Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I got interested in FIRE/ERE because I’ve known since I was a child that I hate repetitive tasks, crave novelty, and have very bursty energy, which doesn’t go well with stable long term employment. I like the anti consumerist ethos. I also think there is an interesting assortment of perspectives ...

@7w5 We definitely knew quite a few people in UU churches in Boston, and every once a while tried prodding my spouse that we should check it out. Sadly it’s not really a thing out here in Ireland.

Religion is such a powerful social technology that I sometimes lament there’s nothing quite like it for secular humanists like myself to produce the same sort of community, shared purpose, and social coordination. Sure there are modern values like Science and Democracy. Maybe the Academy comes close ...

There are e-ink smartphones and tablets. Look up the BigMe HiBreak Pro, HiSense A9, or Boox Palma.

If passed (I think there’s a good chance this gets dropped before passing through the Senate), I would expect big capital outflows from foreign companies. Less demand for US stocks leading to potential multiples contractions bringing US equities down more in line with Euro/Asian valuations.

It usually does not matter where your funds are, as you pay taxes based on complicated taxation treaties between countries, which usually make your primary residence one of the deciding factors (and not where the money resides). Did you look into that?

Yes, I've talked to both US and Irish tax ...

Selling Our Home

We decided to sell our home back in Boston. We've retained an agent and should, fingers crossed, have it off our portfolio by the end of summer. What I've learned from the experience:

Financial impact of homeownership. Despite the low interest rate, price appreciation, and ...

Insofar as I am trying to reduce screen time, it’s usually in an attempt to (1) focus more or my toddler or (2) stop pumping low quality media to my brain (“adjust my feed”). For example if I notice podcasts on my feed are becoming less information dense (i.e. am I pausing less to ruminate on points ...

I’m not interested in debating politics— both for forum rules and my own preferences— but I think being circumspect about our reasons for moving has made my journal confusing and unclear.

So, to clarify: We did not come to Ireland for Ireland, we came to escape the political situation in the US ...

Going Through the Motions

I’ve been at my new job a bit longer than a month. Things are going well enough. The company is about ten years behind the times so it’s very easy to make a big impact. My manager has already started talking about putting me on a path to Senior Staff in 1-2 years. Which ...

It seems pretty clear to me that the main drivers are pretty much the same as reduced fertility, i.e. fewer in real life interactions in the digital age (fewer meet cutes and fewer accidental babies) and high costs associated with settling down step with long term partner (read: houses are too ...

2. One boyfriend from 14-21 then my current spouse for the last 10+ years.

The biggest thing we left behind are the people. My in laws are all in Massachusetts. My best friend and her family, as well as my spouse’s best friend and his family, were all walking distance. We had an extensive network of friends and acquaintances in the area. We knew our neighbors, our city ...

Sorry to hear about the job. Fingers crossed the universe has something better for you waiting on the other side of this tumult!

The New Job

Started at my new job. It's... fine. My employer reminds me a lot of my job-before-last. The company is very poorly managed, but is able to skate by based on its brand. Growth has been stagnant for years, but it's profitable, so there's no existential imperative to change anything ...

The marketing term for this phenomenon is “affordable luxury.” It is a conscious effort by companies to appeal to people who feel like they are unable to afford “real” markers of wealth (e.g. a house, retirement) or the expensive alternative to a good (e.g. bespoke wood furniture, etc.) and to ...

My plan is gradually transfer assets to our only child during the usual big life events (e.g. pay for college, assist with down payment if necessary, first kid, etc.). Wealth inequality is stark and growing, and I expect that an inheritance is pretty much the only way for our child to maintain the ...

https://www.atlantafed.org/-/media/Images/cqer/research/gdpnow/gdpnow-forecast-evolution.gif

This is bizarre. It seems to be real and not fake news. ???


To add to the animal’s post above, gold imports in particular have significantly skewed the Atlanta GDPNow tracker. Excluding gold you are ...

I read and listen to financial news because I’m generally interested in it, but I don’t find it particularly helpful in selecting investments? For what it’s worth, most have free podcasts that will cover the big headlines with surface commentary.

I've been considering how to use LLMs to extend our operational capacity at newest employer. I think we are alllllmost at the point where hallucinations are infrequent enough for LLM agents to be useful in production for narrow tasks (i.e. structured decision making on unstructured data).

What ...