The Education of Axel Heyst

[AxelHeyst]

You know, these days I mostly do get a full night's sleep, or close to it. I ran on 4-6 hrs sleep for long enough in my 20s. Ever since I went full WFH in 2016 and don't have to commute, or deal with coworker expectations of when to show up, I rarely compromise sleep length. It just means I do almost nothing else in my life when work is nuts - eat, work, sleep. (I wish I could blame not showering much on work as well, but nah, I'm just a dirtbag

[AxelHeyst]

I just did a calc: in 2019, I spent 8.5 jafi.

For April, I'm on track to spend 1.8 jafi including DW, about 1.1 for just myself. And she's ramping up her business and is bound and determined to support me to the approximate amount I supported her over the past year. Sounds good to me.

[RoamingFrancis]

Adelante!

[AxelHeyst]

Some recent ERE relevant wins:

I like good coffee. Good coffee is expensive, ~$14-20 per pound. I looked up how to roast your own beans, bought some green beans for ~$7/lb, ruined the first batch, and since then have been roasting up fresh delightful beans once a week. Buying beans someone else roasted seems silly to me now. I'm on the hunt for larger quantities of green beans to get the cost even lower.

I maintain a beard (or does the beard maintain me?). I have thick, bristly facial hair. I've been straight-razoring my cheeks, but have failed to date to razor my neck hairs without it being a bloody awful mess. So I've been using an old electric razor on my neck, which is annoying to rely on cheap commodity electronic device for half my face and legit steel for the other half. (Scissors for trimming/shaping the actual beard.) I figured it out and am fully straight-steel for my whole beard trimming operation now. The steps that for my situation appear to be non-negotiable:

• Hot shower
• Freshly stropped blade (if I do the cheeks first, re-strop, then do the neck).
• Somewhere between 1:1 and 2:1 coconut oil:shea butter for shaving cream.
• Don't bother with the brush, it won't lather, just dab it generously on the skin. After the shave, apply a light layer of the stuff to prevent razor burn.
• Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

I'm quite happy to have my shaving tech back to a Victorian technological era.

I have some building projects around the property I want to do at some point. My neighbor up the highway has some old cabins that are falling down. I'm slowly dismantling them and taking what materials I can salvage. Most of the wood is too far gone, but I'm taking all of the corrugated metal roofing.

I cleared some land off the main house site for DW and I to start building out our own little dirtbag compound. I cleared the road and pad by hand. The notion is to build an earthbag dome structure, 12' diameter, which is just below the size where you need a building permit and have to pass construction codes. We'll use it as a bedroom, storage space for what little we have that doesn't fit in our rigs, and possibly an art studio for DW. Once that's up I have ideas for a pergola, outdoor woodfire cooking setup, solar shower, greywater planting, etc etc. All using as much salvaged materials as possible.

edit: oh, and some small freelance projects have fallen in my lap, that give me more confidence that I can get income without too much trouble once I quit. If I get contracts here and there without trying, I suppose it won't be too difficult to get enough to cover annual living expenses if I actually put some effort in to it.

Assuming the economy doesn't completely implode.

[classical_Liberal]

I cleared some land off the main house site for DW and I to start building out our own little dirtbag compound. I cleared the road and pad by hand.

Dude, building a hippy compound sounds like so much fun! I'd really like to see how your set up progresses. If you're up for it, PM me your location and a email/phone contact sometime. Next time the GF and I take a road trip in your area we can swing in, check out your land/building site, and meet up.

[AxelHeyst]

Dude, building a hippy compound sounds like so much fun! I'd really like to see how your set up progresses. If you're up for it, PM me your location and a email/phone contact sometime. Next time the GF and I take a road trip in your area we can swing in, check out your land/building site, and meet up.

Absolutely! Would love that. And I'll be posting more pictures and things of the progress here, I'm just slow to do it because of poor internet quality.

[AxelHeyst]

Not related to anything else - JMG has an interesting post about how the shutdowns are making people realize their lives kinda suck, and a lot of folks are reassessing their lives. Presumably everyone on this forum has already gone through his two recommended actions, so, nothing new, but interesting from a "what is the rest of the world up to these days?" perspective.

[classical_Liberal]

That was a fun article. I've been saying for years that the hippy-type liberals and conspiracy theorist-type libertarians will one day make strange bedfellows. I've noticed this becoming more and more true through the COVID crisis. @ego has been posting similar libertarian type thoughts. I hope it continues.

[AxelHeyst]

April Update

Last month I was well above projected expenses. My excuses are these: I was buying food for 3 people; DW needed materials for her business, which is taking off; we stocked up on food in excess of what we consumed; and a couple of subscriptions (aka "financial leaks") hit.





The good news for May: that third mouth drove off in to the rising sun; DW's business appears to be taking off, so she should be paying her own bills (or close to it); we're in cruise mode for food; I'm *pretty sure* all my financial leaks are plugged. I'm forecasting expenses in the neighborhood of $700 for May, which would be exciting.

An update to my plan for semi-ERE: let's say I just can't take it anymore and quit by August, and have a few expensive months, and still take 3.5 years to start making as much as I spend.



This is still ignoring inflation doom. That's a thing I still need to figure out.

I also started thinking about how to think about my skill matrix:




Here's my skill rating scale. It's quite imperfect.

1: Muggle/Never even attempted the skill.
2: Half cost of what a muggle would pay
3: 1/4 the cost
4: Zero cost, or eliminates a previous cost.
5: Someone would pay me, but I'd have to work a year to make a year's CoL
6: I'd have to work half a year.
7: I'd have to work one month.
8: One month's work gets me 2 years living expenses.
9: One month's work gets me 5 years living expenses
10: One month's work gets me 10 years living expenses

There are of course more ways than remuneration to evaluate one's skill, and I anticipate to pursue some skills that will need the creation of some other scaling factor/value system. Perhaps even (gasp) a value system that can't be hacked in Excel. (Another blind spot to this system is there's no accounting for where the generation of passive income fits in).

I still feel like my current focus is just a) don't spend money, get and keep expenses low, and b) stay sane for a few months longer. Then I'll start rebuilding life-energy, building skills, etc. Now is the time for me to be removing things from my life, not adding them.

The discussion about doing vs. being in BSOG's journal got me thinking that I probably need to chill a little bit on my post-quitting plans. I was started to approach them with the same level of intensity I'm currently directing at work... which would be a massive fail. Or rather, there might not be anything wrong with the plans as I wrote them, but there's something wrong with the level of focus I had already allowed them to take over in my mind.

[classical_Liberal]

Ok, seriously love the idea of a skill matrix! Although equating the upper levels with a fixed value of earned income may not be the best way. Some things are inherently more valuable to others, so you could theoretically be an expert at some skill and still need to work all year to earn a years of living expense. I'm only pointing this out because I believe we become what we track. Hence you could have some skill that is really valuable to you, but underestimate your skill level simply because you can't make much money with it. Or the opposite. That could be a huge mistake. The general idea though, is fantastic, and I may steal/modify it for myself at a later date.

Regarding inflation, semi-EREers don't have to worry about it. Actually that's one of the best things, from a financial modeling standpoint, about true semi-ERE. Since income inflation will mostly match your price inflation. Now, it's certainly possible there will be some inflationary disparity between what you are producing and what you are consuming/purchasing, but overall these things will even out given enough variety.

I seriously look forward to your updates because you bring such great concepts to the table.

[RoamingFrancis]

Cool visualizations. If you produce any How to Dirtbag writing please let me know; I'll be the first to read it

You have one skill developed very well, which is a good thing. You should be able to relax a little knowing that you can produce 2 years of living expenses in a month. If need be, you can had back into the cave for a while.

Any updates on post-quitting plans? I think having a period of reflection and solitude will be very important; maybe you can walk across the desert like you mentioned.

[AxelHeyst]

Mm good ideas everyone - it also occurred to me I need to incorporate the six C’s model, the whole Gauging Mastery chapter, etc. Back to the lab!

[AxelHeyst]

Okay this is still in the middle of making sausage, but here's some tinkering I did with the skill matrix notion. As with a lot of my weird adventures in Excel, I go down a rabbit hole, and the whole thing is just an exercise in thinking through the topic, not necessarily in making a useful product (the spreadsheet). In other words, what I expect to get out of this exercise is a better understanding of how to think about skills in my life, and how *not* to think about skills. This 'sheet will likely be abandoned soon, it's purpose fulfilled.

Anyway:

• I changed it from 0-6, to match the gauging mastery / six C's chapter.
• I added the Renaissance categories, and built out some other categories. It's not either/or, it's sort of multiple dimensions.
• I built it out so for any skill, you can choose three dimensions that apply to it. One Renaissance dimension should apply (perhaps multiple), perhaps as the Prime dimension.

Obviously there's holes big enough to drive a truck through, but I wanted to update my original concept with the low-hanging fruit obvious tweaks.

[AxelHeyst]

Regarding inflation, semi-EREers don't have to worry about it. Actually that's one of the best things, from a financial modeling standpoint, about true semi-ERE. Since income inflation will mostly match your price inflation.

Good point. The main thing I'm concerned with is, I'd like to be able to take 3.5 years from [take this job and shove it] to [I'm making CoL from semiERE income], although I don't anticipate it actually taking that long. So I want to cover my bases if catastrophic inflation wipes out my savings, which will be 5-7 years worth. But I suppose, in that instance, I either start making wages again sooner than I'd have liked, or it won't matter that much because the economy will be so effed I'll just be running around the desert eating lizards or joined up with a warboy gang or something.

[AxelHeyst]

Any updates on post-quitting plans?

Nah, plan is still pretty much as I posted above; an initial month of zero digital interaction, 2hrs meditation a day, etc. And then I feel like I've identified a buffet of options to choose from - desert walk, moto overland trips, thruhiking, etc. I also am not 100% sure what location I'll be in when i pull the trigger, could be the Midwest a bit north of @7wb5, assuming it settles down out there, or it could be here in the West. So my plan is pretty fluid at the moment. [EDIT: actually, the plan is a bit more nuanced than the last thing I posted. I lost track of what I'd last posted here. I'll update soonish!]

If you meant timing - Fall is still the longest I think I'll hold out, August is the soonest as I identified $50k as my line in the sand FU money amount. I might have more clarity on that within a week, it depends on a couple conversations I need to have.

[RoamingFrancis]

Wishing you the best of luck. By the way, I'd like to hear any of your productivity advice if you get a chance.

[AxelHeyst]

Yep, I'm looking forward to getting a break in the next couple days to type up some productivity ranting for ya .

[RoamingFrancis]

Thanks, peace!

[classical_Liberal]

@AH
I like merging CCCCCC and flow into the skill matrix. It makes much more sense for what you are trying to track. Also provides a bit more internal judgement of skill vs external only (ie how much someone else will pay you).

Looking at the category would be something very interesting to track over time. Personally, almost all of my categories would have started out as "fun" or as some greater purpose, like self improvement or helping others, etc. Then over time morphed into something else. Nursing would have started as 1)Technical (learn healthcare & healthcare system) 2)Personal improvement (learn more empathy/caregiver role) 3) Fun. Now, eight years later it's 1)Renumeration 2) .... hahaha. Anyway, just a single data point there, but you get my point. It's a good way to track if something is still worth your very limited time on this planet.

Interesting how you learn via playing with concepts via spreadsheets or visualizations. I feel the same way. The end product is less important than the concepts learned building it. Same with typing things out on this forum. The concepts learned in general conversation are often more important than the end results of the conversation.

Regarding the stated purpose for your FU funds. It's really important to understand the why for your money. Semi-ERE, which is mostly income based, with FU money as a backup, means that you have an inherently different purpose for your money than a FIRE retiree. It's good to come to terms with that right away. The biggest thing in dealing with your money is to understand it's YOUR money, for YOUR purposes, and it's YOUR backup for YOUR system. Everything else is secondary and can be learned as you go. You'll become a better investor as you learn, but will avoid any major mistakes if you always remember the above.

So putting this money stuff into another context. You are not investing for lots of growth or to sustain max WR, or to get to 33X empenses. Your current concern for money is only as a backup to semi-ERE model of value/income production. This means you want to stabilize your assets present value as a primary concern, you don't want it to be worth less if you need it. IMO the easiest way to do this, guard against inflation, or any other asseting eating situations is the permanent portfolio, or some derivation of it. The main worry with something like this is that you get FOMO on investment returns during the good times and alter course. Also be aware that at some point your purpose for these funds may change. That is the correct time to fundamentally shift investing strategies, not necessarily the current market conditions. Although the better you get a this the more you'll be able to synchronize your money purpose changes with market conditions to maximize benefit. Like tweaking any other system at the correct lever point(s).

[AxelHeyst]

@CL Yeah I can definitely see the value in being able to track my subjective rating on skills through time.

I had to read your last two paragraphs a couple times because I'm braindead today and I just haven't spent much time wrapping my head around those modes of thinking. When the lightbulb went off, I realized you've said something really important that was a blind spot. Thank you!

--//--

Maria Popova is awesome. Her email today was gold, and relevant, and worth pondering. This jumped out at me:

Being a human means accepting promises from other people and trusting that other people will be good to you. When that is too much to bear, it is always possible to retreat into the thought, “I’ll live for my own comfort, for my own revenge, for my own anger, and I just won’t be a member of society anymore.” That really means, “I won’t be a human being anymore.”

You see people doing that today where they feel that society has let them down, and they can’t ask anything of it, and they can’t put their hopes on anything outside themselves. You see them actually retreating to a life in which they think only of their own satisfaction, and maybe the satisfaction of their revenge against society. But the life that no longer trusts another human being and no longer forms ties to the political community is not a human life any longer.

Worth a good solid think, particularly in my own attitudes towards modern society, "the System", etc. I often have a notion that, well, I'd be happy to engage in society if it didn't suck so goddamn hard. I feel like society has been systematically destroyed by turning People/Citizens in to Consumers... we all know the rant. But as much as I withdraw, I secede from the human experience. This is a core driver of my (fuzzy, vague, grasping) vision for the/my future - how to find, cultivate, participate in society in a way that is rich, meaningful, human...

Things get significantly more complicated, however, when we find ourselves in binds that seem to call for tragedy by asking us to make impossible choices between multiple things we hold dear.