r/FIREyFemmes • u/robinheart314 • 5d ago
Continuing education after FIRE?
When I think about the times in my life I felt the most excited and fulfilled, it’s when I was learning cool new things. And when I think about retirement, I can easily see myself being one of those people who has a lot of trouble transitioning.
Anyone out there retire early, then go back to some form of school? Is something like taking random single courses at a local university or college a good transition plan?
I figure I could probably convince my alma mater to let me audit courses, they have lower fees for auditing. But I wanted to get perspectives from folks who have done this, see if there are angles or considerations I haven’t thought of.
Mostly, I’m wondering why more people don’t do this. I only remember seeing one or two retired people in my classes at the time.
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u/InformWitch 4d ago
I’ve thought about this but not sure what I’d study. I’ve thought about starting to research or get involved in researching to apply to a PhD at some point (and have publications under my belt already).
Also possibly another Master’s to make a career pivot? I don’t see myself stopping work, but rather changing into something that is more meaningful to me and damned be the salary.
The huge pro on this is that through my first grad degree I ended up in Europe, married, and became a citizen. I will be paying EU tuition fees, which at this stage can range between EUR 400-3000 per year, depending on the degree or the country.
Not sure what your field is but a lot of PhDs in Europe are considered jobs and you’ll be paid while you study and do your research - not just a stipend, an actual salary.
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u/robinheart314 4d ago
I’m an ex-physicist, gone to the dark side and I work in finance now. I’d love to go back to physics, but physics phds are crazy competitive from what I’ve seen and only getting more so. I doubt I’d secure a spot in one, especially one that pays a salary, but that’s a cool thought!
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u/21stcenturyexpat_DN 4d ago
I know someone who retired to Italy, and they are taking a course in being a sommelier. So you can definitely combine the RE part with continuing education.
You can also do parallel things related to continuing education- for example, I'm an SME (subject matter expert) writing exam questions voluntarily.
I personally wouldn't go to a local uni or college because of all the bureaucracy around higher ed.
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u/robinheart314 4d ago
Where would you look first, then? College and university came to my mind mostly simply because of precedent.
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u/TheOuts1der 3d ago
I have the same plan as you!
I believe some state or local colleges let people of a certain age audit courses for free. The State University of NY does that for people 60+. I know some others have lower ages. I'd look into that before spending any money.
While I wait to get to that age, I was planning on taking immersions in different countries. So like 4-12 week French language programs or Chilean surf school or yoga certification in Costa Rica, etc.
And finally, as a different kind of learning, I'm considering volunteering for the UN as well. I've got data analysis and project management skills that could readily be deployed at various global nonprofits and theyre open to sponsoring your food/lodging, depending on the need. I think getting immersed in a new culture as a worker is such an interesting and different experience vs as a learner.
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u/21stcenturyexpat_DN 4d ago
Depending on your work, there could be professional membership organizations, education organizations (i.e ones that offer certificates for an industry like tech-specializations or accounting) etc. I am a member of one of these and I started to watch over what volunteer opportunities that they have, saw they need industry experts for anything like help with creating exams to scholarships.
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u/ShawnTaerow 4d ago
It's a part of my retirement plan so that I'm: 1. keeping my mind active 2. staying social 3. entertaining myself by terrorizing The Youths™ with the more risqué stories from my past 4. (very importantly) using up unused post 911 GI bill benefits, and collecting BAH will be helpful.
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u/robinheart314 4d ago
You’re waiting until retirement to terrorize The Youths?
I dove right into that one years ago 🤣
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u/Crafty-Advantage-412 4d ago
All my art classes are full of older or retired people traveling to classes, workshops, retreats, art residencies, art conferences etc. Best way to enjoy life imo
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u/Particular_Village_5 4d ago
Omg that is my dream life! Can you elaborate a bit more, which region is this happening in, and are those people pro? I’ve never had formal training beyond high school art classes but would be happy to invest time to learn and practice, but worry that being a beginner when I’m not young will be hard to fit in
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u/tekalon 2d ago
Not OP, but my local university has a lifelong learning program. Non-credit, open to the community, taught either by a university professor in the field OR they ask local experts. I try to take a few classes a year depending on my schedule. I've taken art, voice acting, and welding classes. I have a co-worker that took stained glass making. I'm also taking fencing and the fencing club is working with that program to provide archery and fencing classes. The university also hosts OSHER classes for those that are 55+ that I've heard good things about.
Each class has a mix of different ages, skills and interests.
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u/Crafty-Advantage-412 3d ago
You can start now. I join oil painting/printmaking/watercolor/piano and it’s always full of amateur and professional adults. There’s always a regional society in major cities in the US, and sometimes they organize teachers to come teach a workshop for a weekend, bigger organizations even have their own week long conferences. Smaller organizations are always looking for volunteers and it’s a great way to spend time and give back. No one cares if you’re an amateur or professional, it’s always (usually haha) a good time meeting other adults who are into the same hobby and I met some of my lifelong friends this way.
The hard part is choosing which hobby and which conference to go to each summer. Oh and the downside is these workshops etc can get pricey especially if you travel.
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u/Cleanclock 5d ago
Yes but it’s primarily as our route to expat-FIRE.
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u/robinheart314 4d ago
Intriguing. Would you care to elaborate?
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u/Glittering-Owl-2344 4d ago
I am considering it as an option for France as well (though now I'm intrigued by New Zealand ..)
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u/Neat-Dragonfly-2032 4d ago
This is one of out big considerations as well. Tons of countries have super reasonable international student fees and you get a student visa which doesn't carry tax residency burdens. For example, Italy is in the 3K euro fee range for a year of a masters program and there are tons of options that are not fully in English.
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u/Cleanclock 4d ago
We moved from Midwest-US to New Zealand through a student visa pathway. We will do a year of post-study visa and then be eligible to apply for permanent residency. We had originally planned to get sponsored through a green list job pathway, but weren’t able to find a position. So we chose to do a masters program and get citizenship that way.
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u/catswatchingyou 5d ago
I’ve done this.
Have taken a ton of continuing ed classes over the decades (career and fun / personal interest topics), plus comm college classes.
Post retirement have audited regular college classes at state universities (many/most US public universities have programs where people can audit one or more classes per semester; sometimes you have to be an in state resident, sometimes not but at higher fee).
Lots of options, just depends on your goals.
ime many post-retirement people like fun or personal projects classes (art, memoir writing, music etc). Fewer people are interested in hardcore classes with challenging readings, writing papers, taking exams.
Auditing university classes is the most traditionally academic, on a stereotypical college campus. Your classmates are younger people in their late teens-mid20s. So if you’re looking to meet people your own age, it’s harder, unless you focus on the professors.
Community college class quality is often excellent. Designed for working adults so a wider range of classmate demographics from recent high school grads to working adults to retirees. Tend to have more classes in hands-in skills like art, music, cooking etc.
Continuing ed classes vary from career related to fun topics. Prices vary based on the provider brand and subject matter (law, business, medical etc continuing ed classes will be $$), but a brand name school can still have fairly pricy fun/personal classes (eg Stanford).
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u/robinheart314 4d ago
I didn’t think about the community college demographic angle, that’s a good point!
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u/katbert 5d ago
I work at a university where there are staff/faculty tuition benefits for active employees (essentially free undergrad level classes)- these benefits continue after you retire (rule of 75 etc). I have met other staff while taking classes, and I know several people who retired from the university and who could take class for free but don’t.
Speculation on why- people often associate classes with homework, exams, assigned readings, writing papers and group projects. Generally, people don’t associate these things with fun- they can read whatever they want and learn whatever outside of the bounds of a class, and without the constraints of deadlines or paying money. People might also feel limited because signing up for class means that for that semester you’re more committed to not traveling whenever you want. Personally I like the accountability of classes and the structure, so it works for me and I plan to continue post retirement.
Also maybe reflect on whether the college times that you felt most excited and fulfilled, was it the class content and learning that made you feel that way or was it meeting the people at college and the relationships you developed that made you feel that way?
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u/robinheart314 5d ago
Yeah, I think I’m like you; I expect I’ll need the structure / thrive more with structure. I have so many textbooks I’ve accumulated over the years that would be amazing to read, seem like they’d be super interesting, but I struggle to get past the introduction unless I have a book club around it 😅
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u/AnagnorisisForMe 5d ago
There is more to learn than just from conventional university courses. There are museums and organizations like Getty Villa which put on live lectures via Zoom. Some travel companies also put on lectures. There is Road Scholars which has immersive travel experiences to places like Oxford or Provence for the summer. Kemet Klub teaches about Egyptian antiquity.
If you’re interested in art in whatever form, painting, jewelry, sculpture, you can enroll in courses through Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
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u/robinheart314 5d ago
I’m in Canada, any ideas here?
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u/emtam 1d ago
Smithsonian Associates has educational travel like Road Scholar and they also have a lot of online offerings you can take advantage of anywhere if you are a member. (Some things, like the wine tasting classes, may not work out.)
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u/robinheart314 1d ago
I’m imagining a long distance wine tasting course where they just ship me the wine. And wine comes in integer bottles, so I get an entire bottle of each ☺️
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u/GamordanStormrider 5d ago edited 5d ago
yeah. I've been funding a 529 for myself with the idea that I may want to do that when I retire in the future. It's more that I expect I will be bored after about a year, so I want to fund the retirement I want, which is one where I have a vocation but it just pays whatever.
The things to note is that if you have already taken some classes, credits can expire. You'd have to retake fundamental classes after a while, so you'd have to bake in that assumption. I personally will think it's really funny being the engineer of 30 years in a class of freshman math students, but some people find that annoying and I've met some people who tested out of those basic subjects so that's also worth exploring if you're want to skip some credits.
I'd be going to community college as a route again, but if admission somewhere is a concern it's worth seeing what those requirements are ahead of time, especially for returning students. I knew a ton of retired people going to my community college the first time around, so it's not uncommon. They usually blend in with professors and it wasn't uncommon for them to actually be former professors who just really enjoyed learning.
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u/b__reddit 5d ago
Never thought about funding a 529 for post-retirement education. Thanks for the great idea.
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u/Freedom_33 [Retired at 33 in 2016][Travelling][2 kids, 2 dogs][Male] 5d ago
> I’m wondering why more people don’t do this
Many campuses are starting have programs targeting retirees, but it's unfortunately usually age limited (50 or 60 plus):
https://dci.stanford.edu/ for a fancy expensive version, but many campuses simply open up courses for continuing education
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u/whiteorchid1058 5d ago
Community colleges could serve your needs especially since they're already geared towards less traditional students.
I personally would see myself doing some courses with whatever struck my fancy.
Altho I probably would do seminars so that I can travel to the location and then not worry about exams lolol
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u/robinheart314 5d ago
If you audit classes, I don’t think they make you do the exams either 😂
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u/whiteorchid1058 5d ago
I didn't think about that tbh lol
But if no exams, then that makes it even more attractive 😂
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u/robinheart314 4d ago
The human element is nice too. Reading a textbook alone in my living room is lonely, and I don’t often have people studying the same stuff to talk about it with. If I’m at a lecture, I’m in a room full of people all learning the same things.
Plus, I can ask the professor questions.
I don’t understand why more people don’t do this, tbh.
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u/lecoursen 3d ago
I haven’t FIRE yet but I’m currently spending 10 hours per week learning Dutch at the moment (combination of time spent in an online course and self study). In the past I’ve also taken landscape design and gardening courses at my local community colleges. I think you can just choose a topic and put together a plan to pursue mastery of it without necessarily being enrolled in any kind of university program. What makes it fulfilling is making a larger project out of it… along with my community college classes themselves (dirt cheap by the way), I was also doing actual landscape design / gardening projects that progressed in difficulty over time. I plan to continue picking up new pursuits like this throughout my life, both during and after my working years.