Midsize Lebowski would love it if you'd come and give him notes on Semi-ERE

[MidsizeLebowski]

Thanks C_L, I came to a similar conclusion in reviewing the journals of others who are fully FI and pursuing semi-ere (yourself, Gin & Juice, BSOG, etc.). In studying journals and in reflection it's became apparent that my objectives have nothing to do with total sloth enabled by a mythical number but were instead the simple freedom to take time off as desired/deemed necessary as well as the ability to pursue that which I'm interested in without need for renumeration at a US median income level.

[MidsizeLebowski]

February 2020

Net Income: $4044
Total Spending:$2561
Net savings: $1483 (36.7%)

Spending Breakdown
Housing: $1112
Rent:$1050
Utilities (Gas, Water, Electric): $62

Transportation: $201.90
Auto Ins: $23.60
Gas/Maintenance:$178.30

Food: $730.73
Groceries:$470.55
Dining out: $260.18

Communication: $53
Cell:$32
Internet:$21

Entertainment: $0

Health Insurance: $348


Miscellaneous: $52.40

(Book on mushroom cultivation, seeds, peat moss)

Canine Tax: $63


Net worth (+/- prior month): $35100 (+$208)
Cash: $7074
HSA:$450
Pre-Tax:$26930
Post-Tax :$646



WR @ TTM:119.9%
WR @ LCOL: 51.79%
WR @ Semi-ERE: 24.44%

Thoughts/Review:

Pretty typical month, will add more notes here when time permits, a couple things of note.

[MidsizeLebowski]

"A couple things of note" ... that turned out to be an understatement!

We're in central California, and have been under "shelter in place" orders since last Wednesday. DGF's work has closed and she is now unemployed w/ the exception of ~5 hrs/week online store management for her employer. My work has also been closed under the mandate, but I've been able to maintain roughly 50% of my clients by meeting remotely. If not having discovered ERE 1.5 years ago we'd be in a very fragile position, so for that I am beyond grateful. As it stands we are not insulated as many of you are, but our mindset is one of adaptability, an asset in it's own right.

We're in a strange place, Axel_Heyst made reference in his journal to the mental calm which accompanies limited degrees of freedom. We are very much experiencing the antithesis of this.

Our current lease ends in 3 months and neither of us are tied to this region whatsoever now due to employment changes. If working remotely is met positively by clients I'll have $25-30k/yr independent of location, a modest but not insignificant income (he preaches to the ERE choir).

This is coupled with a strange enjoyment of "quarantine life". That life looks like an abrupt shift from the 9-5 world for DGF and the 4AM-8pm world for myself into the realm of waking slowly sans alarm, cooking and eating all meals together, a day of equal parts gardening at home/volunteering at the farm/reading/hiking/walking/exercising/working with clients 3-4 hours 3 days/week. This feels like living at its finest with the exception of economic/societal uncertainty.

The lessons of the COVID crisis have hit close to home. It was one thing to delve into permaculture via books/content/workshops and dip one's toes into a resilient world before returning to "normal life" dependent upon fragile food systems, the national/world economy. This situation has made it apparent that rather than working to create a resilient life down the road in 5-10 years being sufficient , the clock has been running the entirety of our adult lives (and prior to that) whether we wanted to acknowledge it or not.

Many things to mull over, are we in position for career/lifestyle change? Financially? Mentally?

I've long wanted to shift into a farming/homestead lifestyle. Part of volunteering at the farm was to get hands on experience here to make sure it wasn't just a passing fancy that would be washed away during in the downpours of a first day of sloshing through muddy intra-bed paths. Months, and a few rainy days of work, later I'm only more drawn to the lifestyle and the reality it's based in.

At least there's much time to strategize in the coming months.

"This isn't to assume that this crisis will or is even likely to solve many problems for us, only that it provides a rare opportunity in which to make deep shifts both personally and collectively. The naked emperor that is industrial society has never been more obvious than it is now."
- Ben Falk author of the Resilient Farm and Homestead

[RoamingFrancis]

Wishing you the best as we wait out the COVID crisis.

Even though my own living situation is fragile, I think having an ERE mindset and understanding its principles are helpful in and of themselves.

In my own journal I echoed the sentiment that although I was planning to build resiliency over the next 5-10 years, I feel a need to do it much more quickly now that we have a real crisis. I've thought about homesteading as well; I would want to find a good group of friends to do it with though.

[MidsizeLebowski]

In my own journal I echoed the sentiment that although I was planning to build resiliency over the next 5-10 years, I feel a need to do it much more quickly now that we have a real crisis. I've thought about homesteading as well; I would want to find a good group of friends to do it with though.

ERE City anyone? Thanks RF, best yo you and yours as well.

FWIW there are a lot of loose communities of people homesteading in areas throughout the country, permies is a good spot to look at them. A couple hotspots off the top of my head are Cochise County AZ, Southern Oregon, NorCal, Vermont, Missouri, Tennessee...

[MidsizeLebowski]

March 2020

Net Income: $3086
Total Spending:$2547
Net savings: $538 (17.4%)

Spending Breakdown
Housing: $1113
Rent:$1050
Utilities (Gas, Water, Electric): $63

Transportation: $146.87
Auto Ins: $51.47
Gas/Maintenance:$95.40

Food: $701.52
Groceries:$573.87 (+additional bulk food, now have 1 year supply calories for DGF & I, bulk purchasing complete for 3+ months)
Dining out: $127.65 (all pre mid-month work closure)

Communication: $53
Cell:$32
Internet:$21

Entertainment: $20 (1 used book (Elliot Coleman's New Organic Grower , 2 videos (Fantastic Fungi + The Permaculture Orchard)

Health Insurance: $348


Miscellaneous: $0

Canine Tax: $113.93 (3 months food)


Net worth (+/- prior month): $32876 (-$2224)
Cash: $6936
HSA:$445 (-$5 fee )
Pre-Tax:$24872
Post-Tax :$623



WR @ TTM:127.2%
WR @ LCOL: 55.3%
WR @ Semi-ERE: 26.1%

Thoughts/Review:

Decreases due to the obvious COVID downturn. This will be an interesting month to examine spending on an as-needs basis. No longer commuting to work eliminates fuel and eating out costs associated with that. Moving to remote work should be a ~50% decrease in income, hoping to stem the downside there and hold at current NW, we shall see.

With her unemployed and myself having moved remote (with many clients responding positively) we've broached the subject of moving from current HCOL area on a faster timeline. I'll be interested to see where spending is this month relative to prior months where the income flow disguised my questionable habits.

The area we're eyeing for longer term living has turn-key 750-800sf homes on .25-.5acres in the 70-90k range (I know it well as it's the former home of extended family). The town (pop. 30k) is 20 miles from the ocean, adjacent to several major rivers (biking/walking distance), and home to a mid-size university. These are many of the reasons we currently reside in HCOL area. In the event of a move I'd look to maintain remote work as support while starting a manageable sized (30-40 hr labor week total) market garden operation, another desired shift from current 40hr training schedule.

I'm trying to temper hastiness at major moves with the counterpoint being that the change would be towards the desired longterm lifestyle, provide for reductions to 1-2JAFI expenses (housing, commuting, and health insurance based on income are currently 60% of expenses YTD), and is in fact only an acceleration of the plans we had laid out. The volunteer experience filled in what I had previously seen as the primary weak point - the many of the known and unknown unknowns which were present in the market gardening plan.

Further reflections will include whether now is the time to ask Donny if this is homework and whether or not it is, in fact, rather the time to take 'er easy dude.

[classical_Liberal]

The area we're eyeing for longer term living has turn-key 750-800sf homes on .25-.5acres in the 70-90k range (I know it well as it's the former home of extended family). The town (pop. 30k) is 20 miles from the ocean, adjacent to several major rivers (biking/walking distance), and home to a mid-size university.

Where is this ERE utopia? (PM me if you don't wanna post it!)

[2Birds1Stone]

PM me too =D

[MidsizeLebowski]

it's in MD, in Wicomico County, rhymes with Malisbury

[MidsizeLebowski]

April 2020

Net Income: $3036 - $1200 from Big D & The Gang not included (+$2419)
Total Spending:$2088
Net savings: $956 (31.5%)

Spending Breakdown
Housing: $1111
Rent:$1050
Utilities (Gas, Water, Electric): $61

Transportation: $76.47
Auto Ins: $51.47
Gas/Maintenance:$25

Food: $273.88
Groceries:$273.88
Dining out: $0

Communication: $53
Cell:$32
Internet:$21

Entertainment: $5

Health Insurance: $348


Miscellaneous: $0

Canine Tax: $7

Net worth (+/- prior month): $35295 (+$1715)
Cash: $12020
HSA:$445
Pre-Tax:$22207
Post-Tax :$623



WR @ TTM:118.5%
WR @ LCOL: 51.5%
WR @ Semi-ERE: 24.3%

Thoughts/Review:

As expected expenses took a nice turn downward without in-person work as time and mental energy became the more available means of production/acquisition. If I were to eliminate the premium on housing in this area I suspect spending would level out around the numbers more typical for this forum.

It's been an interesting month on many accounts. Work for me will forever be changed as the facility I leased from has changed their business plan and will no longer be subleasing. I suspect this is due to the evaporation of cashflow showing them the major flaw in the former model. They've offered me a salaried position in the new business model which is essentially a very ho-hum 40 hr work week salary man existence at 40k year + bonus potential to ~65k with 4 weeks vacation & 1/2 coverage on healthcare. Upon the initial offer I requested time to consider and inquired about potential for negotiation which they confirmed.

If I were to decline and instead continue working remotely I expect ~$30k + endless potential pending personal ability to market & grow business. There's also the forementioned desire to change gears towards the needs-based occupation of market gardening vs pure luxury of personal training.

This is likely a major turning point for DGF and I and to be honest I've got a bit of paralysis by analysis/ mild anxiety regarding the situation.

I'm going to spend the afternoon mulling over some decisions. Right now the primary decisions are between accepting said position and moving into an RV while staying local to boost savings rate, or the much longer term plan of purchasing a house/property with the intent of creating a homestead/market garden. I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on the latter, each really.

In my heart the market gardening lifestyle is really where I'd like to be, There's been an on-going mental wrestling between the notion that mortgaging into a home is a major liability vs. property cash-flow positive via planned business ventures makes it less of a questionable move. There is always the possibility of leasing the land to start with and living elsewhere as well as roughing it in a tent/yurt/etc. and purchasing only land. The latter is more complex and a greater change from status quo certainly but less tightly coupled to our ability to meet the mortgage/maintenance costs.

There's also the ethereal possibilities such as taking this remote work path on the road/abroad for a few months/years. I think this would alienate DGF and her sense of "home" to an extent that strained/severed our relationship however and I'm keen to put travel plans after life establishment strategy. That is when I'm doing my thinking waiting and fasting intelligently . Truthfully I'm a tinkering homebody at heart anyway when not chasing the infamous "next thing" or having doubts that my vision is growing too myopic.

Thank you for reading if you find yourself here, I appreciate you listening to the strands in ol' duder's head and would love to hear your thoughts.

Financial note -Increased post-tax cash holdings this month through a combination of savings and withdrawal of $3500 cash I had sitting in an IRA from selling VTI when it was near $170/share and I had notions of invisible thread after reading some discussions on this forum. I intend to put that money back at some point over the CARES acceptable timeline.

[classical_Liberal]

and to be honest I've got a bit of paralysis by analysis/ mild anxiety regarding the situation.

Welcome to my life.

Well, the way I read it, you are deciding between taking a job you probably won't like, but pays pretty decent, and starting a business you really want to try. In the second option, you'll fund your cashflow needs with an already established part-time business, but likely have to take on some pretty serious leverage. Tell me if I'm reading this wrong.

I think, what you really want to do is start the market gardening business. I'd encourage you to do so, but only if:

1)You have thoroughly researched the market and have developed a legit business plan. This will reduce your anxiety and the overall risk.

2) Take time (like, maybe a year) and ensure that your current part time business model will continue to be effective as life begins to return to the new post-COVID normal. I think consumer patterns for things like fitness training may change, and it'd be a really bad time for cashflow to dry up if you just bought a property for the new business. If the established 30K stays steady, or grows over this period, and you still feel you have enough time and life energy to devote to the new venture, go for it.

3) Find the right property for your needs and ensure you're not overpaying. Land/Real Estate is generally good collateral for long term leverage... as long as its long term. Meaning that if you buy something, make sure you can keep it for at least a decade or more. Real estate has an exceptionally large transactional cost. So the worst case scenerio is you buy it, value decreases a bit in the short term, and you end up selling it, eating both the transactional costs AND the market losses.

If you take a year building the current business, which is better than becoming a FT employee for others, you can use your extra time doing market research and looking for potential properties. This will give you a real good feel for both the real estate market and the new business. After awhile you'll have instincts about properties to look at when they pop on the market.

Taking the time to prepare should satisfy the itch that you have to get moving on the market/garden business, plus make you more confident about jumping on it when you find the right situation.

[AxelHeyst]

Hey lebowski, sorry it's taken me this long to catch up on your journal. Loving your journey, thanks for sharing! I also feel an unwarranted affinity for your story because I went to school I think near your current location (it was kind of a slow town, if y'know what I mean), so I have lots of nostalgia for the landscape there.

I don't know what the right move is for you, but as someone currently desperately clawing his way out of the meat grinder of FT wage slave life, I vote for anything *but* the FT position. Particularly with your direction of semi-ere, I just don't see how that pencils out, financially or lifestyle/goals/dreams-wise. It'd be one thing if the FT shtick were >>100k+, and you could just crank the SR to 80+ for a short period of time and be FI or way closer to it - but 40-65k in central CA, for 40hrs/wk, even with ERE in an RV expenses? Don't do it!!

[Smashter]

I feel for you, that’s a tough call. A couple things that could help the peanut gallery give better advice:

- What does your GF think?
- What is the likelihood you reach those bonus tiers if you worked at the gym? Without the bonuses it’s not a huge difference in $ from your other option (and as AH points out it's not a huge bump regardless)

Overall, I’d vote for the market gardening route! I think the kind of job you’d be leaving behind will be there if you end up not liking the new path.

[MidsizeLebowski]

Welcome to my life.

Well, the way I read it, you are deciding between taking a job you probably won't like, but pays pretty decent, and starting a business you really want to try. In the second option, you'll fund your cashflow needs with an already established part-time business, but likely have to take on some pretty serious leverage. Tell me if I'm reading this wrong.

You are reading it quite correctly my friend! I've negotiated things a bit further with the potential j.o.b. which I'll detail later but yes I have very little interest in working at the employee level in a small business with less than stellar leadership for the long term. It may be a decent enough stepping stone for ERE however, I'll discuss further below. In terms of taking on leverage to start the market garden business... a caveat I had not mentioned would be that I'd likely run a suburban/urban farm model which would imply living in the home and running the market garden business out of the yard. Your 3 points read so much like my personal thoughts it's uncanny. I'll respond to them in turn:

1. For the past 2 years (particularly the past 6 months of volunteering at a market garden) I've been researching/familiarizing myself with the business model and its viability. My hunch is that this is an area where there's potential to make a median income (by national standards) in the short term with potential to grow beyond that through expansion of business via bolt-on avenues such as native plant nursery, egg production, teaching/educational workshops, etc.
2. Part of my concern with fitness training being the sole source of income is that I view it as incredibly fragile in the face of major economic downturn changing consumer patterns. This is a small but significant part of the reason I've looked to temper my exposure there with the opposite end of the spectrum in providing a basic need. My thoughts on cashflow drying up from the training work are that whether or not I'm training our household still will require shelter and that between the two of us we can likely find work in any economy that can provide the means to pay for a 100-150k home split between the two of us.
3. This worst case scenario is what has me hemming and hawing. I'm hesitant to take what is now becoming a scenario where I have 3 years expenses pending ability to freely move to LCOL (1k/month) situation and instead commit to a certain home in a certain area for the foreseeable future. To your point I think ensuring the property makes financial sense both with our original plan of living/market gardening on the property and in a long-term rental scenario should we choose to relocate will mitigate the risk/my hesitation around the plan.


@ AxelHeyst UCSB or CSUCI? I appreciate your input, may you escape the wine press with the sweeter juices still in you amigo! I've come to the conclusion that unless I can work it to save 24-30k/annually at minimum I won't even entertain the notion of FT work (comes from 2-3x annual expenses @ $1k/month). More details below as I've negotiated a bit further.

@ Smashter honored to have you in the peanut gallery! DGF is ready to move on to the next chapter of our lives wrt market gardening, permaculture, etc. as we now have a baseline of financial security in that we can go a year or so without income as a household and not move onto the couch of friends/family. It ain't ERE, but it does insulate us from any of the formative year traumas she experienced of family home being foreclosed on, financed vehicles being repoed, etc. which is what she defines as important to her.

Market gardening plan still involves her working to completely finish off student loan debt and create the "head start that matters" of 50-100k or so. She's currently at about -20k net worth w/ 12k assets and 30k in liabilities entirely in student loans. It makes little difference to her day-to-day life in the short term. The likelihood of those tiers is extremely high pending the absence of major economic downturn, extremely low should we see major COVID fallout outmuscle wizards of oz and multi-trillion dollar lever pullings.


In recent news I had a follow up meeting wrt job offer and have confirmed that the position would now be 50k/salary w/ bonus potential to 80k. Funny how the blunt honesty of "this is what I need to make to meet financial goals I've set for myself this year while living here rather than moving" is a great negotiating tactic. Kicking myself for not asking for more. Position is still in limbo as facility has not reopened but as of now would be stepping into that roll at that pay rate if desired. COVID closures might kick the can down the road here a few more months I imagine. Still need to confirm living arrangements with lease ending July 1st. Had a good discussion w/ DGF about managing decision anxiety and she soothed my nerves w/ some gem about how just because we can make any decision right now doesn't mean we can't take another path in a few years. She's pretty much the perfect compliment personality-wise, feeling very lucky we're in this together.

[classical_Liberal]

Had a good discussion w/ DGF about managing decision anxiety and she soothed my nerves w/ some gem about how just because we can make any decision right now doesn't mean we can't take another path in a few years.

She's very wise. This is a part of decision making I really need to integrate into my life. ERE provides optionality in everything, decisions are not permanent. I think living this as reality is really the only way to desensitize yourself to realizing it is, in fact, true. A similar problem is believing in one's ability to pick up an enjoyable PT gig to provide 1-3 JAFI's at will. I know both are true intellectually, but it takes making it happen in reality to truly internalize it. So it's the initial leap of faith that's the biggest stumbling block.

[Lemur]

@Midsizelebowski

Didn't know there was another Marylander. Are you from here or moving here? I live in Southern MD. Working from home but like most folk here, commute up to DC for decent wages.

[mooretrees]

I've wanted to have really profound things to offer, but nothing has surfaced. I'm close friends with a market gardener and have been a vendor at our local farmers market for years. She feels like she works her ass off for poverty wages. When I look at her life I see freedom, freedom and more freedom. Also, while she's had a big loss of revenue from restaurants closing down, she's still selling more than ever to the public via her farm stand. Also, I just helped her bag a ton of lettuce for the local school for lunches. She works really hard, is creative about marketing and growing different crops, applying for grants and tons more. I don't want her life exactly, but more of what she lives with. Birds, nature, stars, good healthy work and working for herself. But, again, she works her ass off. She does take winter mostly off.

I think the market garden route is a great option. Especially with a back up of a really solid 30k from the personal trainer business (right?). The only worries are really getting locked into a long-term loan for a mortgage. I think that is an iffy idea. I really feel trapped with our mortgage so I might be projecting. However, there are Ag loans that might have much shorter terms and give you some access to equipment (greenhouses, harvest machines, etc) if you need a big infusion of cash. I know another Portland farmer who has crops at a bunch of friends homes and agreements that they can eat some of the food, but he gets the majority for his CSA. I think if you can get started on a small scale without committing to one big place (with a loan), then you can learn a lot, make some money and get some customers. It's a pain to not have things perfect right away, but it's also worth the hassle to get some experience under your belt before you are 100% committed for 30 years to one spot.

The best piece of advice about a business like yours is to give people what they want. You might love kale to death, but if people don't want it then they won't buy it. I think coffee should be lightly roasted but people always want a dark roast. Do I refuse to give them what they want just cuz it doesn't jive with what I think is best? No, I want to make money and gradually, possibly steer people to the light (roast that is...). I have a coffee business that's why the coffee metaphor.

Good luck and don't take that damn job, give this semi-ERE a shot.

[MidsizeLebowski]

Are you from here or moving here? I live in Southern MD. Working from home but like most folk here, commute up to DC for decent wages.

From there, grew up and lived around/in Baltimore until 23 so up until 6 years ago.

Good luck and don't take that damn job, give this semi-ERE a shot.

@ mooretrees Appreciate your thoughtful comment, you'd be proud - negotiated the J.O.B. to be 3 days/week. I'm gun-shy on mortgages as well, something about the 30 year horizon / greater fool dependency makes me squeamish. Will likely dip toes in on the market garden front with a rental as you recommended.

A quick update: Been slacking on updating monthly breakdown - partly due to having gotten in the groove with Semi-ere level spending and it's feeling like this level of spending is more Be than Do at this point. I'll post monthly updates when time/the inspiration to write it all out is a little more plentiful but past months and this one all on track to be under 2k/month with 1500 of that being housing/health insurance. I know that last part isn't something to be excited about but it does show me that ERE level spending is a realistic expectation pending some changes to housing/location and income level.

In other news - took a W-2 job from the former landlord but negotiated out the crap that seemed tedious and am only working Mon-Wed-Fri, making ~40k/yr from this with bonus potential to 55. Personal remote clientele bringing in roughly 28k/yr as of now. Quality of life has improved as I'm no longer working absurd hours and have normalized a sleep schedule for the first time in my adult life- truly a joy.

DW leapfrogged me in the semi-ere department over the past couple months. She not only quit the 9-5 job she hated and replaced it with 2 part time jobs that sum to $10k/yr greater than her former salary... one (the more lucrative of the two) is entirely remote and has her making ~40k working 30/hrs week on her own schedule. The other is 2 days a week as part of a CSA delivery which comes with the perks of 2 free produce boxes/week and an inside look at a business we're considering for our longer term vision. On top of the boxes she get's tons of additional freebies... this weekend we processed 2 flats of strawberries into jam, frozen slices for smoothies, and ate a ton fresh. Needless to say this has dropped our grocery bill to all time lows.

We also now have 4 days of time at home together which has been fantastic, the biggest takeaway from the COVID shutdown in March was that we wanted to spend more time together and we've managed to create that over these past couple months, very pleased with this.

On the financial front net worth ticked over 40k and if I were to exclude cost of working (ie. commuting 3x week) now have 2x expenses. To Classical_Liberal's point in an earlier comment, that coupled with the knowledge that I could pick up a part time job or simply continue with just one of the two part time positions (of course the independent remote gig being the one I'm eying here) has created a great deal of mental space and clarity from ever feeling compelled to work in an undesirable scenario again.

We've been prioritizing meaningful activities in our leisure time - reading/hiking/gardening/beach trips, etc. and household morale/overall life satisfaction is at an all time high.

I'm currently reading Antifragile by Taleb - it's been a great catalyst for web-of-goals/ semi-ERE thought.

Lest this sound too cheery... I still woke up to an alarm today and experience fleeting sensations of angst regarding the day "the bums always lose, Lebowski!".

On my mind as of late is when I'll take the plunge to agriculture related ventures? We're certainly primed to make some shifts now that both of us are location independent for work. Part of me says do it now before people ditch personal training due to what my amateur opinion believes is an inevitable significant COVID recession... the other part of me says keep milking the training cow until it dries up as currently semi-ere funds are being stashed away at a good clip and the work is decently rewarding/meaningful while providing a good amount of leisure time. But enough caffeinated rambling between clients for now, thanks for reading as always!

[classical_Liberal]

Reads like everything is going great, congrats!

[MidsizeLebowski]

This is probably not the forum to receive risk-taking encouragement in but I'm going to write it out here because this journal is personally quite helpful for thought and I appreciate/respect the opinions of you all here. The thought processes everyone's feedback has encouraged over the past couple years have shaped my life more positively than I could have ever imagined.

In spite of the circumstances of the last update and the general positive upswing of over the ~2 years of pursuing this whole ERE thing there is a looming sense that I am, in fact, "living a life of quiet desperation".

There's a sense that while I dot the i's and t's of responsible living and create my tidy little ERE buffer before pursuing the end goal of quiet life of off-grid natural-rhthym-aligned existence sans desperation I may in fact just be pulling the blinders on to the fact that such a life is already available just over the fence that segments sea of options and current salary-man paradigm. I'm bored at work and to a lesser degree in life and desire a lifetime-scale project to undertake.

This really harkens back to the plan regarding home purchasing and market gardening that was being discussed back in April. @mooretrees mortgage dread commentary made for excellent reflection here. The whole thing that draws me to ERE, off-grid, etc. is freedom - not being compelled to do shit I don't want to do in order to meet the head taxes that be. Oddly I'm very comfortable doing hard/unpleasant tasks that align with having freedom from said compulsion.

The current discussions in Classical_Liberal, AxelHeysts, and Mooretree's journals on time, life-purpose in semi-ere, and the work-spend paradigm have been nice catalysts in reexamining why DGF and I are living our current paths and whether we've come upon them as easy defaults/evolutions of said easy defaults or if what we're doing is in fact the greatest congruence with our web-of-goals.

DGF and I have taken a heavy interest in a region known for off-grid friendly building codes and are currently in the "we know we're going to do this, so when is the time to do it" phase.

The factors I'm considering are:

-Delta on savings/savings rate between maintaining current arrangement and purchasing property and working remotely from it
-Timeframe- it's been decided we're going to make this move or something 99% similar, the debate is really just whether now is the time or do we wait 2-3 years and another +~$60k?
-If savings rate decreases (of course remains positive) but am living the life I pursued ERE for in the first place, do I care that I'm not putting away $ X dollars/year?
-Will acting on the off-grid plan now close doors that I cannot reopen in the future if so desired?
-If I sink all of current net worth into this plan (~$44k currently, not the actual plan) and it tanks, how much does this really set me back? (ie. is scratching the itch, failing and restarting from 0, worth the energy expended to rebuild after)?
-Is off-grid more expensive than standard property-ownership approach? (no building codes and strawbale/cob construction paired with our naturally low power and water consumption suggest nay)

Thanks for reading this brain dump, hope the "format" is remotely coherent. If able to make sense of it and have any thoughts, I thank you for them!