ERE lifestyle dilemma

[Tarkie]

Hello, happy to have found this forum/book/blog.

I’m sorry for posting it twice now, I accidentally posted it in the wrong sub. Now I can’t delete it. I’m still figuring it out. But I think this belongs here.

I am a 20 year old male, living with my parents in the Netherlands. I’m now home for about 6 weeks after an amazing travel experience of 6 months. (India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam) After I finished HS at 18 years old, I started a studies in university. Rather quickly I realised I didn’t want to study for the time being and I always had this sense to go on a long travel trip. Never had I traveled alone before. I worked for 4 months, saved money to travel for a long time and Oct. 2019 I started my journey in New Delhi.

In the back of my head I was figuring out what to do when I’d come back home. I decided I wanted to study again, but I’m not so sure anymore. If I’d go back to study, there would be one bachelor I’m interested in, and that’s applied mathematics. In high school, math was pretty easy for me. I like maths as well, so if I don’t start a bachelor now, it wouldn’t mean I would not study math again. I would study it by myself, to gain knowledge useful for life.

I had heard about FIRE earlier (1 year ago?) and after a while I had started on the Dutch version of “your money or your life”. The book did cause some excitement to me, as it described a lifestyle design on frugal living and saving up for later. A while after, I had found about ERE through the blog. I’m now about 60% in the book and it sparked a lot of excitement about the lifestyle design described here. This caused me to doubt the choice of going to university again. (I have till June/July to pull the trigger). This is because I’m doubting I will be as satisfied with a uni and career life afterwards. Of course, a math degree will bring a good base for income, but I’m highly doubting if I want to work fulltime. (Possible to find parttime work in that field?) Instead I’m thinking about a way to live a more satisfying life, while still being able to FIRE. In my eyes, it’s so much more worth to learn the skills discussed in ERE and building a ERE lifestyle. I don’t see how I can manage to build this kind of lifestyle while studying and going for the paycheck. It seems like it will be too much time taken from me, while another path would lead to a more satisfying life. I have to say that my parents want to pay for my uni. I’m not avoiding uni because I’ll get into debt or something. I can even get a student loan and invest with it safely, up to ~€40k. But I don’t know if this is a smart move. After all, I’m thinking of another life path, that I’ll discuss later.

I can highly relate to a renaissance lifestyle since only a few years I think. It’s mainly because of the frugal living and anti materialism promoted here. A little more than a year ago I started a meditation practice (common here?) and the more I meditated, the more I began to long for a simple life where I am content with what is. This life exists of the following:
- Meditation
- Reading and educating myself
- Fitness and nutrition
- Travel (hiking and backpacking)
- Spending time with friends family
I’m sure there are more things, but you get the deal.

This stems from the period of time I started working after dropping out of studies. I started meditating, excercise and eating healthy while saving up for my backpacking trip. Now I transitioned to WFPB diet since I came back home, and I’m basically thinking I’m set for life health wise. It’s also easy to keep budget, because I basically eat at home everyday. I want to learn more of these things, and less of specializing in one field as Jacob mentions in his book.

So the path I find more exciting I will describe now. Right now I live with my parents, and will continue to do so, even if I decide to study. I know they will allow me for maybe 5-6 years. That’s my guess. Maybe even longer. I’m thinking of working part time for the upcoming years and will try to maximize my savings. I will apply the ERE lifestyle to my own, and I’ll continue educating myself about different things, and learning new skills. I’ll start with bicycle maintenance, the economics curriculum and ERE in general. I might want to learn a skill to get a higher income. I’ve thought about programming, but I don’t know where to start, and if it will be worth it. If so, what time period should I think of when I decide to learn and want to earn money eventually?

In numbers I’m thinking of working for the upcoming 4-6 years. A reasonable goal would be to work my way up to €100k. My grandparents gifted me €20k, and I’m looking to earn and save between €10k-15k a year and invest it working parttime. I can ask my parents to gift me the money for schooling as well. This would be between €15-30k I think, and it would help me in the long run. I’m stating part time work constantly, but if it means I can make some more during a 1-2 year period working full time, I will do it don’t get me wrong. But part time work seems more in line with my goals. After this period I’m thinking of doing another longer travel. I’ll travel for some months, then come back home to work and travel more with that money, and repeat this for several years. While doing this, I can passively grow my €100k through investments. I haven’t thought of what would be next, but I see that this is not necessary to think about already. By that time I’m positive I’ve found some ways to earn while doing what I like. The travel I described would be hiking/cycling & camping focused trips, which would be frugal. I’m not worried about costs for travel.

Right now I’m reading lots about ERE and brainstorming about paths of life. I’m also training for a marathon, as this will help me reach different places in the netherlands by foot. Next to this I have a part time job of 8-12 hours a week. This will earn me about €4,5k-€6,5k yearly. I will earn more when I’m 21, and pick up some extra work. I’m thinking of starting a journal as well eventually on this forum. I’m writing this post to get other perspectives on this topic as well. I haven’t found much about avoiding studies to start educating yourself earlier. I’ve also thought about working full time right now, to make maximum use of compound interest, but I’ve realised this won’t be aligned with my goals as well. I could earn and save €20k+ a year and do this for 6/7 years working full time and have €200k sitting there. But I don’t think this would be worth it. Also, I have no FIRE goal yet, but I don’t see it as a means of an end. I will learn in the upcoming years with how much I can live frugally, and based upon that I can have an indicator for how much to save. (€333k with 3,33% SWR(?)) Have to study this more in depth as well.

This was a long post, but I hope to hear some from you. I’m a short time lurker, but highly interested in ERE lifestyle.

[Lemur]

Will your parents cover trade school? That is the route I'd go based on the limited information I see from your personality...and go into business for yourself...set your own hours (flexibility). You could take job part-time ish and make enough to cover expenses + savings or alternatively you could "hustle" hard for a year and make over $100k. I think most importantly you'll like the flexibility. Consider being an electrician/plumber. Note you will have to go through a multi-year apprenticeship but depending on where you're from this could come with nice union benefits.