Early Retirement Extreme Forums

That's a really good question, and I don't really know the answer. I *think* I would want to buy my own place, because the premium of legacy rent would be gone, but I don't know in what area or how luxurious. But I would want it to be something that I would be happy living in long term (even after ...

I feel like an update is in order.

I am at a point where I think that I have experimented enough with my lifestyle and expenses to know what I really need (or want) in my lifestyle. I bought a car again, as I calculated that with all the stuff I am doing, I would spend up to 10 hours per week in ...

@crusader I have downloaded fongo and am willing to give it a try. Just have to purchase the text add-on which is still reasonable. Will I get messages and voicemails if someone calls me while I am not in range of wifi?


I don't pay anything for Fongo. As I said before, this is my setup ...

$26 is the budget plan for where I live. I can go with something cheaper like fongo, but then I'm paying out the nose for all the data I would use calling

Fongo works with any Internet connection, including WiFi.

I am in Canada, and I pay <$5 per month for my phone.

I use a prepaid SIM from SpeakOut ($1.25/month if you don't use it):
https://www.speakout7eleven.ca/deal
And I only use it to receive SMS messages for free (and in an emergency).

For data, I use an eSIM:
https://esimdb.com

And when I have to ...

Well, hello ERE world again!

I think that an update is in order, and I need to collect my thoughts about 2024 in general. 2024 has been a very eventful year for me:
-> travel: San Diego (work conference... very nice of them to send me), Serbia, Montenegro (visited my family's cottage after many ...

sodatrain wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 23, 2024 3:44 pm

Wow, how do you know your schedule so well so far in advance?!

My 20 days of yearly vacation are precious, so I make sure to plan out everything well in advance!

I wasn't making any assumptions as to where the fest will be next year

I think Axel described it pretty well. I had fun and it was great to hang out with non-conventional people into ERE. The one thing that would like to mention is that if/when this happens again in 2025, there are some weekends that would work better for me than others... in order of preference ...

My current roommate/platonic entanglement seems to be pretty successful at being an online "psychologist" to various people she meets in her travels (she is currently a digital nomad). But she has superb people's skills and everyone (especially guys) instantly likes her.

For something more ...

I am just going home after EREFest 2024, and I think that an update is in order. I've eased a bit on my "live super frugally" requirement, and now my metric is "do I regret making this purchase in the grand scheme of things or not?". For example, I took an Uber to the airport for EREFest because the ...

Technical IT manager here. Western Red Cedar's advice is good. I just came to say that there is a lot of luck involved in everyone's success. Yes, if you are the best at what you do, you will get what you want, but you also have to be at the right place at the right time. Networking with people and ...

Month 1/12 (successfully) done. (of my "<4% SWR" year)

Well well well, the first month has passed. I plan to post here once per month so that I have some continuity, unlike before. July has been as good as it gets in terms of spending, I am pretty happy about that. I forced myself to never ever eat ...

Hello there ERE hive mind.

It's been a while. I thought that an update is in order. 2024 so far has been good:
-> I enjoy not having a car and taking public transport. I miss it sometimes when going to out of town trips with friends, but so far I haven't had a need to even rent one.
-> I got better ...

Hi drummer, and welcome to the forum. I relate to some of the stuff you said about volunteer (and art/music) work being more meaningful than paid work. But anyway, regarding trauma... I came here to say that this book (recommended to me by a therapist) has helped me more than anything else when I ...

+1

These days I mostly lurk on the forum, but this inspired me to come out of the woodwork (and hopefully start posting again soon) and say that I find value in your non-ERE related posts and struggles. It makes me either feel more "normal" if I relate or "puts me in check" with my own (easy by ...

I couldn't make it work with my work days off and travel plans, so I am sadly out. EREFest is the only thing that I have in the "ERE meetup budget" for this year.

Sorry, I made a mistake… for 4 core days, what makes sense would be Saturday + Sunday + ((Thursday + Friday) OR (Monday + Tuesday))

Given the public transport schedule (Kern Transit - won't mention the exact days/bus number to prevent doxxing), what works best depends on how many core days there will be:
2 days -> Saturday + Sunday
3-4 days -> Saturday + Sunday + Monday and/or Friday (and as you said, Friday would probably be ...

Just wanted to say that if the core days end up being extended to 5-7 days, for us working folk, it makes sense to reserve a whole week so that we can come, for example, on Saturday, and leave the next Sunday, so that we can only take 5 days off. If it doesn't get stretched out, then having the core ...