Do you live a life of leisure?

I cannot imagine a life of leisure without a wife and kids…so yes.

No. I have a 7 hour work day and an hour lunch plus an hour commute each way. I wish I could afford a life of leisure.

Yes, I do. I enjoyed all 43 years of my professions and I remember being dragged away from the last while kicking and screaming. My body, they said, was no longer reliable to do the real work I loved. Ha. I could still cycle one hundred miles in a day, I could press over 200lbs comfortably, I could go without a night’s sleep at full speed and my mind was still 100%. But my medical record stated otherwise, so I had to take a desk position or go. I became despondent for a time as for the first time in my life I felt unnecessary.

So, one day I went sailing. I went sailing and I never came back. I sailed mostly alone for a couple years to islands and other continents. And today I’m doing precisely what I want to do on somebody else’s ranch with my horse and dogs and my boat in the harbor below waiting for the odd charter. It turned out alright. I’m necessary to the animals on this land. They’re good people and we get along well.

And now I’m no longer nostalgic when I think about all those Sunday evenings spent in mild anxiety, prepping for all those Mondays when I would have to face over 100 urgent emails from various authorities much higher than I, see patients—the best part of my day—then spend my afternoons in documentation and case management meetings. And suddenly, out of the blue, I would get a call to fly off to some flood, hurricane or earthquake disaster zone—which was the very best part of all. That was what I worked for. The ultimate bus-man’s holiday.

I am no longer leashed to a cell phone, or a computer console and nobody makes urgent demands upon me. It’s strange how we, kicking and screaming, must discipline ourselves in our early years to the workday grind and then 40 years later we kick and scream when we get the gold watch. It’s all so unnatural, but we learn to love it. It becomes our identity. And when the time comes, we are as lost as sheep dogs without sheep.

Since I retired earlier this year I have lived a life of leisure and it seems I have never been more busy but I love it.

Sounds impossible. How will you make ends meet?

I work. I would be bored with myself if I didn’t work.

I work, but my weekends and nights are mine. I can do whatever I want when I want.

My life is similar to @Espiritus_Corvus at this time.
I really loved my prior work and enjoyed a lot of years of semi-leisure working in a creative field where I might work three 14 hour days and make enough to live on the rest of the month along with splitting commissions with my ex biz. partner.
Times were high, until the recession destroyed it all.
Now I am living on a 12 acre horse property as a pet and house sitter and personal asst. to a very busy lady who travels a lot.

I have a good amount of down time and then blocks of being uber busy but it balances out and I am quite content to enjoy all the down time I get.
I am completely done with the great “out there” at almost 57 now. No thanks, I’m going for the alternative lifestyle and while I won’t deny I miss my former life, this is the next best thing. No pressure, no demands, work at my leisure, lots of appreciation for what I do, peace, a beautiful environment.

Similar here to @Coloma and @Espiritus_Corvus. In the past I worked very hard for leisure, ironic really? Now, I can sleep when I wish, eat when I want to. I’m not sure it is that good for me though!