Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Jumbled Update:

Been reading 10/10 book that uses systems theory for understanding the mind. The book is called No Bad Parts and the framework is called Internal Family Systems. It is Plotkin Wild Mind meets Donella Meadows (he regularly quotes her). IFS views the mind as a complex, adaptive ...

Anyone know any other books that helped understanding?


Wisdom of the Enneagram is my favorite. I like the spiritual development aspect of enneagram a lot. Reading the 5 and 6 chapter is super interesting, very forums coded. Makes sense that most people on the forums are 5, want to be 5's, or ...

I find that housework and other maintenance activities actually engage and consume a good deal of masculine "killer" energy. For example, weeding a garden. It can even infinitely extend to maintenance and improvement of one's own body.



Actually, just got some gardening things just this last ...

Thanks so much AH! I appreciate the well wishes. I am free!!! Still trying to name exactly what I need for this next chapter. I am looking for rejuvenation for sure. I learned some big lessons during this experiment, and I think that is the next step is really getting clear on what those lessons are ...

I quit…

A cute on paper job turned into my own personal hell. I was becoming rapidly more and more miserable. I kept trying to convince myself that I would feel better, that I just needed to push through.

Last night I put in my two week notice and I feel a huge weight off my shoulders, kind of. I ...

Thanks Grundo! I asked my chat gpt how it thought I would describe teaching in a sentence. The response: 1) teaching feels like co-navigating a river: sometimes paddling, sometimes floating, (I would add or drowning lol), always attuned to the current of the group. On second try: teaching is about ...

-An awareness of FI and the underlying math
-A desire for financial independence
-Rejection of a fast-track mentality to FI
-An unconventional career/work history, or at least being okay with one
-Reliance on other forms of capital beyond the monetary system (especially social capital)
-A ...

I have been reflecting a lot looking at the semi-ERE thread. Am I already Semi-ERE’d? I wonder if the state of one’s mind can go through a shift from whip to carrot through a continuum. Something like completely controlled by money to semi-ERE to the total lack of whip with FI (if your mind allows ...

Got an E-bike!

Thanks to bicycle7, I got a $2200 ebike for $100!

It was used as a loaner bike from the shop that he had worked at. My dear mechanic has worked on all of the electric pieces of the bike and knows it inside and out. It has an almost new battery and only has a few hundred miles on it ...

I "accidentally" did a BNY between 2020-2021. It wasn't intentional in the sense that I wasn't planning on doing it. I broke my BNY in 2021 when I went to go buy a bathing-suit for a job and calculated that my last new purchase had been over a year before (besides basic toiletries, food, coffee). I ...

Crow baring for me has worked well when it is an identity shift and not just discipline. My heart or mind needs to be a hundred percent on board and convinced with the vision I am creating. If deep down I don't think it's possible or that I am doing something out of deprivation, then cracks start to ...

Thanks OOTB! Honestly that was exactly what I needed.

This resonates a lot from what was written:
“Many people embark on their quests in part to say goodbye to an outgrown identity… The idea is not to say “good riddance” to what you don’t like about your life. Rather, you will be honoring the ...

February Update:

Here are some random projects I am working on and how they are going!

DIY Vision Fast:
This project is mostly just a seed of an idea, but having fun starting to imagine it. I have backpacked a lot in my life and each time has been a spiritual experience of some sort. One of the ...

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with your Uncle and Dad. I was really moved hearing about both relationships, the different forms of grief, and the love you have for your son.

Artist’s Way

This book is up there for me in books that have most changed my life. I am in my 2 wanna be 4 era and freaking loving it. The basic concept is exploring your blocked creativity through a 12 week course where you have daily and weekly tasks. I do my pages, which are 3 pages of unedited ...

Visualization: If a WoG is a 3dimensional closed topological surface with internal geometry undulating through time (think like a big watery blob except it also has intricate internal structures), then a list of my goals is like a picture someone took of it at a particular time and from a ...

Thanks @WRC and @calamityjane it has been fun to follow both of your journeys this year as well!

@CalamityJane Do you mean the quarterly goal setting? If so, I for sure recommend! I have written about it before but doing a "ceremony" with each quarter has been really fun for me. I also make a ...

2024 Reflection
Been reflecting on the past year and the goals that I had set for myself. I switched from the beginning of the year setting year long goals to moving towards quarterly ones, but still finding it interesting to look back on.

I made various goals focused on these themes last year ...

I appreciate you Grundo, both for bringing this to the forum and for being the facilitator. I noticed what you described as well. I really enjoy discussions and meeting with everyone in our group. I like the idea of meeting again in the Spring. I could imagine rejoining a group #3 at some point as ...

Yay AH!! The book is Earth-side. I deeply enjoyed hearing AH in my head as I read. The graphics and level of headiness were just right in my opinion. I think the concepts that ERE has were translated so well. I wish I could have had this book a few years ago myself!