Early Retirement Extreme Forums

+1 to the observation that Ramit Sethi and WFH have changed the landscape. I basically never hear about frugality now. It's more about making a lot of money to just go buy whatever your priorities are. I think it's the fact frugality doesn't sell nearly as well in the new, image-drive social media ...

Mid-Month Update
I've been trying to lean into the Orange/Achiever mindset lately because I feel like I still have lessons to learn at this level, and learning I certainly am. I'm realizing I've let my schedule get pretty chaotic/unplanned, and this is seriously impacting my ability to get work ...

October Wrap-Up
I definitely overdid it this month with the ~15 hours per week of classes, but those are mercifully ending in November. The reason I took so many is that I wanted to force myself out of the house so I'd stop stewing on all my problems, and they did help with that. Being so busy ...

@shaz - That's an interesting approach. I'll have to give it a try. Do you remember the titles of any that you'd recommend?

This group is still open and looking for new members, so if anyone else is interested, send me a DM!

We've started doing bimonthly writing prompts, personal weekly updates, as well as general discussion of the craft.

I wanted to update this topic with a few lessons I learned from the language classes.

One, the instructor mixed in physical movement and jestures when she introduced vocab, and then had us repeat the movement. This was surprisingly helpful. Getting up and doing a silly gesture while repeating the ...

Thanks everyone, that all makes sense. I suppose really there are a number of ways to model any given activity, so drawing these out is itself an act of potentially reframing the problem.

On the topic of depression, one of the symptoms is getting stuck in the same loop of emotional reasoning such ...

Thanks for the clarification. I think where I was getting confused was I keep trying to drag too many abstract or emotional things into the reverse fish bone when the reverse fish bones are better when kept more concrete and prioritized. And also because there are infinitely many potential 1st and ...

Is there a good way to capture opportunity cost when making these? I'm realizing one of the main negatives I keep assigning to activities like work are "opportunity cost" or "consumes mental energy," etc. But also, opportunity cost is a sort of abstract concept because it depends on what you'd be ...

That's also a good point, and I feel like that could apply to more than just internet use. Like it's also a good framework for spending money or doing anything else deemed "bad." I do find it's important to avoid moralizing habits because otherwise it's too easy to become extremely critical of ...

What's the 10/10/10 rule? I don't recall that one.

Regardless, @okumurahata, as someone also in my early 30s, I feel like this mental state you're describing is very relatable, to the point I'd almost call it a life stage. It's like your 30s come with enough experience that you can finally ...

DO EEEEEETTTTT :twisted:


Don't tempt me! :lol: I already have this fantasy of quitting and moving to the lower-cost-of-living Grand Junction and opening a meadery. :lol: :lol:

@dustBowl, @AxelHeyst - You both have some good points here the internet. I do agree it's a struggle because there ...

You all have convinced me, I will continue with the navel gazing. :lol: The thing I do want to add that I feel would be more helpful is getting really specific about my goals, and then reporting them here as a sort of accountability device and also to get feedback. An example is losing weight. "Lose ...

Inner work update
I feel I have made some significant breakthroughs with some inner work lately. My practice has become:

1. Avoid the entire internet and streaming podcasts so I have to actually experience my own life.
2. Get depressed.
3. Journal about being sad about 2k+ words a day.
4. Spend ...

Agreed that I wish it was easier to make it clear when you don't want to be hit on. In my case, I dress like I'm someone's mother and act roughly like Andrew Jackson personality-wise, and still get hit on by men all the time. It also makes finding friends difficult because I can't always tell if a ...

@J+G - That's the conclusion I'm coming too as well. I've just been driving around and trying new things for a year and a half now--which has been a critical step in overcoming some internal limitations--but I think I've reached the limits of my outer lifestyle at this point. I feel like holding out ...

I'd suggest looking at the MMM HQ on Google Maps if you want to see some pictures. It's pretty cool. It seems like it's attracting more interest with time, as I was reading that a local book shop has recently moved their events there too.

@berrytwo - I think the MMM HQ is a strong possibility for ...

Never occurred to me to go directly for the jugular and pick a specific building. This is great and likely the way to go.


From my experience with it, it's been a huge boon for the FIRE community in Longmont. The building is already there, the community is already there, so it's extremely easy ...

@ertyu - Volunteering to teach ESL does hit a lot of goals, so I think it's worth a shot. Even if I am over-committed, it's important to keep trying things because finding solutions will let me drop other activities.

I do know there's a person in my Russian class who is planning on moving to ...

@Therapy discussion - It's useful to keep in mind therapy is incredibly broad and what one hopes to get out from it often depends on individual circumstances. For people who grew up in dysfunctional environments, they often never learned the skills required to have healthy connections with other ...