Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I'm excited for you! Hope the new job goes well.

Congratulations.

I saw fish talking about the insecurities higher pay brings. I disagree. You have the higher pay, and only need to work 2 years in the next 14 (12 year's expenses saved, right?) to be FI. Having the FU money means having the freedom to choose what form of further employment to keep. If you average working only 2 months out of each year, you are still golden.

At my first review, I would make it clear that job security is not a priority, and that you are comfortable with long breaks in employment. This will add extra value to your skill set, as most folks are not so flexible. Besides, would it really be so bad to take next year off?

Good luck!

I have to say I really like what you are doing with your life cmonkey. Homsteading, being married, planning to have kids, having roots in a community, etc... It's refreshing vs. everyone these days who want to be a Peter Pan and never grow up, live in a van, travel the world, jump around from place to place like a nomad, not have a family, etc... Tim Ferriss romanticized this lifestyle with the 4 hr work week back 10 yrs or so ago.

I did a lot of the 4 hr WW lifestyle, lived in the sexy cities, didn't have kids, didn't want a family to get in the way of my lifestyle, etc.... Kind of starts to ring hollow after a while though. Now getting in my later 40's, and yeah it was OK. But I guess the grass is greener, and knowing what I know now, I kind of wish I did more of what you are doing.

The basis of happiness for thousands of years was a family farm + a family. Knowing your neighbors.

Gilberto de Piento wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:38 am

I'm excited for you! Hope the new job goes well.

Thanks Gilberto.

Riggerjack wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 22, 2017 11:05 am

Congratulations.

Thank Rigger! I agree on that actually. I also think it just means I am more valuable and in my field (software) the more valuable you are the less likely you won't find work. This new job is going to add TONS to my resume because while I'm working for company #1, I'll be doing cutting edge software projects on the side. Company #1 jumped on the chance to get me on, it took only a 20 minute conversation, so I guess that says something.

I used to think I was just lucky with jobs because almost every single jobs I've interviewed for I got offered, including a couple I didn't take. The only one I got turned down for was the promotion I "tried for" * while I was trying to get this one.

Now I think differently - I am pretty valuable and am good at what I do! In the month between my 'hire date' and my 'start date' with this new company, the consultants gave me a software integration project to do. Basically, write a script that builds a bridge between two different pieces of software. I've never seen any of it before, but I'm about half done after a week. They are pretty impressed I guess. I'm just having fun.

Regarding the review/job security not being too important, the CEO of the consultants knows I am on track for FI in 2 years actually. My friend told him before he even interviewed me, yet didn't tell me. Mr CEO thinks its awesome! So he knows I don't need the money.

Allagash wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:13 pm

I have to say I really like what you are doing with your life cmonkey.

Thanks Allagash. We've always been homesteaders at heart, I just couldn't wander for my whole life. Everyone's different. For a long while I didn't think I wanted kids but as I'm getting older, it just feels right to have at least one. I projected myself into the future for both scenarios (with kids and without) and it broke my heart to think of not having one.


* I actually didn't try at all. I called into it from home ( a big no-no) and gave half assed answers cuz I knew I was leaving.

Riggerjack wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 22, 2017 11:05 am

I saw fish talking about the insecurities higher pay brings. I disagree.

I agree that the large gap between income and expenses means cmonkey is pretty much free to do whatever he wants since FI is nearly inevitable. I'm also seeing it from cmonkey's perspective, where performing high-value specialized work makes him more valuable to the client (and other potential employers), which in turn offers security while the supply-demand balance remains in cmonkey's favor. The way it was originally stated ("at that rate, we can only assign you to one client") triggered all sorts of plot-foreshadowing alarms in my head. I contemplated it in a very narrow sense, where if you're doing the same work as everyone else but earning 50% more, then you're first on the chopping block when times get lean. I didn't consider that it was different work, and resume-building at that. So consider my comment retracted since it was based on the proper context.


@cmonkey - Congratulations on the new job, working from home, and no alarm clocks!! I haven't regularly used an alarm clock in about 8 years now. Don't drink coffee or any other kind of caffeine either. It feels very FI even if the portfolio says otherwise. Also, +1 to Allagash's comment praising the wisdom of your life vision (i.e. knowing you want children before it's too late).

Fish wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2017 4:18 pm

@cmonkey - Congratulations on the new job, working from home, and no alarm clocks!! I haven't regularly used an alarm clock in about 8 years now. Don't drink coffee or any other kind of caffeine either. It feels very FI even if the portfolio says otherwise. Also, +1 to Allagash's comment praising the wisdom of your life vision (i.e. knowing you want children before it's too late).

Thanks Fish! What you said about 'it feels very FI' rings a bell with me these past couple of weeks. I hardly feel "employed" now. All of the bells and whistles of a job have disappeared with my new job - commuting, stupid coworkers, an actual workplace. I wake up and each day is my own now, its just that I need to log on the computer and do this development work each day.

I've left the house 2 times since I was last in the office, which was 3 weeks ago. It's marvelous.

October 2017 Update

We've made a lot of progress over the past 4 months. FI funds just topped 150K and networth is approaching 300K which includes our paid off homestead.

Expenses have stayed pretty consistent this summer, except for September, which saw us put in a patio so we could build our greenhouse on top of it.


Expenses/Savings

Total Spend - $1848.47
Total Savings - $8203.27 ; 82%

Time to Bills Only - Accomplished!
Time to Bills & Food - 4 Months (-11)
Time to TTM Expenses - 21 Months (-9)
Tim to 3% WR - 31 Months

TTM Expenses - $12363.64(+ $494.25)
Total FAI - $5903.10 (+ $1011.51)













Greenhouse!!

Hopefully I didn't disappoint anyone with my greenhouse build. I made up plans to build a nice attached, lean-to greenhouse, but in the end we decided to go with a kit greenhouse after thinking about the resaleability of our house in a few years if we decide we want to move. With this kind of install, we can just take the kit with us and we are left with a nice patio, which is easy maintenance for all those lazy homeowners who might be turned off from a custom greenhouse.

I had to to rent a jackhammer again and dig out at least a ton of concrete footings from that concrete slab I dug out last year. I also had to level this area which meant removing a whole lot of dirt!

In all it took 2-3 weeks of work.

Here's from before :



Now :

Sharp.

Stats look great! Harbor Freight greenhouse?

Gilberto de Piento wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:40 pm

Stats look great! Harbor Freight greenhouse?

Thanks.

It's a Palram brand bought through Wayfair. It's pretty decent, but the plastic is thin. I'm going to hook up a furnace duct and vent it into the greenhouse to see if we can keep it heated, along with a small space heater and lots of bubble wrap!

If anything, it'll extend our season by at least 2 months each year I think.

Outstanding! I love your life. The greenhouse isn't shabby, either. I see a LOT of those in my line of work when driving up in the mountains in Humboldt county, CA. Seems like if you hooked it up to a heating duct it would grow year round?

dagiffy wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:17 pm

Outstanding! I love your life. The greenhouse isn't shabby, either. I see a LOT of those in my line of work when driving up in the mountains in Humboldt county, CA. Seems like if you hooked it up to a heating duct it would grow year round?

Thanks dagiffy. Hopefully! We get cold here in the midwest, so it'll be a stretch. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Awesome greenhouse. Can't wait to see what you do with it

Have you thought about heating it (with a rocket stove or somesuch) and growing through the winter?

@vexed, Thanks! We have a few things in there already and I also built a couple "planters" and have some greens started. Arugula, lettuce, spinach and mizuna. I'm going to try keeping them going.

I'm going to run a furnace duct to it to see how warm it will stay. I also have a bunch of bubble wrap and am going to double layer the walls and roof. Also have a small space heater. The rocket stove isn't a bad idea though and I have a lot of wood. I'd need to figure out how to do the chimney....

I've seen cool projects where it all runs underground, so you might be digging that lovely patio back up.

Head over to permies.com for some ideas!

If you keep pots of water in the greenhouse, they'll heat up during the day and release the heat at night. You can also line the floor with material that will do the same.

Painting the floors and surfaces exposed to direct sunlight black would help a lot too, but perhaps might cause overheating in the summer, maybe put a black tarp down in colder months?

Turn your "lot of wood" into a Jean Pain pile up against the wall of the greenhouse and run tubes of water through the greenhouse then coiled up in the pile?

Yea there are lots of neat ideas out there. The best one I saw was a guy that had PVC pipe laid out under the floor of his greenhouse that collected hot air from the peak of the greenhouse during the day. It heated up the gravel bed which released heat at night. I think that was his only source of heat and he was in Minnesota or somewhere similar.

So far my greenhouse is staying 10 degrees warmer at night than the surrounding air without heat. It is nestled in a SW corner so its a heat trap, getting up over 100 even when it's vented. The space heater added another 5 degrees on when I ran it one night - but it cost me like $1.50 for just the one night.

Jean Pain technique is awesome, but thinking about it, it's probably less useful at heating water in winter months as composting naturally slows down in the winter. It might work if your pile is big enough and well insulated from the elements. I've never tried it myself, so I might be wrong!