What is the coolest thing people are doing in early retirement?

In short, my "coolest thing" has been the growth of my spiritual life because it is the first time I am able to be still with myself, regulate after years in pressurized tech jobs, and see who the "me of me" is instead of just being in constant action/reaction mode. The more practical answer is learning guitar lol. My advice is to embrace a slower pace, there is abundance in it, so if you have two hobbies here, start there and be present for them and for your family :)

Since you're close to FI, you've got some big changes ahead. They're clear enough to make you think, but they can still be fuzzy enough that it's hard to figure out actual next steps.

My sense is even if there's stuff you can't go all-in on, there are more bite-size ways you can approach your FI life. Here are a few thoughts -

• More time for you to devote to your interests and goals. That's not just for your own satisfaction. One of the most powerful examples we can model for our kids is for them to see us working toward things that matter to us, complete with the ups, downs, triumphs, and setbacks. That's advice from my 89yo grandma, btw. When my wife was pregnant with our first child, I asked Grandma for advice when she was raising her two daughters after being widowed. She said she always set goals, talked about them, and made sure her daughters saw her working toward them and celebrating them when she accomplished what she set out to do.
• How else can you and your wife partner up for your kids and for FI? What are goals she'd like to move forward on, that might be possible with FI and the kids in school? If being FI frees up your time, how else can you show up for your kids and their activities/interests?
• Travel, fly fishing, etc.: These don't have to be all-in, all at once, all the time. For example, bigger travel could be a 4-6 week trip during summer vacation, instead of 1-2 weeks.
• Sometimes kids really legit don't want to travel. Sometimes that's also knee-jerk pushback from the discomfort of facing an unfamiliar experience, place, etc. It sounds like you've got kids old enough to be part of the conversation, at least to some degree. In our experience with our teen and tween, when they know my wife and I are taking their yays/nays into account, they're much more open-minded.
• If you being FI means there's more time for other activities, what would be the things your kids want to do? Their childhoods are the main time we've got with them, and their interests can be a great springboard to build out activities and experiences. Either as a group or maybe some kid/dad one on one excursions, if you can build some activities based on their interests, that both leads to meaningful experiences, and it can open up more possibilities for other family activities, experiences, bigger trips, etc.

You've got so much opportunity ahead. Maybe the time isn't right for bigger changes. My gut suggests there may be some smaller wins you can rack up as a family, then you can see where those lead.

If you haven't already, perhaps it's a good time to start having some conversations with spouse and kid: "Us reaching FI means I'm going to have my time and energy available. Sure, there are some things I want to do for me, but I want to know how I can show up more for you too. Is there something I can help open up for you? Is there something you've been wanting us to make time for together?"

Congratulations on your retirement and awesome family! A few ideas come to mind, as I will likely one day be in the same situation, so have pondered this:

Trips with kids during summer, Christmas, and Easter breaks. I was a military child and this is what we did growing up to visit family and I have told of great memories!

Couple's trips if you have a big kid/babysitter you can pay to drive people around

Solo trips taking turns with spouse to do things the other isn't interested in. Maybe you are into fishing and she doesn't care about that. Maybe you get an awesome fishing week and she gets an awesome trip with a girlfriend.

You like fishing... Perhaps you like the outdoors generally? Outdoor trips are awesome for kids development but a ton of work on one grown-up to make happen. Be the packer and unpacker for awesome trips. Could be trips for all kids or rotate spending one on one quality time with each kid

also, I'm not sure the mental model of "I'm retiring, she is still a stay at home mom" is going to serve your marriage very well. My parents did that and my mom ended up resenting my dad for sitting around while she did all the housework. I would recommend considering splitting all the housework evenly. If you both contribute, it will only take half as long. Retiring early with many kids is a huge accomplishment! It took both of you to make it happen. You should both get to enjoy the rewards!

I pulled out of your post you are a fly fisherman. Such a great activity.

What about combining your love of fishing with giving to others? A way to pass on your passion and talent and support the healing of others.

Casting for Recovery is a great organization that uses fly fishing for women in recovery of breast cancer. I have a friend who did this and she said it was fabulous, life changing.

Reel Recovery is for men living with all forms of cancer. Strong male relationships help our men thrive, especially during challenging health issues.

Project Healing Waters supports our veterans heal from both physical and mental (PTSD) wounds. Fly fishing is a way to connect that is easier than sitting in a therapists office. Nature does the heavy lifting of healing.

Congrats and enjoy the new freedom!

Congrats on your impending FI accomplishment! Having kids in school and/or a spouse (and close friends) still working full time can limit some options like extensive travel. I was one of those pre-FIRE over-scheduled people that found it hard to fit everything in, so I sacrificed sleep, health, and quality time with the family to do so. After retirement, I shifted my "chores" and hobbies into the daytime (during kid's school and spouse work hours) so that I was free in the evenings to spend quality time with them. I focused on my health -- solid sleep, stretching, exercising. I took up cycling (fantastic to cycle at 10:00 when the nearby bike trails were not overrun). I love reading (which I rarely had time for before), so I am reading more than ever. I took a year of graduate school in history (a passion of mine), I also volunteered a lot (personal finance coaching, on the boards of a couple non-profits, coached my daughter's soccer). I enjoy learning new skills, so I honed my skills on home repair and upgrades (upgraded kitchen and bath, built a shed, gardened). I lived near DC, so I took in the free museums during the day and went hiking nearby. I focused on learning a language (maybe learning to play an instrument?). It is nice to knock out the week's shopping when the stores are empty so my wife and I are freer on the weekends. I have found that my non-work interests far exceeded the available time I have as a retiree (hard to fathom how I ever fit full-time work in), so I have to focus on what I value the most. It has been great to use my time as an early retiree to figure out what I wanted to do in retirement--figure out my top values. Getting to experiment and follow my curiosities all while keeping white space in my calendar between activities and quality time to spend with my family when they are available. It has been great. Hopefully some of this may be helpful as you craft your retirement. All the best in your early retirement. Cheers, Justin

The struggles of FI people with kids in school. If they're in school 180 days a year from 7am - 4pm, why shouldn't we continue to work if your job still provides enough flexibility.

It's a different story if kids are in college or no kids, mini retirements and full on FI, early and often!

I get there are those that home school or pull their kids when young to travel, but once kids are into activities and friends, that's the last thing they want to do, even if you are all about hitting the road.

Interested in people's comments with school age kids.

Since you plan to travel eventually, learning a new language would be a great addition to your activities.

Another thing you might try is leaning into your current hobbies. If you don't already ski competitively or fish competitively (is that a thing?), increasing your mastery of those skills and maybe even entering competitions could be an interesting challenge to work toward.

I'm 23 months away from retiring early--not that I'm counting. I will increase my travel (not helpful to your situation) but I will also spend more time on existing hobbies, exploring new hobbies I don't have time for now and spending more time on fitness.

While all that sounds fun and relaxing to me, based on my personality and after reading some of Daniel Pink's great books (try Drive if you haven't read him yet), I think I would get bored with only leisure activities filling my days. Enter the Japanese concept of ikigai. While the Japanese concept is more nuanced, this Venn diagram does a decent job of visualizing the idea.

After spending time noodling on the different ikigai components, I interviewed recently for a volunteer role on the organizing committee of a local organization whose work I value. Other than not needing to be paid for the work, it ticks all the other boxes to be my ikigai. I'll start doing that volunteer work next month. You might try thinking of one or more activities that may satisfy the criteria for your ikigai and trying them out.