m741's ERE Journal

[frihet]

Eat the cake and keep it afterwards. Sounds great!

[jennypenny]

So in the end you got everything you wanted--time to travel and a better job. Congrats! You deserve it after the year you've had.

[m741]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and also the congratulations
Here's a rough summary of my planned trip: Road Trip 2013
It's abridged; I'm stopping at plenty of parks that wouldn't fit on the map (Sequoia, Zion, King's Canyon, Rocky Mountain, a few others). I'm planning to leave in early July; I'll be in Colorado at the end of July/early August, hitting California in September, and Seattle the beginning of October. If anyone is interested in meeting up, or has suggestions for detours along the way, let me know.
I negotiated a start at the new job in the beginning of November and turned in my resignation yesterday. It's a huge relief not having to worry about any of the numerous headaches at work anymore. I'm really excited about the trip, and also looking forward to starting some totally new work. Turns out a buddy of mine is actually working in the same building for a different company, so that's fortuitous (provided he doesn't move, of course...)

[George the original one]

Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland: http://www.osfashland.org/
Crater Lake, dude! Either the 2 hour detour off I-5 just to see it. Or plan a day so that you arrive early enough to take the first boat ride out to Wizard Island, stay there until a later boat takes you back (make sure you can get the different boat back, though). It's also worth taking a fishing pole to the dock and Wizard Island.
Oregon has the largest collection of covered bridges in the West and one of the largest in the nation, most within range of I-5. http://www.oregon.com/covered_bridges.
And then there are the waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge within 30 minutes of Portland. Most are short walks, but a few can be hour long hikes; your choice as to your schedule.

[spoonman]

Congrats! And thank you for sharing your experience. You have demonstrated that it’s worth pursuing a change in your working life. It’s easy to get paralyzed into inaction by all the possible options on front of us.

[m741]

June 2013 Summar

June was a huge month for me. It's crazy how fast things can happen. At the start of the month I had just completed an interview for a new job, feeling confident but not great about it. A month later, I've quit my job of 5 years, have 4 months of travel coming up, and that new job to look forward to (and I do look forward to it!)

Let's get the finances out of the way. Due to the brutal stock market performance this month I basically treaded water for the third straight month, with my net worth staying static. That's kinda demoralizing, but at the same time, it has no impact on my day-to-day life so it's an abstract concern. June was a banner month for dividends however - my biggest month except for the fluke December 2012 dividend panic month (where all the companies issued huge dividends to pay less in 2013). There's not much else to say - I'm not tracking my spending, but I *will* be tracking expenses for my trip, for those who are curious... including myself.

My plans have started to crystalize for the trip (here's a map): I'm planning on leaving between July 10 & 15, traveling until October 10-15. Susswein here on the forum had the smart idea of reversing the trip order, which makes total sense. I'd been in a rush to get to Utah and so had foolishly structured my trip the other way around, but by reversing things I'll have good weather in the Pacific Northwest and more temperate weather in Utah. After the trip I'm thinking about doing a 1.5-2 week Europe trip, hitting up Iceland for 3-4 days and 1-2 other countries (maybe Belgium/Luxembourg - I'd like to see Gent & Brugge). Suggestions welcomed - but I've gotten a good feel for Germany & the Netherlands already so will probably be leaving those off this time around.

While traveling I'm gonna have a few projects. I'd like to get in better shape so I'll be doing a ton of hiking, but maybe also some jogging and calisthenics. I'd also like to do some more serious writing - just focusing on trying to become a more engaging writer. I have this fantasy of doing a ~150 page book about my trip, but that could just be crazy talk. I'm also planning on doing some coding; a random suggestion of a colleague led me to investigate Haskell and I quite like it as a language. I kinda want to write a compiler on the trip but my internet/electric access will be intermittant so that may prove difficult. I'd also like to sharpen my harmonica skills - a hobby I'd put to the side while living in a city apartment. Finally I'd like to continue my effort to be more outgoing (Which has paid dividends already); campgrounds, group hikes, etc offer a good opportunity to meet and talk with people.

@George TOO - I'll add Crater Lake to the agenda. I'm also actually planning on going down the Oregon coast on 101, it just wasn't worth tweaking the routes on my map.

As for right now, I'm 3 days into my 'vacation.' I have a lot of paperwork to get through, a car to buy, and other things to put in order. It's been far from relaxing but I've been able to get a lot of reading done so far, which is good because I have a huge reading list to work through!

[DutchGirl]

Brugge is really nice, I haven't been to Gent. However, if you're here in Northern Europe in October or so, you might encounter some bad weather (rain, cold). Perhaps Southern Europe can guarantee better weather (a bit of sun, less rain, less cold). Look up average temperatures and rainfall online. However, no guarantees, last week was very cold and very wet here, even though June/July is supposed to be sunnier and warm.

Enjoy your holiday!

[workathome]

Don't get down on the market, remember returns tend to be lumpy rather than a perfect periodic increase.

[dot_com_vet]

@m741, I like your summer trip! Are you driving?

[sshawnn]

wrt to your writing....

I dictate a lot of notes to "Notes" on my iPhone. I usually leave them in rough draft format not going back and correcting the dictation errors. I find that usually the notes fill in key points that I dont always remember later. It has been great for personal journaling but as I go through them I find it could be the basis for some great writing, be it blog posts, a memoir etc.

It may be a great way to save notes for your 150 page book on your trip!

[Sere]

Hi m741, I'm a new poster on the ERE forum, but have really benefited from reading your journal and your blogs which I've been reading for a while. Just wanted to say thank you for sharing (I'm starting your skill-a-weeks now and just made your vegetarian chilli tonight!) and congratulations on all you have achieved especially in trying circumstances. You are an inspiration. All the very best for your upcoming trip!

[m741]

@Sere -

Thanks for the comment!

@all -

I have intermittent internet (and electricity) access. I'll have a bit more access for the next week as I'm staying in one place. If you're a long-time member or we've conversed in the past, and you want to follow along with me, respond back and I'll send you the address of my personal blog (which I've been keeping for friends and family). I'm leery about too publicly mixing my personal and ERE stuff. I don't have time enough to write up a separate ERE blog and posting all the photos has been really time-intensive.

Rest assured that I'm learning a lot and will have plenty to post when I have full-time electricity/internet access in October.

[DutchGirl]

Hurray, an update... Allbeit a small one

I take it that you're okay and that you're having a lot of fun. Good! Enjoy!

[m741]

Well, I figured I might as well put up some notes, start of August.

As I mentioned, I quit my job on June 28. A month later I had driven across the country and was hiking on Mt Rainier, having purchased a car. I spent almost nothing ($100?) on supplies, most of what I'm using I either owned already, or was borrowed from my father, who has a ton of camping supplies.

The biggest surprise so far has been how much healthier I've been. Getting away from the desk I was chained to for 5 years, I've been hiking, with a target of at least 10 miles per day in parks and cities. And I've been pretty consistent about that (except I'm taking a break for a week from travel in general, out here in Washington). In the past 3 weeks or so, I've lost between 10 and 15 pounds and feel a lot healthier. I'm at about the same weight as when I left college 5 years ago. Hopefully I'll be in even better shape soon. This alone has almost made me feel like a new person.

Having a van I can camp in makes a huge difference. I've slept in rest areas and Wal-Marts a few times already; when I visit people who I know, I can camp in the van and use their shower/wi-fi, without feeling like I'm imposing on them. All of this has saved me a few hundred in expenses, probably.

The limiting factors for camping, for me, are lack of internet, electricity and showers. Some campgrounds have showers, and some have hookups. I can't charge my laptop in the car, it draws too much power. I think if I had a smartphone with an attached keyboard I'd solve the first two problems (I mostly just want to check some tour info online, email, and post to my personal blog). I can go a week or so without showering before my hair gets kinda nasty.

I don't like driving much, anymore. I guess I never did, but now I get a little nervous driving around. I'm nervous about the mechanical state of the car, too, always wondering if it'll work. This has been the most unpleasant part of the trip.

Overall the trip is more expensive than I thought. Campgrounds can be pricey ($10-$25 - the $25 is pretty ridiculous). Hotels are more expensive than I remembered (~$90, I've stayed at 2). I eat out much more than normal, in particular because I didn't have a very good camping stove to start with (though I do now). I'm not worried about the expense, just noting that it is higher than I would have expected.

I'm having a good time overall and really glad I've taken this trip. I'm happy with the amount of planning I put into it (rather minimal) because I like exploring as I go along. I'm also really happy about my job situation. I'm not returning to the same job, so there's none of that psychological resistance to finishing the trip. And I'm excited about the new job I'll start, so I have that to look forward to.

[slimicy]

The limiting factors for camping, for me, are lack of internet, electricity and showers. Some campgrounds have showers, and some have hookups. I can't charge my laptop in the car, it draws too much power. I think if I had a smartphone with an attached keyboard I'd solve the first two problems (I mostly just want to check some tour info online, email, and post to my personal blog). I can go a week or so without showering before my hair gets kinda nasty.

I had a friend who lived out of his van while doing IT contracting work. He solved these three issues by getting a non-contract cell phone that allowed tethering for Internet, installing solar panels on the top of his van for electricity, and joining Planet Fitness for showers in most major areas.

[jennypenny]

The limiting factors for camping, for me, are lack of internet, electricity and showers...I can go a week or so without showering before my hair gets kinda nasty.

Lose the hair, then all you need is a bucket of water and some soap

Glad you're having a good time.

[spoonman]

I'm very happy for you! Sounds like you're having an awesome time exploring the country.

[m741]

I had a funny ERE experience today. I worked in finance before switching jobs and had to have my brokerage account at the company I worked for (so they could keep tabs on me). When I left the company, I had to transfer all the securities to a different company because they have these accounts only for employees and super high net-worth individuals.

I chose Vanguard, because I already have mutual funds there. I called their hotline and explained that I'd opened a brokerage account but the assets hadn't been transferred yet. They pulled up my info and the woman on the phone asked "how much were you going to transfer?"

I said "Oh, about 400 thousand," and there was a pause on the other end of the line. I had to repeat myself. Immediately the woman said, "hold on, let me transfer you to our concierge service." Boy, what service!

I've also noticed some strange looks when I go to the bank, because I've been holding a lot of my assets in cash and I believe the teller can see the balance when they pull up my account.

[dot_com_vet]

I've also noticed some strange looks when I go to the bank, because I've been holding a lot of my assets in cash and I believe the teller can see the balance when they pull up my account.

Small banks are fun like this. I remember getting a small lecture about the minimum balance when opening my account. Then I told them the amount. I received a "thank you for your business" card from the bank president that week.

[palmera]

^^ha. I had a similar experience, but reversed. many moons ago, i was in $3k's worth of overdraft and maxed out credit cards. when the teller pulled up my account, he nudged his coworker who was next to him within view of the monitor, pointed, and smirked.

if i had any dignity left at that point i would have lost the rest of it there, but i was financially at rock bottom and thought to myself "i deserve to be mocked so openly" and just sighed.

funnily enough, at that same bank, 3 years later, i had some sort of appoint with the branch manager, and after reviewing some stuff he said to me: you're not doing pretty okay for someone for your age, eh?