Hello from Cowtown

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distracted_at_work
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 am

Hello from Cowtown

Post by distracted_at_work »

Hi forum goers.

I've completed reading ERE the blog and ERE the book and I thoroughly enjoyed both (except the chapter with mathematical derivations! I thought I left those behind in school).

I'm 23 y.o engineer who, from my chosen username, gets frequently distracted at work. This has led me down a great many paths. It started with research into home-brewing gluten free beer to research into moving out of the parents basement (MMM Rent vs Buy) to taking off the training wheels with ERE. It has been quite a year.

My schooling was an exercise in efficiency (doing the minimum amount of work to achieve). [Edit: I loved school but filled my time with volunteering/student government/etc instead of pushing for higher grades. I was not a fan of the subject matter with the exception of my design courses.] Regardless, I now find myself gainfully employed. I have about three million ideas for what I want to do with my life and I was hoping to get some help on this forum distilling that down to a manageable number.

I also love talking investments. One thing I will thank the ERE forum with is giving me "permission" to go back to stock picking (as opposed to the universally acclaimed indexing). I currently only manage my CDN equity while leaving the rest of the world to the indexes as that is currently beyond my time/skill.

I'm sure no one wants to read my life story so I will leave it to other threads and perhaps a journal or a blog of my own (if I find the time at work :lol: ). Have a nice weekend fellow 9-5'ers.
Last edited by distracted_at_work on Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Hello from Cowtown

Post by TheRedHare »

Welcome man!

I'm also a recent college grad, 23 y/o with a distracted at work symptom at my 9-5. I can relate with the college deal. I was also one of those guys who manged to do well enough to skate by. I did really well my first few years, but then slowly started to hate school....but I love learning. It's a shame how schools kill off peoples desire to learn.
I get the "million different ideas" memo too. I changed my mind all through out college all the time. I was actually planning on being an accountant, but after my big 4 internship experience I was not into it at all. I instead decided to go back with what I was most skilled and most interested in....computers. I'm currently working at my former school for about a year until I can land a much better paying gig.
Although, you should pat yourself on the back for finding ERE...not many people understand the philosophy behind it all, and can't let go of their status quo, consumerist ways haha.

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: Hello from Cowtown

Post by thrifty++ »

Where is Cowtown? Is that Calgary?

distracted_at_work
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 am

Re: Hello from Cowtown

Post by distracted_at_work »

@TheRedHare. It really does kill that desire to learn. Before university I constantly read and went to library for fun / to learn but took a four year hiatus during university... How bizarre does that seem.

My good friend works at a big four now, I do not envy her. I have a sibling going down that path now, about to do his first internship. We will see how it goes. Good call going back for computers. You'll land those big $$ I'm sure and be able to practice geographical arbitrage one day.

@thrifty++. Yes :D

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Hello from Cowtown

Post by wolf »

Welcome "on board"!

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Hello from Cowtown

Post by TheRedHare »

distracted_at_work wrote:@TheRedHare. It really does kill that desire to learn. Before university I constantly read and went to library for fun / to learn but took a four year hiatus during university... How bizarre does that seem.

My good friend works at a big four now, I do not envy her. I have a sibling going down that path now, about to do his first internship. We will see how it goes. Good call going back for computers. You'll land those big $$ I'm sure and be able to practice geographical arbitrage one day.

@thrifty++. Yes :D
Yeah, some of my friends are sticking with the big four and I don't envy that crap at all haha. They do a really good job a luring people in and then once they think things are all good, they slam them with a ton of shitty hours. But some people like that.
We shall see about the $$ deal....I'm sticking with just making my money and eventually getting out or going else where. I haven't looked into geographical arbitrage; sounds like an interesting concept.

distracted_at_work
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 am

Re: Hello from Cowtown

Post by distracted_at_work »

If you have any interest in living in foreign lands to save money, you should look into it!

One of my lofty ideas is to get near 3% SWR (say 5% SWR) and then spend any number of years volunteering abroad (in exchange for room in board). Ideally, I could spend a couple hours on my portfolio as needed and let compounding take over while expenses were near zero.

If you could pull off working with computers abroad in a low cost-of-living country it would have a similar effect of super-charging your savings rate.

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