Design your perfect post ERE life

[LiquidSapphire]

I was wondering - if you had NO limitations to speak of - how would you design your post ERE life?

Where would you live? What countries and cities in those countries? One location or multiple?
Who would you live with?
Would you rent or buy?
Would you have a car?
What would you do with your time?
What would you eat?
How much would this life of yours cost each month in your estimate?

Curious to see what people say... I am working out some of these answers myself and I am sure there is some insight here.

[stand@desk]

With no limitations? It almost sounds like if you won the lottery what would you do with your life..

But if it were an ERE based lifestyle design, it would be to mostly keep doing what we are doing now..

-My wife and I would continue to pursue our running lifestyle, possibly enter more race events
-Raise our daughter and if ERE is significantly secured I'd be open to having more children, possibly up to 3.
-Enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy eating, my wife loves to cook.
-Enjoy occasional family visits like we do now
-Keep enjoying the ERE Forums
-Possibly inflate our home dwelling, to a larger condo (we currently rent a 2bd apt) and have a small office or workout room within said dwelling
-buy a newer vehicle

So basically we would mostly keep doing what we are now except more of it and inflate the vehicle and home dwelling slightly..sounds pretty boring but it is what I envision what we would/will do. This lifestyle would cost us maybe $500 more a month perhaps? Very rough estimate.

[IlliniDave]

Cabin in the Northwoods for summer residence, and a winter residence near family. I think I can do it on an average of about $3,300 a month assuming the real estate is paid for. Not very exciting or romantic, but it's what I would like. Summers I'd spend exploring the wilderness and lonely spots, winters I'd spend keeping warm, visiting with family, and cycling through hobby pursuits. Simple food mostly.

[LiquidSapphire]

won the lottery... no... but I don't think anyone here needs to to have what they want.

I should answer my own questions too it occurred to me.

Where: Denver USA - that's where my family is.
Who: A significant other but barring that, don't mind chilling with my cat and a good friend/roommate
Renting/buying: I would ideally have a small plot of land with a SFR on it (to rent out) and a tiny house in the backyard or some multi family housing (duplex, triplex, etc). Live in one unit, rent the rest.
Car: Not if I can help it.
Time: Work a little, read, goof off on the internet, go to the gym and/or learn a martial art, see a friend or a few, cook something, possibly volunteer somewhere if something interests me, I don't need to lead a complicated existence. At some point once my cat passes I'd explore the Peace Corps and later fostering for the animal shelters.
eat: I eat a mostly plant based diet and so should be able to keep food costs quite low actually - I haven't tracked recently but should be able to manage about $100-150 without any strain per month and definitely tons of fat to cut here.

Cost - Housing is the bit outlier but on top of housing, say $600 to cover other needs like utilities, transportation costs, food, entertainment, incidentals and a buffer zone - but the house will run you probably $300k. So an easy half mil to buy into this life

[7Wannabe5]

I would live on my permaculture camper site in the city with summer sojourn to someplace cooler and greener on the water, and winter sojourn to someplace new.

All by myself with frequent guests and maybe a dog.

I bought the land and camper. I would likely rent/borrow/barter on my sojourns.

No, except for occasional use of zipcar or similar.

Make a solar food dehydrator, dig a garden bed, volunteer for ecology task force, teach kids, go on scavenger walk, bike to the river, read 19th century novels, dance around the kitchen, babble on internet forums, take unfair advantage of a variety of grouchy old men.

Whatever I grow in my garden, a few items from the ethnic market, a few items from the dollar store, and whatever treats the grouchy old men want to give me.

If I get a bit braver and better organized and I don't get busted for living in my camper, my lifestyle will only cost me less than $2500/year. My current plan A for not getting busted for living in my camper is that I will move it to the back of the lot behind a fence, and I will teach English-as-a-second-language and serve tea under my awning to the neighborhood ladies in order to inspire goodwill. If that doesn't work, I have plans B,C, D and E.

[TopHatFox]

Let's see, I'm working toward developing the skills to build a small (20x20) home base above the 40 degree line that is not only built using permaculture design principles and can be rented as I travel, but that is also only a mile or two from a bustling and progressive community center.

Then I'd go on long adventures around the world--all mountain peaks, large US trails, off-trail environmental activism feats eventually-- with people like Alistair Humphreys, Ken Ilgunas (The Spartan Student), and, haha, theanimal. Should be great.

Finances would mostly take care of themselves in diversified index funds with a large buffer; I likely would only spend a couple thousand on these feats per year so the house would likely pay for my annual expenses anyway--barring accidents (which I would obviously try my best to mitigate and prepare for).

[sky]

I am pretty much where I want to be. I have a visa and right to live in D-land or USA and where I live now is about the best place I have seen.

I live in Michigan, about one mile from Lake Michigan in a small town. My wife and I have a moderate sized house which we own no debt. We have turned the yard into a garden of paradise, some food, mostly flowers and patio. We live within walking distance of excellent grocery stores, Meijers, Wal Mart, Menards, hospital and health care services. There are public parks, public beaches, a downtown with restaurants and bars all about a mile away from our home. There are two excellent bike paths that I use for cardio training. One goes into the countryside and to natural areas and is a tunnel of trees. The other goes to a beach south of town. I don't worry about money anymore, I don't buy much and we save ahead of time for big expenses like property taxes, insurance and emergency repairs. We live on about $3,300 a month, which is more than we need. A little over 2 Jacob per person and we live very well and save money for emergencies, although house maintenance can eat up savings quick. Income source is pensions and savings/investments. We have two old cars, paid for. We have a camper van and plan to spend most of winter in Arizona and California because I am tired of the snow. We generally find free camping and don't spend huge amounts of money while camping. My wife is a meat and potatoes type cook and a good one. I try to cook some vegetarian meals which I believe are healthy. We also go out for burgers, tacos, shawarma and pizza now and then. My main focus at the moment is on health related exercise. As you get older it is important to do both cardio and strength training to be able to continue to be active and live a "normal" life. So two to three hours of each day is spent on exercise. For example, today I did one hour of stretching and bodyweight exercises, and two hours of bicycling. I am not yet where I want to be with fitness, but doing much much better than when I sat at a desk all day. Note that the exercise costs essentially nothing. I also have a number of fascination activities (hobbies) such as a vertical hydroponic outdoor tomato garden which I invented and built out of scrap stuff in my garage. I am building other stuff at the moment, like a ham radio antenna. I have designed a low cost foamie trailer which could be used to live in full time if I lost my house and money and had to live well on almost nothing. I am taking a free online course in computer science (Harvard CS50), which has been an interest of mine for a long time but I never had formal training. My wife enjoys car rides through the countryside so we do that quite often, trying to find new, beautiful places. I have a modest online business that I started mainly to learn how it is done. I have a couple of raspberry pis that I use for various things, mainly to experiment with. I have some ideas for other businesses but am very careful about avoiding major time commitments. I am a board member in a local environmental advocacy group. We will be visiting friends for a while. I try to avoid buying toys, although I may get a kayak. At the moment, I spend very little on hobbies or personal items, maybe $50 to $100 a month on bits and pieces to build things and some computer stuff. I have been ERE since November so it doesn't take long to fill your time with interesting things to do. It is wonderful to wake up and decide what you are going to do today. The only limit is your imagination.

[SimpleLife]

Hookers and blow...

[KevinW]

Off-the-beaten path California town with a cool micro-climate. Something like San Luis Obispo or Morro Bay.

Live with DW and a couple dogs. Good friends are in town.

Own a small stick-built single-level house with a backyard, large garage, but no front yard. Passive climate control and big solar panels on the roof, so net energy self sufficient. Kitchen garden and productive fruit trees in the backyard, so self-sufficient on climate-appropriate staples. Well-equipped workshop in the garage.

Electric car for occasional errands, trickle charged from the panels since errands are occasional. A throwaway bicycle and couple fine ones. A vintage sports car, maintained in the workshop, for fun. (I'm a gearhead, and DW insists on a car in case of dog emergencies.)

Spend time puttering around maintaining everything. Regular thrift store runs. Participate in online communities. Listen to podcasts. Play outdated video games. Open source coding. Write. Play D&D. Teach hands-on skills a couple hours a week, like cooking or bike repair, to stay connected to the local meatspace community.

Eat the same thing as now, mostly batch-cooked from staples, as described in the ERE wiki ( http://earlyretirementextreme.com/wiki/ ... _and_sales ). Some staples come from the garden (e.g. herbs, canned tomatoes, citrus, pickles).

I'd guess $2k/month for everyone, including amortizing maintenance and replacements. And there's a lot of capital tied up in real estate and durables. We're more ER than ERE.

[wood]

No limitations, time to dream.

I basically made it big as a real estate mogul and retired at 37 in 2022 with millions of dollars. (A year in my) life after that:

Some months/year in Norway, my home country. Small apartment near family and old friends where I grew up, not far from the capitol, and an apartment in a different city where most of my current local network is located. Spend most of the time trying out different jobs every year and spend time with family/friends/local community. Life is busy, social and productive. I have friends/aqcuintances who run their own businesses and I am involved in them at some level. No one knows I made it "big" and they are really thankful for my efforts and help.

Most months/year somewhere in East Africa in an owned, huge, secure and safe estate with large forest/jungle, lake and farmland. Partly state of the art, partly undeveloped and ripe for upgrades and development. Some 30-50 people find labor and living space here, including wife and her closest family. The children here love me. The women too. Future retirement home when age takes its toll on me. Animal shelter/preservation. Best boxing club in the world with previous legends hired as coaches. Everything is food/energy/money self sufficient. I learn how to run every operation, but the place makes enough money to hire others to do what I don't have time/energy for. Fair proximity to trains, harbour and airport for travel adventures. Fair proximity to public and private services. I'm the go to guy in my local community. Random celebrities from different fields occasionally visit just to hang out and get some holiday far from paparazzis and the like. Every day has a number of different agendas for different people, and I get to choose which one to participate in. I change between "holiday/relaxation mode" and "productive mode" depending on how I feel. There's lots that can be done by me, but nothing that must be done by me. I occasionally run into people I know and I also get all the alone time I need.

A few weeks/year travelling to exciting new locations meeting people I would otherwise not meet.

I bought shares in Arsenal FC so I have a say in who gets hired as manager. Every year they come to my estate for training camp and fun.
They cured diabetes so I have no health issues. I'm currently working on my boxing game and sparring with Pacman and Mayweather who retired a couple years ago. I do ok in most sports and have access to the best of the best in every field.
People like me for my big heart, sense of humour and loving/respecting character, and there is curiosity/mystery as to who I am and my deeper motivations. Yet the people closest to me know everything about me worth knowing.
I experience pain from time to time but nothing life threatening. Just the occasional sunburn, bruises from sports and some social confrontation. Enough to keep me happy, alert and alive.

I have no idea about the cost. I imagine money would be made from most activities and a alot of the stuff I engage in would be serviced by other people because I service them.

[SustainableHappiness]

1 Trailer + Truck (cheaper on Gas + Insurance) for slow travel as desired (particularly in cold Canadian winter months to warmer climates)
Rented condo that fits children and wife but very little stuff
1 Wife
4 children
Part-time teaching at a local college (currently doing this, aiming to switch to virtual teaching to provide mobility)
Lots of reading
1 free or nearly free course (currently costs $20 each) in various trades (auto mechanics, wood-working, etc.) through part-time teaching gig per semester
Lots of unstructured time with family
Rigorous exercise ("going anaerobic") 3 or 4 times a week, interspersed with play exercise and lifestyle activity (currently doing)
1 hour of meditation/classical wisdom literature each morning (currently at 30-40 minutes)
Lots of friends and family dinners/lunches visiting

Total Cost = ~$3000 per month primarily going towards rent and food
Sustained through income from part-time teaching and investment drawdowns

[GandK]

I asked G this last night after dinner and a very predictable N/S "ships passing in the night" conversation ensued. My answers about an ideal life were largely conceptual (balance, community, contemplation), which sounded unmeasurable and therefore invalid to him. His were very specific and concrete (you, the kids, a camper); these sounded like ways of getting at an underlying need but not identifying the actual need to me. Each of us felt like the other hadn't really answered the question. The conversation ended with an argument about whether it's even possible to build a life that's mutually satisfying.

Thank you for the fight. We were overdue.

[Ego]

The conversation ended with an argument about whether it's even possible to build a life that's mutually satisfying.

Thank you for the fight. We were overdue.

Hah! Made me laugh out loud.

On our honeymoon we met a British couple free-camping in a campervan perched on a cliff overlooking a beautiful stretch of sea in Southern Portugal. The husband was in his element, fishing in the morning, beach in the afternoon, drinking incredibly good, incredibly cheap Portuguese wine in the evenings. The wife was grumpy. She was a member of a very active craft club back in the UK and wanted to be home with her friends. So she sat making sock bunnies (literally) and counted the days until they returned. One day the exasperated husband showed us the back of their van which was overflowing with sock bunnies.

Mrs. Ego is more adventurous than me. Every so often she'll propose some big adventure and I'll hem and haw. That's when she says, "Okay, you can stay home and make sock bunnies."

Finding mutually satisfying activities is an ongoing challenge. Just when you think you've got it, someone starts pursuing a new interest. Ugh.

[jacob]

Finding mutually satisfying activities is an ongoing challenge. Just when you think you've got it, someone starts pursuing a new interest. Ugh.

Many years ago, we decided that not doing everything together was preferable to jamming square pegs into round holes. Bringing hubby along to a restaurant or a superhero movie is no fun if he's just going to sit around moping until it's finally over. Likewise, bringing wifey along on a death march/ride in the desert is no fun if she wants to turn around after 2 miles.

[jennypenny]

Aside from living with my husband fulltime and maybe spending more time on the water, I'm pretty happy with the way my life is set up right now and wouldn't change much. There are things I'd like to try, but I could be happy with things just the way they are. And as jacob mentioned, part of the reason DH (INTJ) and I (INTp) function well together is that we are apart every week and as a result have developed different interests and get plenty of 'alone' time.

@jacob--Deadpool might change your mind about superhero movies.

[Ego]

Finding mutually satisfying activities is an ongoing challenge. Just when you think you've got it, someone starts pursuing a new interest. Ugh.

Many years ago, we decided that not doing everything together was preferable to jamming square pegs into round holes. Bringing hubby along to a restaurant or a superhero movie is no fun if he's just going to sit around moping until it's finally over. Likewise, bringing wifey along on a death march/ride in the desert is no fun if she wants to turn around after 2 miles.

Yeah, I guess we think of it sort of like a cooperation or coalition game. There are times when it is not exactly optimal for both of us, but the payoff that we are playing the game together more than compensates for the times when we're not getting to do exactly what we want to do. Sometimes the biggest payoffs come when we finesse a solution to the square peg round hole problem. That finessing is a skill that can be practiced and improved.

[George the original one]

Fishing, gardening, beachcombing, internet, simracing, living in a climate that suits spouse & myself (nice 72F high on a sunny July day and cooling down for the evening), have the tools & supplies to build stuff when I'm so inclined, cooking good food, very few neighbors, retired... I pretty much have the life I want.

In a scenario with no limits, I'd probably fish more of Oregon (travel), have a moderate fishing boat, pay for better internet, and do some real racing (more travel). However, I recognize that there are tradeoffs, like real racing takes away from fishing time and travel takes away from everything else and these desires require more money which means I'd have to be employed, so the balance I currently have is good.

[EdithKeeler]

MIne would involve a beach, sort of secluded but close enough to "civilization" to go to town occasionally. Daily walks on beach, meals with seafood I catch myself, supplemented with home grown garden veggies and fruit. Reading. Periodic travel--domestic and abroad. I love car trips, so lots of those. Learn Spanish, take art classes, work on my novel.... just do whatever I damn well please, when I damn well please.

[cmonkey]

For at least the first year or two, my post FIRE life will consist of mostly -

1. Being in my garden. DW and I have a love of British gardening styles/design and it's something we work on together a lot.
2. Reading/Researching whatever I'm interested in at any given moment. I used to read textbooks like other people read fiction/novels. I also used to have an interest in AI and will likely get back into it, which dovetails into item 3.
3. Eventually build my own personal Stark lab in my garage, complete with my own Jarvis.

Beyond that I haven't thought much but some travel is probably in our cards after we raise a couple kids...probably also during.

[enigmaT120]

Working/playing in my woods. Not too many hours per day. Long bicycle camping trips in the coast range logging roads when want a break.

Those industrial forest land owner bastards have already closed their lands in my area to all public entry (even walk in) until the end of fire season! Too many wasted days off this spring when I should have been exploring and mapping my Oregon Coast Range Crest route.

Well, not to mention the wasted days spent at my job!