Frugality, a foreign concept in the modern middle kingdom

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Geophine
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2017 6:28 pm

Frugality, a foreign concept in the modern middle kingdom

Post by Geophine »

Hi all,

reading ERE inspired me to use it as an exit strategy. Having been raised by a true renaissance man, many of the DYI concepts feel very familiar to me, although I have to admit that I have let myself get influenced by my environment toward outsourcing everything way too much. So reading ERE was a great wake up call. Living as a foreigner in China it's easy to follow the standard expat style of living with regular visits to the nail salon, eating out every day, employing a so called Ayi (an auntie) to clean my way too big apartment, while taking the taxi for the 4km ride to the dreaded corporate job. Hence the title about frugality being a foreign concept here. :D
So after waking up from this insanity I'm now in the early stages of my escape. I started by looking for a flatmate to cut down rent, cleaning up after myself again, cooking my own food and taking the bike to work. Especially cooking my own food saves soooo much money. I spend now in a week what I used to spend in a day.

Furthermore, I now started to educate myself in investing. Since my money currently sits in a 0% interest bank account, I'm thinking there's a lot of growth potential there. But knowing little more than nothing about stocks and bonds etc, it'll need to stay there for a while until I feel comfortable to start investing.

I do strive for FIRE and according to my calculations I can achieve a modest FIRE with a 3%SWR in about 2 years. However, this being mostly motivated by the fact that I would like to escape the corporate world as fast as possible, I am struggling with my motivation at work. How did/do you guys kept motivated and productive in your jobs? As I am really struggling here, I'm grateful for any tips.

Really happy to have found this forum. Looking forward to some great conversations.

Have a great day everyone!
G.

Did
Posts: 693
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:50 am

Re: Frugality, a foreign concept in the modern middle kingdom

Post by Did »

Welcome
What sort of work do you do ?

Geophine
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2017 6:28 pm

Re: Frugality, a foreign concept in the modern middle kingdom

Post by Geophine »

Hi Did,
Thanks for your welcome. I'm an office worker. Mostly report writing, a little bit of research and data processing involved. Sometimes I do lobby work in policy making. That sort of thing.
L.

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

Re: Frugality, a foreign concept in the modern middle kingdom

Post by Eureka »

Geophine wrote:
Sun Jun 11, 2017 7:17 pm
I am struggling with my motivation at work. How did/do you guys kept motivated and productive in your jobs?
Hi Geophine, welcome to this forum. You seem to fit right in here.

To your question about staying motivated at work, I have these thoughts:

Consider your job the vehicle that will take you to FIRE. Don't identify with it, don't let it exhaust you. In other words, as most as possible just take the money and run. Don't give them your soul and don't care that you are not as productive as you could be under ideal circumstances.

As you still have another 2 long years to go, you should probably find another job for the variation. Maybe even in another location. Maybe there is a job where you can gain some nice new skills. Or a location that is a great pleasure to be in.

Best wishes,

Eureka

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Viktor K
Posts: 364
Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2016 9:45 pm

Re: Frugality, a foreign concept in the modern middle kingdom

Post by Viktor K »

Hello from a fellow foreigner :D

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

Re: Frugality, a foreign concept in the modern middle kingdom

Post by wolf »

Geophine wrote:
Sun Jun 11, 2017 7:17 pm
I do strive for FIRE and according to my calculations I can achieve a modest FIRE with a 3%SWR in about 2 years.
Hi G! Welcome.

Wow, quite impressive. That sounds promising. Keep on working for two more years and you can call yourself FI. Then you will have much more options, IMO.

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