Anyone in Paris?

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Starman
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 3:08 pm
Location: France

Anyone in Paris?

Post by Starman »

Hello dear folks,

Is anyone near Paris?
I live here so if anyone is interested in a meetup, I would be glad to participate.

Considering the quasi-absence of ERE in France, this is like a message in a bottle but even if you're french don't hesitate to say hello :)

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Alphaville
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Location: Quarantined

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Alphaville »

no but if i visit please let me crash :lol:

nah, i jest—guests are insufferable 😜



serious question though: no ERE? maybe you’re taking the wrong approach? i’m sure there are plenty rentiers. in my experience the french are just more private. americans love to boast about their money and to talk about what they do for a living. pas de discrétion. seriously though. do you, a french person, go around greeting people and asking what they do for a living? j’ai jamais vu ça. i mean, not even “what’s your name”.

Frita
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Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:43 pm

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Frita »

Damn, I hung out with a Parisian middle-aged, temporary traveler, chick named Margot for a week in Honduras last fall. As @Alphaville noted, I find the French understated versus North American bravado. (I had a medical emergency so we never actually exchanged contact info. We did get on well.) Would it help if you traveled more and met fellow Parisians out of your setting?

Starman
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 3:08 pm
Location: France

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Starman »

Haha, well, I'm currently searching.
The difficult part is that, as Jacob pointed out somewhere, there's a lot of people aiming to be financially independent; and also a lot of people aiming to turn their back to the consumerism ideology. But rare are those who want both!

French people don't like to talk about money, for sure.
I have been very interested and concerned by this thread , as I hide a lot myself, to adapt an environment where money is poorly looked.

I have to go out of my comfort zone, you're both right ;)

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Jean
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Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2013 8:49 am
Location: Switzterland

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Jean »

People in the "simplicité volontaire" and "décroissance" mouvement are very ERE.
Many Street Artist and Punks à chien (in a very broad meaning), could be qualified as ERE, or move toward ERE when finding the opportunity.
some testimonies in this book [url]https://www.lechappee.org/collections/l ... volontaire[\url] are definitely examples of ERE.
In addition, there are paying online communities (kind of sectarian in my opinion), like "Domination by Love", "Challenge SEO" or "revenus exponentiels" which are very active in helping each other in building passive income (but they are very FAT fire oriented). They have very little knowledge of the english speaking FIRE movement, because many french never bother getting confortable reading english.

The relationship with money is weird in france. Most people show some kind of disgust about money matters, then some revolt and start to only focus on making a lot of money. There is very little middle ground. But you might find something interesting among what i listed.

That's what i think the ERE book should be translated in french.

Starman
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 3:08 pm
Location: France

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Starman »

Thanks for the references Jean, they seem very interesting, especially the book.
You're right about the ERE proximity of "Simplicité volontaire" and "Décroissance" movements, though they may lack the investment part.

I'm a bit more reserved about the "punks à chiens", which are basically beggars with dogs (obviously), who spend their days taking psychotropics while lying on the sidewalks. They miss both the investment and the competence parts of ERE, in my opinion. Maybe Swiss ones are better!

As for money in France, I noted that often, it's perfectly ok to have high income and spend it (labour value), whereas saving is not ok at all, the accumulation process being seen as an undesirable sacrifice, and the result of the accumulation being seen both as a greed sign (morally reprehensible) and as a source of jealousy.
Last edited by Starman on Thu Aug 20, 2020 6:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Jean
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Location: Switzterland

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Jean »

I meant punk a chien in a very broad meaning, because it's sometimes difficult to spot the diffenrence between a beggar drug addict, and someone living in a truck working only a few month a year, and spending his time freely. We have no swiss equivalent of punk a chien. A lot of people living in squats are kinda workaholic, and spend their time building stuff in the garden and welding.

stoneage
Posts: 132
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:24 am

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by stoneage »

Hi, French here, but not parisian (def not an ERE friendly place if you ask me...)
I'm currently living frugally deep in burgundy countryside.

I almost converted Dw to "ERE thinking", but were FAR from ERE.

So far I managed to save for my house (paid cash), and my kids studies.
investisseur heureux is a nice place to exchange in france, but ERE is a very "niche" subset of french investors

Starman
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Location: France

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Starman »

Haha, not an ERE friendly place indeed!
Fortunately I and DW don't live the typical and expensive parisian life (introverts here), so we mitigate the high cost of living.

Burgundy is a very nice area, I would love to go to countryside too, we will do it when we will be closer to FI! :)

stoneage
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Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by stoneage »

Paris is great for getting nicely paid job opportunities.
But the kids made us leave the city (not Paris, but Lyon). Suddenly, the benefits were not enough to compensate for the lack of nature, the hostile / dirty environnement, overpriced accomodation and arrogant bosses.

I heard over the radio a guy explaining how cities have ceased to be the place where were most opportunities. It is becoming harder and harder to live a good life in french big cities

Starman
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 3:08 pm
Location: France

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by Starman »

We mitigate the annoyance of living in a big town by living near our workplaces, so we do everything by foot, which negates a lot of the trouble.
But yeah, the good life is not in a city in my opinion :)

stoneage
Posts: 132
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:24 am

Re: Anyone in Paris?

Post by stoneage »

I've actually lived my whole life in cities before going "full rural".

I think we lived pretty much the way you live before having kids : all trips on bike / foot, holidays by train or renting a car.
We enjoyed it and were cutting a lot of the costs usually associated with cities.

Still, I was not familiar with ERE and made some poor choices regarding savings :
I had only one bank account with ALL my hard earned money on it.
I estimate that I lost around 15-20K€ by mismanaging it

plus, we were eating out a lot and I spent a lot of money in movies.

The only great choice was choosing not have a car. I estimate saved at least 20 K€ (probably more...) avoiding this recurring cost...

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