My name is Anesau. I'm a young-ish office worker interested in FIRE (and ERE more generally).
Where Am I?
Right now, a lot of my life feels like I've given up control. I live in a pedestrian-unfriendly city where there are no sidewalks/crosswalks on many paths, and no dedicated biking infrastructure; I can write basic code, but I don't know how to get to the point where I am a major contributor to an existing project; and I like writing but have published little.
This is not meant to be too much of a downer — my day-to-day life is actually pretty enjoyable! I like my work, and I have enough time to myself outside work to be building toward my long-term goals.
Where Am I Going?
I want to be FI because I have so much I want to do, and ERE seems like the clearest path to both the necessary economic freedom, and the overall self-sufficiency ethos.
Specific goals:
- Publish 500,000 words total in a public places (book, blog, etc. Not sure yet whether to count forum posts.)
- Build 3 public software projects that are at least somewhat useful/interesting to others
- Live somewhere where all my basic amenities (groceries, park, library, etc) are within walking distance, and where I like the local culture (i.e. more people close to my age who are active in community events)
I need to restructure. I've settled into the local attractor of acting like a consumer, letting myself bleed money in dumb ways instead of using my dang brain. Current thoughts:
- Even though the infrastructure is not built for walking, I should be making more of an attempt (both because I dislike cars, and for my health)
- The closest grocery store is only a 25 minute walk away. Its across a very busy street, but there's a painted intersection, and I only plan on shopping during the daylight
- Work is theoretically walkable. The only problem is that the only entrances I have taken are through vehicle gates that have specific "no pedestrian" signs. I need to either figure out where the pedestrian gate is, or else get a bike so I count as a vehicle.
- The closest library is a 30 minute bus ride away. If I need somewhere outside my apartment to think, maybe it's worth going there instead of an expensive coffee shop? Surely there's somewhere closer to me I could work
- I need to be actually producing something instead of just saying I theoretically want to. Probably this means starting a blog, and building some sort of public coding project I can share on GitHub / a website.
- I need to be cooking more so there is less temptation to order carryout food, and less temptation to buy overpriced stuff from work's cafeteria
In my next entry (<= 1 week from now), I plan on quantifying my current financial position, and looking at how it would change after the 21-day makeover (on the main ERE blog).