Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Love love love this thread. We are big into mushroom foraging and wild edible plants. Located in Australia so slightly different varieties and quite different climate... I'm located in Australia too, and super keen to do some foraging, but have no idea where to start! Do you have any tips on resour...

...Will the next generations be as interested in them as the previous? Will they have the available cash that the Boomers have? When the Boomers die will there be a glut in the market? It's an interesting idea that the next generation simply may not care about waches or art, or have the money to ca...

My grandfather died a year ago and my grandmother asked if I wanted "some watches" that he had bought. Having a vague interest in watches I said yes, and was delivered a plastic bag full. All of them were fake except for one, a Tudor Submariner. In the process of determining which were fak...

I've recently heard about nickel-iron batteries, which you may want to look into if you are planning to store energy. I don't know if the hype is to be believed, but they seem to have extremely long lifespans and tolerate all sorts of abuse. The main downsides are their weight and bulk, but this is ...

I sometimes feel this is my only response to many of life's questions but... Have you considered rock climbing as a sport? It may be a good fit for you. It's a physically involved activity with good mix of sexes; it also appeals to a group of people who are (generally) environmentally conscious, and...

Really fascinating post on how to build a traditional town with pattern design and good community in mind from Wrath of Gnon (Twitter). https://wrathofgnon.substack.com/p/how-to-build-a-small-town-in-texas I really enjoy a lot of Wrathofgnon's posts, and he certainly has been pivotal in shaping my ...

For me, the MacOsX app SelfControl. Add websites, set a timer, click start. You can't access those websites for the duration of the timer. At all. I don't even think uninstalling the app allows you access to them. I've got mine set for a week with all the common culprits of time wasting, which means...

Thank you for your journal Ellarose24. Your writing is very insightful and concise. Your comment about poems leaving a slight smile made me think of the haiku's of Issa (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19825794-issa-s-best). Rich, poignant, so very human. Reading them fills me with life: on the ...

Welcome to the forum! Your journey to FI sounds like it will be rewarding, and I am glad to hear you enjoy your work. I think enjoying your job makes becoming FI that much easier, because there is less pressure to just "get through it". I am also a doctor, but living in Australia. I would ...

As an update to my own digital minimalism attempts: I recently moved my gaming PC to my parents house to avoid the temptation to use it. I had planned on engaging more in outdoor hobbies and socialising. I would see friends, work more on my weight lifting, improve my bike fitness, get back into boul...

After my recent burst of enthusiasm, I fell back into existing habits. Today I was playing Diablo 2, which I have done for probably ~10 hours this weekend (!), when my hardcore character died. Of course I play hardcore with this possibility in mind, but every time a character dies I wonder: what has...

I have been reading ERE forums more often, and feeling more weighed down, heavy and leaden with thoughts of improving efficiency, decreasing environmental impact, quitting my job faster, being better! It's sapping me. This is not a criticism of the content or fascinating people who write here. It is...

5.6 tonnes here. I'm not sure I agree with the calculations though. The website puts gas usage for me at 2.2 tonnes, being the largest contributor, but all I use gas for is cooking- no water or space heating. I suspect it's overestimating based on that? Neat calculator anyway. It'd be cool to have s...

Reading this thread is like crack to me.
"What is that thing? What does it do? Why is it shaped like that? What's inside there? Why did they put a screw right here? What does that purple thing do? Why isn't the hair dryer working!?" -- my constant internal monologue.

wow! this was unexpected. but congrats for getting it to work on first try. It may be a function of Austrralia having expensive groceries. A litre of soymilk here is ~$2. i look forward to reading your log/future updates on this subject. very encouraging. so encouraging i might in fact get my soybe...

...The physical and psychological combine and arise all at once, which results in an experience which is intensely unpleasant - swimming in one's own shame and self-hatred in addition to the joy of white knuckling. Solving the "I hate exercise" problem isn't as simple as "Well, why d...

I wanted to chime in and thank you for your perspective AE. I've been reading your journals for a while and often feel the little cogs whirring in my head as a result. I especially liked your post a while ago about climate change being, in many ways, an inevitable outcome of society as it stands, so...

I made soymilk just the other day! I was frustrated and upset to learn (a while ago now) that tetrapacks aren't recyclable, despite the recycling symbol being present on the packs. As soy is the only milk I drink I was throwing out 1-2 of these containers a week, which I decided to change. I followe...

@analyticalengine @ellarose24 Thank you both for that exchange, I found it valuable. Hearing that others find the exposure to 'doom' (climate change etc.) to be depressing on this forum is a good perspective. Thinking about climate change or collapse gets me down, and I don't know how to deal with t...

I know we’d argue “my time is worth more to me than that!” but when I think about it now as an old retired guy I realize I can never buy back my youth. As a young professional I used to say this kind of thing, but since reading about FIRE and ERE my thoughts have changed. Even without the monetary ...