Ah, Friday.
Best day of the week.
Always has been, at least since I started being required to “be” somewhere.
You know that somewhere between 3–6 p.m., you are done with the work week.
Free to be You for the next 2 ½ days.
Glorious!
But what about when you are FIRE?
Why does that Friday feel good spirit still matter?
As I shared yesterday, I had an insight about the philosophies of Your Money or Your Life and Early Retirement Extreme.
They both stress the idea of enough.
Meaning, that you can have a very rich and rewarding lifestyle without a lot of money or possessions.
Also, that total time freedom is closer than one thinks if they adopt this philosophy.
They both suggest that something like luxurious asceticism is the key.
My lifestyle likely costs me way more than it needs to.
This is because I am not a fan of DIY tasks and activities.
I like to hire experts who are happy to do the chores and maintenance tasks I have zero desire to get involved with or learn about.
Still, I do try to follow the idea of enough, and from time to time need to remind myself that I have way more than enough.
So hold off on buying that new gadget or such, dude!
You’re not fully appreciating what you have (says my inner voice at times).
However, I do not recall these two sources giving much advice about how to spend your time after you reach FIRE.
Most people, including myself, wanted the time freedom to travel, pursue interests just for the heck of it, and spend time with those we love.
is it that simple?
Perhaps, but I’ve been wrapped up in the idea that I need to make good use of my time and pursue vocational callings.
While not terrible, I think it has kept me stuck in the old paradigms of my previous corporate career lifestyle.
Heck, even today, I was thinking, “Can’t I just use a PTO day” and just rest and relax?
Uh, yeah, dude. You’re FIRE. You have 24/7 PTO, remember?
Oh yeah.
Thanks for the reminder, Inner Knowing Dude.
So what does a Post-FIRE lifestyle look like for someone who got to FIRE pursuing the minimalist idea of Enough?
Experimenting with these ideas, describing them, defining them, and gaining clarity on the practices and habits that will bring this about in the best way possible:
that’s the ongoing quest here.
I checked in with Gemini Google to see if I had forgotten anything recommended in Your Money or Your Life and the Early Retirement Extreme blog.
The search results seem to support my idea that there is a gap there.
Your Money or Your Life stresses that you use your time to do three things post-FIRE (or after you reach the crossover point):
Pursue your passions without the overhang of needing to “make a dying” (how they re-term “making a living” when you rely on a paycheck or such).
Invest in relationships and your community.
Live more deliberately and consciously.
Okay, I am down with these ideas.
However, I find them a bit vague.
Early Retirement Extreme has different advice. He stresses four things to do:
Build broad DIY skills, to uncouple yourself from the consumerist treadmill.
Focus your time on pursuing your personal curiosity, your health, and other long-term projects that matter.
Pursue intellectual, artistic, and physical mastery (you can go deep and devote a lot more time to these things).
Intermittently take on passion-driven entrepreneurial projects, and walk away when they are no longer interesting or fulfilling.
Yeah, while not terrible, I am less inclined to follow all of his advice.
His motivation for achieving what we’re calling FIRE these days was different from that of the authors of Your Money or Your Life.
He was doing a project and writing a blog about it.
He was trying to determine if he could live on a minimum-wage annual salary.
That is, his investments provided a minimum-wage salary only.
Once he figured out it was possible, he walked away from the “enough” lifestyle and took on a research position with an academic institution.
And his wife was working the whole time he did the experiment, too.
Meaning, they split their expenses in half, and his were covered by his investments,
hers by her paid employment.
Well, that was somewhat helpful.
I will combine both their recommendations into one set of principles that resonate with me.
Then, we can use it as a starting point for this continued exploration.
I will do that in tomorrow’s post.
In the meantime, this morning, I heard a guy on a podcast saying he has zero goals.
He has three areas of concern he wants to attend to regularly:
his health, family, and pursuing things that interest him.
He thinks that the best way to achieve something is to not try to achieve it.
Just go with the flow, and the thing you want to do will emerge.
He’s also abused serious narcotic drugs at several points in his life.
In the interview from this month (November, 2026), he revealed that he fell back into his old ways in 2023.
He’s recently recovered from a second round of addictive relationships with heroin and gambling.
That has been since August 1, 2026.
Okay, maybe not the person I want to get advice from, I hear you.
Still, I think the freedom from his addictions that he is currently experiencing has helped him see that life is amazing, in and of itself.
Stop striving, is the subtext.
Just be.