Hi from Kara.

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kara
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2020 4:30 pm

Hi from Kara.

Post by kara »

Hello,

I found the early retirement extreme website about a week ago and have since been devouring the book (not finished yet). I've been making my own personal "textbook" as I go along, writing notes/personal application as I go along.

I decided to go ahead and post an intro here before I know what I'm doing and have it all flushed out (rare for me--overthinking/planning is huge) so that I can journal about and get feedback on my progress as I go along.

A little about me and my situation...
I'm 24 years old, finished college last year in August with no debt, and have recently (for the past month and a half) been battling with some health problems. I'm recovering quickly and should be all good to go back to work soon, if all goes as planned.

I work part-time as a self-employed traveling massage therapist/bodyworker/somatic movement teacher for people and horses. My income is variable and I honestly prefer my work schedule to be variable too. I'm looking forward to adding in other streams of income through craftsmanship, artistic, and animal-care type endeavors... I'll have to explore what I can implement sooner rather than later, most of those ideas are still swimming in my head.

Recently I've been doing a bit of a life-overhaul, getting rid of all the shit that doesn't work and bringing in things that do. I was already following minimalism, slow living, somatic "ease" concepts, The Artist's Way, and Katy Bowman/Nutritious Movement concepts, so ERE/FI is a nice next step--bringing similar concepts into the financial realm of things. I'm excited to share with the community as I go along and will be making a journal after this intro post. I'm always happy for feedback/advice/questions but reserve the right to respectfully not follow or not answer.

In the past the things I've spent the most money on have been horses, education/travel (usually those go together), and vehicle/gas expenses. I'll share more details in my journal, but these are the things that I'll be trying to creatively redesign in my personal ERE plan.

I look forward to sharing and learning with all of you!
--Kara

slowtraveler
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:06 pm

Re: Hi from Kara.

Post by slowtraveler »

That's really cool about somatic work on horses. I never knew about that.

Congratulations on no debt. Starting at 0 is light years beyond starting in the negative.

I've been where you are-the minimalism, tracking all my expenses, even writing a ton in my ERE book in the 3 deep reads I did through it. It also felt like a culmination of many paths of mine to find this.

It adds a huge amount of freedom of you keep to it for 5-10 years. You'll have rock bottom expenses, a large asset base, a lifestyle that you enjoy, and the freedom to shift your energies into your dreams over your long life.

Have you done anything about passive investing? If you're just getting started, I'd vouch strongly for the Wellesley fund with Vanguard until you figure out the rest. It's relatively stable and has had solid outperformance for decades now. Indexing also has a likelihood of having good returns but the volatility and activities of some companies may not mesh with you.

kara
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2020 4:30 pm

Re: Hi from Kara.

Post by kara »

I know absolutely nothing about investing, but thank you for the recommendation! I will have to look into it. That is a huge area I need to learn more about so any suggestions are welcomed.

I do have about $5000 in vehicle debt, which I plan to pay off soon, but thank goodness no student loans.

Thank you for the encouragement!

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Hi from Kara.

Post by wolf »

Hi Kara. Welcome.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2118
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
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Re: Hi from Kara.

Post by AxelHeyst »

Welcome! I’m looking forward to following your progress and insights.

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