Wednesday, February 01, 2006

What do I do with my time?

I get this question a lot recently from friends wondering what I do with my time now that I no longer have a job. My first reaction is to try and come up with all kinds of grand and important activities and appear to be really important. But the truth is much more mundane and boring than that.

Truth is I'm not doing much. I'm not bored or lonely, but the activities I'm doing right are pretty mundane:
  • Setting up my new "home." Got a new Plasma high-definition television. Got my internet service set up. Bought a few pieces of furniture; ordered a comfy recliner from the Pottery Barn.
  • Playing video games. This is the one I hate to admit, and feel somewhat guilty about. But why do I feel guilty? It's not like I'm not doing my homework, or missing work. I'm retired and if I want to play video games all day, and into the night, I'll do it! I'm currently playing World of Warcraft, an on-line interactive game that is fucking cool. If you know the game, my online character name is WarriorOne and I'm at level 19. Say hi if you're online and let's kill some bad guys together.
  • Daily walks to the supermarket.
  • Daily monitoring of my investments. I am pretty close to being a "day-trader" but by definition I'm really more of an "investor." I buy and sell stocks, options, mutual funds for capital appreciation, income and dividends. I just happen to make several purchases and sales weekly. I use a few advisory services to help decide which assist to buy and sell, and since retiring about five months ago I've made three times (3X) my annual budget for income. I've been doing unexpectedly, but happily, well. Yippee!
  • Watching stuff on my new HDTV. Watching CNBC during the stock market day.
  • Planning and research for my next activities. Current ideas and plans: volunteering at the Gay & Lesbian Center which is a block away from my new home; getting a part-time job in a cool place downtown or in the Castro; enrolling in a Tarot Card reading class or art or writing or...; what I'll do with all the millions of dollars I'll make with my investments; volunteer for the board of HRC; etc.
  • I bought Eckhart Tolle's (author of The Power of Now) newest book, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, which I've not opened but look forward to reading.
  • Joined a gym

My best friend from LA just happens to be moving to San Fran in the next week and I'm driving down to LA with his girlfriend for his going away party. I'm glad he'll be here, because he's been my source of friends and social life while in LA and I'm sure he will be in San Fran as well.

That's how things are looking from here.

1 Comments:

Blogger tornwordo said...

I want to be retired too. But part time job? Buying and selling stocks is already a kind of work.

Life sounds grand for you!

5:21 AM  

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