Greeting Fellow Travellers!

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Agni
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 9:00 am

Greeting Fellow Travellers!

Post by Agni »

Hi all,

I'm a 26 year old male about to finish my masters on the east coast and start working in Seattle soon. I wanted to introduce myself on the forum before I start my journal in June.

I don't remember how exactly I found Jacob's ERE blog but after a long hiatus from reading books during my undergrad, I stumbled across a quick succession of mind-changing authors/book/blogs including Jacob's ERE blog(and book). And thank god I did! They really helped crystallize and give direction to my work-life plans. I've been following the blog and this forum ever since.

A little of my life story is outlined below. After my undergrad, I worked at a research institute for a while and realized that it wasn't for me. Moved to the hills, explored the tech scene back in India and found it to be an immensely rewarding experience. I was barely earning enough to sustain myself but I found an awesome community of really interesting people working in tech, art, education etc and living frugally in farms/villages/cities around the world. Seeing actual people living this nomadish lifestyle(and trying it out myself) was really inspiring! It gave me further motivation and confidence in wanting to avoid/minimize the 9-5 grind.

I was initially against pursuing my master's degree when my acceptance letter came due to the high associated costs. But a more thorough analysis(and a scholarship), showed that this could actually make the possibility of achieving FI, practical and fast. It was still somewhat of a risk going in but the plan thankfully hasn't backfired.

The current plan is to work for 3 years, achieve FI, then decide which path to follow be it continuing to do the same thing, roaming the world, going back or trying something else.

I know that over the next few years it is very possible that I may loose some of my original enthusiasm and get lulled into the stability black-hole. :( To counter this I've made a bet, which are very strong motivators for me, that caps my working at the same job/location to 5 years or else...*distant thunder and ominous background music*...I buy a friend 'the most expensive absinthe available at that time' :shock: . As a further motivation I get to sail to my destination of choice in the friend's (planned) boat if I win the bet! :D

The journal is to work as my (much needed) anchor to ERE/FI principles, as mostly everyone around me is skeptical, dismissive of such 'extreme' measures/ideas. Without it, drowning myself in the sea of consumption would be very easy. I'll describe my financial situation once I start the journal.

I hope to not confine myself to a cubicle for longer than I have to while there exist so many interesting people, places and things to explore out there. And I know what a privilege being able to even think this is. Thanks to all of you for showing me this way. Hope to keep following all your engaging life stories.
Last edited by Agni on Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

James_0011
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2016 12:00 am

Re: Greeting Fellow Travellers!

Post by James_0011 »

Nice, just out of curiosity what field are you in where you only need three years of work to reach FI?

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Agni
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 9:00 am

Re: Greeting Fellow Travellers!

Post by Agni »

@James_0011: I've done computer science and l'll be working in the software industry. I'll only get an idea of my expenses once I move to Seattle but they pay pretty well and I'm not averse to geoarbitrage opportunities like moving back to India. I hope I'm not being too unrealistic :?

James_0011
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2016 12:00 am

Re: Greeting Fellow Travellers!

Post by James_0011 »

oh, Im a product manager in tech and Im starting at 65k out of undergrad. On the high end product people can make like 200k, but the average for an experienced person is like 130k. I expect to work like ten years, but we'll see. Im hoping to take advantage of geoarbitrage opportunities too, remote work in product is becoming more and more common.

If you plan on going back to india three years might work idk. I was thinking about doing a similar thing with moving to Mexico or south east asia after I save some money up.

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Agni
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 9:00 am

Re: Greeting Fellow Travellers!

Post by Agni »

Nice! I did not know there were remote work opportunities for PM roles. I'm going to be working as a software developer. The pay ranges from 80k to 200k(before taxes, with bonus(es)) for new cs grads. And yeah doing remote work is definitely something I'd like to explore once I'm FI. I know a few people who do consulting/freelance software work but you need to gain some street cred for that or know people to get decent work.

Does the 10 year timeline exist even if you decide to move to a cheaper country ?

Eureka
Posts: 340
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2016 11:03 am

Re: Greeting Fellow Travellers!

Post by Eureka »

Welcome to! I love your plan of only working for 3 years, or max 5 if everything goes wrong.
Happy sails!

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Agni
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 9:00 am

Re: Greeting Fellow Travellers!

Post by Agni »

@Eureka: Thanks, Its great to be finally active on the forum! Yeah, that's the plan but I'll need the journal and the community to stick to it.

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