Life as a Somervillain

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Mister Imperceptible
Posts: 1669
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by Mister Imperceptible »

Super. I was merely trying to suggest that you might do better getting to FI in tech rather than with a side hustle.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

@Jason: Sure thing; I've been making time for other pursuits this summer, so I won't be producing much of anything, but come fall or winter I could throw one for you.

@Imperceptible: Ah, I must have misread your meaning. That does make a lot of objective sense, but there's a couple reasons I don't think I'll take that route. First off, I have a fair number of dreams that are pretty incompatible with full-time year-round employment, and I'm willing to put those on hold for a certain amount of time, but doing so for the ~9 years it'd take me to be fully FI is a bit much. Yeah, I could take unpaid sabbaticals or find time between jobs, but I don't think I want to rely on those being possible. Plus, I don't really enjoy the work, and it's tough to imagine sticking it out for that long. Second off, I do have some couch potato tendencies (that I try and resist), and I feel like I'm happier/more active when I have a little enforced structure in my life. Paid employment does that pretty well. Frankly, I'd probably be more productive at 75% retired than 100%.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

It's hot & humid as hell here, so what better time to write a budget post?

Monthly Expenses:
Rent: 740 (shared 4br)
Utilities: 60 (with expected seasonal variation)
Groceries: 120
Food/drink out: 220
Entertainment: 65 (mainly theater and concert tickets)
Shopping: 80 (clothes, home goods, hobby stuff)
Other: 55 (copays, bus tickets, ???)
Total: 1340

I also budget about $300/month for occasional expenses like travel, classes, and major purchases. I don't have enough data yet to say if this is accurate- thus far this year, I've spent $645 of the $1800 I've allocated, but I've got some fall travel plans that may end up costing a fair bit. So let's say $1640 as the overall monthly total. Certainly nowhere near Jacobean levels (pbuh), but not bad for the area. As for the income side, I take home around $3700/month, for taxable savings of $2060, and that plus the 401(k) and Roth IRA puts my savings rate at about 71%.

(For those wondering, "but what about _?", I'm still on my parent's insurance (thanks, Obama) as it costs them nothing; that'll add about $150/month when the time comes. They also have a work-provided family phone plan that I'm still on. I don't have a car, and my work provides free transit passes.)


Anyways, back to this heat wave. I have a perverse sort of Yankee pride in never having lived with AC, but I think my resolve is starting to weaken in my young age. It's pretty damn hot already, and we've got a couple months of this yet to come, so a window unit would be pretty nice. On the flip side, the heat means I spend a lot more time in libraries and museums, which is probably good for my intellectual health as well as for my core temperature.

Today's laundry day, which means I've had a good excuse to hang out in the basement while writing this, but it's really not comfortable enough to do that often. (There's only so long you can sit on a pile of cardboard boxes.) Maybe if I taped bags of ice to my window fan...

bostonimproper
Posts: 581
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2018 11:45 am

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by bostonimproper »

Hello Camberville neighbor! (Or, as you enter late twenties, early thirties, quickly becomes Cambervillington.)

On community theater: Have you checked out Theater@First? They're in Davis.
On A/C: I highly recommend a window unit for the dehumidification at least. You won't have to use it that often but week-long heat waves continue into September around here. I found waking up in the middle of the night overheated and sweaty got old quick, though ymmv.
Last edited by bostonimproper on Sat Dec 21, 2019 9:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

bostonimproper wrote:
Sun Jul 01, 2018 2:18 pm
Hello Camberville neighbor! (Or, as you enter late twenties, early thirties, quickly becomes Cambervillington.)

On community theater: Have you checked out Theater@First? They're in Davis.
On A/C: I highly recommend a window unit for the dehumidification at least. You won't have to use it that often but week-long heat waves continue into September around here. I found waking up in the middle of the night overheated and sweaty got old quick, though ymmv.
I actually grew up about 10 miles from where I now sit, off in one of those '-ington' suburbs, so I'm pretty used to the climate, I'm just engaging in the traditional New England practice of complaining about the weather :D I do think I'm going to cave and buy a window unit soon- to quote Marcellus Wallace, pride only hurts, it never helps.

Thanks for the tip about the Davis theater group! I hadn't come across them in my search. I had gone up to Chelsea recently to check out the one up there, and it was not a pleasant bike ride- the only real route goes through that industrial area in Everett where the road is more patch than pavement. Dodging potholes and big rigs is not my idea of fun, so something more convenient is definitely preferable.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

Bit of an update; I've been thinking about paths to downsizing spending further, and I think I've hit the point where all the easy frugality options have been taken. That is to say, everything I've done thus far aligns pretty well with my default way of being; anything from here on out will require lifestyle changes. The lowest-hanging fruit is buying lunch at work, which I could justify 1-2 times a week for social/career reasons, but doing so 5 days a week is out of line. So basically I need to start meal prepping more (right now about 50% of dinners are pre-prepped), start bringing lunch once a week, and work up from there. If I'm conscientious about it, there should be health benefits as well, so double win! Also, one of my roommates got an instant pot recently and has offered it for use, so if anyone has any good vegetarian* recipes for it, throw 'em my way!

*I'm not veggie, but she is, so the pot is a meat-free zone

On another note, I just spent a week on vacation with my parents (on their dime, so it seemed like a no-brainer), and while I generally enjoyed myself, I'm finding myself more and more uncomfortable with their lifestyle- the impulse buys, the food wastage, the car reliance, etc., etc. In the original Wheaton scale, he notes that people one level back seem ignorant, two levels back are assholes, and three or more levels back should be shot on sight. Similarly, I used to think their spending was just moderately wasteful, but as I'm moving down the ERE Wheaton scale, some of their choices start to seem ridiculous. Like, why would you spend thousands of dollars to go to a beautiful mountain area, and then spend most of your time there either on the computer or driving a minivan around? Why buy a fancy electronic telescope when you can just look at the stars? I suppose I'll just have to figure out a way to accept it- it's their money, after all, and they show every sign of being able to support themselves through retirement, so I won't have to subsidize them. Still, it does kinda rankle.

Also, my net worth as of today is $66,668.14, which seemed like a fun milestone. (If anyone wants $1.48, it's up for grabs)

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

On finally reading The Book

Post by fell-like-rain »

After a long wait for a library hold, I finally got to read the ERE book. While most of it fell broadly within what I expected from reading the blog and the forums, there were a couple thoughts that reading it raised for me.

1. The overriding life strategy that most of the forum-dwellers seem to be taking is to work a white-collar job and build up enough cash that they'll never need to work again (i.e. be a capitalist), and live a frugal-but-standard American urban/suburban life. However, based on my understanding of what Jacob means by a 'Renaissance man', the most ERE people I know are a family who live up in the mountains in New Mexico. The husband is what I could only describe as 'a guy', in the sense of 'I know a guy', i.e. someone who can do framing and electrical work and plumbing and lay tile and fix cars; he built their (fairly modern) home with fairly little in the way of outside help. The wife does fine woodworking as a main income source, but also is a fair hand at pretty much every craft under the sun. They grow much of their own food, they homeschool their kids, and while they do rely on income from selling furniture and doing jobs for neighbors, I imagine in a society-collapse scenario that they'd get along just fine.

Of course, this lifestyle is entwined with their rather out-there political and religious views, which comes with a healthy distrust of secular society and all that entails. As an example, I think they were forced to set up a bank account to handle one or two unavoidable bills, so they got a cousin to administer it and they just mail him an envelope of cash now and then. For someone like that, the concept of investing money and then living off the income would probably seem anathema.

Outside of homesteader types, the most ERE-aligned people I know would be dirtbags, i.e. folks who alternate stints of paid work with stretches doing whatever their outdoor activity of choice is- climbing, hiking, surfing, what have you. For these people, minimalism is taken to an art form, and financial planning is pretty much limited to "as long as I can afford another week's groceries, I'm good."

There are a lot of people living lifestyles like these; a lot more, I'd guess, than those who have managed to jumpstart themselves from wage slaves to capitalists within a decade. Looking at it that way, most people who break out of consumerism are not doing so because of a push, like not wanting to work anymore, but a pull, like safety from degenerate atheists, or the dream of the next climb. So talking about principles/strategy may be putting the cart before the horse; if someone has enough of a desire to escape, they'll figure all that out along the way.

2. I think it's safe to say that Jacob really dislikes our consumerist/corporate society. However, (and this may be a quibble, given that this is a lifestyle/finance book, not a political screed), there's no discussion of the possibility of systemic change. All we can hope for is to be some of the select few who break free, floating like soap scum on this cesspool and living off the profits from everyone else's drudgery.

I recall mention at one point of a potential "slow revolution" of ERE-type ideas spreading from person to person and changing the culture in that way, but this doesn't seem realistic, considering all the structural forces that have made our society what it is. Any public health advocate could tell you that reminding people to eat vegetables instead of grain+sugar crud doesn't really work when the full weight of government policy is behind big agro and processed food companies. If ever a new edition is to be made, I might suggest a chapter about actions one could take outside of the neighborhood/family level in order to make a freer lifestyle more achievable for the broad base of people.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

Minor update: Spending for August thus far is about $165, which is pretty good- I'm trying to beat $375 for the month, for no other reason than that's what I spent in February, and I want to keep my six-month moving average trending downward. (Let's be real, the spreadsheet is in charge here, not me)

I've been bringing my lunch at least once per week every day this month, which is a big improvement from 0 days every preceding month. Once I've settled into that routine, I'm planning to bump up to twice weekly, and so on. Spending on eating out is just $58.50 so far, which for me is quite low. That was a pain point in my budget, so I'm happy to see it heading downward.

Auditions are next week for a local community theater, so I'm excited for that! If I don't get cast, I'm planning to do set construction/design, so either way I should be getting involved with this group. They seem very shoestring, which is exactly what I want; professionalism is nice, but I'm a process-over-product kind of person, and I feel like spit and polish can get in the way of having fun.

Also, on a more personal level, I've been seeing a very nice young lady recently- it's early days yet, but I think there's a lot of potential. We have very compatible weird senses of humor, and a lot of the same interests (linguistics, books, educational equity, etc). Did I mention she's tall? :)

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

fell-like-rain's fiscal year

Post by fell-like-rain »

I finally have 12 months of spending data, so here's my fiscal year summary! Total spending was about $15,300, or $1,275/month. Here's that broken down roughly (annual and then average per month):
  • Rent: $7850/$655
  • Utilities: $685/$55
  • Groceries: $1220/$100
  • Eating Out: $2355/$195 (ouch)
  • Entertainment: $600/$50
  • Shopping: $1000/$85
  • Other: $950/$80 (transit, co-pays, other minor stuff)
  • Major Purchases: $645/$55
Overall, I think that's pretty good! Total savings rate was 77%. Spending was about $2,700 below my conservative estimate, though $1,000 of that is due to having lower rent for the first 4 months of the period (moved from a depressed mill city to Somerville in January). Other than rent, spending was trending downward during the year, so hopefully next year should see even lower totals.

Housing costs are increasingly dominating my budget- I'm currently spending $810 month on rent+utils. Finding something cheaper nearby of similar quality would be doable, but not necessarily easy. Also, I really like my current living situation, and I think saving $100-200 but risking shitty roommates is not a great value proposition. More likely I'll think about alternative situations or moving to a different area when I downshift from the current career.

In terms of August itself, I had record low spending at just $1146! The biggest change was that costs for eating out were slashed ($130 against the average of $195). This is mainly due to bringing lunch from home a couple days a week. Hopefully, I'll be able to ramp that up sustainably and start seeing the restaurant spend drop below $100. After that, my next savings target would be home-grown food- I've got access to a couple porches and a small yard, so it shouldn't be too hard to get a little garden set up. There are armies of local rabbits around, which means I either have a nuisance I'd need to protect the plants against, or else a cheap source of protein... hmmm...

Campitor
Posts: 1227
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:49 am

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by Campitor »

fell-like-rain wrote:
Fri Jun 29, 2018 4:50 pm
MA just passed a bill raising the minimum wage to $15 over the next several years, so a. a lot of workers are getting a boost, and b. it's possible I'll end up downshifting careers a little sooner than I had been previously expecting. Also, it gives me joy to imagine Charlie Baker's sigh of dismay before he had to sign it.
The economic benefits of raising minimum wages is well studied. You wouldn't be so happy if you realized the net effect it has on the working poor. A small number of workers benefit but overall it leads to job loss in that wage tier.

No business will pay $15 an hour for a position that nets $12 an hour worth of profit. Business will spend their money either on capital improvements, such as automation, or cut less profitable services and their corresponding jobs, to focus on their more profitable goods and services.

The end result is low skilled workers, which minimum wage was intended to help, are priced out of the labor market as they compete against higher skilled workers for the smaller pool of jobs. This isn't a liberal versus conservative issue.

Anyone familiar with the negative impacts of the minimum wage effects would sigh too. Too bad this is a peg that liberals like to hang their hat on. Rule #1 of economics - no system is immune to the incentives created by its policies.

https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research ... mployment/

Campitor
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Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by Campitor »

PS - welcome to the boards.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

Campitor wrote:
Sat Sep 01, 2018 9:55 am
The economic benefits of raising minimum wages is well studied. You wouldn't be so happy if you realized the net effect it has on the working poor. A small number of workers benefit but overall it leads to job loss in that wage tier.

No business will pay $15 an hour for a position that nets $12 an hour worth of profit. Business will spend their money either on capital improvements, such as automation, or cut less profitable services and their corresponding jobs, to focus on their more profitable goods and services.

The end result is low skilled workers, which minimum wage was intended to help, are priced out of the labor market as they compete against higher skilled workers for the smaller pool of jobs. This isn't a liberal versus conservative issue.

Anyone familiar with the negative impacts of the minimum wage effects would sigh too. Too bad this is a peg that liberals like to hang their hat on. Rule #1 of economics - no system is immune to the incentives created by its policies.

https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research ... mployment/
Well, you can't just say, "oh, raising the minimum wage (may) decrease employment by some amount, therefore we should never raise it", because that would lead to essentially removing the wage floor over time due to inflation. (Unless you're arguing that the minimum wage shouldn't exist, which is a separate discussion.) And that disemployment effect has to be weighed against the very real gains in hourly income for minimum wage workers, as well as for those who were earning somewhat above the previous wage floor.

The page you cited lists employment elasticity effects (among studies that found a negative effect, that is) of between -0.1 and -0.2 (for young and teenage workers only) in jobs which previously earned below the new minimum, and significantly less effect for older workers. In the case of the MA increase from 11 to 15, being a 36% hourly raise, that'd mean between 3.6% and 7.2% job losses in those age groups. That doesn't sound catastrophic to me- raising wages by 1/3 for 95% of young low wage workers is nothing to sneeze at. Furthermore, the most comprehensive study I'm aware of, which looked at ~170 different minimum wage increases, found there was generally positive elasticity in wage bins at or above the new minimum wage, counterbalancing the losses and leading to little or no change in overall employment. (http://www.sole-jole.org/17722.pdf)

From an economic theory perspective, I think it's insufficient to say that some jobs are unprofitable at $15/hr, therefore they'd be eliminated. Perhaps businesses decide to improve job training or add productivity improvements that offset increased wages. Perhaps increased consumer spending due to higher wages improves profitability. There's a lot of ripple effects that have to be considered.
Campitor wrote:
Sat Sep 01, 2018 10:04 am
PS - welcome to the boards.
Thanks! Glad to be here

Campitor
Posts: 1227
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:49 am

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by Campitor »

Well, you can't just say, "oh, raising the minimum wage (may) decrease employment by some amount, therefore we should never raise it", because that would lead to essentially removing the wage floor over time due to inflation.
Yet there is no shortage of workers who compete for these jobs when inflation has degraded the minimum wage. People should be free to negotiate whatever wage they are willing to earn for the labor they are expected to provide. Minimum wage jobs command a low pay scale because the skill requirements are low and the volume of applicants high for the number of jobs available. A business in a competitive market, paying below market rates for talent, would find itself out of business or in short supply of human capital.
In the case of the MA increase from 11 to 15, being a 36% hourly raise, that'd mean between 3.6% and a 7.2% job losses in those age groups. That doesn't sound catastrophic to me
In 2012 there were 1.567 million minimum wage jobs in Massachusetts. A 3.6% loss would have affected 56.4 thousand jobs and a 7.2 percent loss would have affected 112.8 thousand jobs. https://www.bls.gov/regions/new-england ... _table.htm
From an economic theory perspective, I think it's insufficient to say that some jobs are unprofitable at $15/hr, therefore they'd be eliminated. Perhaps businesses decide to improve job training or add productivity improvements that offset increased wages. Perhaps increased consumer spending due to higher wages improves profitability. There's a lot of ripple effects that have to be considered.
There is a cost associated with hiring an employee. Whatever efficiencies that training and its subsequent productivity provides, has to be greater than the total cost of employment plus the expected profit margin. Businesses are turning to automation when the minimum wage makes such automation cost effective. I'm sure the conspicuous presence of all the self checkout kiosks and electronic ordering menus in restaurants is a signal of businesses trying to minimize one of the few things within its market control: employee wages and correlating compensations.

And the new Massachusetts minimum wage law eliminates the Sunday premium pay (1.5 regular pay) by 2023 when the $15 minimum wage goes into effect; bad for workers forced to labor on Sundays. The law also requires employers to provide 12 weeks of paid leave for health/baby which is not an inconsequential burden for employers. These new costs will incentivize business to defray cost in many ways, some of which could negate any increased purchasing power that was a correlate of the wage hike.

I'm not here arguing against the minimum wage because I believe businesses to be paragons of virtue. I don't like it because I truly believe, from the data I've read, that it hurts the people who need skill and work-history acquisition the most. Minimum wage employment should be a stepping stone and not the primary means for enabling a living. The low pay signals to potential employees that this job market has reached a saturation point. The low pay is a strong incentive to move on and acquire the skills which better serve the individual and the market.

Laura Ingalls
Posts: 668
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:13 am

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by Laura Ingalls »

Jason wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:20 am
If he's blogging this shit out with a Red Sox hat on, he's like Heath Ledger as The Joker level villainous.
So OT. I just ventured from the prairie to Mass late last month for the first time. I was walking down Commonwealth Ave and crossed a young lesbian couple holding hands one with Sox hat on and the other with a Yankees hat on. I fought the violent urge to yell, “It will never work!”

I am impressed at your budget totals. It is an expensive part of the world. We were joking about currency conversion on the plane ride from IA to MA was $1 of Iowan equaled .50 Massachusettsian.

Jason

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by Jason »

I agree. One of them will come to realize how much fun they are missing out on playing in the grass without some balls to throw around.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

Laura Ingalls wrote:
Sun Sep 02, 2018 10:26 am
I am impressed at your budget totals. It is an expensive part of the world. We were joking about currency conversion on the plane ride from IA to MA was $1 of Iowan equaled .50 Massachusettsian.
Oh, for sure. You can't hardly get a beer around here for less than $7 anymore. Luckily most of my friends tend more towards the "PBRs on the porch" mentality.
Also, I saw an email from the city recently about some newly built affordable/low-income housing. In Somerville, nowadays apparently "affordable" means $250k for a 2 bedroom apartment, and "low-income" means up to $80k for a family of 4. (Which is totally legit- probably the cheapest market-rate condo would run $450k, but it just goes to show you.)
Jason wrote:
Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:43 am
I agree. One of them will come to realize how much fun they are missing out on playing in the grass without some balls to throw around.
Come on, I feel like you could make a better off-color joke than that. Something about gripping some hard wood, trying to get to third base, etc...

Jason

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by Jason »

Maybe. But it's not like this is Suo's thread where I feel it deserves the effort.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

September was another good month for spending- down to $280 other than housing, and it would have been even lower except that I made a few big grocery runs to stock up, so ended up spending $156 on that instead of the usual ~$100. Rent and utilities, of course, stayed constant, so that was something like 75% of my spending for the month. That's the trouble with living where I do, I guess- even if I went totally bare-bones, I wouldn't be able to get my total spending much below $1000/month. There's little I can do about that while working in tech (because the jobs are mostly in high-COL areas), but after I move away from that, some geographic arbitrage could make sense.

On the personal front, I've finally gotten involved with a community theatre, and I've been doing a bunch of set construction stuff for them. Got a tip from someone there about a radio play org that I'm looking into as well. Also, I quit my job (oops) because it had gotten to the point where work had gone from "this sucks but whatever" to "this is actively harming my mood". I've done a bit of calling and I've got some onsite interviews for this week, so hopefully one of those pans out.

Being unemployed the last two weeks has been quite relaxing, but also reinforced the notion that I need some kind of organized structure to my day to avoid going sedentary. In the long run, that probably looks like working part-time, ideally at some lower-skilled job that can't follow me home. Part time work does exist in the software world, but it's really not a major paradigm, and I'd probably have to start full-time somewhere and work out an hour reduction or something to get there. Also, there's a big part of me that wants to do this for a few years and then beat my keyboards into plowshares and never look at code again. So we'll see about that.
Jason wrote:
Thu Sep 06, 2018 4:38 am
Maybe. But it's not like this is Suo's thread where I feel it deserves the effort.
Fair. I'm definitely not that colorful in my journaling.

fell-like-rain
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by fell-like-rain »

October Spending

All-time low this month of $165 on everything other than housing- $136 on groceries, $29 on eating out and shopping. (Assuming I don't blow any cash in the next four hours.) This seems like a fairly hard floor to me. Now that I've hit bottom, I'm thinking $200 or $250 would be reasonable as a long-term spending target. Considering that I'm still laying out $810 monthly on housing, and my SR is inching north of 80%, a hundred bucks extra isn't too extravagant. I definitely want room in there for theater tickets or weekend trips and the like.

Work

I got a new job! From my last day at the old place to new contract signing was just over a month, and despite having to interview and all that, I loved every minute of it. Just being able to look at the weather while eating breakfast and say, "Oh, it'll be nice today, guess I'll go hiking" feels like such a luxury. It's also reminded me how little I really need to do to be happy- I read, write, go on walks, do stuff with my theater, cook nice meals... it's a simple, cheap, fulfilling life. I pushed out my start date as far as I could, so I'll have another month or so of staycation to enjoy. A good reminder how nice life can be when you don't have (forced) responsibilities.

On the money side of things, the new job'll be about a 15% raise, which is pretty decent- I really wasn't looking for more money, just a better fit. There's also stock options, but even at optimistic future valuations, the amount they're giving me yearly would only be worth about $10K. I've mentally just discounted them to $0, and perhaps I'll get a pleasant little windfall somewhere down the line.

Personal

Things are going well with the lady friend I mentioned a journal or two back- we're closing in on three months dating now. This weekend, we've got one of those aforementioned weekend trips planned- the MBTA has $10 commuter rail weekend passes, so we're going to go up the North Shore a bit, do some sightseeing, spend the night somewhere. We definitely align really well on the fun-but-not-spendy date ideas- this one was her suggestion, but I've been doing well with free museum and ferry days. Overall, it feels like a really good thing, and I'm looking forward to where things go next.

_bb_
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2018 7:58 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Life as a Somervillain

Post by _bb_ »

Excellent read!

I left Boston at the beginning of the fall - I miss walking around the city. I'll always have very fond memories of my time there, not to mention the friends gained! Congratulations on the new job, hopefully you find it refreshing and challenging.

What kind of coding are you doing? Depending on your skill set, I'm guessing you'd be able to find enough freelance work that could fund your 20hrs/week, 9 months/yr schedule (a great idea of a work schedule by the way!). That's assuming continuing that kind of work is something you could find enjoyable outside of a corporate environment.

Thank you for your effort (and everyone else that contributes to journals) I find it not only entertaining to read other people's stories but also beneficial because of the perspective and ideas that are gained.

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