Journal of MDFIRE2024

[wolf]

Just as a reference for future reviews: My 2018 Goals/Resolutions

@10cents, regarding your questions:
"Don't you feel mental fatigue now? 5-6 years is a long way, it would be bad to be exhausted in a year or two.
FIRE targets are like a marahton, don't you run in too fast pace?"

No, I don't feel something like that. Nowadays I have many hours to decide by myself what I do with them. My full-time work contract is based on 36 hours a week. Therefore it is not that stressful from an time-investment-point of view. I have learnt to accept the presence and my current way of living more. I avoid great expectations, hopes, plans, ... for the future. Otherwise I may get disappointed. Also I remind myself that all this is not a "destination", but my own personal journey, which I do with my own personal pace. Right now, "the pace" suits me. There could be other times as well, but then I decide to slow down if I want or need to. I am used to saving some portion of my income since I started to earn money. I always saved around 30-60 percent of my income for years. So, saving is not that new to me. ERE helped me to even increase my saving rate without giving to much of my comfort away. I live more efficiently these days compared to 10 years before, e.g. I decided to sell my car and go by bike instead. ... and the marathon never ends. After this marathon, another marathon follows. Life is progress and it doesn't stop. Therefore I try to concentrate my energy to balance between present living and preparing for future. Spirituality helps me also a lot, keeping calm, being aware, mindful, ... If I would run too fast, I would feel the feedback from within or without. Luckily I am not aware of any negative feedback. I am very far away from a burnout, thankfully. Of course there is also room for improvement in various areas of my life. I treat that step-by-step. Patience is very important, IMO. And if you don't expect it, there are new ways, ideas, possibilities, ...

Ahh, I forgot. Yesterday was my 1 year anniversary on this forum!

[wolf]

Today is another milestone on my journey within ERE.
I have bought the ERE-Book and it arrived!
Since today my sources about ERE were limited to the blog posts, the wiki and the forum.
I waited with the ERE book because I wanted to create my own opinion about it slowly.
In the past 1,5 years I have learned and applied a lot about ERE from the blog and the forum.
I am looking forward to read the book in order to compare and enhance my knowledge and experiences.
I decided to buy the printed edition, as Jacob recommends.
Here is a photo of it. Germany now has one more ERE book!

[Jason]

So the puke green cover is not available in Germany?

[wolf]

It has a green cover. Only it looks different in the evening light.

[Jason]

Phew.

[frihet]

Great to see that you bought the ERE bible! May it bring many thoughtful and fruitful moments!

[wolf]

I now have already read the ERE book two times. The second time I marked everything I found very important and interesting. I'm totally fascinated by it. Mainly, I like the chapters 3.1.4 (The Renaissance man), 4 (The Renaissance Ideal), 5 (Strategy, tactics, and guiding principles) and 7 (Foundation of economics and finance). I find them really useful, insightful and inspiring. My next steps will be to study them in detail and make my own thoughts and conclusions. I see potential improvements, especially in the diversification of my earned income.

As a sidenote, I also learned something important about investing. It is about currency fluctuations and the influence of potential future returns. I made the mistake to invest in commodities around December 2016. This is not that tragical, but you have to know that I am an EURO-investor. And by that time the exchange rate between EURO and USD was very low. Therefore my timing (time of investment) was very bad, because I paid too much for overvalued commodities, which are traded in USD. Now, more than one year later, the EURO has gained power and the exchange rate with the USD rose. On the same time my investment value in commodities sank, because of currency fluctuations. My lessons learned is, that I have to be aware about the EURO-USD-exchange rate, because I invest mainly in non-EURO-investments. In the last few months I have invested quite some money in government and corporate bonds. Those investments make up about one third of my total FI-investment goal. I get the chance to invest the remaining two thirds wisely, meaning with an awareness of the EURO-exchange rates. Buying, when the EURO is strong, is important for me.

[Jason]

I now have already read the ERE book two times.

In the span of 10 days, you read the book twice? That's like the intellectual equivalent of running two triathlons in a similar time period. Which in my case means once I finished swimming, I puked my breakfast out on the beach and said fuck this. I did ask for the book again but now's theres a two people in front of me. Which means they could be reading this, so if that happens to be you, don't hog the book, others are waiting.

[wolf]

I now have already read the ERE book two times.

In the span of 10 days, you read the book twice?

Yes...
I have been reading it in the morning before work, while taking public transport to work, during my lunch break, in the evening at home after work... As I said I find it fascinating. And if I am interested in something, I am very motivated. But I have to say that I am reading it in stealth mode. I wrapped the book in an envelope. Not that I am ashamed of it, but in order to avoid unnecessary discussions about FI, ERE or ER with unknown persons or colleagues. It is not really the norm to RE within your 30s or 40s in Germany. Usually retirement starts in your 60s. Also, talk about money, wealth, FI, frugal living, anti-consumerism, etc. is kind of inappropriate.

[Jason]

I wrapped the book in an envelope.

So you live in a country where one is better off to be merely suspected of reading "Reform School Girls" than to be evidentially accused of reading about retiring early.

[wolf]

Well, it's a personal thing. I am an introvert person. I don't like to lay out my plans of personal finances in front of every person. Also I don't want to have my colleagues and bosses to know about my plans. From sources of the internet and experiences of other people I know that talk about personal financial details could be controversial and could be negative. Therefore I am in stealth mode regarding my financial strategy, plans and goals. Germany is a conservative country. The really rich people usually don't show their riches in public. There could be a certain stigma against riches in Germany, therefore always the discussions about the inequality between the poor and the rich. If I would say the things, I write about here (especially my financial status and goals), I would provoke jealousy, etc. and that will destroy trust in discussions on a personal level. Maybe in other countries, cultures, states, cities that is different, but at least that is my perception.

[Jason]

There is a German produced television show called "Dark" that has gotten a lot of publicity in the US. I watched it. It was very good. What is notable about the show is that it is supposedly unusual for a Germans to explore the paranormal (time travel in this instance). I can see how this connects to your feelings/thoughts on ERE.

I also never realized how beautiful Germany is. The black forest and such. I thought of visiting but I'm not sure now as I was never good at that whole brown paper bag book cover thing they made me do in grade school.

[finity]

I also never realized how beautiful Germany is. The black forest and such. I thought of visiting but I'm not sure now as I was never good at that whole brown paper bag book cover thing they made me do in grade school.

Well, at least you won't have to put your drinks into brown paper bags in Germany....

[Jason]

lol. But as someone who can't hold their liquor worth a sturm and drang, I'll end up screaming "MDFIRE2024 IS READING JACOB LUND FISKER" at Octoberfest and get us both tossed out of the country.

[fiby41]

I wrapped the book in an envelope.

So you live in a country where one is better off to be merely suspected of reading "Reform School Girls" than to be evidentially accused of reading about retiring early.

Had to search the title Jason mentioned. Did not find any girls and still don't know what it's a reference too.

We also had to cover our textbooks using brownpaper in school. It was done with ritualistic solemnity before start of the year. The isosceles triangles wasted when you cut corners to tuck/tape/glue the cover in place were used to make paper aeroplanes out of.

Blank cover is still better than all these book covers:
Fake Book Covers on the Subway

[Jason]

Had to search the title Jason mentioned. Did not find any girls and still don't know what it's a reference too.

Reform School Girls refers to the 1980's movie starring Wendy O. Williams, the late lead singer of the punk rock group The Plasmatics. Although I'm not certain if there is a literary basis to the movie, the use of said title was more of a satirical deployment than a literary one. That being said, I highly recommend the movie.

[chenda]

Yeah Germany is so underrated as a tourist destination, you almost never hear of people holidaying there, aside from stage do's in Berlin...

[jacob]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_on_the_Bummel

[chenda]

@Jacob Bummel is clearly a word we need to revive

I believe Heidelberg was a popular destination for Edwardians; some found themselves marooned in 1914.

[wolf]

As I already mentioned above I read the ERE book a second time and marked important sentences. I find those sentences and sections very insightful and many times eye-opening. I'd like to study the ERE book in order to understand the principles and apply them to build my own ERE philosophy. Therefore I have typed those marked sentences into a text document, word by word, sentence by sentence. In total I have typed 11,827 words in 459 sentences/sections. Now I want to translate them into German. I hope that I understand them even better, at least "English goes into my brain, is processed and German comes out" .

I orient my study of it on Jacob's reference for expertise and mastery:

1. Copying
2. Comparing
3. Compiling
4. Computing
5. Coordinating
6. Creating

I got also another idea to study the ERE book. I maybe will generate 10 ideas to every page per day. But that, I will start after I have finished the translation.

I think my topic/theme for this year is to study the ERE book and learn as much as possible of it.