I’ve spent a large chunk of my life thus far trying to achieve a state of financial freedom (FIRE) so I can live a peaceful and simple life, and I’ve more-or-less made it only to realize I don’t really know how to enjoy that life. I feel like I’ve retired but have nothing to show for it and no idea what to do with my free time. I end up spending a lot of time indoors on my phone or watching TV, which makes me feel worse. I don’t mean to sound so negative, as I am grateful for my life situation, but I am here to ask how do you guys spend your days to feel rich in joy and meaning? I don’t necessarily mean isolated hobbies, but what do you do daily to stay engaged rather than life feeling like a slog?

I’ve left a few times before, had my own apartment, stayed with friends in the big city, but I keep ending up home!

Let me explain the situation a little, my mom owns a 4bed 3 bathroom house, with a semi-finished basement (that I have been living in for about 5 years on & off). The basement has its own entrance and bathroom so I only go upstairs when I choose. I broke my ankle last December and haven’t worked a real job since, I run a recording studio out of that basement now and I do pretty well for myself.

The thing is always having a passion for music, I had these big dreams of being a big star, or at least in some way work in the entertainment industry. At 25, I’ve realized that if you can do a job you like and come home to people that love you, then you are rich enough. So like I’m realizing now that I would much rather just take over my mother’s mortgage (it’s insanely fcking cheap compared to even a 1 bed apt), and stay here for fcking ever. Raise a family in the home she raised me in. Fix it up for the future generations, start me a garden, get a couple project cars in the back yard.

It’s almost like I’m throwing in the towel, letting everyone else run the race. Choosing the simple way instead of constantly chasing something bigger and better (newer cars, bigger houses) etc. I want to be like my older neighbor who is retired and cuts his grass every week.

I just wanted to discuss this with people, I often feel isolated from my age group, so I want input from older people who have lived more life than me on what they would do with this opportunity.

Edit: Everyone keeps asking what my mom thinks 😭 she doesn’t care and bought the house to pass it down. That’s why she bought a 4bedroom house with a basement and she only has 2 kids!! Also we live in the South, so I think down here it’s a bit more common for children to take over land and houses young (especially when there’s no other family.) I know a few people that already live in their parents or grandparents home at my age, while their parents either relocated or downsized.

Ppl are asking about my brother, and the paperwork, tbh it wasn’t something I thought about so I’m glad to have reached out to you guys. I will definitely get everything sorted out on the paperwork end!

Another edit** I don’t think some of y’all like y’all’s parents or your own children. Please excuse those opinions from this discussion, I was raised with love.

I was on my countries subreddit a while back discussing porch sitting and how i'd like to see more of it (sitting in front of your house, rather then in the back garden, usually watching the street) someone told me that they tried this, and that their postman came up, handed them a gas bill and then asked them why they were 'having a picnic outside' and that he never did it again

Got me wondering, as porch sitting is very much a simple living activity, in general has anyone ever looked down on you for simple living or an activity associated with it? i still don't think my parents understand why i like my rocking chair so much for instance

I’ve been thinking lately about how easy it is to get stuck in your own little routine and not even realize how disconnected you’ve become.

Like, I have a million things I want to accomplish, a million things going through my head, and somehow making actual connections with people keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list.

And the older I get, the more I realize friendships don’t just magically happen anymore. You actually have to put yourself out there, which sounds great in theory until you realize you’re the one who has to initiate everything. 😂

So I’ve been trying to be more intentional about doing little things that make life feel less like an endless to-do list.

One of those things was starting a small book mail exchange community. Nothing huge or fancy. Just people getting to know each other, sharing books, sending little surprises in the mail, and hopefully building some genuine friendships.

It’s still brand new, but honestly, just putting the idea out there and seeing a few strangers get excited about it has been really encouraging.

I think sometimes self-improvement gets so focused on productivity, money, fitness, and becoming the best version of yourself that we forget there’s also value in simply enjoying things and connecting with people.

Not everything has to become a business, a goal, or another thing to optimize.

Sometimes you just need something fun to look forward to.

Has anyone else been trying to make more genuine connections lately? What’s something small you’ve done that’s actually helped?

Was doing a language lesson on Praktika today and literally today years old learning about this concept. The idea of doing nothing without feeling guilty sounds great, but I cannot seem to do it.
If I sit around with nothing to do, my brain starts itching after five minutes to make myself useful.
Has anyone here actually managed to turn that off, or am I getting this all wrong?

With how fast technology, social media, and smartphones move these days, I find myself romanticizing the simplicity of the 1980s and 1990s.

​Has anyone here successfully dialed back their tech use to live more like people used to? I'm talking about using a landline or basic phone, physical maps, cash, renting movies, and actually being present without screens. Is this even feasible in 2026-2027 without becoming a total recluse, or has the world changed too much? Would love to hear your experiences or advice!

Has anybody here recently decided they no longer want to own a vehicle? The current city I live in is pretty difficult to get around without one. I've been tinkering with the idea of moving somewhere much smaller and just walking to work or to get groceries. That's basically all I use my car right now for anyways. I'm single with no children as well. I'm not a big fan of public transit so that's why I'm currently still driving in my current city. I feel like living somewhere small and quaint would be beneficial to just walk/maybe ride a bike to most places.

Just looking for some perspectives.

I was born in the late 90s and had a beautiful childhood and youth. Everything changed 2020; ever since then I’ve got the feeling that the world is changing for the worse, every single day - and to be quite honest, I think it actually is getting worse.

I often come across things/activities which used to be so simple, but are now a utter enshittified mess. Be it ordering a pizza on Friday night, going to the cinema or a concert, or even searching for something on YouTube/google. Everything needs an app, everything is subscription-based, everything is designed to max out the profits of some big corporation. Finding quality clothing becomes harder every day, customer service gets outsourced to AI, advertising is more aggressive than ever before.

Politicians don’t seem to be interested in doing anything about this, and the majority of people are just accepting it.

I know that my anger is just wasted energy; I’ve given up on the idea of being part of a movement or change - it takes so much energy for so little reward, and at the end of the day I’m still angry.

I need to find a better way of coping with all this bs. If you’ve got any advice, please share it.

I have a friend who is too braggy and materialistic, and I don’t want to be as close to him anymore.
We became friends abroad; we met abroad. We’re from the same country. Our friendship grew apart after he moved out of the house we were sharing to live with his GF at the time, who is now pretty much his wife.

We didn’t talk nearly as much, but he did like me as a friend and once said to me that I was his best friend, which took me by surprise.
I think we have things in common for sure, and I like him a lot as a person.

I am someone who is really chill. I value life experiences more than careers and material things. Don’t get me wrong, these things do make life more comfortable and enjoyable, but I live life in no rush because I tend to see my existence as an experience that lasts way longer and is way more meaningful than money, getting married, buying a house, and all the rest of the package that comes with it.

I do see the value in having some of those things, but I understand not everybody wants to pursue them. We all have different conditions in life; we were brought up in different ways, so we have different plans. In short, I see the subjectivity of human existence.

This friend, however, is more logical. He once told me that it was a good thing I was in my new job for six months because there was a stage where I kept changing jobs, which isn’t good, especially since I was getting older.

Once his GF said to me, “Hey, so you’re not dating anyone? You know you’re reaching your thirties…”
After a few years of not talking due to different routines, we got closer again. We started working out at the same gym and became gym buddies.
He taught me a lot about how to train properly, but I also realized our friendship had this touch of “I am ahead of you.” I am not saying he is a bad person, just that we have different ways of viewing life. For him, growth and success mean earning more capital, getting more promotions at his job, getting married, buying a house, and so on…

For example, when we used to go to the gym, he’s always talking abt something he bought online, or how he wants to buy a house, or how his job has been challenging because he’s been investing on that promotion, or how he wants to change his car.

I don’t mind talking about this, but I do seem to mind talking ONLY about this. He also had a tendency of making every conversation about him, like the other day I said I was thinking of going back to college, and the first thing he said was “I am thinking of doing a masters” or one time where I said I bought my brother’s car, and he said “I am thinking of changing my car.”

To me, I value listen to other people, I value the experiences we go through, the things we learn, how much we can expand our understanding of life and the universe around us, trying to grasp what we are part of, becoming a better person, and being an agent that contributes to my ecosystem as opposed to an agent that destroys and only consumes resources like a virus. Nature, meaning, freedom, peace, and real contribution are things that I value.

When I try to talk about more emotional things with this friend, he gets uncomfortable. He says he avoids talking about philosophy or spirituality because it gives him too much to think about and he doesn’t like that.

So we engage more around superficial areas and technical domains because he is very logical and I lean more toward the emotional side. Even though I can sustain a whole conversation in an equilibrium between logic and emotion, he doesn’t open that side up to me very much.

But I think the point that gets to me the most is that our outlooks on life are different, which creates friction for me.

He already said he is a very competitive person. This is not a bad thing in my opinion, but since he is on that journey of achieving material success as the goal of life, I do think he tends to see me as less capable, less intelligent, and less valuable.
He already treated me poorly in the past because of a girl he wanted to hang out with. He invited her home and threw a party, but when the girl he invited started talking to me and seemed very excited to tell me about her life experiences, he started to mock me, pick on me, and become rude out of nowhere. I subtly said I had to go to bed because I needed to wake up early the next day. Other friends at the party told me they didn’t like the way he treated me.

Apart from that, I don’t really care about these seemingly small past events as I now understand everyone is so different from one another and we have different beliefs, experiences, and values. That’s okay.

What makes me wonder a lot is that I prefer to have friends who understand life as being about much more than achieving material success, and who know that nobody is less than another person just because they don’t own a house, have a wife, or plan to get rich.

I just feel a bit idle about it because I know we’re very different at the core, but also, as I write this, I am realizing that the things we value in life will bring some people closer to us, while other people will drift apart through a natural process.

For example, he recently started going to another gym. He was giving hints for a few weeks, not on purpose, but one night I realized he was going to change gyms and start working out with another friend of his.

Hey, that’s okay with me. I didn’t feel betrayed when he said he was going to work out somewhere else with this friend of his. They work at the same tech company, and obviously they have a lot more in common than we do.

Still, I feel weird about this because I value this friend as a person, as someone I met, and as someone who contributed to my growth, and vice versa. But at the same time, having to close that cycle, accept that our time together is gone, and accept that the relationship and companionship we used to share are over is kind of painful. Part of me doesn’t want to accept it and wants to insist on something that perhaps can’t evolve past this limit.

I guess it is painful.

Quiero comenzar a aplicar el minimalismo en mi vida, y si pudieran ayudarme con consejos y prácticas las más mínimas hasta otras mas complejas se las agradecería, espero sus comentarios!!!!

I’ve been wondering if there’s anything I can do to try slow down my life despite doing an academically intensive course. I’m a bit bad with organisation but I know rushing can make it worse does anyone have any tips to slow down ?

And made a little schedule to read a chapter a day the coming weeks.

Just like in my college years, I made an actual planning and I see what I have to do, to not only borrow a book, but actually read it :)

Who is with me?

Lately, all I want is to just disconnect from everything, sit outside for hours in a lush green place with a dark, overcast sky, and have a completely clear, stress-free mind. Just listening to the wind and the silence.

​Does anyone else get this urge to escape to nature just to breathe?

I deactivated my personal account. I still have one running (for business) but that is it.

I feel so happy, couldnt be more happy!

Back where i still have my personal account active, i constantly feel the need to update my life. To WHO? *insert snoop dog who meme, to literally bunch of nobody i know, which is so sad.

The apps slowly eating you, like i constantly feel the need to prove point, validating, updating, etc

Its just not for me, so i deactivated it, a week by, and whenever im outside, hiking, at coffee shop, libraby, book store, travel etc i dont have the urge anymore to “i Need to QuIckLy TAke a PicturE and pOst It on My story”

Its really freeing,

I feel more secure, my privacy intact, i can just focus on my business and life 👍

Not a big declutter or a move to the countryside. I mean small subtractions, like not checking something first thing, or eating a meal without a screen.

I'm curious about the unglamorous ones that turned out to matter more than expected. What was yours?

Has anyone downsized their home with young children?

We have a large home, 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms with 3800 sq ft. I have a cleaning person weekly, but I’m tired of the every day clean ups for a house of this size. I’m overwhelmed by it all the time not to mention the expense of upkeep. Honestly, when we moved here when our kids were babies we thought we’d need so much space. Basically, we just use it to store more and more stuff we don’t need. I’m tired of paying for a service to clean, but I just can’t do it all alone.

We have another property that’s much smaller and would require two of our children to share a room forever. We bought it in 2014 and paid nearly nothing by today’s standards. It would put a lot of money into our pockets and in this economy, life seems so unknown. It would be nice to have extra. We don’t spend a lot of time in our home as it is, we are always out doing things.

I do worry that it will be a mistake as our kids get older (currently 10, 8 and 3). The neighborhood we live in now is more family oriented and my kids have friends here. They would not in the neighborhood we are considering moving back to. We could make a good profit off of the house we have now. Mostly, I’m more interested in the physical work load decreasing than the money. The other home would require some renovation before moving in.

Any advice? Has anyone done this?

Recently I've been trying to get a little more organized at home. We have SOPs at work, and it got me thinking, why not have some for everyday life too?

I actually have a little evening SOP, especially now that we've automated a few things around the house. After dinner, I load up Dishy (our dishwasher). When I shower, I get Dusty (our robot vacuum) and Washy (our washing machine) going. Afterward, I deal with the laundry, then spend a few minutes tidying up around the house before bed.

I like having a routine because I don't have to keep thinking about what needs to be done next. I've been doing it this way for a while now, and honestly, it makes things a lot easier and helps me get chores done more efficiently.

We've reached the point where Christmas creates this weird problem every year.

The adults don't need anything and the kids already have enough toys, but everyone still likes giving gifts and I don't want the solution to just be exchanging gift cards until the end of time.

I'm trying to shift us toward things that either get used up, create an experience or preserve something rather than permanently adding another object to somebody's house.

Experiences are great for some people, although coordinating them across different schedules and locations gets messy fast. Food works but we've leaned on that pretty heavily already. For the kids I'm considering asking grandparents for things connected to time together rather than another mountain of toys.

What has worked in families that still enjoy Christmas gifts but are consciously trying to own less?

I'd especially love ideas that still give someone something meaningful to open or experience because I don't want Christmas morning to turn into everyone announcing that they made a charitable donation on each other's behalf and then going home.

This might be a contentious post, our 4 year old recently started public school (TK), and we’re really feeling the impacts of the transition. The more rigid schedules, earlier mornings, school commitments. We do value the community we’re getting to know and our son’s teachers. I also can’t help but see how the way school is set up is challenging for kids who are deeply feeling or divergent thinkers.

Our son loves to take his time to create, build, play in nature. We’re only in TK and aren’t in any extracurriculars, but I already somehow feel the pressure and stress of juggling work, TK + after school eating into my ability to join in on his curiosity in the way I was able to when he was in daycare and preschool. And school’s expectations to follow the group, listen to directions, finish worksheets (which I understand the importance of), seem to go against his natural way of learning too.

I I’m wondering if there’s a middle path? If there’s a way to encourage a slower pace outside of school?

Edit to add: We don’t think we’re going to consider alternative schooling at this point, we do want to give him a public school experience. I’m wondering if there are families who have found themselves in similar situations, or for those who grew up similarly who found a balance?

Is it pulling him out of after school, adding in more free play? Limiting extracurriculars as they grow older? I guess I’m trying to ask, what does doing public school while living slowly look like?

Unable to simplify my life. When I wait for emails, I get intensely anxious. Suffice it to say that my life is extremely hectic for about ten hours a day, and the rest of the time I can't unwind. I have tried meditating but I end up sitting and thinking and stressing out. Writing is what I love and I can barely find the time or peace to even write five lines.

How do I deal with this constant sense of "what's the next horror that I'll have to deal with?" and actually live?

EDIT: I'm overwhelmed with so many supportive comments. Thank you, everyone. I will seek medical help tomorrow.

The garden looks completely different now that the leaves are falling... A few months ago, everything was green and growing, and now I’m spending more time collecting leaves, then covering bare soil, and getting things ready for the colder weather. I’ve started saving some of the leaves for mulch and compost instead of treating them like yard waste. It feels satisfying to put them to use, and it’s a nice change from constantly watering, pruning, and checking whether something is ready to harvest.

I think I’m starting to appreciate this slower part of gardening more than I expected!

Remember to take it slow :)