Hello from Chicago

[Dave]

Hello!

I have been following this blog and forum community for 1.5 years and finally decided to start actively participating. I wanted to say thank you to Jacob and the many posters on this forum. I have been autodidactic for a number of years, but this blog and community have pushed me much further (financially and intellectually) and given me a strong sense of direction, and I am grateful to everyone for that. I now look forward to contributing and participating in the community. Anyways, onward to my story.

My name is Dave and I am 25. I am an accountant by training, having studied accounting/management/finance in college, going onward to work in public accounting, achieving my CPA license last year, and now transitioning my old job into a remote arrangement whereby I work from home (my employer is great).

Sometime during my early 20s I started to exhibit minimalist tendencies. I think the movie Fight Club might have spawned this. I also read Rich Dad Poor Dad, which for me caused a paradigm shift in how I viewed money. While reading a number of other personal finance books, I began to plan for retirement in my early 40s, convinced this was possible. For a while, I continued down this path until I stumbled across the ERE blog 2 summers ago. While I was already doing a number of things correctly, ERE opened my eyes and created a change (in kind) in how I viewed personal finance (in retrospect the previous changes I had made were changes in degree). No longer did I need to worry about buying a fuel-efficient car, shopping at Sam’s Club, and having “cheap” hobbies; instead I would move closer to work and sell my car, eat staples in order to spend next to nothing on food (Warrior Diet also helps here!), and find free hobbies. It all just clicked, and none of it has felt like a sacrifice, as I see the bigger picture of what I am gaining (time and energy) compared to what I am losing (stuff and expensive experiences). ERE crystalized and synthesized a lot of the ideas floating around my head and put it all together for me, and gave me the framework needed to make my finances much leaner. My retirement target dropped from early 40s to early 30s (it would be <=29 if not for my DF, but she is worth it).

So here I am today. I am excited to join the ERE community and interact with like-minded individuals – I have not had the pleasure of knowing many people with similar goals/personality (another INTJ here) to me. I am going to start a journal (viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5895) where I lay out my financial and nonfinancial goals, if anyone is interested in following. And, if anyone would like to meet up sometime in Chicago, please let me know – I would love to meet some fellow ERE’rs.

-Dave

[chicagorants]

Thanks for sharing, good to meet you. I'm also 25 and in Chicago. Im normally a lurker on these types of sites, but like you I think this site benefits from engagement.
I was turned on to ERE from a comment on Mr. Money Mustache, another site I started following after I started my first 'career' job. Starting in the professional workforce at 24 i feel like it was a late start, so hoping to use ERE for tips on playing catch up!
Both being in Chicago, you open to meeting up sometime? Im on the far north side, send me a message man!
-Andrew

[chicagorants]

My friend! Are you in Chicago yet? Because I haven't been as active on the forums as I would have liked, I'm not able to reply to your PM.

Mind sending me your email address?

[Dave]

Haha, funny how that worked out - when I wrote this post I was in Chicago and planning to stay, but I ended up coming back to Indianapolis for the spring for a few reasons. I move to Chicago July 1. I will message you my email address.

[inchicago]

Just adding myself here as another Chicagoan. I also read the Rich Dad Poor Dad books (all of them; even his wife's) and they realized opened my eyes to what I was doing wrong. Then I started coming across these types of forums/communities and realized all of these people who were making their dreams come true. I want to be one of them! I'm cool with potentially meeting up to share ideas and just meet folks in the city who don't feel they need to go to a fancy small plate restaurant, followed by a bar hop, and later wonder where their $150 went to that night.

[jay]

Looks like a Meetup group for "Financial Freedom through Frugal Living" just started up in Chicago and there is a meetup next Sunday (7/12) to discuss the MMM blog. If anyone from this site wants to join in, I'd be interested to meet you and talk about ERE!

http://www.meetup.com/Financial-Freedom ... 223241200/