ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

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mountainFrugal
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Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by mountainFrugal »

I personally just sleep in a shirt and pants under the ultra-light motto of "if you did not wear every piece of clothing at some point you over packed." The margin for error here is smaller on longer trips when you cannot get a good weather forecast, but usually can be okay for warm temps. If you get into colder temps the quilt plus a silk liner/sheet can be helpful to reduce drafts and better regulate temps. I am generally a very warm sleeper so a few layers of clothing with the quilt over most of my body area is enough to stay toasty. This does not directly answer the humidity problem, but sleeping on wetter trips I just make sure to have a wicking layer directly next to the skin and a midlayer between the wicking layer and pad. Vancouver Island is a lot wetter then where I usually adventure so any other thoughts @stasher?

Stasher
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Location: Vancouver Island BC
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Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by Stasher »

Mountain Frugal pretty much covered it off for my approach. I spend most of my time in the alpine which thankfully cools just enough 8-10C at night to sleep comfortably in just my t-shirt. When it is hot I leave my sleeping bag unzipped and just sleep directly on the pad. Haven't had too many issues but also it isn't overly humid here so the struggle isn't that bad. As for cool wet trips I sleep in my thin merino base layer top and bottoms.

Western Red Cedar
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Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Congratulations on dropping down to a one car family. Decisions like this show how getting rid of options actually opens new doors:
Stasher wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 1:37 pm
Last week I did a massive 160km (100 mile) ride on my gravel bike to pickup my new sleeping bag from my favourite outdoor store. Why drive when I can make it a little mini local adventure with my ERE freedom of time. Was able to do the trip at least 75% on rails to trails and dedicated pathway systems in regional/provincial parks.
You are living an amazing life up there.

Stasher
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Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by Stasher »

That was one heck of a sustained absence from the forums here, I find when the summer season hits I am 100% outdoors mode. Now that the darker and wetter days of winter come back in the PNW I gravitate back to reading books, spending time on the forums and visiting blogs.

It has been one heck of a rollercoaster of watching the stock market do its thing during this 6 month update hiatus. It almost doesn't seem to make sense, thus I don't try to make it be so. It is what it is and I just watch my expenses and monitor my income. I am enjoying my financial freedom but I guess I'm not actually free from work. I help my wife look after our store and I built up a little freelance gig of tourism based photography and writing work that kept me hoping this summer. This has helped me take nothing out of my investments since the beginning of the year to cover our living expenses.

I still fall on the MMM spectrum and am in no way ERE , but I much prefer the later.

Spending goes up in the summer months, mostly as that is when property taxes come due, I drive more for hiking/biking destinations and we are generally more active.

May > $3647 - major cost was having an arborist do major treetop work and clean up all our trees
June > $3632 - major cost was annual furnace maintenance & we ate out more
**$3491 > annual property taxes due (this includes water/sewer/garbage/recycling/organics
July > $3585 - major cost was a water heater repair (replacing heating elements)
Aug > $4396 - major cost was a vet bill and travel for a family wedding
Sept > $4046 - major cost was personal spending (bike/tattoo) and travel for Canadian Thanksgiving
Oct > $3549 - major cost was last bit of Thanksgiving travel, spending way more in line

So far in November I have had some big costs come in line. My goal has been to keep my old SUV as long as possible therefore I invest into it to keep in top condition. I had a major service done of flushing coolant, flushing brake fluid, flushing rear transaxle fluid and then normal oil change & related filters. I did do my own front callipers, pads and rotors myself at home to save significant money. I then just bought new tires this week as I pushed the old ones as far as possible that I was willing for safety in our wet winters and risk of a flat. Combined these two line items represent $1900 that will be in the end of the month tally.

Investments are the highest they have ever been since leaving work in 2017, during that time I have not invested any money. Just the last 6 months have seen a swing of over $60,000 with that October market loss which has me now with the rise back up at an all time high. I still am playing it safe with my 90% stocks 10% bonds across 3 index fund ETFs.

I'm getting outside loads, plenty of epic trips hiking and backpacking this year as well as enjoying myself. Health and fitness are where I want them and the family is doing well.

My thoughts of downsizing and cashing in on housing equity just aren't any reality possible with the current insane housing market here. Prices in just the last year have gone up 30% and there is basically no inventory. My kids are both over 20 and I don't see a time where they can move out, so for now I am happy with them basically taking half our house. Prices are unrealistic and rentals don't exist, I don't want them wasting money in this market. We will be keeping the house situation the same for the next 5 years is my best guess. Heck we may settle into our ways and this will be our last home, time to think of major upgrades like solar system etc

I'll update some fancy graphs next post :)
Time to walk the dogs, ciao for now

AxelHeyst
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Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by AxelHeyst »

Phew, glad that was just a seasonal hiatus. Welcome back. :)

Any insights into how continuing to share the house with your kids is sustainable? Are there co-habitation skills or practices you or they had to learn to keep things smooth?

Stasher
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Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by Stasher »

Hey AxelHeyst , it is going good so far. Our house is laid out nicely that they have the basement and their own space. We turned the basement family room into my son's room and then my daughter took the large bedroom. There is a basement washroom/shower they use exclusively. My son is a on-site HD mechanic so he is gone long hours each day. My daughter juggles 3 part time jobs and is gone during the day. They are also very active with friends so not home much at night. At this point I have told them to just help around the house and pay a portion of utilities, mortgage is my responsibility.

I'll do more updates on my investments, my thoughts on FI so far and what I'm thinking for the future as well as major concerns of climate crisis and pending inflation as well how to mitigate possible stock market correction/drop.

Vancouver Island and Vancouver have just now become cut off from the rest of BC and Canada in one of the worst rain storms and floods in history. We have significant challenges ahead as every single major rail and highway to the coast has been destroyed or damaged by mud slides or washout. Vancouver is one of the most significant import/export cities in North America.
https://youtu.be/7WHnGiR0ch4

2Birds1Stone
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Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Stasher wrote:
Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:26 am

I'll do more updates on my investments, my thoughts on FI so far and what I'm thinking for the future as well as major concerns of climate crisis and pending inflation as well how to mitigate possible stock market correction/drop.
Really look forward to your thoughts on these topics.

Hope you and the family/friends are safe with the crazy storm damage!

Frugalchicos
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Re: ERE is Path to Meaningful Life - MMM style FI year 4

Post by Frugalchicos »

Came across your journal and read it through. I found it very interesting, inspiring and your pics and adventures look amazing!

I hope you come back and give us an update soon!

Btw - beautiful bike and amazing home setup

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