Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Life has been good this year. 2022 was hard on my psyche because I am long past the point where I can out-earn the volatility in my investment portfolio. In spite of that, I've been operating solidly between a 3% and 3.5% withdrawal rate and 76% savings rate for the past year without being too restr...

The past month has been quite pleasant. Work has been winding down quite a bit for the end of the year so I have been able to devote much of my energy to other interests. I've been continuing to try to justify my decision to continue working and in doing so have been consuming FIRE content from othe...

Kudos on the successful career pivot!

I'm learning that I don't seem to have the stomach for market volatility that I thought I did. My earnings from earned income this year are working out to be higher than they ever have before, but in spite of that, my net worth is still down 6.5% to date which is about 6 months worth of earned incom...

Lately, I have been torn, fully undecided and often brooding. I know that I have enough wealth to stop working, that is clear. My tax strategy post FI is optimal and robust. My ability to invest effectively is questionable. But my job is easy AF and I mean that. I am a master at figuring out how to ...

For the sake of laffs, I have decided to publish my 2021 expense report. Yes, it is that bad. Please don't ostracize me. Charitable giving: $117 Gifts: $155 Clothes: $179 Electronics: $234 Insurance: $323 Gambing losses: $340 Hobbies: $540 Gasoline: $932 Health insurance premiums: $1,197 Automotive ...

I've been revisiting my lifestyle design in detail and realize a desire to get back to the basics in terms of ERE philosophy. I have lived at Wheaton level 5 pretty much since I started pursuing ERE and I haven't made much progress in advancing to higher levels of self sufficiency. I have gained a l...

I was browsing the World Wide Web and randomly stumbled on the OG of FIRE.

https://www.alta.com/stories/remembering-farmer-dave

Sorry to hear about the troubles you had in Minneapolis, I'm glad you made it out safely. I've been largely ignoring current events to minimize stress, but I find it valuable to hear a personal testimony about what is going on in other parts of the country with respect to these particular issues.

@Mister Imperceptible - I passed on bitcoin too for the same reasons. I appreciate the encouragement and yes, if I bought a house I would 100% keep bees again! @RFS - Thanks for the book recommendation. Uncertainty often throws me into bouts of analysis paralysis from which I cannot escape. I don't ...

I’m grappling with the possibility that I might be incredibly stupid. I have always been too arrogant (not outwardly) to hold this belief, but my ruminations lately have brought to this point. Please critique my errant thoughts. I’m currently at approx 31 years of expenses saved and considering taki...

@shaz I appreciate you sharing your story. It sounds like what you are saying is that going full ERE now would, to some extent, be analogous to giving up and choosing to be defeated by the disease since it makes sense financially to stay employed even if you quickly go into remission. I don't have a...

I achieved a big personal goal this year by having a major surgery. That may sound like a strange goal, but it was necessary to avoid premature death due to a congenital heart issue. The surgery went exceptionally well and I am well on my way to making a full recovery. It took me several months of r...

Thanks for brining up effective altruism. I've never thought about that before.

I would love to have bees again as long as I can commit to being in one place for at least a full season. I left my beloved bees behind during my last move.

@wolf: Thank you for the kind compliment. I don't really have any long term plans at the moment, I would like to go snowboarding soon though. @basuragomi: In my opinion, the best disc is the one that you throw well. In other words, you can read all the stats and think up reasons why a disc will be g...

I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about foraging on here, but I hope you folks have at least done some experimenting with it. I have gotten extremely good at foraging mushrooms over the past few years, but I never felt like I could use that skill to offset my food spending in any meaningful way du...

A lot has changed in the past few months. I have been successfully living a lean, ERE lifestyle having cut out restaurants, caffeine, and peanut butter which were the last of my few remaining vices. I have also been doing hella burpees for physical fitness and reading and language learning for menta...

Since declaring myself ERE I have had much more thought bandwidth to ruminate about things besides personal finance which has been a central motivator for the past few years (I see this pattern on other forums as well). Even after a couple of months of rumination I have noticed a change in myself an...

At this point I have reached the point where i have 25 times expenses saved, but I don't want to rush into calling myself FIRE ready. There are only a few things keeping me working at this point. 1) Lack of vesting. I moved for my current job and was given a relocation package that I will need to re...