this, I do some of the things I want to do that morning.  These are rarely planned ahead of time,

Falling asleep at night. 

When I go to bed at night—which can be at any time I want because the morning comes when I wish—most of the time I lay there and think about tomorrow’s freedom.  Then I think about today’s freedom and try and the greatness of this previous day.  Often, I lay there and think “If I could do anything, what would it be?”

When I think about the fact that I start and end my day by thinking about my amazing—yet simple—life, It makes things even better.

So back to my evening question of “If I could do anything…”  When I stop and think about this question, am I asking: am I able to do what I dream, or am I dreaming?  In other words, am I trying to plan for the future or am I relishing the present?

I’m not going to waste your time with my philosophical answer, other than, I wish it to be the former.

HOW?

Those reading this who’ve saved up for decades know this is not bragging.  Those who’ve lived below your income and enjoyed life—with no or little deprivation—probably face this dilemma as well.  It is the can I/should I do/buy ABC thing.

Let’s talk about ability.  If you saved and deferred your gratification on spending, then you essentially have deferred spending accounts.  Mike Piper’s book on Enough basically states, your money has two options, 1) you spend it or 2) you give it away somehow.

It is very clear: you cannot take your money with you after your heart stops beating.  It may be a really good idea to plan for its use (all, most, some, a little, contingency) ASAP.

What is the point of money?  Money is for transactions.  That can be traded for ABC, paid in taxes, for others to use for ABC, etc.  Who do you want to determine what transactions your earned money is used for?

I suggest the most valuable commodity is (healthy) time.  For the past 9-years (actually 30 yrs of income) I have chosen to balance my money with my time.  In our current state, we (seem to) have enough money set aside to own all of our time, therefore, we are full-time, free-time.

Repetition?

I know many of the thoughts above have been shared in my blog thoughts before, but the fact that I’m consciously still thinking about this topic almost 9-years into FIRE seems like this is a prevalent theme in my current existence. 

I thought the term existential was a crisis of being or not-being after death.   How important one is to the world during and after life.  I thought I had no concerns about my personal existentialism, as when I’m gone, I’m gone-dust and floating energy.  But the Google tells me existentialism is more about ones now and how someone interprets or handles their now.  At least that’s what I’m taking from the three “open link in new tab” actions I took when “learning” the definition of existential.  Hmmm, interesting.  (side note: I’m always learning.  I’m a learner.  I find this practice fully enveloping)

So if Oxford says “the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will” is the definition, then wow, full-time, free-time might just be a huge foundational piece of my existence.

Should your time be required to be productive?  Should to always be bettering something?  Can someone’s self-worth be acceptably linked to their own internal desires with no outside pressure of consequence from some social police?  I believe if you are enjoying life, the odds are that your great attitude will flow to others at the very least.

How do you think about your resources and time?

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

Last post I wrote about two of my cool accidental jobs.  In this post, I’ll share my coolest accidental job.

Relevance

I read a LOT of articles about money and retirement.  I also think a lot.  For instance, as I typed the previous sentences I realized that the word “read” could be current or past tense.  I find that an interesting concept of language complexity because I used to (past tense) read a lot more than I do now.  I do still read (current tense) but often so much of the information in articles/posts seems to be the same 7 topics rehashed over and over and over.  Or worse, the articles are too basic (or incorrect in my opinion or state of life) for me to use my time precious time on.

I frequently searched podcast titles for “retirement” or “money” or “financial” to see if there were new shows I wanted to check out.  In 2014 I found the Retirement Answer Man.  At that time, I was just transitioning/graduating from my work career and thought it was a great show for my phase of life.

Supporting

Somewhere along the way I talked with Roger Whitney and did an episode about preparing for and being in retirement.  A couple of years later I signed up for Roger’s 4-week group session to create a retirement plan using his professional structure.

I did both of the above activities because I wanted to help Roger—in my small way—because he was helping all of us with our retirement journey.

In the fall of 2018, Roger created a vision for a paid membership club for people wanting to Rock Retirement.  The Rock Retirement Club started with a small group of Alpha (test) members, approximately 30 of us, to test everything out and see how the communication would work.

Again, I signed up to give back to Roger and support his vision.

In the spring of 2019, Roger was in town and I met him and we talked about the club for an hour or so.  Some of our discussion was on functionality, but some was on my status of already being in retirement, vs leading up to career graduation.

Suggestions…then ownership

I suggested we expand his Zoom meetup offerings/teaching to have a member-led discussion where members could ask their questions and share their thoughts/ideas/experiences on topics.  I said it could be similar to us “meeting in a coffee shop and talking.”  I was thinking of a members-to-member activity.

Roger said my idea sounded good and told me to start it up for the members.  So in March, we had our first “Coffee with Kevin” meetup where everyone could share what they were thinking about.

As of this writing, we’ve had 52 sessions.  The club has grown to almost 1200 members (amazing, wise, helpful, exciting people).  We have a growing international presence.  I improved and shifted to many  evening meetings titled “Cocktails with Kevin.”  (note: strangely, I don’t drink coffee or cocktails)

Over the past few years of helping with the club meetings, I’ve been able to become an official “RRC Coach” leading, motivating, bringing people with similar interests together, and working on Special Operations projects when applicable.  I spend a couple of hours on Saturdays helping the club and its members.  It doesn’t sound like much time, but to me, every day is Saturday. This why having a schetchle is so important.

Self Improvement

So much of the above writing contains an ongoing process of self-improvement.  It’s not always intentional but it seems to be a common thread.

Because I have interests and a passion for Retirement Planning, I earned my Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor CRPC certificate.  I chose the formal CRPC program because it’s the retirement subset (1/3) of the CFP, the gold standard in financial planning. 

This certificate is a way to give respect to RRC members and others I share my retirement thoughts with.

Playcheck

Mark Ross, the Kind Provocateur coach in the club who asks amazing questions often says there are three types of work 1) work for a fee 2) work from free and 3) work for me.  In a way, I do all three, all the time.

I do earn a small salary in my RRC role as a thank you.  I dedicate that as my “playcheck” and require myself to track and spend that money on specific categories.  I often consider my playcheck for things I would not normally purchase except that I require myself to spend that unplanned money above and beyond my normal fun spending.  (This is all different than a “fun bucket” and/or “MoJo” spending). 

In actuality, I don’t spend that much each month on stuff, maybe a few hundred dollars, but to me, it’s like being free to say “yes” with only a little analysis before spending.

Valuable

I write this post for a few reasons.  Often our skills—in early Retirement or not—are desirable enough that employers and others would love to have your efforts assisting their vision.  For many who FIRE, employers can tell, see, and feel your strengths and success.  This may give you more opportunities to keep yourself (extra) busy or require you to build us your “no” skill.

I’ve had a lifetime of working in a manner that I structured to meet my desires from the smallest organizations to a Fortune 50 company.  I don’t know how that is, but I believe it was because I delivered for my leadership so they could meet their goals…while always focusing on servicing my customers. 

Last thought: I don’t think the word “toxic” appears in my vocabulary.  I’ve always found the good in things even though I do maintain cautious pessimism just to be careful.  It could be my risk aversion yet successful striving.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I’m just thinking.  Emotional thinking?  What am I thinking?  Is my time being used (mostly) for what *I* want?

I’ve been typing my random thoughts for SEVEN YEARS now.  Seven years is a long time!

College

Seven years is longer than I was in college, and that felt like a very, very long time.  I can’t even recall the details of the different classes I took, never mind the information in many of those classes.  Actually, I bet I can’t remember half of the classes/titles.  Now that I think about that, that’s probably not a great statement.  I guess it’s a good thing that my undergrad was only $14k and my MBA about $6k.  I made that money back in my career and the opportunities those degrees allowed me to achieve.

Over Post ?

I should get back on track.  Why did I recognize the significance of this date?  I’m thinking because I’ve spent (used/wasted) a lot of time typing random thoughts onto a black-and-white page.  Over 170 random thought postings, and get this, with over 160 MORE thoughts started.  My content document shows 333 topics listed.  That makes me think 1) I have a lot of thoughts and 2) maybe I should direct that brain power towards something/anything more valuable.

“Valuable?”  Is typing one’s thoughts a valuable exercise?  Is that valuable for me as the typer?  Is that valuable for anyone reading?  Is that valuable for the future of the universe?  (I’m assuming that these 1’s and 0’s will be in the ether as long as we have electricity, or as long as storage–magnetic, optical, solid state–allows.

Break Time ?

I’m reminded of common terms for seven: 7th inning stretch,  7 –year itch, and I have to wonder if those have any implication to my current state of mind? 

Am I wasting my time typing my random thoughts into the interweb?  Does it really take that long to post two thoughts per month?  Two thoughts out of the hundreds of topic ideas I’ve already started?

Is it the best use of my few hundred dollars per year for hosting?  Could I use that money for something better?   Use that money for something more enjoyable?   Use that money for something more productive?

Am I writing this post because I just keep realizing that I just don’t like commitments or schedules, even those that I self-impose?

Wow, that’s a lot of thinking.  I can tell I’m not like my niece who’s pursuing a philosophy degree.  I can’t even imagine thinking more than I already do.  I should conserve–or should I strengthen–my brain power?

If my posts slow down, it’s because I’ve wised up.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

Am I certifiable?  Or am I chartered?  Is there a classification for me that’s applicable?

In November I was thinking it would be interesting and fun to sign up for the CRPC Chartered Retirement Professional Counselor program. https://www.kaplanfinancial.com/wealth-management/crpc

Interest/Concern

I know a couple of people who’ve gone through the program, studied for the exam, and earned their designation.  They are both extremely intelligent so that caused me some concern about using my brain capacity for such an endeavor.

Price

I checked on the program and found it was pretty spendy ($1350), but I had some playcheck money I was required to spend so I went into frugal mode and contacted the College for Financial Planning to see if they had any discounts or scholarships for “retired people just interesting in learning more, with no intent to become a practicing professional.”  It turns out that I was able to get a 10% off scholarship through Wake Forest University ($1215). 

Why

I then researched the commitment more thoroughly: 9 modules, 85 questions/3 hours exam, with four months to complete.   That sounded like a significant amount of work.  Possible, but still, did I want to undertake that for fun?

Important:  I reasoned if I learned some good knowledge applicable to our FIRE plan, and/or information that would apply to my mom and/or mother-in-law, then it would be a smart “investment” to learn the material, regardless of the exam/designation.

What

Through research, I found the 9 modules of knowledge:

Then somewhere along that way (near the end of my journey) I found the details of the lessons / modules:

Module	Topics
1	Retirement Planning – An Introduction
1	Retirement Planning Calculations
2	Investment Strategies
2	Asset Allocation Strategies
3	Introduction to Social Security
3	Social Security, Military, and Government Benefits
4	Making IRA Contributions
4	Other Sources of Retirement Income
5	Planning for Healthcare Needs in Retirement
6	Transitioning to Retirement
7	Designing Income Streams
8	Income Tax Strategies for the Retiree
8	Fundamentals of Estate Planning
9	Ethics and the Fiduciary Standard

Process

I passed my final exam about two weeks before my 4-month time limit expired.

I took all 9 quizzes, TWICE.  I took the practice exam for 2 hours, and I banged and banged and banged on my HP 10bII calculator.  I now understand a LOT about N,xN/YR, I/YR,PV,PMT,P/YR ,FV,Beg,End,Shift Clr All, level payments, inflation-adjusted payments, etc.  Though, I do find the questions strangely confusing to this day.  Honestly, who’s not going to use internet tools to calculate much of this?

I was just finishing my studying to prepare for the exam in a few minutes when I received a call from the university to remind me that I had 2 weeks left to complete my program.  Strange how it was minutes before my exam.

So now that I decided to take the exam, and pass it.  Now that I have read hundreds and hundreds of pages, listened to the worst video professor I have ever encountered, listened to the modules on a text-to-speech app, and contemplated what I went through, I can honestly say that learning finance concepts for the past 40 years, researching and building our plan in great detail since 2005, absolutely prepared me to know approximately 70% of the information in the course before I began.

There were items that I had a cursory understanding of military pensions, Federal government pensions, Annuities, the “other” retirement/deferred account types, the details of phase-outs, and active plan participation.  It was “interesting” to learn those details. 

Overly Detailed Exam Intricacies

The test questions that seemed ridiculous were “2015 white house report…” the “details of a RAND study,” SGLI/VGLI, MOC crosswalk, etc, etc.  They were clearly designed to dig very deep into the book and hammer students (i.e. professionals).

This was definitely a Master’s level course in information and exam intricacy. I can’t even imagine the pain of a full CFP exam if this was only 1/3 of material subset.

So my thoughts now are, yes, it was “interesting,” but it was NOT “fun.”

I’m too retired for this.   WAY too retired for this!!!   

But I’m now officially certified.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I’m not a “real” spender.  I’m not really any kind of “shopper”…well except deal of the day sites.  

I am mostly frugal but will buy some things I want from time to time.  It just usually takes me time to think of/realize what I want.  Then I figure out the best model/features that fit my needs and try and find or wait for a good price.

Xmas List

A few years ago we decided not to limit the things we want to just xmas gifts.  Instead, we decided to keep an “xmas list” that we could purchase and enjoy throughout the year.  I love buying when things are off-peak or on sale.  E.g.  Exercise equipment in summer rather than in January.

Anything List

Just in the past week, I decided to create an “Anything/Everything List.”  It’s my dream list of anything/everything.  During covid lockdowns, I made a list of things to do post-covid.  Surprisingly, I even did some of those activities after covid calmed down, hopefully, more to follow.

I had created the item list on my computer and visited the list multiple times throughout the past week to add my purchasing dreams.  ANYTHING I could think of.  Get this, the only item I could think to add was a self-driving car (3^rd generation) maybe a Rav4 type.  (I want lots of bugs worked out in gen 1 &2.)

It’s been days and I still have not added any other purchases.  Not a single one.  However, I did copy some of my post-covid/travel locations onto the Anything List so it wouldn’t look so empty.

I need to dream more, or bigger, or better…

Mall Outing

Today I decided I would get my MoJo on and go to the mall.  I had a starting item to pursue and thought it would be nice to go at off-peak hours at 11am on a Wednesday.

I thought I’d look for some new jeans since I assumed the selection should be overwhelming in a full mall as compared to what just happens to be available at some random thrift store on the day I visit.

As part of my attempt at MoJo, I told my wife that I was taking the “christmas card” with me to the mall.  She gave me her normal, what-are-you-talking-about-now-crazy-man look. 

I explained that in that our Visa card is now being called our Christmas card.  A Visa card to use for our xmas list year-round.

Mall Results

I’m proud(?) to say that I went to the mall for almost 2 hours 11a-1p today (We-Day).  I went solo because Kathy didn’t want to go with me since I’m not good at shopping.  I tend to cruise right through the mall.  There’s no doodling at all.

I left the mall after looking at hundreds of items with a total outflow of only $10.80, tax included.  It was actually a nice and quiet experience with 2000+ steps but it was just too much of a consumering environment.

I did buy some jeans (seriously, stretch jeans for men was a great share from women’s clothing design!).  I could not find anything else that I was willing to purchase.  I must have entered 12 stores and stood in the doorway of 20 others without entering.

Lessons Learned

If you want to do something or enjoy an item, and have saved enough money over time, then reward yourself.  You will never be younger or healthier (possibly) than you are today.  Seize the day.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

Well, the only thing I opened on Xmas morning was a positive covid test.  Now, less than a week later I am fine, back to 100%.  I only have 18 hours of feeling crappy.

This event interrupted my normal drafted programming.

Xmas eve (Sat) after a 6-hour long large family gathering I had the chills.  Earlier in the afternoon I had a headache and was tired.  I figured it was just children/family overload (it may have been). 

Sunday I tested positive even though I just had chills, a headache, and felt kind of tired with sniffles all day.

Monday day2 headache and chills were gone, and my energy was close to normal.  Just had sniffles, a little head pressure, and a light cough.  For 3 nights I was sweating, probably the massive comforter I never use but was under for some reason.

Tue day 3 felt fine just a little cough and sniffles for the next couple of days.  This felt like a normal cold, but not quite as bad, but lasted a day or two longer.

I did, out of precaution, take the entire week as a limited exercise week, only doing two pelotons (I still pushed on the leaderboard some).

So Xmas Sunday am, I open covid.  Then that Xmas evening my mom’s housemate called to tell me my mom’s leg is swelling and purple, REALLY BAD.  They plan to call 911 in the morning for the ambulance and ER admittance (I can’t take her, I have covid).

Turns out that my covid recovery is shorter than a hospital stay for a Coumadin blood thinner bleeding hematoma incident.  My mom came home from the hospital on Thursday to start a whole new world of home healthcare, PT, OT, etc. 

Luckily my wife helped my mom in the ER and into her room for EIGHT + HOURS.  Turns out that when you have Alzheimer’s you are useless to your caregivers.  Actually, my mom was detrimental to her care repeatedly tearing off the sensors and trying to get out of bed when she was a major fall risk.  Alarms kept going off.

It’s now two weeks past Xmas and I can tell this year will be the start of a much more time-consuming life with my mom. 

My word of the year was going to be “better.”  Better “everything.”  My word has now changed to “survive.”

I’m sure this year will require a whole new perspective and set of actions in the caring for my mom, as well as her housemate who is not well. 

You never know when life may fall apart and be required to be put back together, or worse, may not go back together.

Find the positive.  Enjoy some of your favorite things in your day. 

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.