Playing the Waiting Game

[LiquidSapphire]

I, and many others, have posted before that in the pursuit of ERE, there is a frenzied period of time where you make lots of life changes, decreasing your monthly expenses as much as possible. However, at some point, there is only so much you can cut, and then the rest of the journey toward Quit Day is basically just... waiting. I have come to think of it as Playing the Waiting Game.
I came across this blog post on getting out of debt and I thought many of the principles could be applied to make "Playing the Waiting Game" more fun. Below are the principles the article lists, followed by how I think it could be applied to ERE:
1. Do something positive every day. This is my favorite tip. Do something every day toward your goal. Make a micro payment to a loan (if they don't charge you a fee). Read an article. Read part of a book. Practice a new skill. Make a plan for how to achieve a mini-ERE goal. Start setting yourself up for your ERE life (if you want to be a black belt in karate, sign up for a karate class in the evenings.) Try a new recipe. Weatherproof a window. Turn down your thermostat a couple degrees, just to try it out. It's easy to get discouraged if you feel you are not making progress; doing something every day helps to short circuit that feeling.
Here are the other ones, they don't apply as well but I did them anyway.
1) Focus on Financial Freedom. For everyone here that is likely obvious. But think about what you will do with your life once you have achieved FI. If nothing else, it's a good distraction. It's also goal visualization, which has been proven to help people stick to their goals. If you dream of moving to Thailand, put up pictures of Thailand around your place. If you dream of RV-ing it around the country, get an RV Catalog.
2) Replace bad habits. There is some level of spending that pretty much everyone is stuck with, but some of it is voluntary. Perhaps choose one expense and try to replace it with something that is free, or undertaken a habit or action that should reduce that expense. Instead of paying someone to do something for you, try doing that one thing for yourself. Or try exercising. Or try a free or money making hobby. One habit at a time, once a month, and your life could be very different in one year.
3) Make saving money fun. For me personally, seeing my net worth go up and ERE get closer is fun in its own right. However, sometimes, if the stock market doesn't cooperate, and I don't get that little boost. I look for other ways to make it fun. Try making graphs and charts, to chart your progress toward ERE, or smaller goals, like spending money on food or entertainment. Post them around your house (or start a journal) so you see them every day. Destruction is fun, so if you have things like paid off credit cards or loan statements, shred them and keep the shreds as progress.
4) Recruit your family and friends. Others have spoken on getting negative feedback from friends/family and also some negative treatment at work when talking about ERE, so it helps to be very choosey on who you recruit. If nothing else, this forum is a great support system for this process. It does also help to have at least one real life person you can talk to about this stuff, so attend the ERE Virtual Meetups, or try to find at least one friend or family member in your life, that you can talk to about your progress. You could also start a journal.
5) Consider your financial options. Can you get a higher paying job? Can you do semi-retirement? Can you start a side business? Can you get a second part time job? Can you become a microworker? Can you consolidate your debt? Can you move to a place with a lower cost of living? Any of these could be good options, and most if not all of them have been undertaken by someone here in this forum.
The article is here for those who are interested: http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/ge ... tion-work/
If this post helps just one person I will be happy

[george]

Thanks liquidsaphire, you've summed it up beautifully.
I really have nothing extra to add, just want to say its about enjoying the lifestyle.
We make the lifestyle fun by:
1. Saying, gosh we saved thousands of dollars today, we could have.........and list the most ridiculous expenses and the ones we were tempted by, but decided were silly
2. Understanding the opportunity cost - when others are at the mall, we'll be making chutney, or learning a musical instrument.
3. We say our favourite store is the bloody well do it yourself store.
4. Only go to thrift shops that make us feel good, shop around. Stay out of smelly ones.
For us It's as much about enjoying the good life, and doing what we believe in, as it is about saving money
Thanks again.

[palmera]

I like the replace bad habits one. I used to smoke a pack of cigs a week.
As soon as something clicked in my head and I committed to ERE, my desire to smoke just evaporated. Granted, I might bum a smoke here and there (rarely), but overall, the craving just up and left.
The mind works in mysterious ways.
I should start flossing more.

[sky]

A consumerist life and a frugalist life are both materialist philosophies. Neither of them gives meaning to life for very long. You can go a few weeks learning to be frugal and then you need to focus on other things to find meaning. There are many things that give life meaning, such as family, friends, an intellectual focus, hobby, a cause, building something, organizing a group ... The key is to find something that gives your life meaning that does not require a lot of currency (money). I believe it is easier to find real meaning in life when one is frugal or poor. Money perverts the process and as long as one is not caught in a negative mentality trap when poor, there are far more rewarding things that one can do without exchange of currency.

[jennypenny]

@George--like #3. We also say going to bloodbath & beyond (do you have that store?).
@all--I have to say that the term "waiting game" bothers me a little. I get it, but I think each day of your life is equally important (ugh, I sound like a hallmark card). I know if you're working a job you hate, today sucks. But tomorrow might REALLY suck--you just never know. Live each day like it's your birthday (assuming you don't drop serious cash on your birthday).

[george]

@jennypenny

Like that one, yes we do have it and will use that one.

[m741]

I had a blog post about the same topic:
http://skillsfire.wordpress.com/2011/11 ... d-the-gap/
tjt's blog also covers it:
http://www.bravenewlife.com/11/the-waiting-place/

[TheLuckyWizard]

tick tock tick tock.....
@m741 cool links, really like your blog

[jennypenny]

@george--Maybe you are better at projects and don't need to use that line. Unfortunately, my projects always end with a trip to the first aid kit

[BPA]

Thanks for starting this thread, LS.
As part of my transition to ERE, I decided just this morning to embark on my dream of becoming a leisurely academic and registered for a new degree program. Ultimately, I'd like to do graduate work in Labour Studies and History. If I'm lucky, I'll get some teaching assitant work which will stretch my ERE funds further.
While I'm not ERE yet, I'm not really waiting either. I'm creating the bridge I wanted.
I'm very excited about this.

[Spartan_Warrior]

Great topic. This is exactly where I'm finding myself--starting to run into the territory of diminishing returns (aka "The Gap") as well. I agree that "Waiting Period" might not be the best way of putting it (or thinking about it). Better to think of it as one long "transition". It's more of a continuum than distinct phases. For instance, as others have said, you may make a majority of the changes in your daily lifestyle in the beginning, but you also need to continue learning and training for the skills, hobbies, and lifestyle you intend once you do retire. Another example, for me at least, financial independence isn't the kind of thing where you wake up one day and think, "Okay, today I am officially FI." It's gradual. The more money I save, the more independent and free I feel, even while still working--because I'm that much less dependent on the income. If I lost the job tomorrow, I may not have 100% of my goal, but I do have 40% (or whatever), so I'm "40% more independent" than I started.

[LiquidSapphire]

@jennypenny/spartan warrior - I agree, about the term waiting, sort of. The idea of the thread is to make it about not just waiting, and instead make it a fulfilling and productive period in your life. You could spend your whole life waiting for something to happen, that is not very fulfilling or productive, so I am hoping to help others, and myself, change it to something more than "waiting". If all you're doing is kicking back and wasting life away "waiting", that's not only sad but for me, a dangerous mental place.
In "Oh the places you'll go", Dr. Seuss mentions "The Waiting Place." Reading the post from tjt on his blog about it really creeped me out... I'll post the excerpt here from the book...
You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come,

or a plane to go or the mail to come,

or the rain to go or the phone to ring,

or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite

or waiting for wind to fly a kite

or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake

or a pot to boil, or a Better Break

or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants

or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
Let's all avoid the Waiting Place shall we?

[KevinW]

Consumerism and ambition both encourage living in the future instead of the present. "Once I get a better camera..." "Once I get a sports car..." "Once I get to college..." "Once I get a job..." "Once I get a better job..." Consequently it's possible to spend one's entire life waiting and hoping and never really experience anything in the here and now.
Voluntary simplicity is clearing away the unimportant to make space for the important. If you're successful at it, after the initial frenzy period you will have time/energy/attention for the important stuff, whatever that is. It's time to start doing the stuff that will comprise your life! But what is that...
If your goal is FI, and you've reached the point of diminishing returns on frugality, one option is to work on increasing income. However on an ERE time scale this may not make sense; it's probably not worth it to spend years ramping up a career or side business that will expire in 5-10 years. Also this will eventually hit a point of diminishing returns which will again leave you with life-space to fill.
For that reason I've decided to work on developing mindfulness. Consciously appreciating what I'm doing. Others' suggestions are along these lines: enjoying the little things, making the most of things, and ramping up a few projects that used to be on my after-I-retire list.
Mindfulness isn't really taught or encouraged in mainstream Western culture; makes sense since it's anathema to consumerism and ambition. It's part of Buddhism, Taoism, Quakerism, and Stoicism. But a lot of their concrete advice is written to a preindustrial or ascetic audience. I haven't found many resources that are applicable to someone with one foot still in the modern working/spending world.

[KevinW]

Agreed, I studied martial arts and it has helped with focus on intense or difficult tasks. What I'm still working on is being present in more mundane things like waiting for the bus or brewing a pot of coffee.

[Spartan_Warrior]

More musings on this topic:
My planned retirement timeframe is about 10 years. I'm at the point discussed where diminishing returns have kicked in and I simply can't reduce my expenses any further to get that timeframe down significantly.
Coming to terms with this in the last few weeks has brought on something of a philosophical shift. Accepting "the gap" has eased up how I think about spending ever so slightly. Up until a few weeks ago, I was seriously bent on saving every single penny. I'm starting to recognize this as unhealthy and unproductive. While I don't plan to change my budget or spend such that it would negatively impact my timeframe, I'm also no longer willing to bend all of my financial efforts solely toward <i>reducing</i> the timeframe. I'd rather live with the timeframe and spend money rationally in the meantime in ways that improve the "waiting period", since I'm stuck with it either way. From now on I plan to devote "found" money (that is, anything unanticipated on my current budget plan--gifts, tax returns, part-time or side income) toward myself and the hobbies and skills I want to develop. Up until now such income would be saved as much as possible to try to push that timeframe down, but I have to accept the law of diminishing returns, and also the inherent risk/reward ratio in saving for a theoretical future at the expense of the actual present. The "spartan" in my username is pretty literal. I am ascetic about everything and typically don't even spend the $100 I budget as disposable each month. While I am happily anti-consumer, there are instances where spending is necessary to self-advancement. Consumption can even be necessary to advance post-consumerism--for example, I need to lay out money on a firearm and munitions in order to start hunting, which seems to be the most ethical and post-consumerist way to continue eating meat. I also need to lay out money on tools, seed and other supplies for a garden, etc.
So, saving every bit of money that comes into my life actually holds me back from saving money! But more importantly, it's also holding me back from advancing the hobbies and skills I want to have. I've been in "waiting" despite myself.
Basically, the moral of this story is "don't fight the gap". At least not to the point of self-denial.