ERE 30 years ago

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Tom Young
Posts: 52
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:38 pm
Location: MidWest, Florida

ERE 30 years ago

Post by Tom Young »

So, now... 8 days in, I've done enough homework to get an overview of what's going on here, though I still have about 10,000 posts to get through. Am not much of a lurker, so often go over stuff that's already been resolved, and end up looking stupid.
Anyway, the concept of ERE rings a loud bell with me, at least the way I understand it, and I think I can relate to some extent since so many of the point being made, are very close to my own experiences from 1980 to 1983, when I was in my mid 40's.
I can't speak to the investment part of planning, since everything we owned then, was in IRA's or CD's... and the 8% to 10% interest rates looked like they would last forever.
But... as to the rest... very close to the philosophy that I think I read in Jacob's blogs.

Back to 1980 as I watched my career in retailing coming to a close, as my company was planning a 5 year closedown of 2400 retail units, and I was the special projects manager for planning, it was time to look around for a different future. Four kids all through school, and just DW and I to care for.

Years of scouting and many years of camping in the Adirondaks, gave me a love of nature and the great outdoors. A big part of my thinking came from reading Mother Earth News. Then, not a slick magazine, but down to earth plain talk, for plain people... definitely ecologically correct, but in a natural way. A continuation of "Silent Spring" written not to be politically correct, but to live side by side with nature. The "How To" articles were read as gospel, and I accumulated a full library of everything written up until that time.

As I was working and traveling under stress during the weekdays, traveling through 31 states,DW and I spent weekends, driving up from Albany to the places I loved in the Adirondak State Forest... (6 million Acres), and in the little towns where I had dreams of retiring, and owning a small business. Just enough to live in my beloved woods, lakes and streams. We looked at Guide Businesses, White Water Rafting, and owning a small auto repair business, and even put a down payment on a small grocery store which didn't go through when the owner reconsidered. We even put another down payment on a small lodge on the side of a Lake Placid mountain, with a view to the Lake Plaid Ski Jump area. That went sour, when the 12.3% interest rate were quoted on Wednesday, went to 13.7% the next day when we were going to sign.

This was all 8 years before our actual retirement... but we had a plan... I had plans to build a 30'X50' log cabin, by myself, using plans from ME news. The arrogance of relative youth. I know how to raise a 500lb. roof beam, all by myself :lol: and how to plane and chink logs. We picked out a 7 acre plot on a mountainside, with a stream running 15 feet from the building site. Our nirvana. Yeah... DW was all aboard, until we went back in November after a 2 foot snowfall, and had to bushwack our way to the site, getting soaked in the flooded stream. It was also the day that DW asked how far to the nearest hospital, and we found out it was in Gloversville, some 55 miles away.

But hope springs eternal... and we kept trying until it came close to my leaving the company and that well paying job. Touch and go, but another opportunity came along with a new technology... Computer generated signs... I opened my own business in my home with two of my sons, and we grew rapidly and planned an major expansion into an industrial park... Next, cancer, and a worry about leaving DW with a mountain of debt, so we did our homework, and made the decision to move into a trailer in the worlds largest family campground. Living simply in a 27 ft trailer, but later moving on to one of the lakes in a park model. This was in 1990... and to give an idea of costs...
Campground dues $525/yr, plus $300 water and sewer. Taxes $186, Insurance $250. We lived in a section of the campground with 7 other couples who were also ER's and lived 6 mo. in Illinois, and the other 6 mo. in Texas, Arizona and Florida. I don't have records, and am not sure of our annual costs, but probably about $15,000 to 17,000.

The first 15 years of retirement were relatively frugal, though we did everything we wanted to do, and had a wonderful early retirement in communities of people who were in a similar socio-economic situation.

So, yes...not living on $7000/yr, but still relatively low expenses. Now, though we're still poor by some standards, we're comfortable enough to not worry about running out of money, and the lessons of the early years and the memories of Mother Earth are still there.

Life is good.

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