It's been 12 years since graduation, and I just realized I have nothing much to show for it. Is this normal?

Idk where I’d be without my family. Probably in my hometown every weekend downing beers with the boys then I’d really have nothing to show for the last ten years. I think biologically your mind kind of bums you out if you’re not seeing your wild oats, some people are immune to it and others just party, travel, and drink to push past Mother Nature calling them out

Sounds like you have property so it's time to get into the ultimate hobby: gardening.

I'm serious too. Humanity started turning to agriculture almost 10,000 years ago, and surely used beneficial plants in the environment long before that. Every single culture has thousands of years of history on plant cultivation. If you're only halfway interested you will never run out of things to learn about, and the personal opportunities for you are endless. Rewild your yard, grow and preserve your own food without all the chemicals or poorly flavored seed varieties you see in the grocery store, make a pollinator garden, raise composting worms, volunteer and help your town restore a flood basin, etc. There will always be something to do.

Actually you can do a lot of the things you would want to do after winning the jackpot, now.
Not all at once but pick one and work on it.

1. If you want to fly planes, try to get knowledgeable what that involves. Maybe there is a glider club near by where you live. Don't give up before you even have started.

2. "Doing exciting things"
Of course I don't know what that means to you, but you can do exciting trips on the cheap to Central or South America if you live in the US. If you life in Europe that could be Asia or Africa.

3. You can do backpacking trips in the US. There are a lot of great wilderness areas to explore.

4. You can pick up a skill, doing woodworking or art.

And there are plenty more things to do. I just listed the stuff I did over my life time. 2-4 I am still doing without being wealthy.

Just get your butt out of the comfort zone and start doing something.

Try doing drugs.

It's time for you to train for the mile. Moran.

Looks like you are still single too, not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, at your age, income level, and net worth, (house), you need to be very careful in getting into relationships.

I trained for and gave the mile one last shot from 2021-2022 when the superspikes came out. I got to within 3.7 seconds of my PR on my best race, but it was discouraging to come up short despite the new shoe tech. Aging sucks.

Yeah, I'm single. I'm not actively looking to get into a relationship, but if I happen to come across someone by chance, I'm not ruling anything out. Similar interests, goals, and a compatible personality are a must, though.

Social media has probably made you think that every 21 year old is a dropshipping multimillionaire with a Bugatti and 10 girlfriends. Its all fake.

Youre doing great, and keep pushing.

I don't particularly care about expensive things. My car has over 100k miles, my house is 1100 sq. ft., and my computer, laptop, TV, and pretty much any non-phone electronic item is 6+ years old. I still wear my high school clothes fairly often.

The problem is that a lot of my interests require a good amount of money, and it competes with my goal of reaching financial independence ASAP. I'm not too interested in the "retire early" part of FIRE, but work should be something I want to do and not something I have to do.

Mountain guides are expensive (which you will need for safety on a technical climb like Capitol Peak). Buying and owning a horse is expensive. Renting houseboats is expensive. Flying lessons, plane rentals, and flying frequently enough to remain safe is definitely expensive.

And then there are those experiences which cost a ton even though you're not getting any material goods. Arctic cruises, South Pole expeditions, zero-gravity flights, and so on.

Maybe someday everyone will get a basic income for food, water, and shelter. People will still work, but only to fund their hobbies, luxury goods, and vacations. But that's a long way off, if ever.

Yeah, I'm just looking for perspective and wondering whether life is supposed to be mostly boring. I'm reading stories of people retiring at 30 to travel the world, and I'm thinking "WTF? What did I do wrong?"

cnbc.com

A 28-year-old who retired with $2.25 million shares the secret to saving

https://www.facebook.com/CNBC

How one millennial managed to stash away more than 70 percent of her income for seven years while living in NYC.

Link:www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/02/28-year-ol...

cnbc.com

How this couple retired in their early 30s and still travel the world

https://www.facebook.com/CNBC

Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung retired in their early 30s. They now live off $40,000 a year and spend their time traveling around the world.

Link:www.cnbc.com/select/how-couple-retired...

Most people's lives are just ordinary.

What did you expect? Did you think your life was going to be like a tv show with a different adventure every week?

Try not doing them.

why not find a nice girl to get married to and start a family. its very rewarding to raise kids and provides a purpose to going to work everyday.

why not look for a more exciting engaging job? start a business. You will be VERY occupied and not bored doing that. take some professional risk.

Get married. Have kids. Invest everything in them. Nothing can change that 99.9% of people are normal people. But having a family and making them happy will give you purpose and happiness. You are in the perfect position to do this.

I actually have quite a few business ideas and would probably start one if I had enough cash and wouldn't be homeless and starving if the business failed.

For example, a while back, I was driving through this place that had a ton of great scenic off-road trails and was thinking "why isn't there a Jeep rental place within a hundred miles of here? If I could afford the Jeeps, office rental, and insurance, I'd probably start one and get the side benefit of using this as a base for altitude training."

A lot of people that age are in debt, no savings, no investments, they have a line of credit on a vehicle, they're hoping or are already to run another line of credit on a house and they're either single or worse--stuck in a relationship they don't like with a kid or three who are annoying them and a nuisance financially.

That means if you're 30 and single, no debt, some money invested and saved up, you're already higher value to women of a man than most others who are stuck, have peaked past their prime or a mess already. Dont sell yourself short because you see outliers on Instagram capping up a storm.

Yes, life is mostly boring unless you make it interesting.

Or you can make it "interesting" by overcoming big obstacles.

I had a college friend who once told me life must be less boring for disabled people because they always had something to overcome. (And I thought, "why don't you make it less boring on your own?)