Lean-FIREd Russian-American-Canadian in Quebec, eh! :)

[LetsRetireYoung]

This is so strange - I used to read ERE all the time, but I never realized there was a forum as well. Better late than never, eh?

I'm not as extreme as Jacob (still mastering the art of cooking lentils! ) but I spent the last 12 years moving all over the US in pursuit of slightly better paychecks to get slightly closer to FIRE, to the point of moving from the US to Canada (Toronto, to be precise) because I figured the social safety net here was better for long-term retirement.

I finally acquired my "FU money" and my Canadian permanent residency in March 2021, said "FU" (but politely haha) to my job in May, and moved to the beautiful (and dirt-cheap!) Quebec City in September. Also, I've started a blog (yes, yet another lean-FIRE blog lol) to describe my philosophy: www.letsretireyoung.com

I'm already growing fond of this forum, especially after reading the hilarious thread on homesteading in studio apartments LOL, and I hope to become a regular here! After all, gotta find something to fill the next 50 years with, eh?

Cheers, y'all!

[Bonde]

Welcome!
Just read your story. Interesting to hear about your work for Amazon and your timing of investments during the covid crash.

[LetsRetireYoung]

Welcome!
Just read your story. Interesting to hear about your work for Amazon and your timing of investments during the covid crash.

Thanks, eh. Not gonna lie, it was incredibly emotional and stressful when I clicked that "sell all Amazon shares" button that morning ~16 months ago. Keeping it all in AMZN stock would've been a safe move (and it did go up 50% 3 months later) but nowhere near enough to retire on. I made careful investing choices and succeeded, but there was always the possibility of failure.

...for the record, that dramatic moment was ruined when the Stanley Morgan decided to ask me for a confirmation 3-4 more times.

[LetsRetireYoung]

Hey, turns out I'm a time traveler! I had no idea, but the strategy I've been using all these years has an actual name - mental time travel. I routinely set very specific 5-year plans for myself (you can take a boy out of the Soviet Union...) and I got through some of the darkest parts of my life by imagining a future - not very probable, but possible - where I'd be financially independent, and someplace nice and tropical and beautiful, and just enjoying life.

I used to anchor myself in those future moments and then work backwards, trying to figure how I go from A to Z. That came naturally for me (both the planning and the future-anchoring) because I've always been into math, and the sheer mathematical possibility of something (even if only 5%) was already a helluva promise.

Fun concept. Look it up, eh?