Tom's Quest

[TomBombadil]

So I'm starting on a quest to ... well that is kind of the point of this thread. Financial Independence was the starting point for me, however it does not seem to be an end on its own anymore, rather a means to an end which is not yet completely clear to me. I'd consider ERE now as Enlightenment & Renaissance Essentials rather than Early Retirement Extreme, though the latter is probably part of the former.

But where are my manners... I already said hello here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8505, so I will keep it short in this thread.
I think I'm already FI by some definitions. I could have supported myself for the last year simply by financial investments. However my expenses might change in the future and things would be very tight then, so I'm hesitant to drop out of the system all of a sudden currently.

Way more important for me however is to find meaningful stuff to do in and with my life. And then to organize my life around that.

As a journal suggests, I'm trying to log my journey here and use it to tie together the various questions and discussions that are of interest for me.

So the first point to start for me is the Web of Goals and its general application:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=9182

[wolf]

Hi Tom. Great that you started a journal. I think writing a journal is rewarding because you can reflect topics and get deeper thoughts about your own ideas.
I have read the other thread of you about Web-of-goals. I want to respond because I am also often thinking about such thinks. Well, I wish you a good start and an ongoing good FI-progress. I was surprised that you are already FI. Looking forward to learn from your journey toward a happy and purposeful FI-life. Take care and thank you for sharing your thoughts.

[TomBombadil]

Hi MDFIRE, you're right - writing a journal is a very good thing to get thoughts organized and reflexible (reflectable?). I'm already writing one on paper form for a couple of years and doing a digital one locally only for me. Both already helped me quite a lot and gave me opportunity to reflect again on different phases of my life. They also give my present and past self a way to communicate with my future self.
That may sound pretty weird but in a sense they offer some form of time travel (only uni-directional but still).

Opening up a journal (semi-)publicly is another step though. In a sense it opens up an inner monologue to be a dialog with quite a lot of people (and spectators). I'm pretty sure that I will not put all my thoughts in here but rather use this journal as thread to tie all ERE related topics together that interest me.

Thanks for your extensive answers on the Web-of-goals.

[wolf]

Opening up a journal (semi-)publicly is another step though. In a sense it opens up an inner monologue to be a dialog with quite a lot of people (and spectators). I'm pretty sure that I will not put all my thoughts in here but rather use this journal as thread to tie all ERE related topics together that interest me.

Hi fellow German! How are you? I am interested how things have changed in the last time for you. Your intro sounded really interesting. Looking forward to hear something from you. Maybe it opens up for a dialog.