From my own experience and by observing those close to me I conclude that if it's not something you already do, you won't be doing it when you have free time/ money.

An older relative collected scrap metal saying that when he retired he'd become a sculptor. But he never sculpted anything in his off hours and when he retired he also didn't.

It has to be burning in you, not some idle fantasy.

Did he continue collecting scrap metal though? Maybe this was his true passion.

No, he abandoned it. Nothing stopped him from doing it, there was room and no stringent objections from anyone. He did have another hobby though, which he did during his working life and continued it for twenty years after.

>if it's not something you already do, you won't be doing it when you have free time/ money.

And why would you already be doing so much of something you didn't enjoy at all?

Also if it's something you really can enjoy why would you want to stop?

As long as I have a roof over my head why not continue, even if that was only the roof of my van after natural disaster.

I have no mortgages or debts, just other obligations which require regular payments not much differently than that, which cannot be "paid off" regardless of whether I'm working for a regular income or those funds were to be coming in some other way which required no further effort or attention.

That's why I work for my present employer to begin with, but it does keep me away from people I care about and those that care about me far too much. For so long everything I do must contribute foremost to "survival activities" even though I'm old enough for there to be no real recovery in my lifetime to very much of a fraction of the potential I lost before serial natural disasters have occurred.

Since that's the case I've been in anyway, I have made sure to do way more than necessary while I am at work, even though this employer showed their limitations to accept my proven growth approaches quite early. I wanted to finish the job I started on their terms if that's all there is, it's their company not mine. I will now be moving to a more generous employer where I will be able to have opportunites for more prosperous partnerships together for the first time in 20 years since closing my first company about a decade ago.

>Did he continue collecting scrap metal though? Maybe this was his true passion.

We both started out collecting surplus electronics in the 1980's, separating the wheat from the chaff IOW the worthwhile from the scrap. Still can get more out of second-hand instruments than others operating brand new.

For some time there's been another really wealthy Texas acquaintance who has been been doing a lot with electronics, computer science, and chemistry himself and has prospered quite remarkably in ways that I could not contribute to nearly as much without these years of recovery behind me. I could have started all over again in his distantly-related field, but not the one where I would be able to recover previously established international leadership. Even though he was well set and expressed interest years ago, we were both having nowhere near the potential that exists today, and could result in combining efforts & resources together with my new laboratory employer whom I have been much closer with for four decades not just one decade. Anything I invent now (if it's good enough) can be taken around the world with the help of a rare capitalist combined with a familiar established company having a fledgeling international presence already. There's always been more money in making deals than actual labor (aside; why do you think it's called a laboratory anyway), I'm not a greedy person but know it's even better doing both while I still can.

It was just not the brightest outlook until I could recover to the degree I have, where I could once again consider myself to be self-sufficient financially (with the available help of Social Security retirement payments if I want them now), before I would be able to pull my own weight in a partnership with others who are quite self-sufficient themselves, even if my contribution did not need to be financial to begin with.

I'll still work 12+ hour days and take 2 days off per week, but pass on much more of what I know while bringing those who care closer to me.

I just want to work and have something to show for it, not have something to show without working for it.

>It has to be burning in you, not some idle fantasy.

It's good having a wealthy Texas benefactor who got that way working with his own hands, and as a capitalist has a much more serious understanding about the way I have no risk to offer, and never had. These terms just fly over almost all others' heads.

When you do the math, we could all make more by me just investing their money with my own extreme low-risk high-growth approaches instead of continuing my laboratory experiments, I would still be working 12+ hour days anyway. Now instead I might be able to participate in more life-saving efforts than I ever thought possible. Even though I'll still be working with toxic materials myself.

So I know I'll have to slow down my bench work eventually, but I'm not giving up the momentum I have on my own two feet with my own two hands, even though I am certainly not arthritis-free at this point. Planting my butt in a seat definitely does not leverage natural science very much by comparison.

In the mean time I'll once again be able to give lucrative free advice to select commodity traders who actually take delivery, advising on behalf of an employer who can truly appreciate that kind of thing.

Plus I think it'll be more rewarding to work with an aged wealthy Texan who's still alive than benefit from one leaving money in their will after they have passed. I'll be meeting him again later today, though he's aged he's still younger than me, but my new company President is not, I'm going to be the "spring chicken" on their top leadership team.

IOW it's a little too late for retirement, OTOH it's a little too early.

I live just a mile off the American Discovery Trail. Over the years, I have hosted numerous hikers and bikers that travel this trail; it is commonly called being a Trail Angel. You provide a place to rest, sleep, receive packages, provide rides and whatever you can to help these folks out on their journeys, as they walk/ride across the country.

I would liquidate everything, put a pack on my back (or maybe load up my Surly Long Haul Trucker) and travel this trail from Delaware to San Francisco, and back... as many times as I could before I die.

https://discoverytrail.org

I would invest half my life in experimental horticulture. I would start by attempting to create a more winter hardy, and thus potentially perennial, gourd similar to butternut squash and fairy tale pumpkins. The goal of this is to create a sustainable food item that adds cheap filler for processed foods that greatly increases health of people in industrialized nations and provides abundant access to nutritious calories for people in developing nations. I also noticed gourds are extremely prone to damage by various moths and swarming insects while watermelons are not. I would solve for this gap as well.

The other half of my life would be invested in creation of decentralized communications, which means no servers. No web servers, no data economies. Just direct connections between trusted users and for each user to have trusted direct access to their personal devices. I have already started on this, but its challenging. The technology is challenging, but the greater challenges are from existing less efficient data economies and the ignorance of the people therein.

After having seen the last ten years of my life evaporate in front of a computer, the thinking is that I'd want to live the rest of it in the real world. I'm tempted to think that I would never touch a computer again, but I know that wouldn't happen. I do it because I enjoy solving problems.

I'd probably travel and work on projects I think are cool. Play video games, exercise, and do all the things I don't really have the time or energy spare to do right now.

It's counter-intuitive, but exercise gives you more energy. Don't wait to hit the lottery to make it part of your life.

The grass is always greener. Don't jump from one extreme to another.

I have a friend you had a sizable exit from a startup he worked in for a long time.

He has formed many academic collaborations, teaches at several universities and delivers talks at many international conferences. Most of the time paying for his travel and accommodation expenses.

His motivation: to share his knowledge and experience with the next generation. An example of paying it forwards.

I'd keep working on my current website. I genuinely love what I'm doing and the impact it has.

However I would no longer have to think about business and monetisation. I could open up the code and the content to pull requests and focus on creating a public good.

More specifically, I could focus on tools to help immigrants against greedy landlords, not the finance/insurance content that pays the bills. I would not have to split my time between both.

These stories are all so fantastical that it shows how for most people, even saturated in automation IT around us, a world without work for all is only seen as pure fantasy for the lucky few. It doesn't take an incredible windfall to imagine ways to live without work that can still accommodate a lot of these stories.

I'd love to help more people escape work. I want to start blogging and building tools / building in public and sharing my approach with "Indie Dev Stack" branding since I got the .com. There's so much more people are capable of than wage labor and liberation I feel begins with regaining control over your own time.

I am not reading any books, fuck that.

Two chicks at the same time. This is really what i'd do, once i break free of all responsibilities and stress.

I will also try to donate money and try to solve modern slavery. Slavery is at all time high right now, I would love to tackle that. I am talking about real slavery like on fishing boats and stuff, not tech employees complaining about RTO.

66% if my time I would spend it on myself (getting healthier, getting mentally stimulated, etc.) 34% of my time would be spent trying to solve the biggest problems of humanity (for this I would ask my benevolent Texan Billionaire more money; I guess that would be no problem for them).

Buy a boat and spend my life getting blown about the oceans a few years ahead of schedule. Probably spend some of it helping out other people who seek or live the same sort of life since it would be more money than I would ever need.

I probably would split my waking hours in a couple of different ways...in no particular order:

* donate my time as a technologist to help non-profits that i believe in...By this i mean, help them manage websites, build apps, better leverage open source technology to their advantage...and ideally help them bridge the digital divide. This would help keep my mind active with what i have loved to do: technology, building digital things, and combining that with helping people.

* spend my time in an artistic way, like welding a big metal garden sculpture, or building wooden structures to be used for hanging vines/plants for my life partner, or simply writing, painting, etc. This would help me in a more zen way. Sure it helps me use my hands to physically build things, but also tap into areas of my brain that my tech career has not always allowed me to do...you know, satisfying some internal itch that isn't necessarily tech-related.

* travel a little, and including establishing a couple of very tiny apartments in a couple of places in the world...so that I can live in places where i didn't grow up in. Also, when i die, my offspring will have places to live throughout a small number of my favorite places in the world (and no, these places are not the typical places like some Caribbean beach/island, etc.). Travelling is often fun, but here i would try to get to live in these other places in the world...sort of see the world (and not only in the limited way like vacations) before i die.

You finish that stack of books on the bedside table, get the exercise regieme sorted, and then that’s it.

I get more books. I keep going on walks, jogs, and bike rides. I go to the coffeeshop. I go to the movies.

I sit down and type out the ideas I have for the two video games I want to make.

I use Midjourney to generate assets.

I hire a programmer who has made games before, to help me make the first playable level 1 for game 1.

I buy ads on Reddit to get people to play the first demo. I leave comments enabled on my ads.

And then I hire more people and we keep working on the game for a few months.

Then I buy more ads to get people to play the demo that we have now.

And then we finish making the game and I start selling the final product.

We then proceed to work on the next game.

After we have finished the second game, we will see what to do next.

Id plan and bankroll a jewelry heist or something else that takes about a year planning in the Caribbean, is capital intensive, and yields about 20x.

And then I’d do that again about every five years.

Depends on how much money I have. I’d like build a small community where food, stay etc will be free. And invite creators to come over and create anything - books, art, software…

> I’d like build a small community where food, stay etc will be free.

Could anyone come live there?

Yes. I suppose there should be some minimal rules (no politics, no religion etc) but otherwise people would be free to create whatever they want to.

There was an article on HN few weeks ago, about a Russian open source programmer. He was going through tough times in his personal life, while also taking abuse from users of his project. People who were paying him nothing, while also abusing him online. If I had the money, I’d like to support people like him. Same goes for people who make educational materials, books etc without expecting anything in return.

> An aged Texan Billionaire mistakenly leaves you enough in his will...

I'd live my life worrying the family would eventually contest my portion in court and I'd have to return it.

Buy 160 acres in the middle of nowhere in a geologically stable region with temperate climate and arable soil, or at least soil than can be amended into arability. Purchase enough Nickel-Iron batteries, monocrystalline PV modules, kilned lumber, machine shop tools, tractors, tractor attachments, road vehicles, replacement parts, fertilizer, fencing wire, rifles, ammunition, low-power SBCs, cameras, networking gear, communications equipment, diesel fuel, medical supplies, heirloom seeds, canning jars, freeze dryers, food storage, chest freezers, replacement parts for said freezers, tooling, etc, to last me and my family 100 years.

Then get the hell away from civilization and never speak to another human being other than my family ever again.

Heaven.

But one issue with your question is that you forgot we are human. "Financially free" doesn't exist in our monkey brains. Whenever we achieve X, we strive for X+1. The hedonic treadmill never stops. NO human is able to answer this question honestly.

I've been processing this for a long time. Many years ago my goal was to get enough money to be financially free allowing me to focus on personal projects, travelling or just enjoying the free time.

Some time has passed and my current line of thinking (it could change) is that I want to continue working, creating value for the world. Have a good financial position to be able to choose what I want to do next, maybe taking some time to work on something I think could be valuable or taking a lower paying job but with high potential or that gives me more autonomy to manage my time and tasks.

And thats the line of thinking I'll pick to answer the post question. I'm working on putting me in the position of doing almost the same as if I was financially free.

I struggled with this question minus the true financial freedom.

You can get on the Hedonic treadmill, but you will adapt.

You can try to consume the world and become metaphorically obese and empty.

Buddhism and Siddhartha in particular is probably a good book to read on the subject.

From personal experience with this question, the only two goods are self improvement and service to your fellow man.

From an intrinsic motivation perspective. The pillars are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Having financial freedom is near pure autonomy. So you are asking for purpose (service) and mastery (self improvement). You might answer that differently.

Primarily, I'd use it to give my son the best life he can have after contracting Guillian-Barre syndrome from the covid vaccine. A nice house close to me, money for the things he wants and needs and all the medical care and physical therapy he needs.

Having your life destroyed for doing the right thing is devastating, especially at 25 years old. He was valiantly still able to somehow continue working his remote tech support job until he was laid off. With the current market, it's unlikely he'll find work any time soon and even less likely to find an employer that will tolerate occasional days where the intense nerve pain is too much to bear.

Sorry to hear about your son’s injury. There is nothing more painful than watching your children suffer, and Covid vaxx injuries are a taboo topic (for some reason). Stay strong!

Thanks! I'm pro vaccines and just have to accept that he lost the vaccine lottery. The annual incidence of GBS is estimated to be between 1 to 2 cases per 100,000 vaccinated people.

Is it/can it be confirmed? So many people took multiple vaccinations - there will be cases when timing overlaps with something serious. I’m not taking sides, just curious.

It was confirmed. There is a government fund to cover the costs of care related to vaccine reactions and my son received IVIG which is costly and was covered. Unfortunately, his ongoing medical issues are not covered and he's ineligible for disability.

FWIW, I have multiple boosters and will continue getting vaccines approved by the government. He was just extremely unlucky. I am pro vaccines.

Donate half to animal charities, start funding nature reserves and promote positive environmental changes.

I already pick up litter in my spare time, already donate quarterly portions of my income. Would continue to do the same just on a larger scale.

All for the animals.

> ...and have enough to pay your own salary for the rest of your life.

I would stay out of the house for as long as I can and visit new places, meet new people; that's it, really.

Change nothing about my life. Pretty much just keep doing the same thing I do now. I already don't work. I pretty much just do whatever interests me. Hopefully getting a lump sum of money doesn't screw with my SSI or my Medicaid and food stamps because I would hate to have to start having to actually pay for my groceries with real money and have my prescriptions actually have a copay instead of be free...

Buy a much nicer apartment, and keep doing what I already do for work. When I have free time, I'd take friends and family on lavish vacations.

I would just spend more time to sleep, making music, cooking more meals, enjoy many hobbies as possible "OUTSIDE OF THE COMPUTER"

Machine Learning Masters, maybe PhD

Never touch a computer ever again

sex and not drugs and rock & roll...and move to a warm place...and sleep conspicuosly

> What would you do if you had a million dollars?

[...]

> Nothing.

> Nothing, huh?

> I would relax... I would sit on my ass all day... I would do nothing.

> Well, you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Take a look at my cousin: he's broke, don't do shit.

I’d hire help for chores, travel more frequently with family, spend more time learning/doing things that may have no direct financial outcome, donate more money and personal time towards charity.

Learn to fly a plane.

> and then

And then some years later you get arrested for money laundering :)

OR

> and then

The Texan's billionaire's relatives sue you for the inheritance.

i.e. not really that free. Always caveats.

Write code and perhaps browse Hacker News

I have to admit I cannot see a future where I do not write code - pretty much like not seeing a future where I don't write English.

HN - maybe I can wean off it slowly ;-)

Send my kid to international school :)

Open a beach bar somewhere nice

I always thought money is only useful insofar you do things with it

I'd keep working on OnlineOrNot tbh, it's fun

Invest money on companies who want to improve our life

I wake up.