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February 2017
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TOTAL SPENDING: $335
- * Food: $187
* Gas: $124
* Dating: $44
* Booze: $37
* Clothes: $26
* Misc. Entertainment: $17
* Sold old camera body: (-$100)
That was my lowest month of spending in many years. Next month may be a bit higher from buying some tea and bike parts.
Things are going well. I’ve been hanging out in Phoenix a lot, and have went on three trips out north of the city so far. I’ve been trying to find places to camp near the city and that are still at low altitude, (<3,000 feet, where there are still cacti and not a bunch of thickets like there are in some places around 3,500-5,500 feet). I haven’t had much success because the low altitude areas, which are close to the city, have a bunch of OHV areas (Loud ATVs, lots of people) and shooting areas (tons of shooting, and their trash all over most potential campsites). I’ve found some so-so areas but nothing great so far. After another month, it will probably be warm enough to just stay at the higher altitudes.
In another month or two I will have broken even from the big camera purchase last year.
Brother’s Semi-ERE
My brother is taking a semi-ere! He and his girlfriend both quit their jobs. He sold his house last year and now she’s selling hers. Together, they have about as much money as I do. They got nearly half of it from the profit of selling their houses. They have a camper trailer that they will live in for a while. They plan to travel around the country a while and then buy some land for a sort of homestead. He said at the rate they expect to spend, they could not work for 4 years and also buy property. So they expect to start working again within 4 or so years.
He was working for company the last 5 or so years. He’s good at what he does and he was soon promoted to manager. He cares a lot about his work and his employer, and he gets way too stressed out about work. He’s been wanting to transition away from management and back to the technical role. A huge benefit of him quitting is that he will probably switch back to work again, and that he could do it remotely. When he quit, he got a handful of job offers from other companies (and I expect his own old company may also let him do technical work remotely). I think he said he’s going to not work at all for a while to decompress. His type of work is not one where his skills will become outdated in 5 or 10 years.
The really cool part about all this is that we’re planning to meet up and camp/travel together for a while this year. That will probably happen in late spring or in the summer. I’m not sure how long we’ll be together. He has some rigid timeline events and he may want to drive around the country a lot faster than I do.
Other Family Updates
Another cool thing is that my step dad is expecting to get laid off in late spring, and while that in itself is not so cool, when it happens, my mom and him will hit the road in their RV, and would come meet up with my brother and I.
My mom and her husband have wanted to quit their stressful jobs for years now. I think they’ve been saving up over the last 5+ years. They’ve bought some rental properties and I think they make decent money from them. They’re on the spendthrift side, but they have high incomes. I don’t really know what their timelines look like, but they definitely want to retire soon and are making efforts to.
My sister and her husband seem to be getting closer to buying some land out in the PNW to make a homestead/compound/earthy-nature-hippy type place. They sold their house that they fixed up, and made some decent profit. I don’t know much about their plans because she’s always so busy between work and her kids that we don’t talk much, and her and her husband aren’t big planners.
My dad is looking at options to retire earlier. A few years ago he basically said he might have to work for the rest of his life. Now he’s looking at ways to retire at a normal age. He could make a nice profit from selling his house, and buy a house somewhere less expensive with just the profit. He’s looking at different areas to move, and it sounds like if he does that, he’d only have to work maybe 3-5 years more. He said he’ll get $1,500-$2,000 per month in Social Security, depending on when he starts it. I think he could start it at $1,500 within a year or two. Maybe by then he’ll decide he could just move to the cheaper house and retire immediately.
Camping with my brother and dad last summer:
So, all my immediate family want to or are trying to ~ERE or just retire soon. They all knew my plans for ERE starting at least 4 years ago. When I bought and started converting my van, that seemed to be the point they started thinking/planning/trying themselves, and now they’re taking a lot of action. I don’t know to what extent, but for sure some of the reason for this is seeing me retire. They all have told me that they have admiration/jealousy/etc. for me. It’s wonderful that they all seem to be channeling that into action and not resentment.
Maybe they all would’ve been doing these things anyways. I’m sure they’re happening sooner after seeing me lead by example, both from the timing, and from some of them specifically telling me so.