My then girlfriend (now wife) took the above picture of me around the same time I discovered ERE as a life philosophy, 4 years ago now. I made a commitment then that I would do whatever it took to retire early.
I've never really liked working, my cycle up to that point was to work for no more than 8 months, then quit and live off savings until I absolutely had to start working again. I started working full time 40 hour weeks at 14, and hated it. Once I got older I could tolerate those 40 hour weeks a little better, but for some reason I never got fully used to it like I think most people do.
Long story short, I cut expenses down to the bone, finding that I could scrape by on 26$/day. Still a pretty high burn rate compared to a lot of you, I know. Then I ratcheted up my "passive income" until it matched 26$/day. I tracked this carefully, and as soon as I hit my target, I pretty much halted my income-building efforts which up to that point was daily, consistent, for-profit blogging.
Anyway I've talked about this all before and my goal with this journal is not to talk about how I did it, but more what I do now to further reduce my reliance on money, and how I fill up 112 hours of free time every week.
For the last 6 months, a lot of it is filled up by this guy, who is a partial genetic copy of me. I'm a pretty lazy parent compared to other first-world parents, so I don't find being a dad hard at all. The fact that I can be home indefinitely has really really made things simple for us, we will never have to spend a dime on daycare, although the other new parents we know have had to put their babys on waiting lists already for a chance at having an open spot for when their children are 12 months old and they both will be working again. Then they will pay $1200 a month for the privilege of having someone else raise their kid. Honestly I don't know how anyone can afford to have kids in Vancouver unless one of the parents is at home. ERE makes it a breeze - seriously how can people say "you can never afford kids if you retire early!" Total bullshit.
Here's what I'm working on lately
Over the summer I've been learning to identify edible plants that live near me. When I find a large supply of something, I will geotag it using my best friend and constant exploring companion, a Moto G smart phone (without cell service.) Summer is drawing to a close though, so I've been shifting my focus to mushrooms. I've found a large supply of what I'm almost positive are "Shaggy Parasol" mushrooms, considered "choice" among mushroom hunters.
Mushrooms are a good food source, better than wild salad greens which are very prevalent in my region but not that nutritious. Once I've improved my competency to the point where I'm 100% comfortable knowing edibility, I may be able to supplement a noticeable amount of my diet with wild foods including mushrooms.
... not if I have $5 worth of must on the line.
