Trailblazer's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
classical_Liberal
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

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Last edited by classical_Liberal on Thu Feb 04, 2021 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

trailblazer
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by trailblazer »

@CL - no problem - it's the topic I'm thinking about right now. If and when I settle in one area I agree that some sort of single family makes sense, especially with the prices @2B1S is talking about. I've seen many tempting condo prices, but like you say, with the HOA and unpredictable future levies etc., may as well rent. I have no objection to a mobile home, but those can have space rental fees etc. Not confident enough in my handy skills to buy a piece of land and put a trailer on it, but that could be cool.

My plan is to spend the next 6 to 12 months experimenting with some different approaches - especially shorter term 1 to 2 month rentals in cheap locations, and maybe even some mini experiments with an RV/trailer type arrangement (such as borrowing one for a few days and seeing how it feels). I know from experience that changing locations every day gets old quick (not to mention expensive unless using something like a van). I'm hoping some longer term stays can trick me into thinking I have a stable home.

If you haven't read it, there's a great journal on this site called "25yo retiring to third world country" by a guy named jeanpaul. He doesn't update very often so you have to look for it, but he basically rotates around the world 6 months at a time and seems to pull it off on a budget that is even lower than the ones we are planning. It's a really inspiring journal - he retired at a young age with 200K if I recall. It's probably my ideal arrangement if I can make it work.

Also, lacking ambition.com is a great blog of a guy who's done some creative things with very cheap single family homes to fund retirement . . . though I don't think he travels much.

In the first year or two, I think my "personal competitive advantage" in pulling off ERE will be a willingness to be highly flexible and mobile, so I'm hesitant to lock into any big physical purchases quite yet. If some random opportunity comes up to go overseas and do an interesting volunteer project for a year, or go on a 6 month slow travel hike, I don't want to be stuck with a house. But I'm going to have my eye out and will share what I learn! Look forward to hearing what you and 2B1S do.

trailblazer
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End of Year Numbers

Post by trailblazer »

End of Year Finances

Stocks 253,698 (71%)
Bonds 46,922 (13%)
Metal 12,862 (4%)
Crypto 7,356 (2%)
Cash 35,628 (10%)

Total Assets 356,467.50
Portfolio Must Last: 25.5 years

Return Required for Monthly Spending Levels
2,000: 4.73%
1,500: 2.08%
1,000: -1.17%

- Will begin living off this portfolio on January 1 - until now I’ve been using up a separate “Retirement Transition Fund” I set aside.
- Shifted some of my stock allocation to cash. I now have a 4 year buffer (3 years of cash + 1 year precious metal) . . . I may slowly reinvest about $10K of the cash as opportunity arises.
- My crypto has roughly doubled in the last 6 weeks, and I also bought about $1,500 more. We’ve been promised 100x increase, so I will be a millionaire by early 2020 at latest. ;) I’m about 3K bitcoin, 3K split between ripple/ETH/LTC/ADA/bitcoin cash, and 1.5K in smaller alt coins. No plans to buy more.
- My only budgeted expenses are $133.77 per month, mostly to cover insurance and phone.

Other

- Will spend the next 6 months slow traveling
- Need to get serious about diet and exercise - this will be a priority
- Just started reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung. I can tell it will be profound.

Best Random Quote I Heard

“I am looking for a dare to be great situation.” - John Cusack in Say Anything

trailblazer
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by trailblazer »

Time for an update!

The market went up in January . . . then back down in February. But I’m basically where I was on January 1.

I bough some more crypto. I don’t know what will become of this asset class, but it bothers me more to not be exposed than to be exposed. I’m a contrarian at heart, so I bought a bit more.

I sold some of my stock position, but bought some out-of-the-money S&P 500 call options and put the extra in cash. This is more true to the barbell strategy I want to follow. (I wish I had the guts to do the Taleb-style 90% cash/10% options.) If the market makes a major jump up over the next couple years, I’ll be in good shape as the options will pay off big time.

I haven’t been formally tracking expenses - hope to do that in future months. I signed up for a somewhat expensive meal delivery service. I want to lose some extra pounds - so I think the expense is worth it. Not a very ERE-style move, but in the short term I think it will help me meet my weight loss goals. So far it has helped me get my blood sugar under control - will try it for another month or so.

I’ve been spending time in the Bay Area - more expensive than other locations but I’ve had a few interesting work opportunities and networking opportunities pop up so I think financially it is worth the expense to hang out here for now.

Finances as of 2/23/2018

Stocks 229,353 (65% - previously 71% on 12/31/2017)
Options 4,898 (1% - previously 0%)
Bonds 43,178 (12% - previously 13%)
Metal 12,987 (4% - previously 4%)
Crypto 20,908 (6% - previously 2%)
Cash 40,937 (12% - previously 10%)

Total Assets 352,261.16 (356,467.50 as of 12/31/2017)

trailblazer
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A few days in the real world

Post by trailblazer »

For me, the most powerful ERE realization is that I can work part time at McDonalds and make ends meet.

I think of this every time I walk down a nearby street with a dozen fast food restaurants, most of which have “now hiring” banners hanging outside. In my mind the concepts of “ERE” and “all it takes is part-time McDonalds” have become welded together - I see a flash of the Golden Arches each time I visit this website.

I’m not applying at my local McDonalds. But the “McDonalds concept” came as a great relief when I first read it a few years ago (on the blog somewhere?). No more pressure for promotions, cars, pay raises, million dollar accumulations.

Worse case scenario, I go work at McDonalds a bit. If I go full-time, and maybe throw in 20 hours per week at Burger King, I’ll have quite the surplus.

With the pressure gone, life is just me and whatever I can make of it. Building my skills and relationships and seeing what that might accomplish.

*****

I’ve been hanging out in the Bay Area lately. It’s not the cheapest location, but I’ve been breaking even (more or less) by staying far outside the center and not making unnecessary purchases.

The last few weeks I’ve been making an effort to get in touch with my “network” . . . a terrible word but there is truth to the phenomena. (As an extreme introvert it amazes me that this is the case - I have a relationship with these people based on prior employment interactions, that interaction is over, but they are now doing something interesting, it turns out we still know one another, and they might even be willing to leverage this into some entirely new and different venture that combines the best of my skills and their skills.)

My basic story is that I’m taking some time off, doing a bit of traveling, seeing what opportunities may pop up. Enjoying a long-awaited sabbatical. So far, everyone gets this. No one questions the desire or wisdom of such a move. I don’t explain ERE. It is assumed that I will be seeking full-time employment in the near future.

One friend is currently involved in a new venture that is actually pretty interesting. I was able to tell them with a straight face that “I’m not necessarily looking for a steady paycheck, so I’d be willing to try a few projects.” A very liberating and satisfying moment. This person is worth at least 20x more than I am, but they also fund three different homes and are quite happy to receive a steady paycheck.

At the moment it feels like the economy is still booming. There are a lot of people doing interesting things. I want to be plugged into this. But I want to err on the side of high risk ventures. I want to see what might happen if I put myself out there as a valuable resource with nothing to lose. But I’m done with traditional full-time employment. So stay tuned . . .

trailblazer
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Higher Quality Sleep/Dreams

Post by trailblazer »

Since retiring, I’ve been able to focus more on the quality of my sleep and also the quality of my dreams.

I’m just starting to learn about dreams, and I’m curious if anyone has a recommended starting point for learning more. I tried reading Carl Jung’s “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” and was excited for about the first 50 pages, but it ended up being way over my head. (It also seemed highly speculative.)

I have not yet experienced Lucid Dreaming, but my dreams have become much longer with deeper and sustained “story lines” (if that’s the word for it). Each individual dream scenario lasts longer, and the events that occur within the dream seem to be more connected/related - there is more of an organized, multi-step plot to them.

My hypothesis is that this is caused by 3 factors:

1. Less stress about making sure I wake up on time to get to work and feeling the subconscious need to check work messages.

2. I’ve always been a fairly heavy reader, but my reading has increased significantly during retirement. I’ve also been increasingly listening to audiobooks - I find that this allows for a more reflective/meditative interaction with the book . . . in a way it is a bit like dreaming when visualizing a story that you are listening to. I wonder if this is building some sort of “dreaming” muscle in my brain.

3. I’ve been practicing Interrupted/Biphasic sleep on most nights. Since childhood, I would fall asleep at a relatively normal time, but then wake up after about 3 hours. With great frustration, I would lie in bed, unable to get back to sleep. A few years ago I learned about Interrupted Sleep, which came as a great relief. [There’s a good summary of this topic on wikipedia that is quite reflective of my experience. I've summarized some highlights below.] I’ve embraced my middle of the night wakefulness, which has led to a richer, more peaceful “second sleep” - which is when much of the deeper/sustained dreaming occurs. This second sleep is of a different quality than my first sleep. It is a more restful/peaceful sleep - almost like a very deep afternoon nap but without the grogginess upon waking.

*********

Highlights of Wikipedia article on Interrupted Sleep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biphasic_ ... asic_sleep:

- Before the Industrial Revolution, interrupted sleep was dominant in Western civilization, based on evidence from documents from the ancient, medieval, and modern world.

- Historically, adults typically slept in two distinct phases, bridged by an intervening period of wakefulness. This time was used to “pray and reflect, and to interpret dreams, which were more vivid at that hour than upon waking in the morning. This was also a favorite time for scholars and poets to write uninterrupted, whereas still others visited neighbors, engaged in sexual activity, or committed petty crime.”

- The human circadian rhythm regulates the human sleep-wake cycle of wakefulness during the day and sleep at night, but because of electric lighting most modern humans do not practice interrupted sleep. Many experience a feeling of peace during the nighttime wakefulness, possibly due to the brain exhibiting high levels of the pituitary hormone prolactin during this period.

- The modern assumption that consolidated sleep with no awakenings is the normal and correct way for human adults to sleep, may lead people to believe they have a sleep disorder.

- Historians have found that the two periods of night sleep were called "first sleep" (occasionally "dead sleep") and "second sleep" (or "morning sleep") in medieval England. First and second sleep were also the terms in the Romance languages, as well as in the language of the Tiv of Nigeria.

- In a 1992 study, Thomas Wehr had eight healthy men confined to a room for fourteen hours of darkness daily for a month. Gradually, the subjects began to sleep much as people in pre-industrial times had. They would sleep for about four hours, wake up for two to three hours, then go back to bed for another four hours.

theanimal
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by theanimal »

I don't have any resources to recommend. However, if you are interested in lucid dreaming, what I've found helps most is a dream journal. Have it by your bedside and write down your dreams the first second you wake up. Within a couple weeks or so, you should start lucid dreaming. Sleep prep also makes a big factor ie no screens before bed, stimulants etc. But it sounds like you already have that part down.

Multi-phasic sleep is interesting. I haven't been able to achieve it on a sustained basis myself. It is somewhat bizarre to think in the past that people would be up in the wee hours of the morning, visiting each other, engaging in creative activities or sex between sleeps.

On an anecdotal basis, I've noticed sleep is also affected by light levels. Here in northern AK, many sleep for very long periods in the winter season when light levels are low or non existent. It becomes very hard to wake up in the morning. On the contrary, summer with its abundant light is a period of less sleep for most and activity throughout the night while the sun is up.

Keep us posted!

trailblazer
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by trailblazer »

theanimal wrote:
Wed Mar 21, 2018 10:40 pm
Here in northern AK, many sleep for very long periods in the winter season when light levels are low or non existent. It becomes very hard to wake up in the morning.
I've never experienced non-existent light (or 24 hour light) and look forward to trying at some point . . . I've always liked the image of being in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness at night (or in a Southwestern desert). Every time I drive through a rural area and see a trailer in the middle of nowhere I think "I bet living here is interesting, especially at night." I'm sure it gets old quick . . . and maybe not as interesting as visiting a medieval village 500 years ago where everyone is wandering around between sleeps at 3 a.m. :)

The dream journal is a good suggestion - I've never formally tried it. It would probably trigger all sorts of insights.

Enjoy your journal - you are not afraid to try things!

jacob
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Re: Higher Quality Sleep/Dreams

Post by jacob »

trailblazer wrote:
Wed Mar 21, 2018 9:59 pm
- In a 1992 study, Thomas Wehr had eight healthy men confined to a room for fourteen hours of darkness daily for a month. Gradually, the subjects began to sleep much as people in pre-industrial times had. They would sleep for about four hours, wake up for two to three hours, then go back to bed for another four hours.
Interesting, that's pretty much exactly what's happening to me. I wake up around 2:15 every single night. You could set the clock after it. It never occurred to me to get up and walk around though. I deliberately try to go to bed as late as possible to make that [awake] period as short as possible, but maybe I shouldn't.
I have not yet experienced Lucid Dreaming, but my dreams have become much longer with deeper and sustained “story lines” (if that’s the word for it). Each individual dream scenario lasts longer, and the events that occur within the dream seem to be more connected/related - there is more of an organized, multi-step plot to them.
I can't say I enjoy this part. Being more aware of [dreaming] yet not fully lucid, it's like having to watch a damn movie every single night. I think I prefer being mostly blanked out like when I was working.

theanimal
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Re: Higher Quality Sleep/Dreams

Post by theanimal »

jacob wrote:
Fri Mar 23, 2018 3:17 pm
I can't say I enjoy this part. Being more aware of [dreaming] yet not fully lucid, it's like having to watch a damn movie every single night. I think I prefer being mostly blanked out like when I was working.
I find the worst to be when you are aware you are dreaming and try to wake up to snap out of it. But instead of waking up in real life you only wake up in the dream. Those ones leave me really confused.

niemand
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by niemand »

LOL, in my last lucid dream I did an internet search for a passport sleeve and found exactly the design I needed. While dreaming I thought "I really need to remember the brand name". After the dream I woke up briefly, wrote down "karamaback" before sleeping some more.

Very handy indeed if dreams allow you to unearth existing information from you subconscious.....

Next day, although it hadn't occurred to me before that I needed one, I looked for karamaback passport sleeves online. It made sense, I just had gotten a new passport and the old one was falling apart after nine years of use ....

Of course the brand "karamaback" didn't exist at all.
Damn you subconscious!

So I went with the ERE solution of having no passport sleeve at all. They expire after 10 years anyway, and getting nine years out of them is pretty alright.

chenda
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by chenda »

karamaback sounds like a good name for some high end business :)

trailblazer
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Re: Higher Quality Sleep/Dreams

Post by trailblazer »

jacob wrote:
Fri Mar 23, 2018 3:17 pm
I deliberately try to go to bed as late as possible to make that [awake] period as short as possible, but maybe I shouldn't.
You could try it a few times and see what happens. For me, it ends up being a useful period of clarity. I get out of bed, say "well i'm awake now" and sit in a chair. I'll read, maybe get up and do an easy chore.

When I was still working, I found it was a good time to draft emails that I had previously been stuck on . . . once or twice sending them at 3 a.m. for fun. In general, it's a good time for getting unstuck on decisions.

I try to avoid anything too random - like checking headlines or something that isn't substantive (like listening to music). I will have a few sips of coffee. I usually think to myself "I'm up for good now" but after a few hours the fatigue hits and I'm back asleep. Maybe 20% of the time I don't fall back asleep - usually I can explain it - too much coffee, got too involved in reading messages. I then fall asleep earlier the next night.
Mustermann wrote:
Fri Mar 23, 2018 5:04 pm
Very handy indeed if dreams allow you to unearth existing information from you subconscious.....
haha. that's about as useful as my dreams have been so far, too. But there must be some reason we have them, right?

trailblazer
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by trailblazer »

I’ve decided that my ideal life will be:

1. 3 to 6 months extensive travel
2. 3 to 6 months sit home and do nothing
3. 3 to 6 months intensive work
4. Repeat over and over

I’ve just checked off items 1 and 2. That means . . . it’s time for #3. As a result, I’ve joined a start-up!

The subject matter itself is somewhat meh [a lot meh], but the underlying business model is disruptive to established companies in my prior industry. I happen to know that my former mega corp employer is aware of what we are doing, has expressed concern/interest, and that they are not in a position to rapidly adapt. All of this makes my contrarian heart feel happy.

The role itself will be a stretch role - building on existing skills and requiring development of a range of new ones. Sadly not true renaissance skills like carpentry or wilderness survival, but it will build and broaden my business acumen, making it all the easier to get interesting gigs down the road.

I will receive a modest salary - it will cover ongoing living expenses and benefits with room to spare. Most of the surplus will probably be spent on purchasing consumer conveniences to make the intense workload easier, though I may dabble in a few riskier investment strategies I've been wanting to try but can't justify within my existing retirement nut [microcaps, options, and a bit more crypto when prices dip].

Within 3 to 6 months, it should be clear whether this has any legs, both the business itself and my personal involvement. I know the team well and it will be fun to work with them. Lots of start-up horror stories out there, so hopefully we all survive intact. But bottom line is I’ve been getting the urge lately for a “give it all you got/be all you can be/[insert other cliche here]” opportunity.

wolf
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by wolf »

trailblazer wrote:
Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:29 pm
2. 3 to 6 months sit home and do nothing
I’ve just checked off items 1 and 2.
Although I understand the idea about a balance in lifestyles, I am somehow afraid by sitting at home and doing nothing. If it wouldn't be meaningful, I wouldn't do it again. But I would try it at least one time.
So, how was it?

And I wish you good luck at your new job at the startup! (also something I wanna do once in my life)

trailblazer
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by trailblazer »

Thanks Wolf - I'm excited to try being on the start-up side of the fence.

Of course I didn't literally do nothing at home. :D More that it was a nice contrast to the unsettled feeling that creeps in after traveling. It was a good time of 1) generally doing whatever I felt like; 2) resting up (both from the travel and to some extent my prior job); 3) getting diet/fitness on the right track (a very big priority); 4) tons of time for reading and reflecting, local trips/hikes, etc.

Probably the biggest outcome of my time at home was a good sense of both future priorities and also building "core" personal disciplines (especially health) that I want to maintain no matter where I am in the cycle. I'm on a good trajectory now and am relatively confident that I can keep doing the right thing even while working.

So probably a more precise future cycle would be:

- 4 or 5 months slow travel
- 3 to 6 months home (leaning toward 3 months), generally doing whatever I feel like but also having some sort of "personal improvement project" that is best done while staying in one place
- 3 to 6 months some sort of work gig

thrifty++
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by thrifty++ »

Hey awesome that you have retired early ! and take some time to relax. With a nice big FU stash.
I also have very much enjoyed reading about your startup opportunity coming up and you having the flexibility to take it up without worrying too much about money. Thats what its all about right, having leverage and freedom to pick and choose from options. I'd like to hope I will be in a similar situation to you at some point. Maybe in a couple of years.

trailblazer
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by trailblazer »

@thrifty++ - thanks - really appreciate it! It's all about having flexibility. Cool to read about the sabbatical you are taking (I think I read that somewhere).

3 weeks in with the "full time" work. A few random observations in no particular order:

I was feeling very unconfident the first day. I still have trepidation about any number of tasks - especially things I’ve never done before, or things everyone assumes I can do but I have never actually done - but in general, a sense of momentum and confidence is returning. That had atrophied while I wasn’t working. The nature of the work I’m doing means I’m constantly being thrown into problem solving situations. It is very stressful but I think this is a good thing. I’m sure I would score far higher today on some sort of cognitive problem solving test than I would have four weeks ago. Quite a bit of politicking - uggh i just want to be alone and read a book - but it's good for me to get better at this.

I never did a great job when working full-time of managing anxiety/stress about work with maintaining a sense of balance outside of life. My goal with this current working phase is to learn to maintain a calm mental state while working and under lots of stress. I think this is going to be key to a successful life. People who are "successful" are essentially managing to function while in a high stress situation. Life will never be perfectly buttoned down, and if it is, it might not be the life I want.

I’d be perfectly happy to get this stimulation in a non-work situation, but I haven’t found an equivalent outside of work. I guess this is why people have kids - gives them friction they have to work through and thus builds character.

Although I probably sound stressed out based on the above paragraphs, I'm actually 100% convinced that I will never again work in a traditional corporate setting. So much more satisfying to be on the entrepreneurial side of things. I feel a real sense of ownership in what I'm doing now. Despite the above, I'm actually excited to see how this all plays out. Still feeling good camaraderie with my co-workers.

I don’t like having money in qualified retirement accounts. I do like the fact that I can trade stocks freely without tax implications. But overall, I like the money in my brokerage better. In theory there is the Roth pipeline, but I wonder how many low wage years I will really have between now and age 59. If I have a low wage year in the future I might just cash out the 401k and pay the 10% penalty.

I now have $40K of crypto - yikes. The modest income stream I'm now enjoying has made me more aggressive about buying on dips.

I’ve still had quite a few longer/deeper dreams since I started working again. I wonder if that will start to fade. Time spent reading has gone down dramatically.

For those wondering about whether they should take a year or so off, and what might happen to their career, I can assure you, it is no big deal. People think it's cool that I took some time off to "travel" (frankly, they don't really care, they say "oh cool a year off to travel"). It has not hurt me at all career-wise. I'm sure a longer gap would start to hurt, but i think a year off can be easily justified to people, especially if you are mid-career.

2Birds1Stone
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

I'm very appreciative of your journal. It's awesome to hear that your first 2 phases of an ideal life went well and phase 3 is off to a good start. So, do you still see yourself giving this up after another 4-6 months and repeating phase 1-2 again?

Seems like this approach will never have you tapping your portfolio, so long as you are able to replenish that "transition fund" you had lived off of before the new year.

trailblazer
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Re: Trailblazer's Journal

Post by trailblazer »

2Birds1Stone wrote:
Sat May 12, 2018 7:24 am
So, do you still see yourself giving this up after another 4-6 months and repeating phase 1-2 again?

Seems like this approach will never have you tapping your portfolio, so long as you are able to replenish that "transition fund" you had lived off of before the new year.
A very good question. I think one of three things will happen:

1. We have one big customer right now. This is what makes us excited about what we can achieve, and this is also what is funding my salary. If it goes well, and if we can leverage our approach to other customers, I'd be a fool to jump ship in the next 6 months.

2. It's still very possible that things will die down with the current customer, and in that case, the decision will be made for me. Time to start booking some slow travel somewhere. Probably SE Asia since I've never done that, but I want to do another extended trip to Europe.

3. Also possible that things just go okay, in which case, I'm basically just working full-time again. In that case, I think I'd be looking to shake things up. Maybe find something else entrepreneurial. Maybe just another break. I like having something entrepreneurial in the works. I don't think I want to give that up completely. I also find that it's a really satisfying form of socializing. Be friends with the people in part because you are working on some sort of business idea together. I love the group I'm working with and hope I can always be trying some sort of business with them.

Financially, I feel like I have enough to have basic security. Anything in the mid- to low- 300K range is good enough in my book in terms of net worth. I could see myself replenishing my cash account, spending till I'm down to around 300K, then finding some more paid work.

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