Nomadic-ERE Year 5 - Wanderlust Prevails

[Bankai]

Fascinating read. The question I'm pondering in relation to the possibility of prolong/eternal life, is if, and if yes - how much longer, does it make sense to work to have a chance of being able to afford it in distant future. Assuming, say, 1% chance that a substantial life extension will be available 50 years from now, does it make sense to work this extra year in your 30's so that the extra funds will grow to $1m by the time you're 80 and could afford the treatment? Potential payoff seems too amazing to pass, even with tiny chance of it ever paying, and the money can still be spent aggressively towards the end if the treatment is not close to reality at that time.

[Bankai]

And what if you worked until 2m but the ransom is 3m? It's impossible to cover for all the possibilities of what might go wrong. Also, there are better ways to protect oneself from dangers like this, e.g. living in orderly country with low crime.

Also, why would anyone ask for more ransom than you can pay.

[classical_Liberal]

Folks could just come to terms with the fact death is a part of life. Actually, it's a really good part when your mind and body are tired. So best to live life to it's fullest whilst you still have the mental and physical energy to do so. Skip the extra year of work if it's just for moneys sake.

[Jason]

What if someone important to you got kidnapped and the rescue is 2 million? What if you loose them just because you were too lazy to work some more?

I think after sensitive hostage negotiations most likely including the input of a financial planner and an ex co-worker who could attest to the fact of how fucking lazy you really are, the kidnappers would come to realize it would be more efficient to kidnap someone from a family who could afford to pay in a more timely manner. Maybe bring up Patty Hearst and the Lindbergh baby as examples. Or even Frank Sinatra, Jr. I think he ended up in a car trunk in Vegas. I could see bringing in JLF as an expert witness to explain that retiring early has more to do with savings rate than acquiring vast sums of money and maybe they'd be better off snatching someone from the Bogelheads board.

[ajcoleman22]

An excellent blog post I randomly came across while perusing lackingambition blog posts from a decade ago.....

http://www.kenilgunas.com/2019/07/lets- ... re-we.html

I miss the Lakcingambition blog.

[2Birds1Stone]

Finally a little time for a more thorough response.

@c_L, thank you for the warm welcome. They amaze me as well, but working for a private unicorn, I suspect we are currently operating at a loss. As they say in my home country "not my circus, not my monkeys".

The knee is feeling better. I managed a 1 mile jog yesterday, and a 10 mile bike ride the day before that. Also got a light squat/deadlift workout last week as well as yesterday.

@Bankai, I have no desire for an eternal life. The world is doomed if we start to prolong the inevitable to that extreme. While I don't wish for an early expiration date, the plan is to suck the marrow out of life and make the next several decades ones to remember when I'm sitting in a medicaid retirement facility living off of cat food and smoking catnip.

@bigato, I try to avoid these mental gymnastics for this very reason. What if the ransom is now $4M? I'll take the stance that we don't negotiate with terrorists in this household.

@Bankai, would a country like Poland suffice? I'm very tempted after my last prolonged visit.

@c_L re: your second comment, a nondenominational amen to that, brother!

@Jason, maybe the kidnappers will accept freecycled furniture and Danish newspaper clippings as payment? Those could be considered priceless heirlooms in a post apocalyptic scenario. You can always teach the kidnappers this way of life, and they will be infinitely richer than with a few mil in the bank.....scouts honor

@ajcoleman22, me too! I wonder what the heck he's up to these days.......does anyone reading this have any idea?

Side-bar - I made a very un-ERE purchase two days ago. A PEV (personal electric vehicle), in the form of a skateboard. For no other reason than it was something I dreamed about as a kid/skateboarder for many years, though they didn't exist in an attainable form back then. Now the tech has gotten cheap enough that you can get something decent for under a grand. Sure, it cost a half months worth of expenses and will throw my cool graphs off trajectory, but hopefully the shit eating grin on my face is worth it.......till the Chinese POS breaks

[2Birds1Stone]

Musings

There is some silver lining to not being able to do much cardio the past month and a half, I've made the gym my second home. While my focus has not been strength for quite some time, the more consistent lifting has done the body good. I hope to maintain the lean mass as I start ramping back up with MTBing and running with the cooler weather approaching, and healing knee/hamstring. Any leaner than this, and I start to get hangry all the time. So shooting for maintenance mode calorically.

In July my total activity was ;

1 mile ran
10 miles biked
200 miles walked
16 times weight lifting
3.1 lbs lost

Sitting at a pretty full 204 lbs this morning, and generally pleased with conditioning at this weight.

[Bankai]

Yup, chance of being murdered is about an order of magnitude lower than in states, kidnappings practically don't happen, and if they do - there are more tempting targets. Probably realistically the worst that might happen is a fistfight or crazy driver, but that's about it.

What exactly made you strongly consider coming back to the motherland? And how does your SO like the idea?

[slowtraveler]

Those are some visible abs. Hot body man. I'm jealous. It's miraculous what some time in the gym does. Hope to start working to something like that soon.

Can I ask what your diet is like?

[7Wannabe5]

Twenty four year old me would be wondering if you were interested in playing a fun game called The Wolf and the bunny.

[Seppia]

What's up with the new thread title?

Congrats on your workouts - glad DW wasn't watching when I scrolled through your pic

[CS]

That is not what I imaged 204 lbs looked like...

[2Birds1Stone]

@Bankai, cost, family & friends over there, quality of life (more recently), rapid economic growth vs. rest of EU, safety, and quite frankly feel like I need a change of pace. Not to say there aren't downside, namely current government.....but the good seems to outweigh the bad. SO loves the idea, this was her third time there, she's spent the past two years slowly learning the language, and really loves it there. I don't think she realizes that her limited English and lack of cultural understanding can lead to feelings of isolation, even if many Poles do speak English. It's one thing to hold a basic conversation, another to get the pop culture references, and feel like "one of us". Also, being there for even a long 5 week trip is not the same as spending 6 months a year there. We will be testing it out for ~2.5-3 months next summer, that will be a good litmus test.

@slowtraveler, thanks man. Keep in mind I've been seriously into weightlifting since January of 2008, so it's been a long time with progressive overload, and dabbling in both powerlifting and drug free bodybuilding during that time.

Diet is 90% meat, beer, veggies, fruit, eggs, and Greek yogurt.....in that order. The remaining 10% are ice cream and processed carbs (bread, pasta)

@7Wb5, that sounds like a fun game. Not knowing the exact rules might make it more so?

@Seppia, I feel like a failure, since I'm still collecting a paycheck. The marbles reference is my inner voices screaming at each other in disagreement about how to move forward over the next 8 months before leaving for our year of slow travel.

Don't worry, I'm sure your wife has seen a shirtless man besides you before, right?

@CS, it's all relative. I've been an athlete (albeit a terrible one) for the past 11 years. Heavy lifting has produced a decent foundation, so when I get to a reasonably healthy bodyfat level, it's more aesthetically pleasing than someone with a much lower lean body mass being the same body fat %. I would guess I'm somewhere around 13-14% right now. I've been as high as 35% (2007), and as low as 5% (2011).

[7Wannabe5]

Right. No rules, just a starting posture. For bargain price of $29.99 I would be happy to text a detailed description to your intended

[2Birds1Stone]

Combined trailing 12 month spending is a hair under $36k/yr, which is pretty darn awesome for our HCOL area.

Biggest purchase this month was my eSkate board ($679), which skewed the #'s quite a bit.

We have a ways to go before we are FI as a couple. Curious how far we get by the time we pull the chord next spring. Largely dependent on markets and whether or not I stay employed.

[2Birds1Stone]

Musings

On Work

It's an interesting time to be here.....

Its utter chaos in the company based on my conversations with peers yesterday. Chaos is good, especially since I've had so much practice living out "Office Space" these past two years.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who thought it would be goodbye for good. I'm going to ride the coaster till it makes sense to step off. My gut feeling is that it will happen sooner than later. For the time being I'm semi-ERE'd in place

I was told earlier this week that we "over-hired" within the sales organization, and they are doing an analysis to determine how many people to get rid of, and who that will be. Based on my track record over the past 6 months, the likelihood of making that list is very high. Having refused to play the politics game, and instead choosing to fly under the radar doesn't help either. I've accepted that I'm on borrowed time, and will just make the most of it while I'm here. Getting the boot could be an excellent jumping off point, although not ideal for future marketability if the need arose.

On Money

Based on the above information, I've revisited a number of ideas and plans that have been laid out in this journal, as well as others here on ERE and elsewhere. But I'm definitely thinking a bit more about money, how to need less of it, and how much of a haircut I can afford to take before I see myself freaking out.


On What's Next

So work will be work, until it no longer exists......but the focus from now on will be on what comes next.

With a move out date of March 31st, I'm slowly drafting a to-do list, of everything that needs to be done before we can get on a plane and set of on a year long trip with a very loose itinerary.

I'm going to draft something here, which will be a base for something that will evolve as we get deeper into our prep/plans.

Pre-Trip To-Do List

Understand the whole 90 Days in Schengen for US Citizen vs. 90 additional days in Poland - SO can be in EU for 90 days, plus another 90 days in Poland, but the caveat is that Poland needs to be entered and exited through a non EU country, which makes our original plan of Western/Southern Europe for ~45 days -> 90 days Poland -> 45 days Eastern Europe difficult/impossible. We may have to alternate the plan to do the other EU countries first and only then enter Poland for the last 90 days of our trip.
Parse Bank Accounts and Credit Cards - We currently have over a dozen cards from travel hacking. Many need to be closed before traveling for simplicity, also have way too many savings/checking accounts.
Change Mailing Address on all accounts - dozens to do, parsing down and closing as many as possible will help with this.
Sign up for paperless everything if possible.
De-clutter our storage room - have a lot of junk that needs to be tossed asap, and anything worth selling needs to be cleaned, photo'd and listed
Parse wardrobe - 75% of clothing will be donated or re-purposed as cleaning rags
Parse kitchen - many duplicate items that can be sold/discarded, we will keep some basics in storage with family for when we inevitably move back.
List everything we plan on selling on Craiglist/Ebay/FB Marketplace/Let Go etc
Open Schwabb Checking w/ international ATM reimbursement
Do our 2019 Taxes
Come up with a rough monthly budget for the next 12 months
Take/Print two dozen passport sized photos for visa's in SE Asia
Make Copies of passports
Digitize important documents
Store valuables in safe deposit box
Get any necessary vaccinations
Get physicals and blood work while we have insurance
Get ahead on dental work/cleanings
Sell my more expensive car, ASAP if let go from job, no later than Jan/Feb if not
Sell SO's car, right before leaving (value <$1k)
Thoroughly clean/vacuum pack clothing we will store/keep
Store bicycles/sentimentals/clothing/kitchen stuff we are keeping with family/friends
Purchase travel insurance
Cancel car insurance/turn in vehicle plates
Purchase a laptop for me
Purchase a 50 liter travel backpack for me
Purchase a mobile phone for SO
Notify landlord 60 days before planned vacate date
SO to request leave of absence 60 days prior to departure date
Purchase our one way flight to Europe (most likely Portugal at this point), means scouring deal sites and checking emails from "Scott's Cheap Flights"
Convert ~$2000 into Euro when the exchange rate is most favorable within the next 6 months
Convert ~$1000 into PLN when the exchange rate is most favorable within the next 6 months
Reset the clock on Travel Rewards Points (Airline & Hotel) that have expiration policies
Sign up on Couchsurfing.com
Sign up on trustedhousesitters.com
Purchase a go-pro
Start a blog for family & friends to follow our journey
Start a Youtube Channel for the same reason, as well as being able to look back on our trip when we are old and unable to replicate this style of travel
Book accommodation for the first week in Europe, then wing it after that

+ a bunch of shit I'm probably forgetting

[Seppia]

I would imagine that if you're canned you'll get some sort of severance - that's free money basically.
Remember that situations like these are one of the reasons why we save in the first place.
You're in a great spot, and your natural tendency to be safe will prevent you from going reckless.

If you plan on traveling Europe and you're not in a hurry, I would definitely recommend you check interrail passes: https://www.interrail.eu/en

It used to be just for younger people, but now they offer an amazing variety of tickets, and it's MUCH cheaper (and better for the environment, if you care) than planes.

[Seppia]

Addition: I just learned that if you're not EU resident you need an Eurail pass.
It works the same apparently.

And of course don't forget to come to Italy

[Ego]

What is the reasoning behind the requirement that you must enter Poland from a non-Schengen country? That's the first time I've heard that one.

I wouldn't change that much currency in advance unless you know of some big change in currency values before hand. Change USD at a change house when you are on the ground, withdraw using an ATM or just buy stuff with your credit card. Last one is the easiest.

Also, if you are entering countries with one-way tickets, some airlines demand that you show onward tickets. They won't let you board if you can't show them a ticket out. The easiest workaround is to download the Flixbus, Megabus or other bus app for you phone and research the cheapest ticket out of the country (or Schengen). With a little research you can usually find one at 10 euros or less. If they demand a ticket, buy it on the spot and then request a refund once you are done with checkin.

Edit: I just checked. Poland is a Schengen country so you've got 90 days in the entire region including your time in Poland.... unless you have a Polish passport.

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

[Seppia]

Agree on the currency exchange.
Just get a little cash (like 300€ or so) just in case, then pay credit and withdraw as you need with a debit card (just get one with no foreign transaction fees).

Oh, whenever paying with CC, if they ask you if you want to pay in local currency or in usd/your currency, ALWAYS choose local.
The exchange rate is a rip-off and you’ll save money if you let your credit card company do the conversion (same with PayPal BTW).