Early Retirement Extreme Forums

If your life has become about the search for $100 I say go for it. Once some principle is built you'll be far more relaxed and be able to focus in on life quality from a position of fuck it.

Bad News: Zillow giveth and Zillow shits in your bed. Apparently Mr. Market wiped his ass with 7K of my paper net worth. I guess its all paper unless its under the mattress. Anyways, fuck you Zillow and all the cheap shit homebuyers you are monitoring.

Why does this matter right now? Are you planning on selling the condo soon? If not, stop looking at it, remove Zillow from Mint if that's where you're seeing it. The day to day fluctuations probably aren't useful information.

You are right - thank you for the advice.

Felipe wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:22 am

If your life has become about the search for $100 I say go for it. Once some principle is built you'll be far more relaxed and be able to focus in on life quality from a position of fuck it.

I want to clarify this. What I really mean is, I don't want to need $100.00. If there is $100 lying around, it should be sent to the future. It's about cutting. If I have $100.00, I want to say, I don't need this $100.00. I have nothing to spend it on. I have no consumer impulse or gratification or debt. It's $100 that should just be sent to my mound of other $100's. I'm trying to skim $100.00's. If I can skim $100's then I don't need it now, therefore, I won't need it in the future which means I have reduced my overhead.

ERE to me is the rejection of the middle class which in my view was a creation of the 1% to keep us all out of their fuckin hair in order that they can rule the world. Create a false God, materialistic security. Tell everyone they need a temple i.e. home ownership. Then create 1000s of idols that they believe they need to fill up their temple i.e. televisions, laundry machines, cars, kids, electric toothbrushes, stereos. Create a cycle of functional obsolesces and trap the idol worshippers in economic slavery to the false God we have them worshipping so they no longer think about "real" things and bug the shit out of us.

I had an interesting experience. Or what I think is an interesting experience. I went to refi last year. Turns out I didn't have enough equity due to the loss of market value. I was at the branch of a huge consumer lending institution. They immediately said "Sorry." But I asked "How much do I need to bring the L/V to where you need it. They said "low five figures." I said "Ok, I'll put it in." They looked at me like I had three heads. It occurred to me that these people who work in a bank do not expect people to have money because that's the banks goal - take our fuckin money. They want us to have just enough money to pay them what they owe. They want us in their crosshairs. If we have too much money, we don't need them. If we have too little money, we can't pay them back what we want to borrow.

@Jason - Pass go! Do collect all the monies you'll ever need. I suppose at this point there would be some kind of sound effect signifying the next level, like bling, pling, bloing, or something like that.

You know it's funny, I rejected my birth religion, which did not go over too well. But today I was driving my car and said, what is my fuckin problem here. Really. What is the underlying problem here, holding me back, or keeping me in some type of altered or delusional state. And it dawned on me. I have to reject their value system. And maybe subconsciously, that has been too painful, because ultimately, that was their religion and that would be an abrogation of my real heritage. But it's also the religion I enter in this society Monday to Friday. I've been wanting things to change without internal change which is absurd. The world is changing in the opposite direction. This is religious commitment because you have to identify the enemy and stave it off with a higher principled commitment that goes against the norm. You can't be half in this.

...

@c_L

I think that's a valid point. A Christian is:

(1) Supposed to be "of the world, but not in it." I think that's an ERE proposition. ERE recognizes the necessity of money but militates agreed greed, consumerism, worldly goods etc. I think it safe to say that it believes that the love of money is the root of all evil.

(2) Someone who is told to be responsible with a little for if you are not responsible with a little, how you can you be responsible for a lot. There's a parable about that somewhere.

(3) Render unto Caesar (government) what is Caesar's;

(4) People who should be generally anti-revolutionary or current government as they do not see the political state as the ultimate arbiter as they are more concerned with their eternal state. That's why going ballistic over supreme court decisions is unfaithful. It cannot legislate eternal verdicts or punishment.


Now obvious Christianity is pluralistic and contains a popular prosperity gospel (Joel Osteen) which is really not consistent with its teachings. I think the one area is "Do not fill your barns up because who knows the future" type of teaching. I think there's some nuance to that argument. However, when I went to seminary I was shocked to hear that they do not maintain an endowment. They will earmark a fund for a specific purpose. But if you send them money, they are going to spend it on needs the second the check clears. Also some popular conservatives leaders when addressing the issue would say filling your coffers in an extreme manner is a sign of unfaithfulness.

Oddly, I think being busted for shoplifting at the mall when I was 14 might have been the tipping point where I abandoned conventional consumerism. The immature take being "This status game can only be won by cheating." transforming to something more like "This status game is just a game. Maybe there are more interesting things to do."

It's better that you redirected your rebellious nature to an anti-consumerist stance than improving your shop lifting skills. Although, I'm thinking both options do still fall under ERE, ethics notwithstanding.

Out of curiosity, was this the stereotypical limited to a back of the store office manager verbal beatdown and a call to your mother or was there more serious consequences.

I shoplifted but never got caught. My first back of the police car ride was when I got caught blowing up neighbor's mailbox with a firecracker. Hard time ensued i.e. grounded for rest of summer.

The laughing faces of young cops appeared tight-framed in steel door window. My poor father. Crazy wife. Now this.

That spring, a flash flood filled the creek and overwhelmed the storm drains. Strips of lush green turf floated down newly paved subdivision streets. Even in "Beacon Hill", where the girls whose mothers took them to shop in New York lived.

The abandoned barn stood on high ground. Billy's tall friend must have been stoned staring at my ass, because he said "Gloria. Hey, Gloria.", before he touched my hair, mistaking me for my brand-new stolen identity.

Wait, what? You're not a Christian anymore Jason?

@7Wannabe5 - That's good. Is it an excerpt? If so, let's hear the rest. My blog is nothing but a rambling, ambling, ode to bullshit anyways. And damn if it don't read familiar. Especially that staring at your ass part.

@wood - No, me and the Big Guy are still talking shit out. I mean, isn't that about all there is to this fuckin finite fallen ball of beeswax.

Jason wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 27, 2017 5:54 pm

ERE to me is the rejection of the middle class which in my view was a creation of the 1% to keep us all out of their fuckin hair in order that they can rule the world. Create a false God, materialistic security. Tell everyone they need a temple i.e. home ownership. Then create 1000s of idols that they believe they need to fill up their temple i.e. televisions, laundry machines, cars, kids, electric toothbrushes, stereos. Create a cycle of functional obsolesces and trap the idol worshippers in economic slavery to the false God we have them worshipping so they no longer think about "real" things and bug the shit out of us.

Jason wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 28, 2017 5:53 am

(1) Supposed to be "of the world, but not in it." I think that's an ERE proposition. ERE recognizes the necessity of money but militates agreed greed, consumerism, worldly goods etc. I think it safe to say that it believes that the love of money is the root of all evil.

+1 This is the primary source of cognitive dissonance that basically has defined my life for...well maybe for the whole time I've been alive. I remember saying in high school that I had no interest in the rat race. I'm not racing, but unfortunately I'm still in the maze. Trying to decide whether to line my nest for the remainder of my sentence or try to get out for good behavior asap.

My deal is that I never did what I was "supposed" to because I'm a spineless prick and now I find myself in an occupation that makes me feel like a meth whore at a debutante's ball. As a matter of fact, when I'm "doing" my job, I can tell people are looking at me "like dude, you sound like a meth whore at a debutante's ball." I'm serious. I know that's what they're thinking and I have banged both debutantes and meth whores and I'll tell you I'll take the chick who can MacGyver a discarded Sprite can into a drug pipe over a Jane Austen looking chick who walks around like she's being ass fucked by the Home Depot lumber department any day of any fucking week. And I know that doesn't help you one fucking bit Suo Man but that had to be said emphatically for no fucking good reason at all.

Suo, you are obviously in the middle of the throes and I feel for you. I personally hate fucking nature more than it hates me and the only reason I would walk around in the woods is on account of some forest creature chick in breaking and blowing me in a supernatural type of manner but I have it on good account from many experienced hikers that its as likely happening as you waking up tomorrow without a wife and three kids. So I guess we're both fucked from head to toe in different but albeit completely thorough ways.

mmm. wood elves. super hot.

sorry, what were you saying?

Nothing.

Good luck with everything. I hope you find your way.

Wait, what? This is your journal. I hope you find YOUR way!

Thank you Suo.

I received a low five figure commission check this week and have hit a new plateau - 380K in investment savings. I am taking GDP's advice and not tracking condo fluctuations so it puts us conservatively at 440K.

That's huge Jason. Congratulations. If you're willing to live on moss and dumpster diving, you can ere today. Alternatively, there are far cheaper, funner countries you could pull the plug on soon. But I like margin of safety. I wouldn't ere if I was covering my family at that point yet. But you're a deca millionaire in multiple currencies now.