anomie's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
FBeyer
Posts: 1069
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:25 am

Re: anomie's journal

Post by FBeyer »

Are you following an actual exercise program?
If you own a bench a rack and a proper amount of weight I'll heartily recommend: Starting Strength by Rippetoe and Kilgore.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Starting-Streng ... g+strength

They go into EXCRUCIATING detail about everything worth knowing about the 5 most useful barbell lifts. (\russian accent) Get book, do book, get strong like bear (\end Russian Accent)

theanimal
Posts: 2628
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Location: AK
Contact:

Re: anomie's journal

Post by theanimal »

I enjoy your journal anomie. On the first page you mentioned using your inheritance to undo some of what earned the wealth. Care to elaborate?

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

Hello -
First , more Serious stuff, then much less serious stuff ...

Thanks for commenting!

@FBeyer - thanks for the recommendation. Will check out this mighty russian writer.

@theanimal - Thanks for the positive feedback! And ... Yes I will do so; will try to elaborate in next few days. Is a basic story of a wealth built on state-supported monopoly, historical racist oppression, chemical death due to addiction, and general protectionism in the name of 'capitalism'. hmm, actually that about sums it up. But will go into more detail as I can safely do so over more thought ...


Basement work porn --
A pic of my weight room / dungeon; note the nice stucco against the far wall. This guy did a great job all around. And the tuck-pointing in the far wall; we never ever used the basement before, and now I have my own little man-cave space! whee!!
Image


and a picture outside of my workroom window ; a typical day in small town winter midwest blah:
Image

and ...
Not serious
Below is a picture of me after exercising in the morning ...
(jk)
:D :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


warning!!!

BELOW is a gratuitous image that can't be unseen ....



.


.
.
.
.
.
.
You have been warned!!

.
.
.

Seriously! I warned you!


.

.

..


...
Image
Ohh yeah! (I was googling for a bicep gif for FBeyer reply and found this.. lol!)
(the first animated gif embedded on the ere forum??)

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: anomie's journal

Post by thrifty++ »

Be careful benching heavy weights on your on on bench press. Lots of people have died doing that. I generally dont use the "safety" clamps so that if I ever get stuck I can try tipping one side over so the weights fall off and the other side flies into the air!

Congrats on quitting smoking. I felt no urge to return to it when I realised shit what am I getting out of this other than an expense and loss of health. There is no pros only cons. Alcohol on the other hand can be more difficult. There is a clear euphoric high plus a nice taste.

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

@thrifty
nice tip on the bench press bar.

It reminds me of a vivid story from 20 years ago, that I am not sure worth communicating in this venue.


@bigato - Hey! How's it going?

I will try to be on the #ere channel more next few weeks just to see if anyone still there:

https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=ere

Logging in to freenode from a web browser seems to provide more anonymity than using a desktop client like pidgin which registers your ip address as part of your account. But maybe I am just very rusty with the arcane intricacies of irc.

And besides, it is just another web browser tab in this age of keeping about 20 open...


++++++++++++
For my or others reference..
some forum threads about Instant Messaging , irc, and chat rooms, aka beating a dead horse:

IRC?

Forum Instant Messaging

(since you can't search forum for 'irc' since forum does not allow 3 letter searches..) internet chat room. wow this topic has been around for years and years...

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

Greetings and salutations -
It has been a long while since I have updated this journal.
First, the meeting with the financial planner went really well; we got a gratis complete plan that included FireCalc type projections from them. Guess our savings qualified us for a real wealth management type treatment. Apparently there is at least one tier above us, but we qualified for a 2 part meeting where we came away with a thorough analysis of our finances, and advisement based on our responses to a survey as to recommendations.
We told the guy my plan to leave work in October; both of us to retire in 10 years and travel, etc.
He came back with a rec that said preferred course would be that we both work for 3 more years for 100%+ success rate, but whatever ..

I am now at my retirement date, so I felt to inform.

I am pretty much FI in the context of my life now. **

However, for funsies an opportunity at work arose over the summer and now I am working in new position. Doing tech management for a bit more $, and still able to telecommute. I avoided management in the past, prefer to drink lots of caffeine, blast music, and write code. Now that I can afford to fail at it, thought to give new thing a try.

So I have committed to that for 12-24 months, as long as it is fun and interesting. This new thing is also really time consuming, so I have not been able to read or play or do much of anything I once did. Reading this kind ERE forum is one such past time lost for now.


** I live combined life. Personally, I can live on $15k yr or so; combined we are closer to $40+ / yr. Our assets have grown to over $ target amounts, plus we will not touch them for 9 more years while my sig other provides month-to month.

I hope to fight future middle age dementia by doing tech activism of some sort in my spare time. and to resume playing video games....


best wishes to you.

Image

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

Hello! been a while. Lurking a bit, but hope to be back a bit more.
So. I am retired. Done.

my stats for possible useful reference by others:
  • retired at 49
  • dw working till 55'ish, our month to month coming out of this
  • no kids or other financial obligations
  • own our home and a 15 year old car
  • we are at 4% wr now, still accumulating, and not spending it for another 10+ years
Our plan is to do a lot of traveling in about 8 years, while we still have some health about us. She gets to travel a bit with work now, and now I have time to do this with her, so that is very cool.

We are very fortunate in many ways:
  • while the markets have been good to us, the bulk of our expenses are soft and can be cut as needed.
  • we have decent health
  • have the advantage of having both good finances, and skills and frugal lifestyle that can make it through the down times.
I am now at the boring phase of life where my biggest worry is my aging parents and in-laws. I am grateful this is our biggest worry.

The future is uncertain but the end is always near.

humor
Remember the Nonconformist Oath!
https://bongomusicsearch.com/download/8 ... -Oath.html
:)

I hope to stick around the boards a bit more to encourage others.
(Maybe one of the things I can work on now that i have time is my writing skills! hah! This journal entry seemed more interesting when it was in my head..)


Gratuituous interesting image for lack of substantive content:
Image

be well

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: anomie's journal

Post by wolf »

Congratulation. Take care and I am looking to read more about your PostFIRE phase.

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

5 Years of Retirement

So I arbitrarily chose a date for my retirement, and made it so. Announced the date at work, got a small retirement party from the employer I worked with for ten years or so, and ended working for pay in the summer of 2017. I had noticed that my vision was getting weaker, and also started encountering middle aged people with vision problems who continued working in IT. People diagnosed as legally blind who worked with enhanced monitors to even be able to see the screen. So I was glad to be out for the most part.

Though, since my life revolved around computers for the twenty years prior, they would continue to play a big role in my life after retirement. Like an auto mechanic who moves over to racing cars for a hobby, or a boxer who moves to managing a gym or training other fighters, I would not leave my chosen field completely.

My personal financial needs were pretty small, with no children or debts. Some minor substance habits, and minor medical expenses, overall ok. The stock market continued to grow, and any financial worries subsided along with it.

Soon after retirement, a good friend was diagnosed with cancer. I spent the first six months after work playing turn-based rpg computer games with him. This became an almost daily activity, playing Divinity: Original Sin I and II, among other games. Play games during the day, and hang out with spouse at night. I enjoyed the freedom from worry about work.

Initially upon retirement I dabbled with side work, and continued skill training, but gave all of that up after a few months.

Eight months after retirement my wife was diagnosed with cancer. I was able to care for her and our life in small town America. I learned to cook food that she liked, and we survived the following years of her cancer treatments playing computer games and eating meals that I learned to cook from meal kit services. (Shout out to you, Sunbasket! :) We played the same type of rpg games, but also expanded after the first year to play an mmorpg together as well. She would come home from work, and we would get lost in the game world tasks of our chosen virtual home Eorzea. It helped us get through the year of chemotherapy.

2020
Pandemic begins, no huge change of life for an mmorpg player. I spend more and more time in organizing online gaming activities, participating in the mmo community. Exercise, mmorpg, hang out with spouse. We learn to order groceries online for pick-up, and avoid going out.

2021 / 22
Sell house, move overseas for a year for wife’s work. Continue gaming with North American community - thank you internet!

Finances

Some numbers:
Actual WR
2018 4.51%
2019 3.17%
2020 2.41%
2021 1.47%

I tally things at end-of-month, but really no longer spend time worrying about money so much. The worries in that are are more how to convert financial things to more long-term and less variable investments, something I need to work on the next few years.

Future
We will be traveling more over the next year, visiting family in Europe and looking for fun low cost places for retirement. Then back to the midwest for a few years while spouse finishes work. Focus on being healthy, and living simple life.

Looking Back

Things I had no idea about during earlier years:
  • The progression of vision decline for aging appears that it can be: bifocals, progressive lens, then middle-range vision glasses for computer work. And worse.
Conclusion

Present day I am lucky to say that spouse and friend are doing ok, with their diseases in remission.

Age, coping with illness in the family, and in truth being pre-occupied with mmorpg life have changed me in ways I do not fully understand.

I am pretty satisfied with the past few years, grateful for my early retirement.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1612
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: anomie's journal

Post by Lemur »

Neat - you had a 5 year lapse in posts....what prompted you to remember the ERE boards?

Man I have not lost my reality to MMORPG since high school...I'm 31 now. Every now and then that thought crosses my head to be once again engrossed in a MMORPG game. Maybe that will be one of the things I do when I fully retire one day - I never wanted to be invested in a game until I truly can. Growing up, I first learned to program with Game Maker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameMaker
Last edited by Lemur on Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

Hi, I just realized that 5 years had passed and wanted to do some sort of summary reflection. I spent years here in ERE land, focused on many of these topics, and respect a lot of people I still see here.

Yes, I avoided mmorpg's while working. And now am trying to explore and understand a sort of aging gamer culture. I encounter all types of people there, as you can expect, and am amazed there at some of the people that juggle families, jobs, and games.

AnalyticalEngine
Posts: 949
Joined: Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:57 am

Re: anomie's journal

Post by AnalyticalEngine »

Nice update. It's always interesting to see what happens to people after they pull the plug. It seems like you went through a lot with cancer.

I'm curious how you see gaming culture now. I know the culture of video games has changed a lot with the massive quantity on the market. What draws you to mmorpgs now?

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

Was initially looking for a game to play with spouse when she was sick. We chose this game because it was reported to be couple friendly. She has moved on after a year. I stayed with it, and got more and more involved with it.

I still find the variables involved in player outcome interesting - skill, hardware, and age. I am not a very good gamer skill wise, and focus on building a gaming community at my skill and interest level, with emphasis on my age demographic.

The learning curve , at least for me, for an mmorpg is/was immense. My previous time commitment was measured in the dozens of hours (for a game like say Witcher 3, maybe 150 hours total). I did not know that 'games' where you spend thousands of hours playing and researching and practicing and exploring, existed. 4-6 hours / day the way I meander and play it, not efficiently I am sure. For 4.5 years , now? yikes.

Not sure how long I will stay with it in the long term. But it has been an interesting ride.

Gaming culture in my mind is just a product of the huge amount of free time we have in this society. The proliferation of games , and the variety of platforms, provide infinite diversion. Serves to further fracture society, but also gives people new communities of interest around which to form I guess.

anomie
Posts: 442
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: midwest, usa

Re: anomie's journal

Post by anomie »

AnalyticalEngine wrote:
Tue Jun 07, 2022 3:18 pm
I'm curious how you see gaming culture now. I know the culture of video games has changed a lot with the massive quantity on the market. What draws you to mmorpgs now?
(attempt 2 to answer the question)
I was initially drawn to mmorpg because of the possibilities of gaming in a virtual world with hundreds of other people. The reality is sort of a let down, in truth. Coming to terms with what it is, and trying to work with what is available has kept me going I think.

sodatrain
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2022 5:43 pm

Re: anomie's journal

Post by sodatrain »

Congratulations and thanks for the update! Very interesting to see as a newbie.

Post Reply