Early Retirement Extreme Forums

...

classical_Liberal wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 14, 2018 10:46 pm

The biggest distinction being you realized early on it was just fine to live an unconventional lifestyle and not give a flying f**k about expectations of others/society. I've taken a much more meandering route to the same realization.

I got lucky in this vein. Honestly, it came from a place of pretty deep unhappiness and not finding many people with whom I could identify until after college.

classical_Liberal wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 14, 2018 10:46 pm

I was relying on this nebulous future of having much more freedom/free-time as a solution for my relative discontentment. Now that it's quickly approaching, I'm realizing it's not going to be a cure-all, so I'm focusing more on the psychological issues (like the recent focus on social-life). There will be more to come on this in future entries.

This is what I'm currently dealing with, having traded a high savings rate for more freedom now. Now that I'm in charge of the majority of my time, how should I best use it? I have a second scarcely paid job as a musician/ producer and lots of other interests (especially since getting into ERE) so time allocation is still a major problem for me, but doing nothing isn't a risk. Changing from paid work to 100% free-time is a major change and I feel like this problem isn't addressed super well in the FIREsphere! Maybe these bastard INTJs have it all figured out from the start, but I certainly don't.

classical_Liberal wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 14, 2018 10:46 pm

In any event, you make a great point. It will be a huge (or Yuge) mentality shift moving from high SR to low or negative. I should probably find a way to prep myself for that as well. Any suggestions?

I don't have much experience here, my savings rate continues to go up every year despite my efforts to work less, but I've only been saving for 3 years. IMO, Mad FIentist does the best job of addressing the shift from a positive to negative savings rate as well as the abundance of free-time acquired post FI. If you're only semi-retiring you should still have a positive savings rate, right? I think semi-retiring/ going PT/ PRN will be a helpful way to ease the transition.

classical_Liberal wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 14, 2018 10:46 pm

I can virtually guarantee i'll be in NOLO again. I really liked it! Although I bet I wouldn't love the summer heat. When i'm in town I'll definitely hit you up, i'd love a tour by a local.

Curious given your description... are you a Surg Tech? That's what my GF does for a living.

It's hot af right now and it's awful. It's hot for ~6 months, but it's rarely cold in the winter. The start of the summer can be kind of nice, all of the tourists start leaving and the FQ is empty for a bit and it still dips below 80 at night.

I'm not a local, you don't count as a local unless your grandfather's grandfather helped found the city. They are serious about that shit here! I'll give you a tour as a longterm/ permanent tourist .

I'm a neuromonitoring tech. It's a weird job. I don't really like it, but the $$ is there and the flexibility are untouchable. I also work for a small local company and not for the hospital.

...

@classical_Liberal: Ya it's called IONM and it's pretty much only used for neurosurgery (as well as thyroidectomies). It's crazy how easy it was to get into this, I basically just knew a guy and he got me in with no medical training at all. We took some weird classes in a hotel and then passed a test and now we're "certified" which is the highest level you can be on paper. However, I have struggled harder than I thought I would doing a job which I have no real interest in or "passion" for. I work with nurses everyday and many of them are frustrated but I think, overall, it's a more satisfying profession than what I do.

MadFIentist is great. Jacob and MMM both reached financial independence almost by accident before they started blogging. It's interesting to read the blog of someone who didn't. I also really like the new escapologist magazine that Jacob wrote for a number of years ago. It's a different take on ERE, aside from Jacob's articles they don't really promote retiring early, but otherwise their methods are the same.

...

Use those new social connections to bounce ideas off of people. At the very least, conversations help expose you to bad ideas/opinions on what to do. Plus, people like when you open up to them. "I'm a 5/10 on happiness, what can I do to get to a 10/10?" will probably generate a lot of conversation. Also, hopefully 1/10 = suicide was an exaggeration. For me, I think that scenario is more like a -10/10. If it wasn't an exaggeration, I hope you'll seek some help because 2/10 seems too close for comfort.

...

Great post. Your pathways mirror mine in some ways - trying to turn away from a singular focus on FI to take a broader view of what is required for contentment in life. In that sense, FI is more a byproduct of a well-designed life than a purpose in and of itself.

Specific reaction to your post would be the possibility for commiseration with your co-workers on that compassion fatigue piece. But I've found that commiserating with coworkers can be a double edged sword. Sometimes it is helpful in them lifting me up; other times it is not helpful in that they drag me down (and I'm sure they feel the same about me). I guess proper dosage is key.

Oi, your posts hit home in more ways that you can imagine.

@CL

I hear you on the struggle to have a life while traveling. Even more so in that your job is much more interactive than mine was. Of course, being a relatively high introvert, the social interaction I got from coworkers was enough. Mostly. I did find local chapters of writing groups that I was already a member of, and found a few new groups, and made some friends that way. So I did find a way to do something I really liked at least part of the week.

Don't think I have any good advice except to confirm it is dang hard. Besides the writer's groups, and some tourist activities, I would binge-watch the few shows I do like for much of the time. At least that wasn't a total waste for me in that my interests include storytelling, and characters, so I could call it research. It helped that I carted my cat around with me - portable loving for the road.

Speaking of which, don't blow off the tourist stuff if you do get a new assignment. I met someone from Singapore on a Boeing tour and have an open offer to come and visit.

I think you have the right idea in extending the assignment. Keep the physical and emotional toll to a minimum (new assignments are an energy drain as you know!) and get it done. You're not far at all.

Honestly, I'd get as close as possible before cutting the cord. It only gets harder. If you are relatively happy where you are, milk it for what's it worth.
--
I almost forgot - you did talk earlier about your fears of burning through capital and also being bored (no purpose). You can start picking/working on your next career - and it can be *anything* just about, since, what, making $500 a month would be enough to put your lifestyle into the kingly way. I mean, if you protect your nut, you don't have to save anymore and you can just live off the new money if you choose. Personally, one of my backup plans is tax-preparer (one of the more desperate ones) if writing doesn't work out. But also, since I don't *need* writing money to eat, I'm also free to work on more speculative writing projects such as my goofy scripts that I love.

Your erratic sleep schedule is most likely to blame for lowered mood. I am currently experiencing the same problem due to world's longest peri-menopause, and, like you, I keep attempting to pin it on different situational factors. So, if I were you I would make first semi-retirement priority finding gigs that only require daytime work. (If I was me, I would tape a pack of Estroven Nighttime Formula to my bathroom mirror...(duh!))

Also, still half-talking to myself here, I would note that in my experience moderate exercise of long duration out-of-doors is better correlated with sleep and mood improvement, if not other measures of fitness, than higher intensity exercise indoors. In fact, number one factor to recommend semi-retirement and/or self-employment is it grants you the rare freedom to spend your entire morning just hiking a trail while sipping on coffee. Then if you stop drinking coffee before 4 PM, you fall over like a top around 9 pm and sleep like a breast-milk satiated baby until 5 and then wake up as happy and rearing to enjoy your bright new day as a 3 year old.

Well outdoor exercise would be enforcing a natural circadian rhythm through experiencing natural sunlight and temperature swings through the day while indoor exercise would not thus assisting in maintaining a regular sleeping schedule. Also the sunlight itself helps regulate mood some too so it helps twice once simply by experiencing the sunlight and then again by improving your sleep schedule which also helps regulate mood.

@prognastat:

Interesting note on the temperature swings. I never took that directly into the equation, although it was my stated practice to do it " no matter what the weather-there is no such thing as bad weather only poor choice of clothing" which can obviously vary considerably through the year in Michigan. Makes even more sense, lightbulb moment, given that the only alternate activity that works as well for me is swimming.

...

As for the getting sunlight, spending time outside and enforcing a more regular sleep rhythm it's something I've only started doing the past year or so and has definitely helped my mood. Not that my mood was ever that bad, but definitely better. Before that I didn't care at all about those things thinking it was silly.

Volunteering? Just thought I'd put that out there...

Loving your journal, by the way. Keep it coming.

....

Unwillingness to marry means unwillingness to put the relationship above all else. It's a choice. You retain the ability to set your priorities whichever way you want, but will have to accept that you are losing out on some of what a relationship can be. There is a difference.

@ CS - I can't see how an unwillingness to invite the government into your relationship means an unwillingness to put the relationship above all else (although I also can't see why would anyone put the relationship above all else, i.e. own health or life. But that's me, YMMV).

Disclaimer: we're married. We're read 'How I found freedom...' too late.

@Bankai
I wasn't thinking about the government so much as the public commitment, the oftentimes merging of funds (many people) or income (Jacob and his wife - a model I quite like actually). Having been married once, I did like it, didn't do it perfectly and probably won't do it again. I'm too old and have too many things I want to do and cannot foresee finding anyone I like that much (but surprises do happen).