This just hit me thought it might be useful to you. When I had just got divorced and the ex wife hadn't yet gone even more barking mad, I used to have a week off to myself. A whole week, whereas for the past 10 years I had nary a day off. Initially I felt very, very lonely. Of course, I was working out, dating. But occasionally the loneliness would hit like a bag of bricks to my face. Especially since most of my friends were getting married when I got divorced (lol). I eventually stumbled upon meetup.com and joined pretty much everything that interested me. Astronomy, tech, trading, hiking, etc. It was a great way to meet people. I even met a woman to date at the astronomy meetup, if you can believe it. Eventually you begin to see the same people over and over and you make new friends. The solution to loneliness is people, not hobbies or activities. Humans need to connect. BTW if you are feeling it, there is a good chance your wife feels it too.
My cynical self would suggest good whiskey helps, but alcoholism is a likely outcome. Once confined to one's mind it's difficult to hear others; everything is exhausting. Meeting people, forgiveness, compassion... it helps getting out of the hole. And like others have said, becoming active helping others is an escape to self absorbed depression.
Loads of interesting thoughts! The human element is unsurprisingly a recurrent theme. The fact that I find my neighbours boring is a pain but will need to figure out how to socialise more.
It is interesting than no one has suggested a prop desk, hedge fund hotel, multimanager structures, etc... as a way to connect with other like minded individuals. This tells me that the answer is not necessarly AUM growth and institutionalisation.
before covid I used to volunteer at the Miami rescue mission. Super rewarding and it gave me purpose outside of ME. out of the 300 or so people we would feed on Sunday's, 250 would be drug addicts, about 30 mentally ill cases but then there were the 10-15 people who were just like me but something drastic happened in their lives. Those were the people that I saw I could help most and it was the most rewarding feeling.
Honestly I don't personally find it rewarding to help people stay in their current circumstances. I want to help people trying to get out and help them do it. No judgement on you but for me more money is the answer. From helping students to parents this is what motivates me and I hope that at the end of my life to have made a real difference to others. That looks a lot like copious greed until it happens though lol.